West Anglia Inner Suburban in London Overground

Well, there are apparently 61 class 315 sets, so I'd assume that's roughly two groups of 30 sets providing the GEML and Lea Valley services with one shared spare.

It's quite hard to say as all the diagrams are interlinked, Cheshunt and Enfield Town diagrams are mainly Class 315's and the Chingford's are linked with the Hertford East trains as they are both mainly operated by Class 317's, also I am surprised to see in the map on the above document that the Tottenham Hale line is not included as this could cause some problems for anyone commuting from Cheshunt.
Also does this mean that the Stratford to Broxboune trains (operated by 317's) will not be included in this package, so what does this mean for the proposed station at Lea Bridge and also the possible links to the existing Overground network at Stratford.

TfL have said in various papers and documents that they have been in negotiation with Greater Anglia and DfT about the scope of the transfer. TfL have to scope the service they want the new operator to include and have said they were undertaking a risk assessment in relation to the transfer.

When TfL issued a press release many months ago about going to the market for the Crossrail operating contract it also said that there was scope to expand the Crossrail operating contract to include West Anglia and South Eastern. This was before the Government decided what was to transfer to TfL. Within a few days TfL hastily reworded the press release to remove the West Anglia and South Eastern references. Railway Gazette still have the appropriate reference on their website. However I would be astonished if TfL have not retained the option with the tendering paperwork for Crossrail to allow that operator to take on West Anglia. It would make things much easier to handle given there is some commonality of stock and servicing locations between West Anglia and Great Eastern. Obviously the stock situation will change as new trains arrive for Crossrail from 2016/7. I do not see the services going to LOROL as there is not the procurement process to do this with the existing concession contract. LOROL have received a 2 year extension which means they're the operator for the 5 car works. However the GOBLIN electrification works will straddle the retendering process for the Overground network. On the assumption that the partners in LOROL have made a decent enough profit and want to partner for another term then I'd expect them to bid for the next concession contract. However it might be that DB and MTR actually bid separately which I think is what has happened on other more recent franchises.

Disaggregating the TfL services from those of Greater Anglia - especially the Hertford East service and trains via Tottenham Hale - is not going to be easy but then the DfT took a poor decision (IMO) in not giving the local services on the T Hale route and those into Stratford to TfL. Given TfL have strongly promoted the scheme to provide a frequent service into Stratford from the lower Lea Valley it seems mad to keep those services with Greater Anglia. Perhaps they'll move to TfL when all the extra tracks are provided in the Tottenham Hale - Angel Road area?

A quick calculation shows Liverpool St - Chingford off peak needs 5 units, Liverpool St - Enfield / Cheshunt needs 6 units off peak assuming single 4 car EMUs on each train. If we assume TfL want to double frequencies to 4 tph on each line then the total off peak requirement goes up to 12 for Enfield / Cheshunt. If you assume most trains are doubled in length for the peak then you get to 34 units without spares. Now those calculations are very rough and ready and I'm sure there are scheduling efficiencies that can be made and it's possible not every peak train is doubled up now. I imagine TfL are probably working with Greater Anglia to refine future timetable and schedules to ensure a good service level between both operators (given some peak Hertford East trains run semi fast via Seven Sisters) and optimise the use of available trains.

TfL have recently updated some of their project pages and there is a page about taking over services into Liverpool Street. They have also mentioned GOBLIN electrification on the Overground Capacity Expansion project page.

What is wrong with the 315s and 217s? They do a fine job on GA

Granted, but the original Valley Lines electrification business case was predicated on reusing cascaded EMUs thanks to the relatively marginal BCR. In any case, Class 315s will represent a step-change for users that have suffered the Class 143 Pacers for the last twenty-odd years!

THC

Whilst it does mention three tracking in the business consultation, according to Modern Railways Jan edition, both these plans, the loop at Tottenham Hale and four tracking all the way to Hoddesdon are still under discussion

The Rail Engineer has an article about the Bombardier Aventra v2, the replacement for the Electrostar

How long are the un-electrified bits of the GOBLIN?

Simon

{Edited to change formatting}

Not been that way for a while, but I thought I had read that was also to have been electrified from Gospel Oak to Harringay Park Junction as part of the Thameslink 2000-and-counting project (to facilitate empty stock movements to and from Hornsey depot) but it seems that has now been cancelled - presumably National Rail realised that they can get it paid for by TfL if it goes ahead with electrifying the whole route.

TfL are considering a combined order for WA Inners, Gospel Oak-Barking and possibly the Watford-Euston DC Line.  The procurement would be for 4-car trains probably of similar spec or more likely of class 378 from Bombardier.  The idea is to procure up to 30 units for WA Inners, up to 8 units for GOB and a (so-far indeterminate) number of units for the DC Line.  The idea for the DC Line units is that 5-car 378s will provide too much capacity on a line that is 70% covered by the Bakerloo Line (Queens Park to Harrow and Wealdstone). So the theory goes that procuring 4-car units will allow the recently lengthened (to 5-car) class 378/2s to be cascaded back to the North & West London Lines and perhaps even allow for 2 units to go to the East London Line.  Plans are still being thought about so numbers of units could change for example more units for WA Inners and also for GOB if services are extended beyond Gospel Oak.   The East London Line might get 2 5-car units of new build 378/2s.  Watch this space!

The platforms for the DC trains at Euston will go with HS 2 and it has been suggested a diversion via Old Oak Common to Crossrail might happen.

Would they want to buy extra trains now?

There is a strong probability that the DC line may be diverted via (a reopened station at) Primrose Hill to accommodate HS2.  Probably aimed at the ELL at Highbury and running to New Cross.  Thats the current working assumption in TfL.  This would probably happen regardless of what transpires at Euston to accommodate HS2, for example if Euston Cross is built requiring much less surface space at Euston. If the diversion to the ELL happens - and we are talking at least 5 years from now, then it might be probable that the DC 4-car units would be extended to 5-car to produce a single 5-car fleet for the ELL.  However, all of this is very speculative and the way ahead will not become clear for quite some time.

[/quote]There is a strong probability that the DC line may be diverted via (a reopened station at) Primrose Hill to accommodate HS2.  Probably aimed at the ELL at Highbury and running to New Cross.  Thats the current working assumption in TfL.[/quote]
If you don't mind me asking, what's the source for this info about this being TfL's working assumption?

Internal working documents. Wink Wink!

LOROL have been approached to take over these services from May 2015. Approximately 400 staff of all grades will be transferred to LOROL