Unusual Service -- Woodgrange Park to Willesden Junction

[Dr_Paul]

There is an unusual service that runs each weekday from Woodgrange Park to Willesden Junction, stopping at all stations.

Following it on today's Realtime Trains site (and assuming that it does this every day), it leaves South Tottenham at 0725, runs empty via Barking to Barking Upney Junction, then leaves there at 0750 running empty back through Barking to Woodgrange Park, where it becomes a service train, leaving for Willesden at 0759, arriving at 0900. It then runs empty to Willesden depot.

Can anyone explain this service? It does not seem to replace any of the usual Barking to Gospel Oak services, which at that time of day is every 15 minutes.

 

[causton]

As someone who has been on it (for the odd route), it is very very busy and is a peak time extra to help with the crowds.

Due to the infrastructure, the usual platform at Barking and Gospel Oak are not available, so it does not stop at either (keeps confusion down I guess, and as Gospel Oak there is no available platform) and then runs back to the depot. It used to terminate at Hampstead Heath but there were too many people on it who got off there, delaying the train and following trains were very busy, so it now runs to Willesden Junction to spread out passengers alighting from the train.

 

[swt_passenger]

Can anyone explain this service? It does not seem to replace any of the usual Barking to Gospel Oak services, which at that time of day is every 15 minutes.

It's a peak extra, additional to the normal pattern, and has been running a while. There have been previous discussions about it, here for example back in 2013, when the extension causton mentions above was just starting:

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=83843

 

[yorkie]

Can anyone explain this service? It does not seem to replace any of the usual Barking to Gospel Oak services, which at that time of day is every 15 minutes.

Yes, the explanation is that it caters for peak demand.

In addition to previous threads, forum member geofftech made a video (though it's hardly a "secret" )

 

[Dr_Paul]

Thanks for the information.

 

[EM2]

If I need an early-ish train from Wanstead Park, I will always go for this one! Anything else in the peak is crush-loaded.