Long closed Plumstead Goods Yard beside Southeastern sidings could reopen
Plans are in for new rail concrete plant in Plumstead at a long-closed goods yard situated east of Plumstead station.
The site sits north of Southeastern’s sidings and was formerly a coal yard.
That fell out of use some decades ago (see this image from 1970 showing the scale of the site) and the site saw use as a temporary site during Elizabeth line construction work.
According to this application “freight operating company Devon and Cornwall Railways Limited Ltd (‘DC Rail’) to reinstate the wider site as a fully active freight site to receive aggregate and other rail imported material to serve the capital.
“A connection agreement has been completed with the rail network ahead of track reinstatement to take place in the near future”.
The specific part in for planning is to the north east of the overall site.
Housing
One possible fly in the ointment however is almost 2,000 homes rising nearby at Lombard Square – as can be seen below.
I’ve been covering development plans for a decade in the area (and not just Lombard Square but other applications are planning strategies) and from what I recall they never mentioned the possibility of rail sidings reopening for freight usage.
The yard has been mentioned in regards to past use and being owned by Network Rail, but little more than it being allocated as a site of strategic industry – if that.
If anything it always seemed more likely to be used for expanded Southeastern sidings given they were chronically short sites for storing stock.
In fact, Southeastern still appear to be short of space as some Class 377 stock still has to be maintained at Southern depots.
Though it appears there’s little chance of it being used for passenger trains as DC Rail “have taken a long lease from Network Rail to expressly enable the Former Plumstead Coal Yard site to be fully used for rail freight purposes again”.
This drone video shows the rising development and overview of the former goods yard and shows how close it is to a rapidly changing area.
High density residential developments and such industrial sites being cheek by jowl (see many homes approved in Charlton beside a plant served by the river) exist of course but it does make things a little trickier for all concerned. Let’s see how that transpires.
Renders of the proposed concrete batching plant are included within the application.
Road access will be from White Hart Road.
Royal Arsenal
One last thing not specific to this plan but of interest is that the Goods Yard isn’t the only former piece of railway history here, with the site also being the entrance to an extensive network across the Royal Arsenal though that headed west from the edge of sidings.
A history of that network can be viewed here, and the stump of track (with signal) leading to it still remains to this day.
Lombard Square and its 1,913-homes is rising on was formerly Ministry of Defence Royal Arsenal land.
Documents covering new sidings and plant can be viewed on the Greenwich Council planning portal.
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Many questions! Are there free train paths for this? With Angerstein branch line not far to the west is this needed or could that close (riverside development site potential $$$) and what of any conflict with a future Elizabeth line extension?
Interesting post. I guess this is the land that Crossrail was using. There was still mounds of building material there when I last looked.
The Flickr pics were very nostalgic. I do remember in the 1990s there still being freight trains parked on the sidings.
Yep Crossrail used it for about five years. I’ve got pics somewhere from around that time. I presumed Network Rail were/are still using it for storage.
The link to the history of the Royal Arsenal Railway takes one to the concrete plant’s planning application. Perhaps the below would be better?
https://www.royal-arsenal-history.com/royal-arsenal-railway.html
Oops just changed the link.
I’d recommend everyone read the Royal Arsenal history site too as it’s a wonderful website and resource.
This doesn’t sound like a rational, long-term strategy for London rail to me. We are expected to see many more homes constructed which means maximising the infrastructure for passenger trains, yet one of the few places across the rail network to expand passenger sidings is being lost?
Grove Park, Dartford, Slade Green and other SouthEastern sites cannot expand. This could be a noose around the network and its potential to grow via additional trains and capacity for decades to come. Is this being considered anywhere whatsoever?
I support freight but not at the expense of housing and public transport for the rest of the 21st Century in London.