Seven Kings railway station

Seven Kings railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line serving the district of Seven Kings in the London Borough of Redbridge, east London. It is 8 miles 46 chains (13.8 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Ilford and Goodmayes. Its three-letter station code is SVK and it is in Travelcard Zone 4.

Seven Kings
The station building in 2009, while under operation by National Express.
Seven Kings
Location of Seven Kings in Greater London
LocationSeven Kings
Local authorityLondon Borough of Redbridge
Managed byTfL Rail
Station codeSVK
DfT categoryC2
Number of platforms4
AccessibleYes[1]
Fare zone4
National Rail annual entry and exit
2015–16 3.126 million[2]
2016–17 3.099 million[2]
2017–18 2.960 million[2]
2018–19 3.168 million[2]
2019–20 3.157 million[2]
Key dates
1 March 1899Opened
Other information
External links
WGS8451.5635°N 0.0969°E / 51.5635; 0.0969
 London transport portal

The station was opened on 1 March 1899 by the Great Eastern Railway. It is currently managed by TfL Rail. Services call at Seven Kings as part of the Shenfield-Liverpool Street stopping "metro" service. In the future 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 and onwards to Reading and Heathrow Airport.

History

Seven Kings station was opened on 1 March 1899. Before the London Underground's Central line was extended from Stratford via Gants Hill to Newbury Park in 1947, Seven Kings was one of two junctions for the Fairlop Loop to Woodford via Hainault. Seven Kings West Junction (used for freight, excursion and empty stock traffic) was closed in 1956, though the other connection, from Ilford, was severed as early as 1947 due to the expansion of the Ilford sheds, which are visible from the western end of Seven Kings' platforms. The carriage sheds comprise a large depot which includes two workshops.

Accidents and incidents

On 23 January 1963, eight people were injured in a collision between two trains on the main line just outside of Seven Kings station. An express train from Harwich Parkeston Quay to London passed a signal at danger and ran into the rear of a Southend-London stopping service at "fairly low speed". The express train was subsequently found to have a fault with one of its brakes. A Ministry of Transport report on the incident stated that the express train's driver "cannot be excused entirely from responsibility" given his passing of the red signal. The line was reopened four hours after the incident.[3]

Services

The typical Monday-Saturday off-peak service is six trains per hour in each direction between Liverpool Street and Shenfield, reduced on Sundays to four per hour in each direction:[4]

Operator Route Rolling stock Frequency
TfL Rail London Liverpool Street - Stratford - Maryland - Forest Gate - Manor Park - Ilford - Seven Kings - Goodmayes - Chadwell Heath - Romford - Gidea Park - Harold Wood - Brentwood - Shenfield Class 315, Class 345 6x per hour

During peak times service frequency is increased and calling patterns may be varied. In addition, there is one early-morning service between Colchester and Liverpool Street operated by Abellio Greater Anglia.

In June 2017 new Class 345 trains began entering service in preparation for the opening of Crossrail. There are no plans to extend the regularly-used platforms 3 and 4 from their current length of 187 metres (205 yd) to accommodate the new trains which will be over 200 metres (220 yd) long, so selective door opening will be utilised. New lifts, signage, help points, customer information screens and CCTV will be installed.

Connections

London Buses routes 86 and N86 serve the station.

References
  1. Standard Tube Map (PDF) (Map). Not to scale. Transport for London. May 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  2. "Station usage estimates". Rail statistics. Office of Rail Regulation. Please note: Some methodology may vary year on year.
  3. http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/MoT_SevenKings1963.pdf
  4. TfL Rail Timetable
Preceding station   Crossrail   Following station
TfL Rail
Shenfield Metro
towards Shenfield
  Future development  
towards Paddington
Crossrail
Elizabeth line
towards Shenfield
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