Overground woes extended - two longer closures planned

Thirdeariespace

Depressing reading for those of us who commute on it:

http://www.cityam.com/269170/gospel-oak-barking-electrification-works-were-meant-finish

Scruffy

Chin up, @Thirdeariespace . Is the bus replacement service that bad?

I'm a very occasional user of the line. The electrification is sad, but no doubt necessary. I used to like the old diesels in the 1990s that chugged and purred along so mellifluously. Standing on the platform at Crouch Hill, it used to sound as if an ice-cream van was coming down the line.

Still, it's a strange cock-up about the structures intended to hold the overhead lines. Not the sort of mistake you'd expect an engineer (or team of engineers) to make. They're engineers, after all. You know; all about details, precision, and checking and double-checking things. Followers of St Exactitude-the-pedantic. Engineers! Not poets, postmen, or pornographers. Engineers! People who do things by the book, always put the handbrake on, and even get out of the shower to take a pee.

So I wonder if the management overseeing (and presumably coordinating) the project lack the requisite engineering knowledge or thoroughness.

poxy

https://twitter.com/networkrailgobe/status/890140283140288514

gardener-joe

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Ali

It has been announced that the work on the extension of 4.5km to Barking Riverside will start next summer not sure of completion date. 10.800 houses are being built there.

Thirdeariespace

@Scruffy Oh darling, you have no idea! It's possibly the worst-designed replacement bus service I've ever used. The stop for Crouch Hill is, rather bizarrely, a seven-minute walk away up by the shops in Hornsey Rise, and the Gospel Oak stop is another four-minute walk away from that station. Add to that the unreliability and the lack of reliable information on timing, and I end up being better off braving the crowds at Fisbury Park station, leading to a rather irritable and perpetually late Thirdearie indeed.

Scruffy

The Crouch Hill replacement stop is at Hornsey Rise? That’s the length of Hanley Road and more; half-way to what would be the next stop at Upper Holloway. I would have thought they’d at least give you a free connection to Hornsey Rise on the 210. I wonder if people who would normally use Upper Holloway have to go to Hornsey Rise also, and that’s why it’s midway.

So it's not just the engineering: Can't help feeling there’s no-one in this project who can plan the sort of social to which gardener-joe referred.

gardener-joe

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Thirdeariespace

@Scruffy No, that's not it - Upper Holloway has a stop right outside! It's to do with the idea that there needs to be a bus service down to Finsbury Park (for some reason) which then continues northeast - and that's not doable through the SGR tunnel, so they went with Hornsey Road. A perplexing, half-baked solution that I think barely anyone uses.

@gardener-joe From the BGORUG Newsletter (http://barking-gospeloak.org.uk/documents/20170728_newsletter.pdf):

"One job that can be put off is the raising of the road bridge at Crouch Hill station. Network Rail has decided the 25,000 volts overhead cables can safely pass under it without having to jack the bridge up by 300mm, although the work will still have to be done sometime later."

gardener-joe

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NorthNineteen

I think it's because the bus service needs to get to south Tottenham/seven sisters? And the only way it can really do that is via Finsbury Park but the road closure on SGR means it has to go via hornsey road. You've said all of that so not sure why you are perplexed or what you think is a better solution? The 210 is accepting tickets and regular commuters are being refunded their fares.

gardener-joe

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poxy

Really?

https://twitter.com/networkrailgobe/status/901032191219703808

poxy

The actual works to replace the bridge are timetabled for January to July 2018. Seven frigging months!?!?

grenners

Will they close the road entirely for A bridge replacement or do a Holloway road job and spend 3 times as long by Doing it around moving traffic?

poxy

Who knows? Network Rail haven't been forthcoming in answering my questions on twitter.

grenners

Maybe they deliberaly botched this job so they could spend more time on it and make more money in the end.

poxy

Read the responses to this tweet. The overrun and extras are costing £38 million!!

https://twitter.com/NetworkRailGOBE/status/890140283140288514

N19lurker

Gospel Oak to Barking line to be closed from this Sunday 17th September until 22nd October - just received a leaflet on my way back from work today - is it just me or has that closure only just been announced? It may catch a few people out.