The Anonymous Widower

London Overground Train Makes Rare Diversion To London Bridge Station

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Ian Visits.

This is the sub-heading.

On Sunday morning, a London Overground train paid a visit to London Bridge station — a station that the Overground doesn’t usually visit.

These were the first two paragraphs.

It was here for a test run ahead of a special service that will run on Easter Sunday, and the test was needed to ensure that what worked on paper also worked in practice.

The reason for the Easter Sunday special is weekend engineering works elsewhere which would mean no Southern trains between Victoria and London Bridge, while at the same time, the London Overground south of the river can’t go north.

Note.

1. Judging by Ian’s pictures, it was a very thorough test of clearances and ramp functions.
2. According to Real Time Trains, the two services used platform 5 at Crystal Palace and Platform  13 at London Bridge.
3. The distance was 7.5 miles.
4. Services took 23 minutes to London Bridge and 19 minutes for the return.

This image shows a London Overground train in Platform 5 at Crystal Palace station.

In Overground To London Bridge Under Consideration, I talked about how Transport for London were thinking about creating a new Overground service between London Bridge and Crystal Palace.

Sunday’s test also shows that if the paths are available, London Overground can run a service between London Bridge and Crystal Palace.

Given that the times for the out and return trips were 23 and 19 minutes on Sunday, it appears to me, that the following is possible.

• One train could run an hourly service.
• Two trains could run a two trains per hour (tph) service.

Trains could terminate in platform 3, which is on the right in the image and only has two trains per day.

There would be the following trains to London from Crystal Palace.

• London Overground – Four tph to Canada Water, Whitechapel and Highbury and Islington.
• London Overground – Two tph to London Bridge
• Southern – Two tph to London Bridge
• Southern – Four tph to London Victoria

These would total to.

• Canada Water – four tph for Jubilee Line
• Highbury & Islington – four tph for Victoria and North London Lines
• London Bridge – four tph for Thameslink, Jubilee and Northern Lines
• London Victoria – four tph for Victoria, Circle and District Lines
• Whitechapel – four tph for Elizabeth, Victoria, Circle, District and Hammersmith & City Lines

Note.

1. The two extra tph to London Bridge even everything up to four tph.
2. The London Bridge and Crystal Palace service could be run by any suitable train and I suspect it could be eight cars. What about using some of the spare Class 379 trains?

The London Bridge and Crystal Palace service wouldn’t need trains with a tunnel evacuation capability, so could use Class 378, 379, 387 or 710 trains.

February 28, 2024 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Canary Wharf Station, Crystal Palace Station, Highbury And Islington Station, Jubilee Line, London Bridge Station, London Overground, Northern Line, Transport for London, Victoria Line, Whitechapel Station