Epping Ongar Railway reopening.

[alex397]

The Epping Ongar Railway will be re-opening this Friday 25th May 2012! It will mostly be operating on weekends, but will also operate during the Queen's Jubilee and throughout the Olympics. This will be the first time for 55 years that passengers will be able to travel on steam trains along this line. 

There will also be a bus 339 operated by the London Bus Company, which will operate between Epping Station and North Weald Station, with some journeys continuing to Ongar Station and High Street. It takes its number of course from the old London Country route. Timetable availiable on Traveline. I suppose this could also be considered a bit of competition for S.M Coaches on the Ongar-North Weald-Epping corridor (although the 339 does stop at North Weald Station for about 10 mins.

Unfortunatly I will miss out on this as I am at uni with loads of exams! I've got all summer though.

[hobohippie95]

well thats another railway for me to visit in my lifetime, i may get to every preserved railway in Britain eventually (England,scotland and wales)

[J621BVG]

I say connect it back to the London Underground network, just to see a 1992 Stock passing through what was Blake Hall station. What a sight that must have been! 

[Barry]

That's good news!  But yes, I'd rather see it have a commuter service too!

[Suzy Scott]

Well, the 92 stock do have Ongar on the blinds and announcements...  you will occasionally see a wise-cracking driver displaying one.... just like when the Jub's terminate at Green Park, they use the old Charing Cross section to turn. Some drivers will still display Charing Cross, but it was bad enough telling the passengers that they couldn't stay on the train... (There was a large concrete wall stopping them getting out/in except for film work and emergencies! lol)

[Suzy Scott]

(the oldest map I saw with a passenger asking was showing District Line  to Hounslow West, Bakerloo to Stanmore, East London and Ham/City were still the Met, and Northern Line to Finsbury Park...)

[alex397]

Might interest some of you to know that a 92ts did appear on the Ongar branch. This is believed to have only happened once and was just to test them, and was pre-closure of the line. There is a picture of this in a book somewhere, according to the District Dave forum, but i've yet to see.

[alex397]

The line will be extended to Epping this Saturday!

However, passengers won't be able to get on or off. But its a step forward, and its the first time a passenger train on the EOR has entered the Epping Town ward since 1994.

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/efnews/9820822.EPPING__Heritage_railway_to_make_first_journey_into_Epping_town/

THE HISTORIC Epping-Ongar railway will move another step toward connecting with the London Tube on Saturday, when the first train chugs into the Epping Town ward.

The heritage railway line reopened  in May, but trains have so far only shuttled travellers to Coopersale.

But on Saturday (July 21) the route will be extended, stopping only 1,000m from the end of Epping station's platforms - the first time regular passenger services have used the line since 1994.

Visitors will not be able to disembark in Epping, as no platform is in place - a situation general manager Simon Hanney hopes to remedy soon.

He said: "Ideally we'd like to work together with our stakeholders, including the district authority and Transport for London, to build a platform as close as we can to Epping station.

"We feel the closer the platform is, the more benefit there will be to the local industry."

Infrastructure and operations manager Chris Marsack added: "Our attentions will now focus on this final kilometre, and we remain committed to our goal of once again operating regular train services to connect with London Underground at Epping station.”