A sleepy railway station in East London is due to get a lot busier as a large housing development is to be built next to it.
The former Dagenham Stamping Plant car works site has been cleared, and has now been bought by Peabody housing association for development. The initial phase will see 1,550 affordable homes built, supported by an £80 million grant from the Mayor’s Affordable Housing Programme.
This part of London is a large mixed area of old industrial, light industrial sites with three large plots being turned into housing — 10,500 homes at Barking Riverside, 3,000 homes at Dagenham Dock and 6,000 homes at nearby Beam Park.
Key sites overlay on Google Maps
Plans are still in the early stages, but it is thought the Dagenham Stamping Plant site could eventually support around 3,000 homes. Subject to final confirmation of the sale, construction on the site will start by March 2023, with the aim of completing by March 2038.
Although there’s an extension of the London Overground to Barking Riverside, the homes at Dagenham Dock and Beam Park will use the C2C line that passes near the developments.
Dagenham Dock station is already step-free, and is likely to need only modest improvements to support the passenger numbers, and Beam Park is due to get an entirely new station when the housing development starts.
However, at the moment, the C2C line sees just two trains an hour in each direction and a few more in the rush hour, which will need increasing to support demand.
Where would the extra trains from Greys go?
There’s no room for any more to terminate at Fenchurch Street and you couldn’t swap them for Gospel Oak to Barking trains without another platform at Gospel Oak.
Perhaps … Greys -> proposed station -> Barking -> South Tottenham -> Seven Sister Chord -> Enfield Town?
There three terminal platforms at Enfield Town that getting a train every 15 minutes.
Reopen Kentish Town?
I always thought that was partially to spite Bill Rogers but we had to wait for Super Ken to get anything like a proper Service on the London Overground.
Resignalling Cost?
I would imagine that if Fenchurch Street capacity is maxed out then these trains would just shuttle to and terminate at Barking, for connections.
Dagenham Dock is step-free but the lifts frequently break down, so I do hope they get upgraded in the process of having housing added to the area
Unless the lift has been repaired since my last visit in 2020, it has been out of service since forever…. The last i heard, it had had a fire started in it by Yobs and c2c wouldn’t pay to repair to it.
Fenchurch St rammed and accessible from Barking.
What about back to 1980? 7 Trains an hour from a fluctuating Riverside or a Reversing Track at Beam Park to Gospel Oak and Kentish Town.
A simple disconnected Track from Carlton Road to a Bay by Leighton and Islip Roads. 10 minutes quicker to King’s Cross if connections timed properly.
It would help in advab é of Upper Holloway, Kentish Town West, 7 day a week Camden Road and York Way, LUL and London Overground
Why C2C trains was a limited service can go to London Liverpool Street (as a second London terminal station)?
Those homes will not be affordable and they will not go to the people who need them the most/people on low income.
How do you know that considering that the prices haven’t been announced yet?
I like the optimism of completion by 2038. Is this the same Peabody Trust that are ‘rapidly’ progressing their plans for Thamesmead? If only there were a sense of urgency and vision among the great and good. There would have been a DLR extension by now, if Bojo hadn’t cancelled it, serving this area.
Still the discussion, about what to do wit the trains from Grays, and with Fenchurch St. maxed out, allows me to roll out my idea of a tunneled line, from Dagenham Dock, to City Airport (station paid for by them), to North Greenwich (paid for by developers), to Canary Wharf (yes, paid for by developers), Surrey Quays (you guessed it, paid for by developers), to a station at Camberwell Green (connecting to Thameslink), then connection to the SW London suburban lines.
Boris Johnson didn’t cancel plans for a DLR extension to Thamesmead as there never was such a proposal while he was Mayor.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear – I meant the proposed DLR extension to Dagenham Dock …
Yes how I wish the DLR extension was signed off. Its still possible for them to do this in the future. I also wish C2C would include London Liverpool Street via Barking and Startford as part of its permanent route. It will make such a huge difference.
from the looks of the google satellite view the beam park is already fairly well advanced in construction
A simple reversing Track east of Beam Park and a return to Kentish Town for 3 Trains an Hour. Fench is full. Thameslink means only one change and is equally as quick. K T would need a separate Bay and Track from Carlton Road Junction.
Reopen Tilbury Riverside (a logical turnback point), or better still, a 1 mile tunnel into Gravesend.
Pre COVID and again from the timetable change this May the services via Dagenham Dock run every 15 minutes in the peak hours. In addition they currently are only a maximum of 8 carriages, even though all stations, except the bay platform 3 at Grays can take 12 cars. So assuming the issue of Grays bay could be sorted, (I think there is enough space between the buffer stops and the starting signal which is well off of the platform end to accommodate 12 cars) longer trains could be run. With the new 10 car equivalent to 12 car existing Aventra trains on order you might be able to run 10 cars to Grays without extending the platform as SDO and the ability to walk through the full length of the train even with some cars not platformed without any major infrastructure works. 4 x 10 cars in the peak hours would give and uplift of 50% on today’s capacity and would need no extra paths into Fenchurch St.