Over the next few years there are going to be changes at Barking station.
Barking and Dagenham Council have plans to redevelop the station, but compared to many 1960s stations built by British Rail, Barking station isn’t one where you need to call in the heavy demolition squads. From what I’ve seen elsewhere, a partnership between good architects and a competent construction company, should be able to create a station fit for the twenty-first century.
The station is also served by two ambitious operators; Transport for London, with both Underground and Overground and c2c with services along the Essex Coast.
So I have this hope that between the three of them, they can turn Barking into another East London gateway to Essex alongside Liverpool Street and Stratford.
It has also been announced that the Gospel Oak to Barking Line will now be going to a new station at Barking Riverside.
Transport for London have now produced two options about how this line will link up to the station.
This is Option A, which would need two single track viaducts.
Barking Option A
And this is Option B, which gives the option of a second station and needs a double-track viaduct.
Barking Option B
As both link into Platforms 7 and 8 at Barking station, there would appear to be little difference between the two options except for the ability to have a second station with Option B and the possibility of one track layout being cheaper.
This Google Earth image shows Barking station.
Barking Station
Platforms 7 and 8 are at the southern side of the station. So this means that trains from Gospel Oak, will have to criss over several lines to get from the northern side to the southern. But this is not a problem here, as there is a flyover, which has been built to get freight trains across the main lines. If this hadn’t been built sometime in the past, then extending the GOBlin to Barking Riverside would be a lot more expensive.
When I was at Barking recently, Underground and c2c trains were using opposite sides of the same platforms, thus allowing cross-platform interchange.
This would appear to be the platform usage.
1 – Bay platform for Gospel Oak to Barking trains
2 – Eastbound Underground – Paired with 4
3- Bay platform for Underground – Tucked between 2 and 4
4 – Eastbound c2c – Paired with 2
5 – Westbound c2c – Paired with 6
6 – Westbound Underground – Paired with 5
7 – Eastbound c2c – Paired with 8
8 – Westbound c2c – Paired with 7
If there is a problem, it is that to change between c2c and the Underground isn’t always a simple cross-platform interchange, but sometimes up and down steps. As getting on the Underground at Fenchurch Street isn’t simple and West Ham is similar to Barking with lots of steps, it would seem that this neglected part of London needs a few station improvements.
This won’t get any better after Barking Riverside is served, as this will put extra trains through platforms 7 and 8.
I would assume that Network Rail have a cunning plan up their sleeves.
It would surely be better if all c2c trains used either platform 4 to go east and 5 to go to west to Fenchurch Street.
This may not be possible with the current track layout, which would appear to split into the two services via Basildon and Ockendon respectively to the west of Barking station. The southern route via Ockendon, branches away soon after the station, so moving the junction to the east of the station to use just a single platform in each direction, might not be possible.
But a better platform layout would make it more difficult for passengers to get lost or miss connecting trains at Barking.
I think in a few years time, Barking will have an important interchange station, adding significantly to the transport options of the area.
May 14, 2015
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | Barking Riverside, Gospel Oak And Barking Line, Stations, Trains |
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There are drop-in sessions for the consultation on the Barking Riverside Extension to the Gospel Oak to Barking Line in the next few weeks,
Public drop-in sessions will be held at Barking Library from 1pm to 5pm on Saturday, September 20, at Thames View Library from 2:30pm to 7pm on Tuesday, September 23, and at the Rivergate Centre form 3pm to 8pm on Monday, October 6.
If I remember, I might go along, There’s more here.
September 12, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | Barking Riverside, Gospel Oak And Barking Line, Trains |
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There is no doubt in my mind, that the Barking Riverside area needs better transport links. I was there mid-morning and the buses were busy. One lady told me that buses in the area weren’t reliable.
So either the Gospel Oak To Barking Line or the Docklands Light Railway must be extended.
It would appear that TfL has chosen the heavy rail solution and they have started a consultation and published this map.
GOBlin Extension To Barking Riverside
The housing looked to be of good quality, although there are reports that some of the first houses weren’t.
When I see housing like this, I am reminded of our first and only house, where I took the car to work and C was stuck in all day with a baby, in a place with no public transport.
It didn’t do much good for our relationship!
Barking Riverside could have in the future a population of around 26,000. This makes it all the more essential that something is added to the two bus routes with a frequency of five buses an hour.
I actually think, that when the area is fully developed, this extension to the Gospel Oak To Barking Line, will need to be augmented. Especially, if the line is extended again under the river to Abbey Wood.
But before we go to Abbey Wood, wouldn’t it be a good idea to follow the electrification of the Gospel Oak To Barking Line with electrification of the Dudding Hill Line, so that trains could go all the way to West Hampstead, Acton and ultimately to Hounslow, as is proposed in Transport for London’s Tranpost Plan for 2050.
September 9, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | Barking Riverside, Gospel Oak And Barking Line, London Overground |
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This morning, I took the bus to Barking Riverside to get a feel of the area, that in a few years time will be served by the Gospel Oak to Barking Line Extension to Barking Riverside.
The Ripple Nature Reserve in the area, is just like some of the industrial wastelands, that I remember from my childhood in London after the Second World War.
September 9, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
World | Barking Riverside, Development, Electricity, Gospel Oak And Barking Line, Wildlife |
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London is a divided city and it has always been thus.
I am a North Londoner and can’t understand why anybody would want to live South of the Great Sewer. Compared to my childhood, it’s now grown up to be a river.
This is not just a white middle-class attitude, as I’ve been told by policemen, that criminals rarely commit crime on both sides of the river, and I’ve met several black South and North Londoners, who have my attitude to the other part of London.
In my childhood, the transport system made this divide a lot worse. We learned to duck and dive into the Underground and those in the South, learned how to get around using the Southern electrics, which to a North Londoner seem to have been laid out by the Devil to confuse outsiders.
It’s better now, with Thameslink, the Overground and the Victoria and Jubilee lines adding extra connections between North and South London.
But one place, where the divide is still great is in the East. London has a housing shortage and two of the areas, where a large number of houses are to be built in the east, are Barking Riverside to the North of the Thames and Thamesmead to the South. The latter found its fame as the set for A Clockwork Orange and now surrounds the notorious Belmarsh Prison.
Both of these areas lack decent transport links. Wikipedia has a section on transport for Thamesmead which says this.
Thamesmead’s location between the Thames and the South London escarpment limits rail transport and road access points. Thus Thamesmead has no underground or surface rail links. Most residents rely on bus services to reach the nearest rail stations.
Barking Riverside fares little better, according to this section in Wikipedia. Here’s the first bit.
Barking Riverside is connected to Barking, Ilford and Dagenham Dock by the East London Transit bus rapid transit service.
But at least the Gospel Oak to Barking Line is being extended to the houses at Riverside.
What was originally proposed was a new road bridge across the river called the Thames Gateway bridge, that would have originally opened in 2013.
But now in London’s Transport Plan for 2050, a rail tunnel is being proposed that links the Goblin at Barking Riverside to Abbey Wood station for Crossrail and the Kent lines, with an intermediate station at Thamesmead.
It will not be a low-cost option, as tunnelling isn’t a question of hiring a few navvies, so as the DLR extension to Woolwich Arsenal cost a couple of hundred million or so, we’re probably looking at a half billion pound project to connect the rail lines under the Thames.
But surely, if it improves the east of London and makes housing in Barking Riverside and Thamesmead more attractive, it surely must be high up the benefit cost scale.
August 3, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
News, Transport/Travel | Barking Riverside, Goblin Extension, Housing, London, London Transport Plan 2050, Thamesmead |
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London needs houses and one of the best places to build them is in the East near the Thames in Barking. The developments are talked about here.
Development has been a bit slow, as the area is badly served by public transport and the Mayor and the GLA have pushing for better rail links to the area.
One plan was to extend the DLR and the other was to extend the Gospel Oak to Barking line of the Overground.
According to this report in the Standard last night, it would appear that the Overground is to be extended. Here’s the first bit.
George Osborne will signal a £150 million rail link to speed up the construction of thousands of new homes in the capital in his Budget this week, it is revealed today.
The Chancellor is expected to indicate he is keen to extend the Gospel Oak to Barking Line — nicknamed the Goblin Line — to Barking Riverside.
It would help unlock up to 11,000 new houses, offices and shops planned in a redevelopment that aims to transform a 350-acre site of industrial and brownfield land.
I wonder how many other projects like this, will turn up between now and the next election? This project is quoted as costing £150million, but as it makes 11,000 new homes viable and probably creates quite a few jobs, this surely is the sort of project that has a high benefit to cost ration. It also has the Overground-factor in that when it opens, it’ll probably attract far more passengers than expected and everybody will say why wasn’t it done years ago.
There are some interesting ones that have been proposed. Some of the ones I like are upgrading of the Marshlink Line and the Tees Valley Metro, both of which I’ve experienced in the last few weeks. None of the ones here, are big rail projects, where lots of new track and new trains are required.
I suspect that after seeing George Osborne’s backing for the Northern Hub and railway electrification in general, I have this feeling that after the Gospel Oak to Barking line announcement, that the budget may have some rail infrastructure surprises from the reinstatement and upgrading of lines to the building of new stations and the refurbishment of old ones.
One thing that seems to have happened in the last few years, is that now the passenger and freight flows on our railways are getting more stable and predictable, Network Rail has implemented some projects like the Hitchin flyover, where the msin purpose, is to make the important lines more reliable and less subject to delay.
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March 18, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | Barking Riverside, George Osborne, Gospel Oak And Barking Line, Housing, Tax |
2 Comments
This article sums up a lot of the responses to the news that the Gospel Oak To Barking Line is going to be electrified.
I was rather surprised too, as it’s not just a matter of putting up overhead wires, as there are lots of places that will be difficult to electrify and some of the platforms are a bit short. Even so the sum of £115million looks to have a bit of fat in it, which might be used for other purposes, like improving stations with longer platforns and better access and possibly extending the line to Barking Riverside.
Longer trains are obviously on the table, as London Overground is already committed to extending its Class 378 trains from four cars to five and common sense says that where possible, the same trains run all over the lines of the London Overground. So at worst, the Gospel Oak to Barking Line might get a few three-car Class 378 trains.
At best though, there is scope to reorganise things a bit. Plans have been discussed in and on various informed magazines and web sites, where some or all Barking Trains don’t stop at Gospel Oak, but carry on to Willesden and then go down the West London line.
I think too that there is a bit of disbelief at Transport for London, as they have got what they wanted over the Gospel Oak to Barking Line and they now must decide how best to turn a Cinderella line into the belle of North London. They have welcomed the announcement, but seem to me to have been rather quiet otherwise.
July 1, 2013
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | Barking Riverside, Gospel Oak And Barking Line, London Overground, Trains |
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The Anonymous Widower 