Monday 2 May 2016

Reopening of Lea Bridge Station on 16th May 2016



Most of you won't know that on 16th May 2016, Lea Bridge Station is re-opening after 31 years of closure.

Here is the report:


Leytons Lea Bridge Station is re-opening to passengers on 16 May 2016 after 31 years of closure.

The station will provide passengers with direct links to both Stratford and Tottenham Hale and journey times of five minutes apiece.

Stratford is the nearest high-speed station to central London, connecting to services going to Europe, and Tottenham Hale provides easy and fast connections to Stansted Airport, meaning the new station will open the western part of Waltham Forest up to further commercial opportunities in London and beyond.


The scheme to re-open the station has been led by Waltham Forest Council and is funded with a mixture of £5million in Council capital funding, £1.1million from the Department for Transports New Stations Fund and £5.5million from Section 106 contributions (managed by the Stratford Transport Implementation Group).

Lea Bridge Station will really help open Leyton up for growth, giving the area better and faster links to some of Londons crucial transport hubs, and making it a more attractive prospect for developers, businesses and residents, said Chris Robbins, Leader of the Council.

For years its been a project we have committed to making happen, and going forward it will form the centrepiece of wider plans to rejuvenate the area and create a new Leyton village, spurring even more regeneration and change.

Developers are already seeing the potential Leyton has to offer, helping to establish our little corner of London as a real contender as a place to do business, as well as somewhere to buy a home and raise a young family.

The new station is expected to service 352,000 passengers a year by 2031. When it opens it will have two new platforms, a new footbridge and lifts, station canopy, ticket vending machines, Oyster readers, waiting shelters and help points.

The first full days service at Lea Bridge Station will start just after 6am on the morning of Monday 16 May 2016, although limited services are expected to be running from approximately 8pm on Sunday 15 May. Services through the station will run approximately every 30 minutes, and will be run by Abellio Greater Anglia, who operate a number of train services across London and the South-East.

Ive had a look on Google Maps and bizarrely they've already added the station to the map before its officially re-opened.



Also, National Rail have added the new station to their website; they've also prepared their ‘Onward Travel Information’ which shows connections to nearby bus services. TFL have also added the station to their website and the same goes for Abellio Greater Anglia's website.

Looking at the bus connections, it's worth noting that routes 48, 55, 56 and night routes N38 and N55 serve the station as well. Route's 55, N55 and N38 are served by the 3 door, 2 staircase bus known as the New Routemaster.

For more information about the history of this station, check out the articles on Wikipedia and Disused Stations.

To finish I have a quick update from LOTS (London Omnibus Traction Society).

1) Saturday 30th April was a big day for London Buses.  Go-Aheads batches EH 39-60 and MHV 1-20  are now in use on routes 35 and 40, both taken over from Abellio.  In turn, Abellio took over route 345 from Go-Ahead using a mix of E400 diesels and hybrids released from the 35 and 40. The surplus of the diesels are due to go to convert route E9 to double-deck at the end of May. More double deckings on the 30th in the Barking area were the full allocation on Stagecoach route 62 and also the transfer of the 368 from Go-Ahead to Arriva using refurbished E400s.

2) Additionally the 30th  saw the completion of the removal of the Aldgate Gyratory and the return of routes 25, 67, 115, 205, 254, N253 to normal routeings, including the re-opening of Aldgate Bus Station.   Liverpool Street Bus Station is due to re-open as well over the next few days once roadworks are complete.

3) Otherwise, new vehicle deliveries continue to flood In, with more now London United VHs going on to route 94, to make a batch of 14 which have replaced the 14 TLAs that had operated thereon for many years.   At Metroline, new LTs are now coming into stock for route 91 and the first few are due into service later this coming week.   Conversion to LT has now been completed on routes 59 and 68.  

4) Arriva in Essex is busily eliminating the SXConnect and network Harlow brands in favour of normal Arriva bus livery.  At Luton the green fronted Volvo B7RLEs used on the Busway plus some others branded for local routes  are also now going into normal Arriva bus livery.  Some are then gaining more modest A-Z route decals.

Thats all I have to report on for today but you can follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Google Plus for all the latest transport information which is @CLondoner92

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