Stratford International is a
National Rail
National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the p ...
station in
Stratford and a separate
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated light metro system serving the redeveloped Docklands area of London, England and provides a direct connection between London's two major financial districts, Canary Wharf and the City of Londo ...
(DLR) station nearby, located in
East Village in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. Despite its name, no international services stop at the station; plans for it to be served by
Eurostar
Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service connecting the United Kingdom with France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most Eurostar trains travel through the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, owned and operated sep ...
trains never came to fruition. The National Rail platforms are, however, served by domestic
Southeastern
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
trains on the
High Speed 1
High Speed 1 (HS1), legally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel.
It is part of a line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Europe; ...
route originating at
St. Pancras, with interchange to Eurostar trains at other stops along the route. On the DLR it is a terminus – one of seven end-of-the-line termini – for local services via and .
Construction of the National Rail station was completed in 2006, but it only opened in 2009 to serve Southeastern services on HS1.
In 2011 an extension of the DLR was opened to connect Stratford International to the wider London public transport network and to the main
Stratford station
Stratford is a major multi-level railway station which rates as the 5th busiest station in Britain, serving the district of Stratford and the mixed-use development known as Stratford City, in the London Borough of Newham, east London. It is s ...
to the south. The DLR station is physically separate and located just across the road from the HS1 station.
Oyster card
The Oyster card is a payment method for public transport in London (and certain areas around it) in England, United Kingdom. A standard Oyster card is a blue credit-card-sized stored-value contactless smart card. It is promoted by Transport ...
s and
contactless payment
Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC, e.g. Samsun ...
cards are valid for travel to and from Stratford International, with the DLR station in
Travelcard zone 2
Fare zone 2 is an inner zone of Transport for London's zonal fare system used for calculating the price of tickets for travel on the London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and, since 2007, on National Rail services.
Ba ...
/
3, but special fares apply at the HS1 station.
The four-platform HS1 station is built within "Stratford Box", a concrete-sided cutting, meaning the station is located below ground level.
It is located near the centre of the
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a sporting complex and public park in Stratford, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Bow, in east London. It was purpose-built for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, situated adjacent to the Stratford City developm ...
, adjacent to the
Westfield Stratford City
Westfield Stratford City is a shopping centre in Stratford, east London, which opened on 13 September 2011. With a total retail floor area of , it is the largest urban shopping centre in the UK by land area and the 4th-largest shopping cen ...
shopping centre.
Background
![Bin at Stratford International station](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Bin_at_Stratford_International_station.jpg)
The station is on the
High Speed 1
High Speed 1 (HS1), legally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel.
It is part of a line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Europe; ...
railway between and . As the station lies just inside the eastern boundary of the
London Olympic Park
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a sporting complex and public park in Stratford, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Bow, in east London. It was purpose-built for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, situated adjacent to the Stratford City develo ...
, much of the surrounding land was little more than a construction site until mid-2012.
The tracks descend into a tunnel at both ends of the station as its platforms are closer to the surface than the tunnels; some of the platforms have a noticeable dip along their length at the east end. Stratford International has four platforms in the
station box
A station box is a term in the construction industry: It describes a box-like underground structure for a transportation system, for example a metro or tube station.
Station boxes are built in two methods – "top-down" or "bottom-up". In the "bot ...
: two at the outer edges and two shorter ones forming a central island. The main line through tracks run down each side of the station between the adjacent platforms. There is a waiting room on the island platforms but not on the outer platforms.
35 metres beyond the eastern portals, the tunnels pass just underneath the
Central line tunnels curving north from Stratford. The bottom invert of each Central line tunnel is only and above the high-speed running tunnels.
The station was not authorised by the
Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996
The Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996 (c. 61) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made legal provision for the construction, maintenance and operation of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link between St Pancras railway station and t ...
and an order under the
Transport and Works Act 1992
The Transport and Works Act 1992 (TWA) was established by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to provide a system by which the construction of rail transport, tramway, inland waterway and harbour infrastructure could proceed in the UK by orde ...
had to be made to allow for its construction. In the centre of the station is a single-track inclined viaduct, rising to the east end along and above the length of the island platforms. This is to allow out-of-service trains to leave the station box and reach the depot at
Temple Mills
Temple Mills is a district located on the boundary of the London boroughs of London Borough of Newham, Newham and London Borough of Waltham Forest, Waltham Forest, with a small part also in London Borough of Hackney, Hackney in east London.
Temp ...
.
Services and connections
National Rail
Southeastern
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
operates all trains serving the High Speed 1 station. The full service started on 13 December 2009 using
EMUs
Emus may refer to:
* Emu
The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the g ...
.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:
* 3 tph to
London St Pancras International
St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is ...
* 1 tph to via
* 1 tph to Ramsgate via
* 1 tph to via
Additional Southeastern services call at the station during the peak hours.
There are one or two international trains per hour in each direction that pass through without stopping.
During the
2012 Olympic Games
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
, a service of eight trains an hour ran between St Pancras and Ebbsfleet, calling at Stratford, replacing the high speed service. Two of these would be extended to Ashford and one to Faversham. Between 11pm and 1am the service between St Pancras and Ebbsfleet would be increased to twelve per hour. To enable the domestic services to stop at platforms previously designed for Eurostar trains, the platforms had to be raised.
Docklands Light Railway
![Stratford International DLR stn east entrance](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Stratford_International_DLR_stn_east_entrance.jpg)
The
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated light metro system serving the redeveloped Docklands area of London, England and provides a direct connection between London's two major financial districts, Canary Wharf and the City of Londo ...
extension to Stratford International consists of a short new line from Stratford International to Stratford station, then continues along the former
North London Line
The North London line (NLL) is a railway line which passes through the inner suburbs of west, north-west, north, and east London, England between Richmond in the south-west and Stratford in the east, avoiding central London. Its route is a rou ...
route between and , stopping at
Stratford High Street (on the site of the original
Stratford Market railway station
Stratford High Street is a Docklands Light Railway station in Stratford in London, England. It is located on the Stratford International branch of the Docklands Light Railway, which opened on 31 August 2011. The site was the location of an ea ...
),
Abbey Road
''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It is the last album the group started recording, although ''Let It Be'' was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly re ...
, and
Star Lane before joining the existing DLR branches from Canning Town to
Woolwich Arsenal. Its opening was originally planned for July 2010, but was delayed to 31 August 2011.
Bus services
London Bus
Buses have been used as a mode of public transport in London since 1829, when George Shillibeer started operating a horse-drawn ''omnibus'' service from Paddington to the City of London. In the decades since their introduction, the red London b ...
routes
97,
108 108 may refer to:
* 108 (number)
* AD 108, a year
* 108 BC, a year
* 108 (artist) (born 1978), Italian street artist
* 108 (band), an American hardcore band
* 108 (emergency telephone number), an emergency telephone number in several states in Ind ...
, 308, 339 and night route
N205 serve the station.
International services
The original intended purpose of Stratford International station was to act as the London stop for
regional Eurostar
Regional Eurostar was a planned Eurostar train service from Paris and Brussels to locations in the United Kingdom beyond London. The services would have been run using a fleet of seven ''North of London'', 14-coach British Rail Class 373/3 trai ...
trains bypassing St Pancras and continuing to other destinations in Britain.
However, these services did not come into being, and Rob Holden, chief executive of LCR and deputy chairman of Eurostar, stated that, "stopping a high-speed train seven minutes out of St Pancras is less than ideal", leaving only the domestic Southeastern trains serving the station.
Critics derided the station as a
white elephant
A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, sch ...
.
By the time Southeastern was serving the station, the Transport Secretary
Lord Adonis
Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, (born Andreas Adonis; 22 February 1963) is a British Labour Party politician and journalist who served in HM Government for five years in the Blair ministry and the Brown ministry. He served as Secretary of State ...
was urged by Sir Robin Wales, former
Mayor of Newham
The Mayor of Newham is a directly elected mayor responsible for the executive function of Newham London Borough Council in east London, England. The position is different from the previously existing (and largely ceremonial) annually appointed ...
, and Peter Miller,
Westfield Stratford City
Westfield Stratford City is a shopping centre in Stratford, east London, which opened on 13 September 2011. With a total retail floor area of , it is the largest urban shopping centre in the UK by land area and the 4th-largest shopping cen ...
's CEO, to order
Eurostar
Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service connecting the United Kingdom with France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most Eurostar trains travel through the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, owned and operated sep ...
to stop at the station.
John Burton, development director of Westfield's Stratford City mall, said domestic services were a "poor substitute" for Eurostar: "International commuters are essential in order to realise the vision of a major metropolitan centre for east London. Direct international services will be a key part of the legacy of the Olympics."
Miller and local politicians including former Mayor of London
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office i ...
warned that international services would be vital for the success of the Stratford City scheme and the regeneration of East London.
London Assembly
The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds super-majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject ...
member
Andrew Boff
Andrew Boff (born 14 April 1958) is a British politician who has been Deputy Chair of the London Assembly since May 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served a London-wide Assembly Member (AM) since the 2008 election. Boff served ...
has suggested that rail operators considering running international trains should be forced to stop at Stratford International as part of their High Speed 1 line access. Eurostar did not agree to stop at the station during the
2012 London Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
.
There are several
other potential operators that may use the station for international services including
Deutsche Bahn
The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder.
describes itself as the se ...
's London-Frankfurt service which was proposed in 2010, however was then abandoned.
Access and interchange
Access to the station was, at design stage, to be via a new link road to Waterden Road, which linked in turn to the A12 at Lea Interchange and south to Carpenters Road. This link road was constructed and a new signal junction installed on Waterden Road but never opened. However, these roads were stopped up in mid-2007 to enable the construction of the Olympic Park.
When opened it was located adjacent to the construction sites of both the London Olympic Park and Westfield Stratford City shopping centre which prevented pedestrian access; during local redevelopment work a temporary bus service linked Stratford International to nearby
Stratford. The DLR station opened on 31 August 2011, and Westfield Stratford City on 13 September 2011. The bus service ran until 20 September.
Stratford International details
''nationalrail.co.uk'', accessed 14 September 2011
archive
/ref>
References
External links
{{TSGN and SE Stations, High Speed=y, FCC None=y, SN None=y
Docklands Light Railway stations in the London Borough of Newham
Railway stations in the London Borough of Newham
Railway stations opened by Network Rail
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 2009
Railway stations served by Southeastern
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Stratford, London