Lea Bridge station to reopen

Rational Plan · 30 Jan 2013

http://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/Pages/News/Lea-Bridge-Station.aspx

It seems Lea Bridge station will re open after being closed for 25 years.

London Borough of Waltham Forest said:
Lea Bridge Station to reopen

After being out of commission for over a quarter of a century, Lea Bridge Station now looks set to reopen.
The outcome of an extremely positive meeting between Waltham Forest Council and Network Rail was a firm undertaking to work together to deliver the reopening of Lea Bridge Station as soon as possible.

“I was delighted with the result of the meeting,” said Council Leader Chris Robbins. “Network Rail is extremely positive about reopening this station and we’ve set in play a good relationship to be able to go forward together to see the station built.”

The news of the meeting comes off the back of the Council securing £6.5million funding for the project at the end of last year, making a long-sought ambition for the borough a step closer to becoming a reality.

RailUK Forums

swt_passenger · 30 Jan 2013

Perhaps this is one that meets the requirements of that new NR fund. Most of them will have to be in London anyway, to help maintain the illusion that all funds are spent there, and not up north...

ChiefPlanner · 30 Jan 2013

Quite an easy one to re-open , there is time in the schedule of the passing service and of course the area is a bit more economically active than the last time I went past on a 2 car Craven DMU working the Tottenham Hale shuttle in the last week of operation. Was the only passenger on that trip - around 10p a priv single.

swt_passenger · 30 Jan 2013

Just needs a bit of gardening on the platforms doesn't it? Google Earth satellite view suggests the support for the old station building over the tracks is still there as well...

MidnightFlyer · 30 Jan 2013

I believe the building had all its contents removed upon closure however, it is now largely a shell (and rather an unsafe one!). Never in a million years would I expect it to remain if the station ever reopens though, but I would hope they'd give it suitable replacement.

Great to see the project coming along however.
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Edit - Ah, it's disappeared! http://goo.gl/maps/jEMZQ
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This is how the old building spent its final years between closure and demolition:

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/lea_bridge/index26.shtml

I'm not sure if it was a booking office or just an open air (but covered) shelter mind.

mr_jrt · 30 Jan 2013

Unfortunately they seem to intend moving the entrance to Argall Way, itself built on the old additional tracks that would be needed to have this section as a full 4 tracks.

OxtedL · 30 Jan 2013

mr_jrt said:
Unfortunately they seem to intend moving the entrance to Argall Way, itself built on the old additional tracks that would be needed to have this section as a full 4 tracks.

You will run out of platform space at Stratford well before you run out of track capacity, I would hypothesise.

jopsuk · 30 Jan 2013

Lack of platforms at Stratford (where even if you had four tracks, it would have to go to two anyway), lack of track capacity beyond Stratford. Going via Stratford wouldn't help Cambridge or Stansted services at all...

PR1Berske · 31 Jan 2013

Well if the Council has £6.5 m then they don't need the New Station Lottery do they

Xenophon PCDGS · 31 Jan 2013

MattE2010 said:
I'm not sure if it was a booking office or just an open air (but covered) shelter mind.

In 1976, all the orginal station buildings dating back to 1840 were totally demolished. The station then became unstaffed.

cle · 31 Jan 2013

PR1Berske said:
Well if the Council has £6.5 m then they don't need the New Station Lottery do they

That will barely touch the sides at today's estimates! Remember it'll need lifts for one thing - but generally if kept as a simple island with passing lines either side, it shouldn't be too expensive.

mister-sparky · 31 Jan 2013

mr_jrt said:
Unfortunately they seem to intend moving the entrance to Argall Way, itself built on the old additional tracks that would be needed to have this section as a full 4 tracks.

Are they still going to 4-track the bit from Coppermill Jct upwards still?

jopsuk · 31 Jan 2013

As of the recent Network Rail strategy documents, the plan is to add a third track north of Tottenham Hale to an as yet undecided location further up the Lea Valley, which will have a turnback siding, but for this to be done with provision for a fourth track should Crossrail 2 come to the Lea Valley.

O L Leigh · 31 Jan 2013

This is a perenial rumour. I'm very much in the "wait and see" camp.

The station building has all be demolished now.

O L Leigh

mr_jrt · 31 Jan 2013

OxtedL said:
You will run out of platform space at Stratford well before you run out of track capacity, I would hypothesise.

My thinking is that by the time this happens Crossrail will have freed up paths between Stratford and Liverpool St., so the WAML (semi?)fasts will be able to run via Stratford, with all the interchange options it offers.

I thought at the time the layout of the new LO platforms (1&2) was a bit weird...but to fix things I guess you'd just have to knock through and you'll have 4 platforms, locals on the northern side, fasts on the southern side...which should be sufficient.

306024 · 3 Feb 2013

O L Leigh said:
This is a perenial rumour. I'm very much in the "wait and see" camp.

The station building has all be demolished now.

O L Leigh

I'm not holding my breath either. Handy on a Sunday morning for watching football on Hackney Marshes but that's about it. Those games tend not to attract too many fans though.

Whether building the station first would re-generate the area is debatable.

O L Leigh · 4 Feb 2013

I originally thought the area was quiet until I was required to go to Orient Way CS by taxi. Lea Bridge Road is a busy and vibrant area, and I'm sure it would benefit from a rail service. The problem is that it would only be half-hourly at best and only go as far as Stratford (or out of town along the Lea Valley), and that would never hope to compete with the London bus network in that part of town. It's also quite some distance from the football pitches on the Hackney marshes (St James Street on the Chingford line would be closer).

But I still doubt that this station will reopen. There is plenty of time to stop there without affecting the current timetable, but I can't see it passing any sort of cost/benefit analysis.

O L Leigh

306024 · 4 Feb 2013

St James Street ? Someone must have moved the goalposts.

I guess you can't be referring to the same pitches - those on Hackney Marshes are in a bit of a rail desert surrounded by Leyton, Hackney Wick, Homerton and Clapton - all a fair distance away. Lea Bridge would be to the north east of these pitches, again not particularly close, but nearer than St James St.

Most of the immediate area is industrial units and a riding school, although further west along Lea Bridge Road I agree there is more housing. If the station does open I would venture that would be more of a political decision than a financial one.

NSEFAN · 4 Feb 2013

Would there be any value in remodelling South Tottenham station so that trains could between, say, Enfield Town and Stratford every 30 mins, calling at all stations including South Tottenham and Lea Bridge? This would increase the number of trains at Lea Bridge as well as provide better connections for the GOBLIN.

Just a random idea to throw out there. I presume it would mean the loss of some services into Liverpool Street, which might upset the locals!

306024 · 4 Feb 2013

From Enfield the main passenger demand is to Seven Sisters for the Victoria Line as well as to Liverpool St. There is then a second demand though from Stamford Hill inwards to Liverpool St, so diverting existing services would be a non-starter.

A timetable was once looked at to run additional trains as you suggest (without a South Tottenham call), but even if it could be demonstrated to work on paper there are performance risks associated with attempting to path more trains between Tottenham South Jn and Copper Mill Jn on the Cambridge main line, never mind cutting across the T&H as well.

aylesbury · 4 Feb 2013

When ever I went past this station in the fifties ,early sixties it looked completely run down.Agree about lack of passengers why dont they spend money on other developments.

joeykins82 · 6 Feb 2013

Theory: Lea Bridge station reopens along with the Hall Farm Curve; half of the Chingford services run via Stratford once Crossrail has eased the pressure on the Liverpool Street terminus platforms (possibly with a corresponding service increase; I don't know what the loading of the Chingford services is like)

swt_passenger · 6 Feb 2013

Alternate theory, based on the explanation and drawing in the London and SE RUS of the remodelled Bow Junction. (I won't repeat the section here, there's too much.)

Paths on this route and through Stratford into Liverpool Street will only be available Offpeak. The capacity freed up by Crossrail will be used to allow more services on the main fast lines. The ECS from these services in the morning peak will be 'bounced back' up the Lea Valley route to Orient Way sidings to get it out of the way. Operations being reversed in the evening peak, with the route being used to feed ECS into Liverpool St.

D365 · 6 Feb 2013

joeykins82 said:
Theory: Lea Bridge station reopens along with the Hall Farm Curve; half of the Chingford services run via Stratford once Crossrail has eased the pressure on the Liverpool Street terminus platforms (possibly with a corresponding service increase; I don't know what the loading of the Chingford services is like)

Could services via Stratford/Lea Bridge be taken over by Crossrail 1 if tph were to be increased to 32? Would be difficult to achieve grade-separation though and the extra trains might be wanted for the Shenfield/Abbey Wood branches.

swt_passenger · 6 Feb 2013

DAB_Move said:
...Would be difficult to achieve grade-separation though and the extra trains might be wanted for the Shenfield/Abbey Wood branches.

Absolutely impossible to achieve such a link at reasonable cost, I'd have thought. The tracks from the Lea Valley approach on the opposite side of Stratford to the ramp down to the Crossrail portals - and that's already been squeezed in alongside the DLR and the Central Line with some difficulty...

leytongabriel · 25 May 2013

Yes I remember the pretty-much deserted station in the 70's.
But there are a couple of other elements in the mix :
It's at the bottom end of the Upper Lea Valley Regeneration Project and there are plans to build 2,500 homes in the vicinity which would be a major boost for a catchment area with realitvely few houses in it.
Westfield had some planning gain funding for this I believe, though it may be date limited or indeed date-expired.
There has already been a certain amount of industrial regeneration in the area.
Personally I think a station at Baker's Arms on the GOBLIN which used to pop up on some old plans, might be better used, but it does looks as if Lea Bridge isn't quite dead yet.

mister-sparky · 26 May 2013

Hasn't the reopening now been confirmed by the government?

MidnightFlyer · 26 May 2013

Yes, it received funding from Network Rail's New Station Fund scheme (thread here) last week, alongside Ilkeston, Pye Corner and Newcourt. All are ready to go construction-wise (a condition of application AFAIK) and should be open during 2014.

Lea Bridge station to reopen

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