Gospel Oak to Barking line
From Free net encyclopedia
The Gospel Oak & Barking Line is a train line in North and East London which connects Gospel Oak in North London and Barking in East London. It is sometimes known as the Goblin (for Gospel Oak and Barking LINe), although this is a nickname rather than an official title.
The section between South Tottenham and Woodgrange Park was built as the Tottenham & Forest Gate Railway, a joint project between the Midland Railway and the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway. It opened on 9 July, 1894, linking the Midland and Great Eastern joint line at South Tottenham, and the Forest Gate and Barking line at Woodgrange Park.
Passenger services on the line are operated by Silverlink and the typical service is one train every thirty minutes in each direction. The line is also heavily used by freight as it provides an orbital route around London, connecting with many radial routes, and the North London Line at Gospel Oak. Unusually (for a London railway used by passengers) all trains are diesel powered as the line has never been fully electrified. There is however one section that is electrified from Barking to just beyond Woodgrange Park, where the line splits and the electrified part goes onto the Great Eastern Main Line. Only late night c2c electric trains use this link.
Passenger trains generally on the whole route consist of only two coaches each due to some of the station platforms being too short to accommodate longer trains. Recent increases in passenger numbers have led to severe overcrowding at peak times.
Unlike most railways in London, the line does not pass through the central Zone 1 and traditionally the line has played a rather minor role in London's transport system. It was considered for closure in the 1960s and was then allowed to fall into a poor state of repair and reliability. In recent years, train use has grown significantly in London with many of the lines through central London running at their full capacity. This has lead to the Gospel Oak & Barking Line taking on a new strategic significance as a by-pass, relieving the load on central London by allowing passengers to travel between north and east London directly.
In November 2007, Transport for London will take control of passenger services as part of the North London Railway, with the intention of increasing the line's service frequency and integrating it with the North London Line and West London Line. In the longer term these lines could then be further integrated with the East London Line and South London Line to form a full London orbital railway, speculatively named Orbirail. TfL has already taken over funding the Sunday service and some of the late night services, as well as funding a small number of additional peak time services in order to relieve the worst of the overcrowding.
All stations on the line, with the exception of the three which interchange with other lines, are unstaffed although there are CCTV cameras and information points which can be used to speak to a member of staff in an emergency. There are no ticket machines. Tickets can be purchased from the conductors on the trains. Oyster pre-pay is not currently valid on the line, but TfL will introduce it when they take over. Oyster cards are accepted only if loaded with a travelcard season tickets for the appropriate zone(s). TfL have stated their intention to provide staff at all stations for safety reasons when they take over control.