Barking Riverside To Barking – 8th August 2022
This post and Woodgrange Park To Barking Riverside – 8th August 2022 are a pair and show the area on the date given. This is so I can show it as it develops in the next few years.
I took these pictures returning from Barking Riverside station.
Note, that this side of the line, is dominated by Barking substation, lots of overhead cables and views of the viaduct.
This 3D Google Map shows the viaduct from the West.
Are there any other viaducts, which comprise a whole branch line?
Woodgrange Park To Barking Riverside – 8th August 2022
This post and Barking Riverside To Barking – 8th August 2022 are a pair and show the area on the date given. This is so I can show it as it develops in the next few years.
I took these pictures going to Barking Riverside station.
Note.
- The route passes the ventilation shaft for High Speed One.
- It goes through and over the concrete viaducts and bridges of Barking station.
- Renwick Road station could be built in the area to serve five thousand proposed houses.
- It then crosses over the Barking Freight Terminal, which is sure to be developed either as a larger freight terminal or housing.
- The houses of Barking Riverside have sheds in their gardens.
What are the circular structures in the penultimate picture for?
London Overground’s Barking Riverside Station To Open This Summer
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Ian Visits.
This is the first paragraph.
Transport for London (TfL) says that it is bringing forward the launch of London Overground services on the extension to Barking Riverside, following good progress being made in the completion of the station commissioning and testing stages.
Are railway lines like buses? You wait years for one to come along and then several turn up in a rush.
This railway line has been built mainly to serve the new housing at Barking Riverside, but as I showed in A Cruise To Barking – 13th May 2022, the route will have leisure possibilities as well.
I also feel, that if this 4.5 km extension of the Gospel Oak and Barking Line is a success, I can see other extensions of Metros and local trams and railways being created or restored, as this extension will show the economics.
I have some further thoughts.
Rethinking Of c2c Services In South Essex
It could even result in a rethinking of c2c services in South Essex.
Platforms 7 and 8 at Barking station will host the following services.
- 2 tph (trains per hour) – Fenchurch Street and Grays
- 4 tph – Barking Riverside and Gospel Oak
There will certainly be scope for ducking and diving at this station.
A same-platform interchange will give an easy route between Fenchurch Street and Barking Riverside.
The next station on the Gospel Oak and Barking Line is Woodgrange Park, which has an out-of-station interchange with the Elizabeth Line at Manor Park station.
The Gospel Oak and Barking Line offers connections all across North London.
Grays station can probably turn four tph.
There could be a new Beam Park station to serve more housing.
I can certainly see the Fenchurch Street and Grays service increased to four tph, if lots of housing is built in South Essex. Provided that the trains can be squeezed in to the timetable.
A Ferry Across The Thames At Barking
There have been proposals to extend the line from Barking Riverside station across the Thames to Thamesmead and Abbey Wood station.
But a tunnel or a bridge, as I prefer, would be massively expensive and take years to plan, finance and build.
This Google Map shows the Thames at Barking.
Note.
- Barking Riverside station under construction in the North-West corner of the map, with the Thames Clipper terminal on the North bank of the river.
- The sprawling Thamesmead Estate on the South bank of the river.
- In the South-East corner of the map there is the Grade 1 Listed Crossness pumping station, which I wrote about in Open House – Crossness.
An hourly ferry across the river between Barking and Crossness with an intermediate stop at Thamesmead might be the most affordable solution to crossing the river.
A Cruise To Barking – 13th May 2022
I noticed earlier in the week, that the Thames Clippers now go all the way to Barking Riverside. So I went today.
Note.
- I boarded the boat at the London Bridge City Pier.
- The easiest way to get to this pier is to get a 21, 43 or 141 bus from Moorgate or Bank station. to London Bridge and walk along the South Bank of the river for perhaps a hundred metres. Walking from London Bridge station is a bit tricky.
- I alighted at Barking Riverside Pier, which will be a short walk to the new Barking Riverside station.
The route is a mixture of historic and modern London and places passed include.
- HMS Belfast
- The Tower of London
- Tower Bridge
- Canary Wharf
- Cutty Sark
- The Royal Naval College, Greenwich
- The O2
- The Thames Barrier
- Wooolwich Arsenal
Many have piers for the Thames Clipper.
The Royal Iris
These pictures show what is left of the former Mersey Ferry, the MV Royal Iris, which is rusting in the River at Woolwich.
I remember the ferry, when it was resplendent in green and yellow in the 1960s. I also remember going on one evening party cruise up and down the Mersey.
It’s rather a sad end for ship that has many happy memories for many.
According to Wikipedia, there is a campaign to return the iconic ferry to Liverpool.
London’s CrossFerry
The Thames Clippers keep on going and now at many times, you can go all the way between Barking Riverside and Putney.
It’s not that slow either and in the open waters East of Tower Bridge, my phone was saying that the ferry was cruising at 40 mph.
If it has one problem, it is that the Thames Clippers don’t have an all-day timetable, that is simple.
If it is going to be a pseudo-train line across London, then there needs to be a two boat per hour service across the city. This will be needed more as more housing is built at Barking Riverside.
I know Barking Riverside will be getting the Overground in the Autumn, but unlike the Thames Clippers, that serve Canary Wharf, the City and Westminster, the Overground will serve a swathe of housing, rather than employment, across North London.
Following The Barking Riverside Extension – 20th January 2022
I took this route at Barking Riverside.
- Took a train from from Barking station to Dagenham Dock station.
- Took an EL3 bus to Stern Close.
- Walked to Barking Riverside station.
- Took an EL1 bus to Ilford station.
These are the pictures I took.
It seems to be substantially finished and an Autumn 2022 opening should be possible.
Through Barking To Barking Riverside
The excellent maps from carto metro now show full details of the route of the Barking Riverside Extension of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line.
This map shows the tracks going through Barking station.
Note.
- The District Line is shown in green.
- The Hammersmith & City Line is shown in mauve.
- The London Overground is shown in orange.
- Where lines are shared, they are shown dotted in both colours.
- The two tracks going North West are the Gospel Oak to Barking Line to the West.
- There is a flyover linking these two tracks to Platforms 7 and 8 on the South side of the station.
All Overground trains currently terminate in Platform 1, which is the Northernmost of the seven platforms.
After services to Barking Riverside start, some or all of the services will use the flyover and share Platforms 7 and 8 with c2c’s half-hourly service between Fenchurch Street and Grays.
- Platform 7 will handle c2c services to Grays and Overground services to Barking Riverside.
- Platform 8 will handle c2c services to Fenchurch Street and Overground services to Gospel Oak.
Passengers who need to reverse direction to perhaps go from Barking Riverside to Purfleet would just walk across the island platform shared by Platforms 7 and 8.
This second map shows the tracks to the East of Barking station.
Note.
- The Overground tracks sit between the existing lines.
- If Renwick Road station is added to the extension, will it have an island platform between the tracks?
This third map shows the route to Barking Riverside station.
Note.
- Barking Riverside station is a two-platform station.
- There is a crossover outside the station to allow both platforms to be used to terminate trains.
Strictly speaking to handle the four trains per hour (tph) that are likely to use the station, one platform could be enough, but it looks like the station has been designed for extension across the river to Abbey Wood and Thamesmead.
UK’s Largest Mobile Crane Swings Into Action In Barking
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Barking And Dagenham Post.
This is the first two paragraphs.
The largest mobile crane in the country has swung into action to help extend a railway line.
The Gottwald AK680 – which has the capacity to lift 1,200 tonnes – installed steel beams for the remaining viaduct spans as part of the Barking Riverside extension (BRE) project.
This crane certainly seems to get about.
I think this picture shows the same crane in action at Bletchley in August. It was certainly claimed as the UK’s largest mobile crane.
Perhaps we need a rail-mounted version!
I always remember, a North Sea Oil project manager telling me, that as cranes got large it eased and speeded up construction.
This article on Vertikal gives more details of the crane in action.
The Anonymous Widower 