Will the vast Barking Riverside become a failed town due to poor transport?
With another 561 homes approved out of an eventual 20,000 at Barking Riverside is London sleepwalking walking into a future failed town?
Barking Riverside is a vast bit of land at the far edge of east London just over the river from Thamesmead where last year it was announced outline plans for new housing across the Barking Riverside area alone will almost double to 20,000 homes.
One problem there; Boris Johnson as Mayor cut a planned DLR extension from Beckton to Dagenham Dock which would have provided this expansive area with three stations alongside a link to c2c rail at Dagenham Dock, where thousands more homes are proposed.
Instead Barking Riverside gained a solitary London Overground station offering just four trains per hour.
The above image gives a hint of the area’s size. There’s plenty more land out of shot to be developed and some way from Barking Riverside station.
Not only will 20k Barking Riverside homes and 50k residents have just one station but all trains will be just five-car in length. Not exactly huge capacity but possibly sufficient for 10,000 homes. But 20,000?
Thamesmead
With some parts of town set to be far from the nearest station it all sounds a bit like north Thamesmead and that’s where the irony of recent developments kicks in.
The same advocates of a DLR to north Thamesmead often state Thamesmead hasn’t lived up to potential due to poor transport (true for parts of town but not all) and thus requires the DLR – yet in turn push a project that could consign Barking Riverside to a being failed town and the next north Thamesmead.
Regardless of Dagenham or north Thamesmead any DLR extension curving off before Beckton would first serve a another station in Beckton where there’s scope for thousands of new homes. That’s a good thing. What could be the big mistake follows where it goes next.
Interchange
Heading from Beckton to north Thamesmead would enable mass housebuilding in the north of the town but do little for much of the rest of it. It wouldn’t head further south to Thamesmead Central where there’s scope for new housing nor onto Abbey Wood for interchange with the Elizabeth line, Thameslink and Southeastern. That’s 20+ trains per hour offering a huge range of destinations not on offer.
What could facilitate 10-15k new homes in north Thamesmead is a high capacity, high frequency link to Abbey Wood station and other growth nearby areas. When looking at transport options for north Thamesmead TfL only looked at a short tram to Abbey Wood rendering it poor value for money.
Which it is when not considering a wider network to nearby growth areas such as Belvedere and Erith. Look at light rail across the areas extensive dual carriageways and benefit to cost could well change if it speeds up new housing on a large scale. Something this government and mayor claim to want.
Instead what we see now being pushed is a DLR extension plan that could turn Barking Riverside into car-dependent sprawl or even a failed town. And south of the river a DLR project that doesn’t help much of Thamesmead except the far north of town, doesn’t link to Abbey Wood’s excellent transport options and nor link to proposed thousands of homes in Erith and Belvedere.
TfL during a recent consultation did state that there would be passive provision for an onward DLR to Dagenham from Beckton and from north Thamesmead to Belvedere but does anyone seriously think that’ll ever happen? Look how long it takes to get relatively simple projects approved as it is. See how government’s of all types reject capital funding in London.
I wouldn’t bet on any further DLR projects until 2050+ and in that time Barking Riverside stagnating with one solitary station for 50,000 residents.
Dagenham Dock station
It’s a bit of a niche case but the DLR extension to Dagenham would have offered another travel option to thousands of residents set to move into homes beside the existing c2c station.
It currently sees just two trains per hour off-peak.
As the image shows there’s plenty of development both underway and coming in future with some plots already earmarked for mixed-use.
No DLR to Dagenham hindered options here.
Political leadership
Boris Johnson’s actions in cutting the DLR to Dagenham via Barking Riverside and the Greenwich Waterfront Transit across T hamesmead and beyond – which had scope to become light rail – hampered and will continue to hinder both sides of the river.
Yet Sadiq Khan has picked up the baton and ran with a DLR Thamesmead extension project that could see London’s New Town at Barking damaged, impact Dagenham and manage to not benefit much of south east London’s designated housing growth areas.
If it goes ahead we could well regret it in 30 years time – if not long before.
Maybe it needs the DLR extension to Dagenham Dock that would help with people in the area and to improve Barking Riverside. With a new DLR station to be built adjacent or next to the Barking Riverside London Overground “Suffragette Line” station that opened last year. Since the Suffragette Line (formerly known as Gospel Oak-Barking Line) that was extended from Barking to Barking Riverside.
And with the DLR extension to Thamesmead to also get the go ahead which would make it lot easier for people in Thamesmead to commute into Central London and Canary Wharf once the DLR extension is completed.
A DLR wouldn’t be much easier for almost all existing Thamesmead residents in east, west and central Thamesmead – nor even many in the designated area for development in north Thamesmead compared to heading to the Liz line at Abbey Wood
It’d be no quicker than a bus/BRT (or tram in time) to Abbey Wood taking 3-8 mins then the Liz line taking 9 mins to Canary Wharf, 20 mins to Liverpool Street, 27 to London Bridge on SE/Thameslink, 30+ to all the other places SE and Thameslink serve, 30 mins to Paddington etc.
Apart from those in the immediate vicinity of a DLR station everyone else would be better off continuing to head to Abbey Wood and Woolwich. Thamesmead is vast and the solitary Thamesmead station proposed not close to many.
A bit of ambition is needed
DLR to Thamesmead is a waste of time – tunnelling under the Thames to add a single extra stop is a waste.
DLR to Dagenham dock looks like the better project. It looks like it could be built quickly and cheaply and would connect thousands.
Looking at a map, the total absence of connectivity across south east London is plain. Sure you can get from south east London to central London easily, but getting around south east London is impossible.
Extending the Suffragette line south, through Thamesmead (North and Central stops) to Abbey Wood is a no-brainer. A really ambitious program would then extend on to Welling, and ideally further – Sidcup, Chislehurst, Bromley, Beckenham, Penge
Imagine the beauty of it, a sweeping arc from Gospel Oak to Penge, bringing new metro services and connections to a whole host of new towns. Barking Riverside would get its DLR, but also an underground connection to Abbey Wood’s Elizabeth line. It would take thousands of cars of the road
@Marcus: ‘… getting around south east London is impossible.’ Not in my experience. I am mostly a public transport user and take the bus often. I don’t find getting about “impossible”. Sure, I would like better connections and wish that I still lived in central Lewisham, but it’s not too bad.
This is all very disappointing. East London and SE particularly have poor connection. Tube lines were difficult to build here 100 years ago and the SE suffers since then. Busses are available but the volume of people they take is just to small. My daughter was left by 3 the other day as no room for her wheelchair. Need a SE London relook at tube line communication.
I live in Barking Riverside and work in West Central London. I have no complaints about the transport. Having lived in Hillingdon and Barnet, I can say Barking is very well served. Barking Riverside is well served by rail, road and even river. Even by driving, BR is no more difficult to travel to, it’s literally off the A13 with easy connection to the North Circular and M25. I can think of many places that are worse to get to and from!
We are waiting for retail and eating/entertainment outlets, but transport is the least of our worries.
True it may work fine now but only about 10 per cent of overall projected housing has so far been built with totals set to almost double to 20k homes (plus nearby land adding further numbers). A town of 50k will struggle with one LO station at relatively low frequency. Density planned is far above those other areas mentioned. Thames Clipper boats are great but low capacity. In terms of car use the plan is to minimise car usage at new developments.
Much of the future housing is also more remote from public transport than those built so far. Three DLR stations serving Barking Riverside plus the one at Dagenham Dock was designed due to the expansive nature of the site.
Barking & Dagenham council plus local GLA members are still pushing for the DLR plan scrapped by Boris Johnson: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/dlr-beckton-barking-riverside-docklands-light-railway-extension-london-mayor-dagenham-dock-tfl-b1170169.html
TfL seem resistant with a somewhat token mention of passive provision but given how hard and drawn-out it is to build transport in London and beyond (Liz line took 30+ years, Bakerloo extension 70+ and waiting etc, Thameslink 2000 arriving many years after the year 2000) it’s hard to see it happening before 2050 if ever after a Thamesmead station and cross-river tunnel is built.
Perhaps TfL would look to enhance LO frequencies but that seems difficult to achieve.
I think it would be cheaper to extend Woolwich branch to Thamesmead and Beckton branch to Barking than boring another tunnel under the Thames.