TRANSPORT FOR London has shortlisted three bidders to construct the London Overground extension from Barking to Barking Riverside.
Balfour Beatty, Carillion and VolkerFitzpatrick will submit bids to construct the 4.5km link. TfL says construction could begin in late 2017, with services starting in 2021.
The extension will serve a major housing development with 10,800 new homes. A Transport and Works Act Order was submitted by TfL in March 2016. Of the £263 million cost to build the route, £172 million is being provided by developer Barking Riverside Ltd, with the remainder coming from TfL.
Travelling east from Barking station, London Overground services would share tracks with c2c’s Tilbury line for approximately 2km before diverging onto a new spur and heading south towards Barking Riverside. TfL says there is capacity to accommodate a four trains per hour (tph) London Overground service to Barking Riverside between existing c2c and freight services, although the peak timetable may need to be remodelled to accommodate these.
LO services would use platforms 7 and 8 at Barking station, currently served by the Tilbury line c2c services – at present LO uses terminal platform 1 at the north side of the station. The Gospel Oak-Barking route is due to be electrified by June 2017, enabling the existing two-car Class 172 DMUs to be replaced by four-car Class 710 EMUs from 2018.
