London Overground Gospel Oak to Barking Line

**London Overground Gospel Oak to Barking Line**is a Transport for London operated Overground line in London, England. Running between Gospel Oak and Barking, it carries both through goods trains and London Overground passenger trains, connecting Gospel Oak station in north London and Barking station in east London.

## History

The line has existed in its current form since 1981, and is mostly an amalgamation of lines built in the 19th century. The main section, between South Tottenham and Woodgrange Park, was built as the Tottenham and Forest Gate Railway, a joint project between the Midland Railway and the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway. This opened on 9 July 1894, linking the Midland and Great Eastern joint line at South Tottenham and the Forest Gate and Barking line at Woodgrange Park. The section west of South Tottenham was built as the Tottenham and Hampstead Junction Railway, which opened in 1868 but had not been commercially successful.

The line was considered for closure to passengers in 1963 as part of the Beeching Axe, but as Beeching's proposals for London were not implemented for the most part, the line remained open. Even so, it was allowed to fall into a poor state of repair and reliability, and by 1980 had been cut back to an hourly service between Kentish Town and Barking. The station canopies were gradually demolished, ticket offices closed and staff withdrawn from stations.

In 1981, the route to Kentish Town was withdrawn.

In 1990, Class 117s and Class 121s DMUs were introduced.

In 1999, six existing Class 150s transferred from Central Trains were introduced.

In 2000, the Class 117s and Class 121s were withdrawn and replaced by Class 150s.

On 11 November 2007, the route was included in the sale from Silverlink's Wilesden depot to London Overground.

On 10 July 2010, brand new Class 172 Turbostars were introduced.

In December 2010, the line was converted to a full Class 172 Turbostar operation and the Class 150s were replaced.

On 28 January 2019, Class 378 Capitalstars were temporarily introduced with 378232 being the first unit to enter service on the newly electrified line because the Class 710s were still having problems.

On 15 March 2019, the Class 172 Turbostars were withdrawn and the remaining three units were transferred to West Midlands Trains. So the line has been converted into a temporary Class 378 Capitalstar operation with also a half-hourly service introduced due there not being enough units to cover the full 15 minute timetable.

On 23 May 2019, brand new Class 710 Aventras were introduced after months of failing to meet the required procedures.

On 24 June 2019, the full timetable was reinstated.

In August 2019, the line was converted to a full Class 710 Aventra operation and TFL even offered a month's free travel due to many months of the line suffering many problems.

The success of London Overground's operation of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line meant that the 2-car Class 172s eventually proved insufficient in terms of capacity. Initially, there were plans to replace them with 3 or 4 car units DMUs. However, subsequent to this proposal, the government announced plans to electrify the GOBLIN, with the intention that TfL will procure a new fleet of 4-car EMUs (Class 710) for use on both this route and the inner suburban routes from Liverpool Street, which was taken over by London Overground from 2015. Electrification was completed in February 2018 (later than the original target of June 2017) and as of February 2018 the Class 172 units are planned to be replaced by electric traction in the spring of 2018.

## Current Route

**The Gospel Oak to Barking Line** operates via these primary locations.

* Gospel Oak
* Upper Holloway
* Crouch Hill
* Harringey Green Lanes
* South Tottenham
* Blackhorse Road
* Walthamstow Queens Road
* Leyton Midland Road
* Leytonstone High Road
* Wanstead Park
* Woodgrange Park
* Barking

## Gallery

Class 172 Turbostar at Gospel OakClass 150 Sprinter at Gospel OakClass 378 Capitalstar at Leyton Midland Road