Gospel Oak – Barking railway line

Gospel Oak - Barking
Overground train in Barking
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Dual track :	partially
Legend North London Line to Richmond Gospel Oak North London Line from Stratford Midland Main Line from Nottingham / Sheffield Highgate Road Kentish Town MML from London St. Pancras Junction Road Upper Holloway Hornsey Road East Coast Main Line Harringay Green Lanes St Ann's Road Lea Valley Lines ( Seven Sisters branch line) South Tottenham Lea Valley Lines  (Temple Mills Branch Line) Lea Blackhorse Road Victoria Line Lea Valley Lines  (Chingford Branch Line) Walthamstow Queen's Road Leyton Midland Road A12 Central Line Leytonstone High Road Wanstead Park Great Eastern Main Line Woodgrange Park Roding Channel Tunnel Rail Link Connection to LT&SR , broken off in 1958 H&C and District Line LT&SR LT&SR Barking LT&SR

The railway line Gospel Oak – Barking (alternative name Goblin for G ospel O ak to B arking Lin e) is a railway line in the north of the British capital London . It runs from Gospel Oak station on the North London Line to Barking station on the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway .

history

The line as a whole has only existed since 1981, before that it consisted of sections of other railway lines.

The section Barking - Woodgrange Park was built in 1852 by the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway in the course of their line opening Forest Gate - Tilbury and opened in 1854 to traffic. In 1868, the Kentish Town – South Tottenham section was opened as a junction from the Midland Main Line . In 1888 an additional branch line to Gospel Oak was created as a connection with the North London Line, but most trains ran via Kentish Town. On July 9, 1894, the South Tottenham - Woodgrange Park section began operating as a link between the Midland Railway and the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway.

In 1926 the branch line to Gospel Oak was closed. In 1958 the connection to East Ham was also closed.

In the course of various renovations in the area around St Pancras / Kentish Town in 1981, the terminus of the line was relocated to Gospel Oak, so that a new connection to the North London Line could be established. For this purpose, the Upper Holloway - Gospel Oak branch, which existed from 1888 to 1926, had to be reactivated. However, the connection to the Midland Line was retained, but the branch towards Kentish Town was canceled. This connection plays an important role in freight traffic to the north.

In 1994, as part of the privatization of British Rail , the operation of the line was transferred to North London Railways , while the infrastructure remained with Network Rail . In 1997 the National Express Group took over the line, which it marketed together with the West London Line and the North London Line under the brand name Silverlink .

In the course of the Railways Act 2005 , Transport for London (TfL) initially took over some train journeys before taking over full passenger transport operations on the line in 2007. Since then, the line has been part of the London Overground network , which operates passenger services on the route every half hour. The line is also part of the Oyster Card network. Since then, they have improved the operating conditions enormously, and the rate of fare dodgers has also fallen from 40 percent to two percent compared to the Silverlink operation.

The line is currently being rebuilt so that four passenger and four freight trains can run every hour.

meaning

passenger traffic

In addition to the London Overground also uses c2c parts of the track by trains from Shoeburyness not to Fenchurch Street , but according to Liverpool Street leads. These relations use the route between Barking and the junction with the Great Eastern Main Line , but without stopping in Woodgrange Park. The overground trains run the route every quarter of an hour, although the range of journeys is limited during the holidays. Furthermore, in some cases, passenger traffic has to be stopped during off-peak hours in order to improve the route.

Freight transport

The route plays a very important role in freight transport. It serves as an important link between south-east England and the north, as it enables connections with the Midland Main Line and the West Coast Main Line . The most important providers are DB Cargo UK and Freightliner . The latter company owns a large freight terminal at Barking and uses the GOBLIN as a link between the seaport of Tilbury and the rest of Great Britain .

future

• The platforms are to be extended to accommodate longer trains
• At Gospel Oak station, construction work is planned in the medium term to improve the link with the North London Line and thus also for through trains. So far, the line from Barking has a head platform in the station, the connection to the NLL bypasses the station and only joins the NLL at Hampstead Heath.
• An extension to Dagenham Dock station on the LT&SR is planned to enable a transfer point with the Docklands Light Railway . Additional infrastructure is not necessary, the trains can use existing c2c routes.
• A reactivation of the Junction Road stop is under discussion in order to enable a transfer to the Northern Line's Tufnell Park station .

Web links

• Side of the track

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/archive/3658.aspx
2. ↑ http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/corporate/5-London-Overground-Review.pdf
3. ↑ Timetable of the Overground
4. ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A16542425