The Romford-Upminster Line: A forgotten railway or important suburban link?

We are now approaching, Upminster, where this train terminates. Please change here for London Underground, and c2c services...

Somewhere out in Zone 6 among vast green swathes lies London Overground's Romford to Upminster line. Often forgotten, perhaps as it's separated entirely from the rest of the orange network we love and know, the line consists of a single track and runs at a speed of around twenty miles per hour, completing its three mile, three station journey in around nine minutes. The train is timetabled to run twice an hour in each direction, with one service every thirty minutes.

Now, as anyone that lives within London's empire will know, waiting thirty minutes for a train is not something anyone enjoys. Especially not for an Overground train. Service frequencies like this are the reason people drive instead of taking trains, or rely on buses instead. And yet, when the c2c train in from Chalkwell (where I go to school) pulls into Upminster at 16:20, students in their dozens will be trying to cram up those stairs as quickly as possible to make their connection to this train as it trundles in, as opposed to their district-line-taking counterparts, who just wait around because they get a train every few minutes. They just tend to get into arguments on the platforms instead.

So if this branch line is depended upon by so many, why are its service patterns so low? And can anything be done about it?

 In the next post I'm going to discuss some potential solutions to the problems this line faces. For now though, let's focus on the line's history and its development to acquire a better understanding of why the line's infrastructure exists the way it does.

So when and why was the line initially constructed?

In contrast to the infrastructure in place today, the line was originally a branch of the LTSR, or London - Tilbury - Southend railway - what we know today as c2c. At the time, this line was operated by the London, Midland and Scottish railway which was dissolved in 1947.

A look at an old Railway Clearing House document shows how the line was connected directly to the LTS, shown on the right hand side:



In addition to this, within c2c's network exists a branch between Upminster and Grays, with stations at Ockendon and Chafford Hundred. This line is also single track, other than a loop at Ockendon allowing trains to pass each other. This line was, at one point, connected to the Romford-Upminster line, with the original service pattern running as

Romford - Upminster - Ockendon - Grays

(Chafford Hundred and Emerson Park stations did not exist at this point, Chafford was built significantly later in the early 2000s).

A service pattern such as this today could potentially be a game-changer for reducing congestion and increasing transport links between parts of metropolitan Essex.

However, following the increase in service on the district line tracks and demand for direct services to London from Ockendon, the connection was severed in the early twentieth century and a new Platform 6 was constructed at Upminster allowing the line to terminate there at what is, essentially, a dead end. There was no longer a connection to the LTS at Upminster.

Platform 6 at Upminster, a regular misery for many students and commuters alike. The pink benches are since long gone.

Sometime in the 80s: A rather old train on the original platform for the service at Romford.

A Greater Anglia operated Class 321 train at Emerson Park station circa. 2006. Anglia operated the line until it was taken over by TfL in 2015.

More recent: London Overground operated 315808 sitting on the platform at Romford in 2016. Overground allocates either a 317 or (usually) a 315 on the branch.

Fast forward to recent years and the line has long had concerns raised over its feasibility and effectiveness. Emerson Park has quickly become a hotspot for those who like the country feel but don't want to live outside London as well as families. It's also worth noting that, bar the tube connections a long way off at West Ham, this short stretch of track is the only connection point between the Great Eastern Mainline and the LTS. The simple acknowledgement of this factor already boosts up the line's importance greatly; and this is seen across its use too:

Let's say you live in Basildon and work in Chelmsford. The most feasible option here would be to drive, and take the A127 before changing on to the A12, but if you don't have a car or don't like driving, the route you're most likely going to take is going to be Basildon to Upminster, then to Romford, then to Shenfield and then to Chelmsford. (New article coming soon about increasing mainline services at Romford - Greater Anglia services that stop at Romford and take you to Chelmsford and beyond without a change at Shenfield.)

If it wasn't for this branch line, the journey from Basildon to Chelmsford by train would be even more difficult than it already is. You'd have to travel to West Ham, then Stratford and then get a mainline connection to Chelmsford. Alternatively you could take a train from Basildon to Southend Victoria, then a train to Shenfield before changing for Chelmsford. Either way this would greatly lengthen the journey times and the former would oddly force Essex-only commuters onto the tube. Alternatively you could use buses, which will likely take even longer.

This is not to say the line's use isn't without discrepancy: most people will be unlikely to use trains for journeys between Basildon and Chelmsford. Let's imagine you're a student travelling in from the LTS, and your closest station is Goodmayes, which is the second small blue line to the left of Romford. (This may or may not be my own route...haha). In this case, you would likely leave the LTS at Upminster, travel up to Romford and then get a TfL train to Goodmayes.

TfL Rail's soon-to-be-phased-out class 315 trains, with 315818 here at Stratford.

However if you were to miss the Overground, other options are available - you could get a train to Barking and then get a bus to where you needed to go, or even get the tube to Becontree or Upney and walk.

Additionally the Romford-Upminster is paralleled by two bus routes, the 248 and the 370, and Emerson Park station is walking distance from Hornchurch Station on the tube. (New article coming soon about pre-NR services at present-day district line stations).

Is that...a London Overground liveried 321? Yes, Overground briefly inherited two of these when the line transferral took place. They are since long gone.

So how does the line's use stack up over time? Do the figures match its precedence or do they tell a different tale?

Firstly, it is likely that the usage on this line is a somewhat higher than figures state. There are a number of reasons why it's hard to document exact numbers of passengers on this line, relatively minor albeit they are. First and foremost, the majority of users on the line post-2015 will be on oyster cards (article coming soon about national rollouts of oyster style card systems). This makes it difficult to track usage statistics - for a passenger travelling from, let's say, Dagenham East to Ilford, they can either travel between West Ham and Stratford, or travel between Upminster and Romford before changing onto TfL Rail. Both ways would be reasonable enough and take approximately the same amount of time, and importantly the oyster system would have no way of knowing which route was taken.

For paper tickets this wouldn't be so much of an issue as a ticket from Dagenham East to Ilford would contain travel for Zones 4, 5 and 6 and the journey would be counted as having used the overground.

The second reason counting passenger numbers is incredibly difficult is the fact that both Romford and Emerson Park are unbarriered, and Platform 6 at Upminster has no oyster validators. Aside from the issues with statistics, this aspect greatly contributes to the expensive cost of running the line. Passengers alighting from the LTS are not able to tap in without going out through Upminster's barriers and then re-tapping in on Oyster, or walking down to the tube platforms and tapping on the validators there. This is considered an inconvenience especially when passengers are rushing for their thirty minute service, and so many don't bother as it's far easier to tap in on validators at Romford and get charged exactly the same.

That being said, let's take a look at the statistics:

Emerson Park station saw just short of 350000 documented entries and exits in 2019, an increase of roughly 270,000 from 10 years earlier in 2009. The station is now staffed despite not having barriers and contains a wheelchair access ramp, although only Romford has disability provision as there is no lift to platform 6 at Upminster.





As an answer to the question of this article, this line is, for me, of incredibly high suburban importance, not just because of it's passenger numbers  In the wake of a heavily criticised bus network outside of London making it difficult to reach Shenfield from somewhere like Basildon, this link provides a crucial outer London connection that many, including myself, would struggle without.

In the next post I'll talk more about this line and about the new Bombardier Aventra 710 that is scheduled to replace the single 315 operated on the route every day. I'll also talk about the prospect of double-tracking, increasing service frequency and the prospect of running through-services to the main line. For now though, thanks for reading!