On Wed, 19 Mar 2014 21:08:00 +0000, Paul Corfield
wrote:

On Wed, 19 Mar 2014 18:15:48 +0000, Mizter T
wrote:


x-posted to uk.transport.london

On 19/03/2014 14:46, Paul Harley wrote:
An interesting item in the 2014 Budget is £150M being committed to
extend the Gospel Oak to Barking line to a new station at Barking
Riverside, to serve a development of up to 11,000 new homes.

There were of course plans, pre-crash, to extend the DLR this way as
part of the development plans.

I don't recall a GOBLIN extension featuring as part of the Barking
Riverside developments before now, but I could well have just been asleep.

You weren't asleep as it is only in the last year that very small
hints have emerged in a variety of places that an extension was being
considered. It's been easy to miss them unless you're nerdy and like
reading Mayor's Questions and sub notes to Network Rail presentations
on electrification.

I think what has happened - years late - is that someone has bashed
Boris on the head enough times that he eventually realised that you
will not get substantial housing development at Barking Riverside
without a rail service. A resident was interviewed for the BBC London
news and she said two bus routes were inadequate *already* with buses
full to bursting in the peaks. These are the East London Transit
routes that were supposed to be a super dooper solution to the area's
transport issues. That worked then! Boris's excuse is that the DLR
extension was too expensive while extending the GOBLIN will be better
value for money (i.e. cheap).

The substantive issue, of course, is whether the GOBLIN can provide
adequate capacity for well over 11,000 residents. A 4 tph service with
4 car EMUs won't (IMO) meet that sort of demand. Judging from remarks
on the telly this evening I think people and politicians think they're
getting a direct C2C service to Fenchurch St not a shuttle to Barking
and beyond. My view is that TfL will have to run a supplementary
service just to Barking to give adequate capacity and frequency to
link in to C2C and the Tube. One question that has been posed to the
Mayor, by John Biggs AM, is whether the extension will also have a
station at Renwick Road. This is a vast area of housing and there is
space for a station. Adding one would probably serve C2C and
Overground thus giving a good service to that area. Mayor's Answers
next week might cast some light on whether that station option is
being considered.

One thing a DLR service would have done was provide a direct link to
Canary Wharf (or very close by) whereas the GOBLIN extension is a long
way round for a short cut. It would also have served far more stations
on the Riverside giving connectivity and supporting wider development.
A one station extension does not do the same thing at all. Which
option is "right" is obviously open to debate but I feel the DLR
option would have been vastly more beneficial and would have been
close to opening by now if Boris had not canned it. Sometimes you get
what you pay for! Doing everything cheaply may not deliver the result
that is needed in terms of lots of houses.

The final thing to say is that there is no money yet nor is it very
clear what will be built, how much it will cost and who will pay for
it. Boris said on the telly that things might get started by the 2016
Mayoral election suggesting that there is much to do before then. He
accepted that there is no money on the table yet. On the assumption
that the go ahead does eventually come then at least TfL can secure an
option for extra trains when it gets round to ordering the EMUs for
the electrified GOBLIN / Greater Anglia. I suspect we may be looking
at 2018/19 before the extension opens but it would be nice if it could
be done faster than that to coincide with the electrified GOBLIN
service.


Thanks for the info & comments.

I'm a little confused, (probably age related......) but is this a
proposal to extend the soon to be electified Goblin service away from
platform 1 at Barking, over the flyover into plats. 7 & 8 to serve
one ortwo2 new stations on the Tilbury loop, or does it include a new
stretch of railway into Barking Riverside?

Peeking at the N.E. London bus map, the Barking Riverside bus terminus
seems to be quite a long distance from the existing railway, hence my
question!


TIA, David C.

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