Transport for London has unveiled an ambition to take over the Great Northern inner suburban services between Moorgate, Welwyn Garden City and Stevenage, by including them in the Overground network.

The proposal has been outlined the draft of TfL’s latest Business Plan, covering the next five years, which will be considered by the TfL Board on 4 February.

The Overground proposal is the latest in a series of takeovers of National Rail lines, mainly within Greater London, which began in 2007 when TfL assumed responsibility for the North London Line, the ‘DC’ lines between Euston and Watford Junction, the West London Line from Willesden Junction to Clapham Junction and the Gospel Oak to Barking line. Others have been added since then, including a cross-city route in the south London suburbs between Clapham Junction and Surrey Quays on the East London Line, which involved the construction of a new chord from the ELL.

TfL’s plan would take the Overground well beyond the Greater London boundary to the Hertfordshire towns of Hertford, Welwyn Garden and Stevenage, but it already reaches Watford and Cheshunt, which are also in Hertfordshire.

The Great Northern Moorgate route is currently part of Govia Thameslink Railway, but GTR is to be renationalised on 31 May.

London Mayors have had mixed fortunes on previous occasions when trying to extend the Overground. In 2013 Epsom MP Chris Grayling, who later became transport secretary, told Mayor Boris Johnson that he was opposed to any extensions because he wanted to ‘keep suburban rail services out of the clutches of any future Labour Mayor’.

Other rail-related plans being considered by the TfL Board include the replacement of trains on the Bakerloo line and also extending the Bakerloo beyond Elephant & Castle to Lewisham and maybe Beckenham Junction, acquiring new trams for south London and developing another Overground route using freight lines between Hounslow, Old Oak Common and Hendon, to be known as the West London Orbital. A public consultation is set be held this summer.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he would ‘continue to champion’ major infrastructure schemes, ‘including the West London Orbital and the Bakerloo line extension’. 

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