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:
Leyton’s 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 Transport’s 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
London’s crucial transport hubs, and making it
a more attractive prospect for developers, businesses and residents,” said Chris Robbins, Leader of the
Council.
“For years it’s 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 day’s 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.
I’ve 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-Ahead’s 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.
That’s
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
