Assembly calls on Chancellor to support electrification plan

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The London Assembly has written to George Osbourne ahead of tomorrow’s budget announcement, urging the Chancellor to fund the proposed electrification of the Gospel Oak to Barking railway line.

Electrification of the line would need to be completed before 2018 to allow Crossrail rolling stock to continue on the Gospel Oak to Barking line, but for work to be carried out in time, funding for the project must be secured this year.

Transport for London (TfL) has offered to contribute £25 million towards the £90 million estimated cost of the scheme.

Caroline Pidgeon AM, chair of the Transport Committee, said: “It is a major disappointment that funding for the electrification of the Gospel Oak-Barking line, which was expected to be announced last year, has so far failed to materialise.

“There is a strong business case for electrification on a line where passenger demand already far outstrips capacity.”

4 COMMENTS

  1. With new sea port being built on the Thames the freight hopefully will be on the rails, at the present time the additional trains if hauled by electric locos the only way would be via Forest Gate junction and Stratford to access the North London Line. There is already delays within this area of the railway.

    It does make sense to electrifying the line between Barking and Gospel Oak this would enable the freight from the sea port to access the various junctions between South Tottenham and Wellsden. By electrifying this line they could then use electric rolling stock for passenger working.

    The Government once again cannot see in to the future.

  2. The problem here is that passenger growth way exceeded estimates so the very short 2-car trains became overcrowded ver quickly, despite a service frequency increase to every 15 minutes all day. Even trains after 22.00 hrs are often standing room only.
    The problem is caused by changes to EU emission regs means, technically the trains supplied three years ago no longer meet the new emissions standards, so they cannot order another non-driving centre-car to boost capacity.
    Electrification is the only option for longer trains with extra passenger capacity.

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