Romford railway station

Romford
Romford railway station in 2010
Romford Location of Romford in Greater London
Location	Romford
Local authority	London Borough of Havering
Managed by	TfL Rail
Owner	Network Rail
Station code	RMF
DfT category	C2
Number of platforms	5
Accessible	Yes[1]
Fare zone	6
National Rail annual entry and exit
2012–13	7.446 million[2]
2013–14	8.265 million[2]
– interchange	0.500 million[2]
2014–15	8.947 million[2]
– interchange	0.546 million[2]
2015–16	9.041 million[2]
– interchange	0.605 million[2]
2016–17	8.834 million[2]
– interchange	0.767 million[2]
Key dates
1839	ECR station opened
1893	LTSR Upminster platform opened
1934	Stations combined
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
External links	Departures Layout Facilities Buses
WGS84	51°34′30″N 0°10′58″E / 51.5749°N 0.1827°E / 51.5749; 0.1827Coordinates: 51°34′30″N 0°10′58″E / 51.5749°N 0.1827°E / 51.5749; 0.1827
London transport portal UK Railways portal

Platform 1 (for Upminster services) pictured in 1950

Romford railway station is an interchange station on the Great Eastern Main Line, serving the town of Romford in the London Borough of Havering, east London. It is 12 miles 30 chains (19.9 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Chadwell Heath and Gidea Park. It is also the northern terminus of a branch line to Upminster operated by London Overground. Its three-letter station code is RMF and it is in Travelcard Zone 6.

The station is currently managed by TfL Rail. The majority of services call at Romford as part of the Shenfield-Liverpool Street "metro" service operated by TfL Rail, but the station is also served by off-peak Abellio Greater Anglia trains to and from Southend Victoria and Colchester Town.

In autumn 2019 the TfL Rail service will be re-branded as the Elizabeth line as part of the Crossrail project. Eventually, the Elizabeth line service will be extended beyond Liverpool Street to Paddington, with onward connections from there to Reading and Heathrow Airport.

History

The first Romford station, located to the west of Waterloo Road, opened on 20 June 1839 as the eastern terminus of the Eastern Counties Railway from Mile End. Both stations acted as temporary termini, with the line extending east to Brentwood and west to Bishopsgate (Low Level) in 1840. In 1844, the station was relocated to its current position, some 400m east of the original and at about this time, the gauge of the ECR was changed from 5' (1,524 mm) to standard gauge of 4 ft 8 1⁄2 (1,435 mm). On 7 June 1893 the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway opened a second station in Romford, on a branch line to Upminster. The two stations were combined in 1934.

In May 2015 the Upminster branch Iine transferred from Abellio Greater Anglia to London Overground and the regular Shenfield "metro" service transferred to TfL Rail.^[3][4]

Accidents and incidents

• On 29 December 1944, one person was killed and three were injured when, in darkness and heavy fog, a Chelmsford-London service passed two signals at danger on the approach to Romford and ran into the rear of a stationary freight train. The passenger train's speed at the moment of impact was about 15 mph. One crew member on the goods train was killed instantly. The Chelmsford train driver was held responsible for the collision in a Ministry of War Transport report.^[5]
• On 4 February 2010, two people standing on the platforms at Romford were injured when a quantity of stone ballast was shed from a freight train passing through the station. Subsequent examination found that the train wagon's doors had not been properly closed when it departed from the goods yard at Acton, west London, bound for Ipswich.^[6]

Services

The majority of services are currently operated by TfL Rail which runs the stopping "metro" route between Liverpool Street and Shenfield. Greater Anglia also operates medium-distance services between Liverpool Street and destinations in the East of England, while London Overground runs the half-hourly "push and pull" service between Romford and Upminster.

The typical off-peak Monday to Saturday service from Romford is:^[7]

• 8 trains per hour (tph) to London Liverpool Street, of which:
  • 6 call at all stations (TfL Rail),
  • 2 call at Stratford and Liverpool Street (Greater Anglia);
• 6 tph to Shenfield, calling at all stations (TfL Rail);
• 2 tph to Upminster, calling at all stations (London Overground);
• 1 tph to Southend Victoria calling at Shenfield then all stations (Greater Anglia);
• 1 tph to Colchester Town calling at Shenfield, Chelmsford, Witham, then all stations (Greater Anglia).

In 2017 new Class 345 trains began entering service as Crossrail partially opened. Platforms 2 to 5 will be extended from their current length of between 179 metres (196 yd) and 182 metres (199 yd) to accommodate the Crossrail trains which will be over 200 metres (220 yd) long once extended to nine carriages. New lifts, signage, help points, customer information screens and CCTV will also be installed.^[8]

Connections

London Buses routes 5, 66, 86, 103, 128, 165, 174, 175, 193, 247, 248, 252, 294, 296, 347, 365, 370, 375, 496, 498, 499, 647, 648, 649, 650, 651, 674 and 686 and night routes N15 and N86 and LSP route 575 all serve the station.

References

External links

• Media related to Romford railway station at Wikimedia Commons
• Train times and station information for Romford railway station from National Rail
• Excel file displaying National Rail station usage information for 2005/06
• Old LTSR entrance after conversion

Preceding station		Crossrail		Following station
Chadwell Heath towards Liverpool Street		TfL Rail Shenfield Metro		Gidea Park towards Shenfield
Preceding station		London Overground		Following station
Terminus		Romford to Upminster Line		Emerson Park towards Upminster
	National Rail
Stratford		Greater Anglia Great Eastern Main Line		Shenfield
	Future development
Preceding station		Crossrail		Following station
Chadwell Heath towards Paddington		Crossrail Elizabeth line		Gidea Park towards Shenfield
Historical railways
	National Rail
Stratford		Anglia Railways London Crosslink		Ingatestone
	Abandoned works
Crowlands		Great Eastern Railway Great Eastern Main Line		Gidea Park