R25 was a proposed railway orbital around the Zone 3 area of London, England. First proposed in the Mayor of London's £1.3 trillion London Infrastructure 2050 plan, the line would have used some existing Network Rail and London Overground lines, linked by stretches of new railway.

History[edit]

The R25 nickname alludes to London's M25 orbital motorway. The idea featured in news media when the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, visited Barking Riverside, a large development held up by lack of rail access in 2014. The idea of extending the Gospel Oak to Barking line trains onto the Tilbury Loop line to serve a station near Barking Riverside had already gained some ground having been mentioned in the 2013 budget statement, but news reports showed a Tube map-like extract with a new line crossing the River Thames to serve Abbey Wood.^[1]

There have also been calls to extend the line further south across the river to Thamesmead and Abbey Wood.^[2][3] In August 2017, the Government granted permission for the extension of the Gospel Oak to Barking line and a provision for a stop at Renwick Road (if needed) and states that a further extension across the Thames should be provisioned.^[4][5] The new station at Barking Riverside opened on 18 July 2022,^[6] but any further extension across the river was dropped in favour of extending the Docklands Light Railway from Gallions Reach.

City Metric have produced a map of what the R25 might look like in detail.^[7]

References[edit]