London Overground’s Gospel Oak-Barking line reopened in time for the start of service on January 15, following an eight-week closure by Network Rail to complete electrification of the route.
Possession was given up at approximately noon on January 14 for a ghost service to run, before the first timetabled train departed from Barking at 0633 the following morning.
Newly energised overhead line equipment (OLE) will now be fully tested in between normal services and at night, ahead of new four-car Class 710 electric multiple units entering traffic in the spring.
These trains will replace the current stock of two-car Class 172 diesel multiple units, which will remain in service until driver training and route testing is completed. RAIL understands that they will be phased out until all ‘710s’ become available, meaning that for a period EMUs and DMUs will run concurrently.
- For more on this, read RAIL 845, published on January 31, and available digitally from January 27 on Android and iPad.
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AndrewJGwilt1989 - 22/01/2018 12:27
London Overground could inherit 1 Class 315 to operate on Romford-Upminster shuttle for short term. As the rest of the Class 315’s and Class 317’s that are currently operating on the Lea Valley services and on GA West Anglia and TfL Rail services will be replaced by the Class 710’s, Class 720’s and Class 345’s. With the Class 315’s and Class 317’s could be sent for storage until the electrification on the some Welsh Valley Branch lines and Cardiff suburban routes have been electrified with the proposal of the GW electrification that could extend to Swansea. That the Class 315’s and Class 317’s would be ideal for. Or to be stored to face possible scrap.
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FrankH - 22/01/2018 22:04
The valleys electrification will not happen, neither will any other new scheme put forward. Bi modes are the answer giving new modern trains without the need for OHLE so we are told. They are if the electrified mileage is more than on diesel (east coast) but on GWR it's not is it, which makes me think is it worth dragging the electrical equipment to Plymouth/Penzance and back from Bristol. A lot of good servicable EMU's will be going for scrap because we've nowhere to use them not because they're unwanted.
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AndrewJGwilt1989 - 23/01/2018 06:00
Same could be said for the ScotRail Class 314’s and Class 318’s that could also be scrapped as new trains would replace these trains as they are over 30 years old.
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