| |
Line will get worse
• GEORGE Downtown tells of passengers’ frustrations about overcrowding and unreliability on the North London and Gospel Oak-Barking lines (Shutdown on joke line, July 3). It will get worse before it gets better, that’s no joke. Weekend closures and the four-month block next winter on the North London line mean real inconvenience for another nine months.
Creating London Overground (the thin orange lines on the Tube map from 2007) should be a change for the better, but is the plan quite right for passengers? Back in 1995-96, Railtrack closed the line from Camden to Willesden for a year, so Eurostar trains could run to their new depot near Wormwood Scrubs. The problem then was privatised Railtrack only did half the job needed.
Railtrack failed to improve the signals to run more trains, or lower the track through Hampstead Heath tunnel to take the large international freight containers. After last year’s three-month blockade, the line now takes the bigger freight wagons, so some freight trains now run through Hampstead Heath.
But Network Rail did not undertake the signalling work last year, now being done at weekends, or restore the station platforms Railtrack “rebuilt” in 1996 but only for three coaches, a fundamental error. Why couldn’t Network Rail now plan ahead with Transport for London and Overground to do all the jobs together? The four-month closure next year is to rebuild a Victorian sewer under the railway and other major engineering work that could be more difficult while trains are running. But even then the project will not be finished as the three bridges and extra tracks at Camden will not be rebuilt. So Mr Downtown’s worry about track capacity and service reliability is a very real problem.
Overground is the poor relation to the Tube or big exciting projects like Crossrail. Any excuse to cut costs means our passengers bear the burnt.
Sadly, there is a row between Transport Minister Lord Adonis and Mayor Boris about paying for electrifying the Gospel Oak-Barking line, as this will provide more capacity for all freight trains and cure overcrowding at a stroke as three-coach electric trains would replace two-coach diesels. Definitely a good idea.
Overground is a crucial part of the Olympic transport legacy, giving real benefits to passengers who have had a raw deal for 40 years. MP Jeremy Corbyn has tabled an Early Day Motion to press for improvements, and we need to tell our MPs, London Assembly members and local councillors we have had enough and want all of the Overground improvements completed before 2012.
RICHARD H POUT
Secretary, Barking-
Gospel Oak Line User Group
|
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
| |
