Lea Bridge station to reopen after 31 years to benefit 352,000 passengers a year

The station will serve trains going to Cambridge and Essex
Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A mainline rail station reopens on Monday after being closed for 31 years — raising hopes of a property and economic boom for a large part of east London.

Lea Bridge station on the line between Stratford and Tottenham Hale was shut in 1985 because it was under-used.

More than £11 million has been spent replacing the station, which is forecast eventually to serve 352,000 passengers a year. There are two new platforms, a footbridge and lifts, station canopy, ticket vending machines, Oyster readers, waiting shelters and help points.

Half-hourly services, seven days a week, will carry passengers to Stratford in five minutes, with connections to lines including the Jubilee, Central and the DLR, and Stratford International.

In the other direction towards Tottenham Hale passengers will have access to the West Anglia route to Stansted Airport and Cambridge and the Great Eastern main line to Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich.

Reopening the station is the result of years of campaigning by Waltham Forest council — which provided £5 million of capital funding and which owns a number of potential development sites nearby — and local amenity groups.

Council leader Chris Robbins said: “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.” A property article in the Evening Standard two years ago highlighted the importance of reopening the station, saying it “will make the area a great option for buyers on a budget”.

Roger Blake, director of campaign group Railfuture and a former transport officer at Hackney council, said: “The initial spark was in 2011 when transport officers in neighbouring Hackney council, working on London 2012 and its legacy, found there was £5 million funding available from the developers of Stratford City’s Westfield who were keen to expand their rail catchment northwards up the Lea Valley.”

The station will be managed by train operator Abellio Greater Anglia.

In 1840, when it was originally opened by the Northern and Eastern Railway, the station was known as Lea Bridge Road. It is thought to have been the earliest example of a station on a railway bridge spanning the tracks.

The Italianate structure was designed by architect Sancton Wood.

Trains start at 6am on Monday but limited services are expected from about 8pm on Sunday.

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