Most of us have stood at a station waiting for a train, when a huge freight train rumbles through the station carrying anything from new cars to cargo containers.
They’re a fun distraction for the waiting passengers, but also a very serious commercial service for the railway and the companies that depend on those deliveries.
Trains delivering cars.https://t.co/ZwHbmOIIHc pic.twitter.com/5a36En1Eqw
— ianVisits (@ianvisits) February 12, 2019
Around 40% of all aggregates used in London’s construction industry are delivered by rail, taking a lot of heavy goods lorries off the roads, which not only reduces road traffic, but rail is considerably less polluting than road traffic – not just CO2, but also particulates shed by road vehicles and breathed in by pedestrians.
The difficulty is that as rail fright increases, that shifts congestion from the roads to the railways, where rail freight competes with passenger trains for space on the railways.
Balancing the two can be difficult.
As one rail boss told me a long time ago, if a freight train is delayed, there’s one person complaining, but if a passenger train is delayed, there are hundreds of people complaining.
So Network Rail is looking at what upgrades are needed to keep both freight and passengers moving and to cope with the expected increase in freight traffic.
Some of the issues affecting London start far outside the city though. For example, cargo deliveries arriving at Felixstowe and being moved into the centre of the country for distribution sometimes come via London, because the cross-country route via Peterborough is itself full to capacity.
More locally, the London Gateway freight terminal on the Thames is increasing capacity, and all its rail freight movements currently go through London, because there’s no alternative.
Short of building an entirely new railway line, what can be done to increase capacity for freight on the railways?
A report, the London Rail Freight Strategy looks at what is needed, looking at pinch points and concerns that are affecting rail freight today, and will hold back growth in the future, with a set of recommendations likely to be phased in over the next 30 years.
Schematic map of rail freight routes in London (Not to scale). Source: Network Rail
The key recommendations would see:
Camden Road station
The reinstatement of the third track and a platform on the northern side of Camden Road station, where there used to be a four-track railway between Camden Town and Maiden Lane.
Reinstatement of a third platform would enable Platform 2 to be used as a central turnback, with Platform 3 becoming the eastbound line for through London Overground services and the majority of freight. A turnback platform will also allow future passenger growth to be addressed with peak capacity boosting Stratford-Camden Road service.
That would give the railway in Camden as a whole more capacity, but would also almost certainly see the planned Camden Highline at best cut back, or possibly cancelled entirely.
Kensal Green Junction
Another plan would see the Kensal Green junction, which is just outside Willesden Junction station moved eastwards.
The junction connects the North London Line to the West Coast Main Line and Wembley Yard, and any westbound freight train must cross over the flat junction to access the City lines towards the West Coast Main Line, a conflicting move with any eastbound London Overground or freight services from Willesden Junction High Level.
Shifting the junction sideways would let them run trains across the junction at higher speeds which means it’s blocked for less time and won’t hold up other services.
Electrification
Another area that causes delays is the switchover of power supplies on the West London Line (WLL), where the existing overhead cable power supply could be extended south to Shepherd’s Bush Station.
At the moment, trains slow down along the track to switch power supplies, but making the switchover at Shepherd’s Bush Station means it can be done when the trains are going to be stationary anyway.
The change is estimated to speed up trains along that length collectively by enough to slot two more trains per hour in each direction into the timetable.
There’s also a longer-term proposal to extend the overhead wires further south to Kensington Olympia so that electric hauled freight trains can switch while moving on a level track rather than doing so while going uphill as they would be further north.
Clapham Junction
At Clapham Junction, there is already an existing plan to build an additional bay platform for the use of London Overground WLL services. Effectively a Platform 0 next to the existing London Overground platforms 1 & 2.
That’s a relatively modest change as there is already a disused side to Platform 1 that used to have trains but is currently unused. A new junction would be needed, along with signalling, and the removal of some sheds that occupy the old trackbed.
The main benefit is that without Platform 0, the planned increase in London Overground trains would see some of them arriving at Platform 17 instead, and that’s where freight trains pass through the station at the moment. So keeping them over where the other Overground trains are is not just good for passengers, but good for freight.
Weight limits
One of the wider issues which spans many areas are weight restrictions. Freight trains are heavy, and while most of the network is designed for them, there are places around London where construction supply trains can’t be hauled by the most popular form of fright locomotive.
Elsewhere, the heavy axle loadings cause problems with bridges, where trains have to slow down to pass over them. Slower trains means less capacity.
Signalling upgrades
At the moment it’s not possible to run trains with 3-minute gaps between them on parts of the orbital railway lines, so upgrades would be needed, likely to be a switch to ETCS signalling.
More freight yards
Network Rail has identified a number of areas where more space to store trains for loading/unloading and while waiting for track capacity is required. The key gaps they’ve identified are near Acton and Wembley, and south of the Thames.
Finding more space for freight trains to be stored is going to be very difficult in London, but they see opportunities for smaller facilities to be slotted in around the railway in some places.
(c) London Rail Freight Strategy summary report
There are also a number of other longer-term plans, such as upgrading some of the holding tracks at Stratford, the Nunhead Junction, Longhendge Junction near Battersea, and speed improvements on the GOBLIN branch.
One of the more interesting experiments already underway will see some modified old passenger trains converted into freight, so they can deliver right into the heart of the city.
This could see local businesses accepting medium-sized deliveries by train rather than by lorry. A trial between the London Gateway and Liverpool Street station is due this year.
The full report is here
—
As an aside, the number of times I typed fright instead of freight when writing this is scary.
The plan for Camden Road Station to gain a turn back line for trains from/to Stratford could lend itself to plans to divert Overground services at Stratford to run through the station and be extended to Maridian Water or even Broxbourne Station thus creating part of the planned Crossrail 2 route at far less cost .
I seem to remember plans to upgrade Camden Road Station by reuse of abandoned tracks when former Mayor Ken Livingstone took control of the Overground but nothing came of these plans .
Given the North London Line is an operating railway I think increasing capacity for trains takes priority over Highline walks !
Agreed, Rather a big fan of these plans as they sit.
Personally Id perfer the ELL be extended to Camden Road and eventually all the way to the Watford DC Lines with a widened viaduct to the east of Camden Road. That may really screw freight over though, ideally the headway reduction on GOBLIN would allow more freight moves to be made along that instead.
That being said, Ive not seen the freight loops at Cannonbury used personally so maybe they arent needed. Alternatively a center line may be possible to install between Cannonbury and Camden Road but Id doubt a 650m would be that useful.
There is a tentative proposal that the Watford DC line will be diverted onto the north London line (ultimate destination unclear) during the HS2 Euston station rebuild to restrict movements at Euston. However the postponement/cancellation of the Watford Met line extension complicates that idea
As to Clapham Junction I believe that until quite late in the day in 2011ish it was the intention to reopen the former platform 1 (the now proposed platform 0) but it was feared the that the old steel structure couldn’t take the weight without expensive remedial work. Also it was said then that the “sheds” you mention contained sensitive signalling relays that would be expensive to move. Therefore the “build out” platform for the south London line you see now was the cost saving compromise.
Electrification:
As has been pointed out several times, elsewhere, there are two tiny ( less than a mile each ) strategic gaps in the wiring, where both ends are already wired up.
Acton Wells Jn – Acton Main Line
– and –
Junction Rd Jn – Carlton Rd Jn
Why this has not yet been done, escapes me, nor are they, apparently, mentioned in the report (?)
Can we have an article on the modified passenger to freight/fright trains in the near future please!
“As an aside, the number of times I typed fright instead of freight when writing this is scary.”
There’s still one in the second paragraph after the tweet 🙂
Very interesting, thanks and thank you Paul too for the explanation of the Overground bodge at “Junction” which has always annoyed my pedantic sensibilities.
I also look forward to the Halloween Special cargo-carrying trains.
On my last visit to Stratford, waiting an hour for a Greater Anglia train on the GEML platforms (I was very early for my train), I saw 3 freight trains heading cross London (north east/south west)–so that route is indeed heavily used and shared
Increase in freight could negatively impact the proposals for West London Orbital rail (which reuses an existing, modestly used freight line for part of the route)
Great read! I used to live at Imperial Wharf on the WLL and see freight trains going through at night.
IIRC, the Southern trains on that line went through platform 17 at CLJ. A bit frustrating as a passenger wanting to take the first train home, not knowing whether to go to 17 or 1/2.
Surely now the Camden Road possibility has to at least lead to safeguarding of that alignment for future implementation?
I fear if this Camden Highline thing goes ahead the possibility of reinstating this key bit of infrastructure will be lost forever.
Reference traffic flows from Felixstow to Peterborough. Ely North Junction is a future project to increase capacity but surely the route through Soham need to be doubled – not a single line. Reinstatement of March to Spalding would also bring relief.
Other than the two simple wiring schemes these proposal are heavy capital cost and very disruptive to implement. It would be far better, initially, to sort out the Soham single line section with a strategic policy that all Felixstowe traffic bound for the North of London is routed that way. OK it limits electrically hauled traffic currently but in the round the less vehicles in London the better the environment.
It also needs some zero-carbon traction between Felixstowe and Peterborough. Rolls-Royce have developed a beer beg-sized generator, that produces 2.5 MW. It can probably run on hydrogen or sustainable aviation fuel.
So it they sorted Ely, a locomotive powered by one or two of these could be a gamechanger. Especially, as it could use wires where available.
As you can see on the map the route from Angerstein Wharf is long winded as it has to go into Kent then back to London. There are plans to reinstate the link to Blackheath Tunnel to take it straight to Lewisham and London.
Freight transport:?how much of the Thames is used for this?
A lot.