Romford railway station

Romford
Station entrance seen in June 2022
Romford Location of Romford in Greater London
Location	Romford
Local authority	London Borough of Havering
Managed by	Elizabeth line
Owner	Network Rail
Station code(s)	RMF
DfT category	C2
Number of platforms	5
Accessible	Yes
Fare zone	6
National Rail annual entry and exit
2019–20	9.382 million
– interchange	0.802 million
2020–21	3.133 million
– interchange	0.223 million
2021–22	6.287 million
– interchange	0.514 million
2022–23	11.603 million
– interchange	0.579 million
2023–24	14.820 million
– interchange	0.997 million
Key dates
20 June 1839	ECR station opened
7 June 1893	LTSR Upminster platform opened
1934	Stations combined
Other information
External links	Departures Facilities
Coordinates	51.5749°N 0.1827°E / 51.5749; 0.1827
London transport portal

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 the Liberty line of the London Overground. Its three-letter station code is RMF and it is in Travelcard Zone 6.

The station is currently managed by the Elizabeth line. The majority of services that call at Romford are Elizabeth line, but the station is also served by off-peak Greater Anglia trains between Liverpool Street and Southend Victoria and Colchester Town.

History

East Anglia main line

From its inception, the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) planned a route linking London and Norwich that would take it via Romford. Two routes were considered, that of the current line, and an alternative going through Ilford at Cranbrook Road, then passing near to Gidea Hall and crossing Romford Common approximately following the route of the current A12 before returning to the current railway alignment at Brentwood.

When the line was constructed, the first Romford station opened on 20 June 1839 as a single island platform located to the west of Waterloo Road, and formed the eastern terminus of the initial part of the Eastern Counties Railway from Mile End. Both stations acted as temporary termini, with the line extending east to Brentwood and west to Shoreditch in 1840.

In 1844, the station was relocated to its current position, some 400 metres (1,300 ft) east of the original. Around this time, the gauge of the ECR was changed from 5 ft (1,524 mm) to standard gauge of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in). In 1860, the station was remodelled with platforms on each side of the line with access to the new station by a covered walkway from South Street to the London-bound platform and via an open slope and steps for the country-bound platform. Soon after this, the goods depot, which was situated to the south of the station, was connected to the Ind Coope brewery via a tunnel under the line. Other non-passenger traffic included goods for the Romford Gas Works and for cattle pens accessed from St Andrews Road, which were necessary due to the cattle market held in Romford every Wednesday.

The line became part of the Great Eastern Railway (GER) in 1862. It was grouped into the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) in 1922.

Upminster branch

Platform 1 with a London Overground Class 710 pictured in 2022

The construction of the Tilbury Docks in the 1850s gave expanded opportunities for rail traffic, and three proposals were made for a railway linking Romford to Tilbury. The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LT&S) were successful, and on 7 June 1893, the LT&S opened a station in Romford, on their line to Upminster, linking to the already existing connection from Upminster to Grays on the LT&S line to Tilbury. The LT&S had hoped to negotiate with the Great Eastern Railway to use their station, but concerns over fast trains led to the GER declining and a completely new station was built with a single platform and an entrance on the opposite side of South Street to the GER station. A footbridge was built to connect the two stations but was often closed during the day.

In 1934, the entrance to the platform of the line to Upminster was closed and the access to the single platform was provided by the footbridge from the main station platforms.

In May 2015, the Upminster branch line transferred from Abellio Greater Anglia to London Overground. The London Overground service at the station was rebranded as the Liberty line from November 2024.

Elizabeth line

In the 1930s increasing traffic on the line led to two additional tracks and platforms being added by the LNER on the north side, the line having been quadrupled to a point west of Romford previously in 1901.

Electric trains started on the line from Liverpool Street to Shenfield in 1949, giving Romford 15 trains per hour to London during peak hours, and 6 trains per hour off-peak, a pattern that continued for over half a century.

In May 2015, the regular Shenfield stopping service transferred to TfL Rail.

In 2017 new Class 345 trains began entering service as Crossrail partially opened under the TfL Rail brand. Platforms 2 to 5 were extended from their length of between 179 metres (196 yd) and 182 metres (199 yd) to accommodate the Crossrail trains, which are over 200 metres (220 yd) long. New lifts, signage, help points, customer information screens and CCTV were installed. The upgrade works were completed in August 2022, after delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

TfL Rail services were rebranded as the Elizabeth line on 24 May 2022.

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 (24 km/h). 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.
• On 4 February 2010, two people standing on the platforms at Romford were injured when 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, bound for Ipswich.
• On 4 November 2024, a person was killed after being struck by a train.

Services

As of the December 2023 timetable, the typical Monday to Friday off-peak service is:

Elizabeth line

• 8 tph (trains per hour) westbound to Paddington of which 2 continue to Heathrow Terminal 5
• 8 tph eastbound to Shenfield

Greater Anglia

• 2 tph westbound to London Liverpool Street
• 1 tph eastbound to Southend Victoria
• 1 tph eastbound to Colchester Town

London Overground

• 2 tph eastbound to Upminster

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Stratford		Greater Anglia Great Eastern Main Line		Shenfield
Preceding station		Elizabeth line		Following station
Chadwell Heath towards Heathrow Terminal 5		Elizabeth line		Gidea Park towards Shenfield
Preceding station		London Overground		Following station
Terminus		Liberty line Romford–Upminster line		Emerson Park towards Upminster
Historical railways
Stratford		Anglia Railways London Crosslink		Ingatestone
	Abandoned works
Crowlands		Great Eastern Railway Great Eastern Main Line		Gidea Park

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, school routes 647, 648, 651, 674, 686, and night routes N15 and N86 serve the station.

References

• Brennand, Dave (December 2002). Ilford to Shenfield. Eastern Main Lines. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1-901706-974.

External links

• Train times and station information for Romford railway station from National Rail
• Excel file displaying National Rail station usage information for 2005/06 Archived 22 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine
• Old LTSR entrance after conversion