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 45 chains (13.8 km) down-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.

The station was opened in 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. From 2019, the station will be fully served by Crossrail, linking Seven Kings to additional stations in central London as well as Reading and London Heathrow Airport. TfL Rail, the precursor of Crossrail, took over the running of the Shenfield "metro" in May 2015.

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 Ilford sheds, which is easily visible from the western end of Seven Kings station. The carriage sheds comprise a large depot which includes two workshops.

On 23 January 1963, eight people were injured in a rear-end collision between two trains just outside Seven Kings station. A London-bound express train over-ran a red signal and ran into a Southend Victoria-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.

Services

The typical off-peak service is as follows:

Operator	Route	Rolling stock	Frequency	Notes
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	6x per hour	4x per hour Sundays

In addition, there is one early morning service between Colchester and Liverpool Street operated by Abellio Greater Anglia.

In 2017 new Class 345 trains will enter service as Crossrail partially opens. The route will be extended through central London to London Heathrow Airport and Reading in 2019. There are no plans to extend platforms 3 and 4 from their current length of 187 metres (205 yd) to accommodate the Crossrail 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 in preparation for the opening of Crossrail.

Connections

London Buses routes 86 and N86 serve the station.

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
• Train times and station information for Seven Kings railway station from National Rail
• Excel file displaying National Rail station usage information for 2005/06

Preceding station		Crossrail		Following station
Ilford towards London Liverpool Street		TfL Rail Shenfield Metro		Goodmayes towards Shenfield
	Future development
Ilford towards Reading or Heathrow Airport		Crossrail Elizabeth Line		Goodmayes towards Shenfield