Barking Riverside railway station

Barking Riverside station stands at the eastern end of London Overground’s Suffragette line, beside the Thames in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. The line reaches the station over 1.5 kilometres of new track laid alongside the existing London, Tilbury and Southend route. A viaduct carries trains above freight yards and High Speed 1 tunnels before arriving at the elevated platform. The station opened in July 2022 as part of a £327 million project to improve transport links to the Barking Riverside regeneration area. It also connects with Thames Clippers boats from Barking Riverside Pier, giving passengers a route into central London. The Suffragette line extension cuts typical journeys from the area to central Barking by eighteen minutes. Transport for London considered several options before choosing to extend the Gospel Oak to Barking line in 2014. Construction by Morgan Sindall and VolkerFitzpatrick began in late 2018 after a Transport and Works Act Order was approved in 2017. Delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the opening to summer 2022, when services finally began. The station building was designed by Weston Williamson and sits above a town centre still being built. Visitors find an elevated platform with views across the Thames and the surrounding development. A short walk leads to Barking Riverside Pier for Thames Clippers services. East London Transit buses EL1 and EL3 stop nearby, and a future station at Renwick Road has been safeguarded beneath the viaduct. The town centre will include shops, community facilities and a bus interchange as it grows around the station.