The Anonymous Widower

Thoughts On Barking To Grays And Barking To Barking Riverside Train Services

c2c’s Fenchurch Street And Grays Service

This service runs at a frequency of two trains per hour (tph).

  • Each journey takes about 34-36 minutes each way.
  • If ten minutes is allowed at each end, that gives a ninety minute round trip.
  • The service will need three trains.

A four tph service would need.

  • Six trains.
  • The ability to handle  extra two tph at Fenchurch Street station and in the bay platform at Grays station.

Grays station can probably handle the extra trains, but Fenchurch Street station may need extra capacity.

London Overground’s Gospel Oak And Barking Riverside Service

This service runs at a frequency of four tph.

Changing At Barking Station

Both service will use.

  • Platform 7 At Barking Station When Running Eastbound
  • Platform 8 At Barking Station When Running Westbound

Both platforms will have to handle six tph.

Would It Be Better For Changing If Both Services Were Four tph?

This would mean.

  • Passengers would never wait more than fifteen minutes to their desired destination.
  • The combined frequency would be eight tph or a train every seven-and-a half minute.
  • There would be a lot of scope for optimising the timetable for the convenience of passengers.

As an example, consider a passenger going from Barking Riverside to Fenchurch Street.

If trains were equally-spaced at Barking station, passengers would wait a maximum of seven-and-a-half minutes, if trains were on time.

On balance, if both services were four tph would be better.

Conclusion

If c2c and London Overground co-operate, customers will benefit.

April 9, 2019 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Grays Station To Go Step-Free

This document on the Government web site is entitled Access for All: 73 Stations Set To Benefit From Additional Funding.

Grays station is on the list.

These pictures show the station.

Note.

  1. The stopping trains from London arrive in a long bay platform 3.
  2. There are exits on both sides of the tracks.
  3. There is a subway under the tracks.
  4. There is a bridge over the tracks outside the station.
  5. The station only handles four trains per hour in both directions.

This Google Map shows the layout of the station.

Note that the main platforms can take twelve-car trains.

Installing Step-Free Access

According to a station guy, it will not be easy to add lifts to the subway and a step-free bridge will be installed.

  • The subway is narrow and two wheelchairs probably couldn’t pass.
  • There also appears to be enough space for a bridge.
  • The bridge could probably be placed either side of the main station building.

In Winner Announced In The Network Rail Footbridge Design Ideas Competition, I wrote how the competition was won by this bridge.

So could a factory-built bridge like this be installed at Grays station?

Installing such a bridge, would not need the subway to be closed, so overall the station could handle more passengers needing to cross the tracks.

This would not appear to be the most difficult of installations.

April 9, 2019 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , | 1 Comment

Battersea Park Station To Go Step-Free

This document on the Government web site is entitled Access for All: 73 Stations Set To Benefit From Additional Funding.

Battersea Park station is on the list.

These pictures show the station.

This 3D Google Map shows the station.

It’s a bit different to the average commuter station.

Installing Step-Free Access

This will be a challenging station to install step-free access.

  • The station is Grade II Listed.
  • There are four platforms
  • Platform 2/3 is reasonably wide, but Platform 4/5 is narrow.
  • The station handles ten trains per hour (tph) in both directions.
  • In 2017-18, the station handled nearly two million passengers.
  • The station will have an out-of-station interchange with the new Battersea Power Station station, when that station opens.

As the pictures show, the entrance hall has been tastefully restored in the last few years.

Surely, only a masochist would work on installing lifts in this station.

April 9, 2019 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , | Leave a comment

St. Mary Cray Station To Go Step-Free

This document on the Government web site is entitled Access for All: 73 Stations Set To Benefit From Additional Funding.

St. Mary Cray station is on the list.

These pictures show the station.

The station was rebuilt in 1959, when disabled people didn’t exist. Or were they locked in institutions?

Installing Step-Free Access

In addition to lifts to each pair of platforms, there is also a need to sort out access to the main entrance to the station.

It could be quite tricky to create a step-free station out of this architectural monstrosity.

The following will help.

  • I very much doubt the station is Listed, except in Prince Charles’ Book of Carbuncles.
  • The similar Swanley station has been made step-free.
  • As it’s only fifty sixty old, the drawings probably exist.
  • I doubt there’s an architect, that couldn’t improve this station.
  • It’s probably built as strongly as a brick outhouse!

If the installation could be to the standard of Swnley station, I doubt anybody would mind.

 

April 9, 2019 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , | Leave a comment

St. Erth Station To Go Step-Free

This document on the Government web site is entitled Access for All: 73 Stations Set To Benefit From Additional Funding.

St. Erth station is on the list.

These pictures show the station and the current bridge,

Note that the bridge is only used to access trains going West to Penzance.

This Google Map shows the station.

 

The three tracks from the station are as follows.

  • To Penzance in a South-Westerly direction.
  • To Plymouth in a North-Easterly direction.
  • To St. Ives in a Northerly direction.

The bridge over the main line stands out in white in the bottom-left corner of the map.

Installing The Step-Free Access

As the station is Grade II Listed care must be taken in installing the step-free access.

  • The current elderly steel bridge could be replaced with a modern one with lifts. This could be too drastic for the Heritage Lobby.
  • But It does look that a modern bridge could be installed towards the Eastern End of the station.

In Winner Announced In The Network Rail Footbridge Design Ideas Competition, I wrote how the competition was won by this bridge.

So could a factory-built bridge like this be installed at St. Erth station?

This bridge has the great advantage, that it can be installed without closing the existing bridge.

 

 

April 9, 2019 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , | 1 Comment

Riding The 9:09 From Harringay Green Lanes to Barking

On my trip to Grays station this morning, I took the 9:09 train from Harringay Green Lanes station to Barking station, where I got a direct train to Grays.

The three Class 378 trains seem to be coping and the four-car train was not overly full.

  • In the short trip, a lot of passengers don’t seem to do more than one or two stations.
  • There were even several big cases and a couple of buggies.
  • There were spare seats all of the way.

If nothing else Bombardier’s late delivery of the Class 710 trains, has brought the qualities of the Class 378 trains to the fore.

As the Class 710 trains will have the same layout, I suspect when they are in service, there will be loads of space all day, until new passengers fill them up! As they always do!

April 9, 2019 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , , | Leave a comment

Wandsworth Town Station To Go Step-Free

This document on the Government web site is entitled Access for All: 73 Stations Set To Benefit From Additional Funding.

Wandsworth Town station is on the list.

These pictures show the station.

The station would appear to need three Subway-to-Platform lifts.

I would feel that after seeing two similar lifts installed at Finsbury Park station recently, this can be done without too much disruption.

After Harry’s comments to this post, I went back to the station and took these pictures of Platform 1 and the outside of the station.

This Google Map shows Platform 1.

Installation of a lift would appear to be tricky.

  • Platform 1 is not wide enough for a lift tower.
  • To the left of the station entrance, there is a garden with a tree, which limits the space.

The best place is probably hard against the wall to the right of the station entrance, where the phone box is now!

  • The platform entrance could be through a hole in the wall along the side of the  platform
  • The ground floor entrance could be inside the station entrance if this is feasible.
  • If not, why not put it outside?

If the outside position were to be used on the ground floor, touch-in  could be provided outside or even in the lift.

 

 

April 9, 2019 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , | 4 Comments