To what extent does the economy depend on car parking?

The Bengal Lancer, a popular Indian restaurant in Barking which closed its doors for the last time on Sunday 17 September 2017 after about 27 years trading, cited (on Facebook) as one of the reasons for its closure 'car parking issues'. The 'issues' euphemistically referred to are not spelled out, but we can take an educated guess that there is deemed to be inadequate car parking for diners. In the comments, the council, generally held responsible for everything that goes wrong, were described as 'useless', though no particulr suggestion was proferred as to how to alleviate the claimed problem.

The restaurant had a vertiginous Public Transport Access Level, being located 4 minutes' walk from Barking Station (Underground, c2c National Rail and (usually) London Overground Barking-Gospel Oak line), according to Google, and it is on a main road well-served by buses: 5, 62, EL1 and EL3 (and N15 at night). It could hardly have been better placed for travellers from outside the area, but even so there is private housing nearby all around it. There's a minicab office a few doors down (one of several) and a taxi rank at the station and I believe there is no shortage of Uber capacity.

So how significant is the shortage of private car parking really? In another area would car parking deficiency on this level be critical, or claimed to be? And how come a relatively poor area like Barking got to be so car-dependent, if indeed it is? And would addressing this deficiency (assuming that to be possible)  really have prevented this closure?

Personally I suspect not, but the council is under constant pressure to provide more, free parking throughout the borough. Ironically, down at Barking Riverside - a new development that will have 10,800 homes in a few years, if all goes to plan, there is land available that could conceivably be used for car parking, though many residents require their car to be visible from where they sit in their house. There is no rail service to the development yet, but the schools are open and filling up. How are the teachers supposed to travel to the school, except by car? The desire to have a healthy town with non-car transport chosen as often as possible is apparently a poor relation to the (perceived) need to accommodate a private car based transport solution.

Barking and Gospel Oak Line (London Overground) long term closure. c 2 years before we see electric trains

The line will close for around 8 months so that electrification and related works can be carried out. The details below (slightly edited) were provided by the Barking & Gospel Oak Rail User Group. The closure will also be used to carry out other necessary works unrelated to electrification


* Last day for through Barking - Gospel Oak trains will be Friday 3 June 2016
* Gospel Oak - South Tottenham trains will continue running on weekdays only until 23 September 2016
* The whole line will then be closed until 7 February 2017 when rail passenger services resume with 2-car diesel trains but with continuing weekend closures until the overhead catenary is cleared for use by electric trains in June 2017
* The existing 2-car diesels will continue to operate until early 2018 when new 4-car electric trains enter service
* Around 500 Overhead catenary support masts are required.
* The pedestrian route across Walthamstow Queen's Road footbridge will closed throughout the works
* About 1500m of trackbed will have to be lowered by up to 0.5m through Walthamstow Queen's Road and concrete slab track used to create required clearances.
* Road over rail bridges at Upper Hollway, Harringay Park Junction and Walthamstow Queen's Road will have to be rebuilt.
* platforms will be lengthened to accommodate 4-car trains
* The long delayed step-free access scheme at Blackhorse Road was expected to be completed by the end of 2016 but the DfT are now reviewing the funding they provided for this.

RAIL REPLACEMENT BUS SERVICES every 15 minutes increased to every 10 minutes Mon-Fri peak times

 ROUTE 'T' BARKING - WALTHAMSTOW CENTRAL from 4 June 2016 until 7 February 2017
* Barking Station
* Woodgrange Park Station
* Wanstead Park Station
* Harrow Green (for Leytonstone High Road station)
* Leyton Midland Road station
* Walthamstow Central ROUTE 'J' GOSPEL OAK - SEVEN SISTERS weekends from 4 June 2016, then daily from 24 September 2016 until 7 February 2017
* Highgate Road (for Gospel Oak station)
* Upper Holloway [?Station]
* Hornsey Road/Hanley Road (for Crouch Hill station)
* Finsbury Park Station * Harringay Green Lanes station
* Seven Sisters station

 There is currently no information regarding any ticket acceptances by other bus or rail/Underground services.

Gospel Oak Line Woes with rail and path closures

The Victoria line is closed between Walthamstow Central and Seven Sisters until 30 August, and there will be a reduced service on the rest of the line.

Instead of Blackhorse Road, then, change between the B&GO and the Victoria at Seven Sisters / South Tottenham. This is an official out-of-station interchange and the shortest route for walking/cycling  is (unsignposted) via Stonebridge Road, opposite S Tottenham Station.

This closure is likely to mean even more people attempting to use the already badly overcrowded B&GO between South Tottenham and Walthamstow Queen's Road, though there are rail replacement buses.

To add insult to injury, the not long opened direct walking route between Walthamstow Central and Queen's Rd - via Ray Dudley Way - is closed until 6 September, and according to the B&GO user group, the diversionary route (via Shrubland Road) has not been [well] signposted as at 8 August.

Barking & Gospel Oak Line Rail Users' Group AGM

Will be held on Wednesday 29 April at 7pm in meeting room 2 at Barking Town Hall. Now is the time to renew (or take out) membership. See the BGORUG website for information about the group and the line, and a membership application form which contains details of how to by bank transfer.

It will be possible to join just before the meeting starts, but please arrive early to do this. Once the meeting starts it is too late.

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

New ATOC London Connections Map out

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/passenger_services/maps/London_Connections.pdf

The new map "effective from 23rd May" shows the DLR branch to Stratford International with "opens Summer 2010". It doesn't show the street level interchange between Dalston Kingsland and Dalston Junction that TfL show on their maps such as their (arguably) most useful one the 'Oyster Rail Services Map' (the effective successor to TfL's London Connections Map, which did not colour code National Rail lines at all). Trains will run through from Dalston Junction (East London Line) to Highbury and Islington (North London Line) from May 2011 and the train service between Gospel Oak and Stratford resumes next month.

New Ticket Machines London Overground

I've noticed the new ticket machine at Harringay Green Lanes. Couldn't see the make, or find anything on Google. Not sure why such new machines (2007) have been replaced (if they have) may just be HGL?

PLANNED CLOSURES ON GOSPEL OAK - BARKING LINE

Quote from TfL e-mail:

PLANNED CLOSURES ON GOSPEL OAK - BARKING LINE:

To enable the running of more frequent and reliable services across London, on time for the Olympics in 2012, there will be temporary closures on various lines of the Overground network. TfL will provide alternative travel arrangements to keep passengers connected to the public transport network. The first set of improvements, to enable the running of 4 trains per hour will take place at weekends on the Gospel Oak to Barking line from 7 February until 25 October 2009 during which time there will be a reduced service each weekend.

Works will take place as follows

Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 February, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 February, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Sunday 22 February, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 28 February and Sunday 1 March, normal service

Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 March, normal service

Saturday 14 March, line closed South Tottenham - Barking

Saturday 21 March, line closed South Tottenham - Barking

Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 March, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 April, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 11 (from 10pm) until Tuesday 14 April, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

ALL Saturdays between 18 April and 1 August (inclusive), line closed South Tottenham - Barking

Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 August, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 August, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 22 August, line closed South Tottenham - Barking

Saturday 29 August, line closed South Tottenham - Barking

Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Sundays 4 11 18 and 25 October, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

North London Line Services

On its network diagrams London Overground is showing a route between Camden Road and South Hampstead - a diversionary route whilst the Euston - South Hampstead stretch of route is closed Mon - Sat. There's no hint on the map, though, that the route is temporary. The closures (until 15 November) are codified on the diagram, but not the temporary [re]opening.

The link is not shown on the latest edition of the ATOC London Connections Map, and TfL's map of the same name doesn't have any hint of the closures or diversionary route.

New London Overground trains out and about

c2c's Commuter News (9/08) says that they are providing storage and inspection facilities for the new fleet of class 378 EMUs (Electric Multiple Units). The trains look similar to c2c's trains (class 357s) but "with seating arranged in a Metro style of service [sic]". I don't think these trains are for the Barking & Gospel Oak line as it (controversially) doesn't have electric traction power along the whole route. This is why it currently uses DMUs (Diesel Multiple Units).

The government seems to be coming round to the railway industry majority view (I believe) of using electric traction. This would seem to be better than the current plan to have trains that can use electric traction but also have diesel engines for lines where there's no electric traction power - a lot of uneccsssary weight would be carried around as a result.

National Rail and London Overground

The London Overground (LO) is a National Rail Line but is not under the National Rail branding. TfL's journey planner has accommodated the new name, as has National Rail's, but National Rail hasn't yet published an ATOC London Connections Map with this and the other changes. They're also going to have to update the Oyster PAYG in National Rail map - a copy of which (it's not a link) is published on TfL's website. I'm sure the mappers at FWT are on the case.

London Overground

The new ticket machine at Harringay Green Lanes (and I presume others on the B&GO) now has its new London Overground home screen, Oyster ticketing options and Oyster card reader/writer. The Oystercard validator on the Barking bound platform was on, looking like it would work normally (not tested).

New Ticket Machines at Harringay Green Lanes

A new ticket machine is in place at each entrance at street level, but not working as at 10 August. Being at street level makes them suitable for buying tickets to open the gates that must surely come with the introduction of Oyster PAYG (pre-pay) on Sunday November 11 when the line becomes part of the London Overground. The Shere machines have a circular blanking plate, perhaps for the Oyster reader/writer to be fitted later. They will have to be Oyster compatible. The address label gives details of Silverlink, who will cease to be involved from 11 November - so perhaps they'll be brought into service before November.

I believe ticket machines have been installed at other stations along the line.