Myth of new trains on Barking & Gospel Oak Line

Apparently even London Overground staff are saying that there will be new trains on the line next year. They are mistaken *, as are the public address announcements saying the same thing. There won't be new trains on the B&GO next year, and here's why:-

1) Any new trains' engines would have to comply with the latest emissions regulations (stage 3b). The Class 172's (the current train type in use) engine and (possibly) exhaust design would need changing to make it stage 3b compliant. This would  be difficult - and probably prohibitively expensive for the small number of vehicles required for the B&GO - but not impossible.

2) (1) is not the main reason for not purchasing more diesel trains. If electrification - the obvious answer for the line - comes before any new / existing diesel trains have recovered their cost from leasing fees, Angel Trains, the company that owns them would have to lease them in a market in which much cheaper and more efficient older units will still be available. (These are unhindered by new emissions regulations - they are not retrospective; some diesel locos are being refurbished and brought back into service for the same reasons.) New diesel trains would give a poor return on investment, in other words. NB: The trains are leased to LOROL, not TfL.

3) Adding additional (unpowered) carriages to existing diesel  trains would not only be technically difficult (they are not designed for it) but would slow the trains down (reduce their power-to-weight ration) below the standard required by Network Rail.

 4) Additional trains cannot be run because there are insufficient paths (ie time slots) to run more without reducing the number of freight trains. There are currently eight paths per hour in each direction (per Wikipedia). This makes longer (higher passenger capacity) trains the only option.

5) As electrification of the remaining un-electrified stretches of line, along with associated works, has not yet started, it will certainly not be finished by next year. (Electrification work will take a long time.)

6) No new trains or carriages have been ordered, so none will be delivered next year.


* There will be additional carriages on other parts of the London Overground next year. Unfortunately this information gets passed on into the wrong contexts and repeated imprecisely, leading to the myth.

Note of caution

This article has been compiled from remembered information and some unclear/illogical/ambiguous published information to which I have attempted to apply logic and common sense. One source http://stibasa.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/gospel-oak-and-barking-line-train.html is based on an e-mail (now mislaid) from Glen Wallis of the B&GO Rail User Group,and another is the 4th of the "notes for editors" in this BGORUG press release - http://www.barking-gospeloak.org.uk/documents/20130331_press_release.pdf

Gospel Oak and Barking Line train overcrowding

Here, courtesy of Glenn Wallis of the Barking and Gospel Oak Line User Group is an explanation - edited by me - of why it would be difficult if not impossible to have more or longer diesel trains on this line to relieve peak time overcrowding.

Trailer coaches

Just one trailer (ie unpowered) coach added to each unit would seriously affect the performance the resulting 2+1 unit and Network Rail might even levy increased track access charges for the loss of track capacity.

The Turbostar was designed as an all vehicle powered train, so even trailers would require a lot of design work and possibly alterations to the existing power cars as well.


Engine upgrade

There is no diesel engine that meets current EU emissions regulations that can be installed in the Bombardier Turbostar without a costly and difficult redesign which neither Bombardier or Angel Trains are interested in unless there is going to be a big order for the redesigned vehicles.

Leasing costs

TfL do not lease the Overground Turbostars, LOROL do, which complicates matters even more. TfL would have to pay to have the leases transferred to them and then pay vastly increased rental costs to Angel Trains to make it worth their while to pay the high costs of buying 8, or 16 redesigned Turbostar coaches from Bombardier.



Electrification

TfL are now realising that instead of being a 'nice to have', electrification of the B-GO is now becoming essential as the only way to deal with the overcrowding."