Passenger services around Barking, in east London, resume today, 11 November 19, days after a GB Railfreight container train derailed at the station, c2c said. However, the announcement says nothing about what the reopening means for freight traffic to and from the Thames ports.
Services restarting include c2c trains from Barking to Dagenham Dock, Rainham and Purfleet, as well as London Overground trains on the Suffragette line between South Tottenham and Barking Riverside. “Our teams have worked tirelessly to make sure that the line opened as quickly as possible, and I want to highlight their incredible efforts given the scale of the recovery required”, said Rob Mullen, Chief Customer & Commercial Officer at GBR Anglia.
Engineering teams had to rebuild over 1.2 kilometres of track, as well as bespoke points and signalling equipment, according to GBR Anglia. The group brings together passenger operators c2c and Greater Anglia and infrastructure manager Network Rail Anglia under one leadership team, as part of the transition towards Great British Railways.
Rebuilt rather than repaired
The train, travelling from DP World’s London Gateway to Hams Hall, near Birmingham, partially derailed at around 13:10 on 23 October, blocking access to some platforms and lines. Much of the damaged infrastructure could not simply be fixed. The points destroyed in the incident had to be rebuilt from scratch, with new sections made to order in Wales, while severed signalling equipment and cabling also had to be replaced.
GBR Anglia described the work as a complex process along a logistically challenging part of the network. The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) attended the site and is investigating the incident.
What about freight?
The line is a key link for two major container ports on the River Thames, DP World’s London Gateway and Forth Ports’ terminals at Tilbury. Forth Ports had advised customers that no freight trains would run to or from its terminals while the line remained closed, while DP World reported a reduced rail service at London Gateway, as RailFreight.com reported earlier this week.
The latest update from GBR Anglia focusses on passenger services and does not specify when freight operations will return to normal. Mullen also apologised for a difficult few months on c2c, “particularly those from stations on the Tilbury Loop and on the line through Chafford Hundred”. He pointed to an “unprecedented hot and dry summer with the effects still ongoing”.
Not the first time
Barking is no stranger to this kind of disruption. In January 2020, a freight derailment on the Gospel Oak to Barking line wrecked around four kilometres of track, closing the route for almost four weeks. A later report pointed to track rot as the main cause. This time, the recovery was quicker, but the incident once again shows how a single derailment on a mixed-use line can leave both commuters and port traffic stranded for weeks.
