Northumberland Park railway station is on the Lea Valley line that forms part of the

West Anglia Main Line The West Anglia Main Line is one of the two main lines that operate out of , the other being the Great Eastern Main Line, which operates services to Ipswich and Norwich via Colchester. It runs generally north through Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Har ...

, serving the ward of Northumberland Park in

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Wal ...

, north London. It is down the line from

London Liverpool Street Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...

and is situated between and . Its three-letter station code is NUM and it is in Travelcard zone 3. It is one of the stations that can be used to access

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is the home of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur in north London, replacing the club's previous ground, White Hart Lane. With a seating capacity of 62,850, it is the third-largest football stadium in England and the ...

. The station and all trains serving it are operated by Greater Anglia. The station was upgraded starting 2017 to add an extra track and a new island platform. It had one of north London's few

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term a ...

s to its immediate north, but this was removed in the rebuilding of the station as a result of the STAR (Stratford to Angel Road) project.

Northumberland Park Depot The Victoria line is a London Underground line that runs between in south London and in the north-east, via the West End. It is printed in light blue on the Tube map and is one of the only two lines on the network to run completely undergr ...

for the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

Victoria line The Victoria line is a London Underground line that runs between in south London and in the north-east, via the West End. It is printed in light blue on the Tube map and is one of the only two lines on the network to run completely underg ...

is sited adjacent to the station and it is close to

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has play ...

History

Northumberland Park was opened on 1 April 1842 as a Halt on the

Northern & Eastern Railway The Northern & Eastern Railway (N&ER) was an early British railway company, that planned to build a line from London to York. Its ambition was cut successively back, and it was only constructed from Stratford, east of London, to the towns of ...

. The station was originally named Marsh Lane after the country lane to Tottenham Marshes on which it is situated. The Northern and Eastern Railway was leased by the

Eastern Counties Railway The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) was an English railway company incorporated in 1836 intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then extend to Norwich and Yarmouth. Construction began in 1837 on the first nine miles at the ...

in 1844 who took over operation of the line. The line was initially laid to a gauge of but already this had been identified as non-standard and between 5 September and 7 October 1844 the whole network was re-laid to . In June 1852 the station was renamed Park station. The Eastern Counties Railway was taken over by the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern Ra ...

in 1862. In 1882 the line through the station became part of a major rail freight artery with the opening of the

Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway The Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway, colloquially referred to as "the Joint Line"''Joint Line Joy'', in the Railway Magazine, June 2015 was a railway line connecting Doncaster and Lincoln with March and Huntingdon in the eastern ...

. This provided a link for the

from the coal fields in the north to London. This led to a second pair of running lines known as the Slow Lines (the ones that exist today - 2013 - are the old Fast Lines) being added in 1913. In 1919 as well as the two sets of main lines there were some private sidings serving local industries including Tottenham Gas works. Adjacent to the station was a marshalling yard for goods traffic. The yard was under the control of the station master and had three reception sidings and fourteen sorting sidings. Its purpose was the servicing of the various lineside industries on the southern part of the Lea Valley Lines as well as the

Enfield Town Enfield is a large town in north London, England, north of Charing Cross. It had a population of 156,858 in 2018. It includes the areas of Botany Bay, Brimsdown, Bulls Cross, Bullsmoor, Bush Hill Park, Clay Hill, Crews Hill, Enfield High ...

and

Chingford Branch Line The Chingford branch line is a railway line between Clapton Junction (just northeast of Clapton station) and Chingford station. Services operate between Liverpool Street station and Chingford.See West Anglia Main Line for more information abou ...

Chingford branch goods depots. Additionally it used to handle the perishable goods traffic as the policy was to keep this apart from more general traffic. In 1923 operation passed to the

London & North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS) of the "Big Four (British railway companies), Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It op ...

and the station was renamed to its current title, Northumberland Park on 1 July 1923, this is also the name of the surrounding district, in

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nor ...

. On 7 January 1931 there was an accident at Northumberland Park when a coal train hit a shunting locomotive which was then propelled into a brake van of another freight train. This resulted in the brake van catching fire and the train guard was burnt to death. The signal box (built 1914) was located near the level crossing and was raised up on stilts. In 1940 during World War 2 an unexploded anti-aircraft shell fell on the adjacent marshalling yard. Following nationalisation in 1948 the station became part of the

Eastern Region of British Railways The Eastern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948, whose operating area could be identified from the dark blue signs and colour schemes that adorned its station and other railway buildings. Together with the North Eastern Region (w ...

. Around 1961 the marshalling yard was closedGreat Eastern Railway Society Journal volume 76 page 24 Dave Taylor October 1993 and the site used for the

's Victoria line. In 2013 this is the only above ground location where Victoria line stock can be seen and the depot is joined to the main Victoria line at a junction north of Seven Sisters tube station. The Lea Valley line between Copper Mill Junction and Cheshunt was electrified at 25 kV in 1969. The station was also rebuilt at this time with the work being completed in 1970. Prior to the completion of electrification in 1969, passenger services between Cheshunt and London Liverpool Street through Northumberland Park were normally operated by Class 125 diesel multiple units (which had been purpose-built for the line in 1958). When Sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by

Network SouthEast Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the net ...

until the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the indust ...

. The signal box (by this date only controlling the level crossing gates) was closed.

Recent history

Following privatisation in 1994 management of the station was initially allocated to a business unit which succeeded the old British Railways structure before being taken over by

West Anglia Great Northern West Anglia Great Northern, commonly shortened to ''WAGN'', was a train operating company in England. It operated the West Anglia Great Northern franchise between January 1997 and March 2004, as well as the Great Northern franchise between Apri ...

(WAGN) in January 1997. Initially owned by

Prism Rail Prism Rail was formed in July 1995 to bid for rail franchises in the United Kingdom during the privatisation of British Rail. It expressed interest in eighteen franchises, was shortlisted for twelve and was ultimately awarded four, LTS Rail, Va ...

National Express National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...

took over operation in July 2000. In 1994 responsibility for the operational infrastructure passed to

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...

. In August 2002 signalling control was transferred to the Liverpool Street Integrated Electronic Control Centre (IECC). The WAGN franchise was replaced in 2003 by the 'One' franchise although this was later renamed

National Express East Anglia National Express East Anglia (NXEA) was a train operating company in England owned by National Express that operated the Greater Anglia franchise from April 2004 until February 2012. Originally trading as ''One'', it was rebranded National Exp ...

. The following year following financial difficulties Railtrack was superseded by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's len ...

. In February 2012 operation of the station changed once again with

Abellio Greater Anglia Greater Anglia (legal name Abellio East Anglia Limited) is a train operating company in Great Britain owned as a joint venture by Abellio, the international arm of the state-owned Dutch national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen, and the J ...

taking over the Greater Anglia franchise. In March 2017, following consultation with local authorities and the public, the decision was made to permanently close the ticket office at Northumberland Park. The station is now unmanned with assistance reached via station help points. The New Northumberland Park station will also be constructed without a ticket office.

Proposals and upgrade

Northumberland Park railway station upgrade 2019

In 2007

Haringey Council Haringey London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Haringey in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. As of 2022, Haringey is divided into 21 wards, ...

supported proposals for platforms for the Victoria line to be built at Northumberland Park. These would be to the east of the main line platforms between the main line and the

. This was supported by the former

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current m ...

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 ...

. It is claimed that this would aid regeneration of the area, and that better transport links would have to be part of plans to increase capacity at White Hart Lane. In February 2013, the Crossrail task force of business group London First, chaired by former

Secretary of State for Transport The Secretary of State for Transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport. The incumbent is ...

Andrew 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 ...

, published its recommendations on Crossrail 2, favouring a route almost identical to the regional option proposed by TfL in 2011. The report was endorsed by

. If this happens it is likely that few if any main line trains will continue to call at Northumberland Park. This proposal will see four tracks restored through Northumberland Park to Tottenham Hale and direct links via central London to the south west suburbs. In 2017, as part of a £170m Lee Valley Rail Programme to build a 5.5 km new track between Stratford and a new

Meridian Water railway station Meridian Water railway station is on the Lea Valley Lines in Edmonton in the London Borough of Enfield, north London. It opened on 3 June 2019. The station is approximately south of the closed Angel Road railway station, which Meridian Water ha ...

, the construction of a new island platform with lifts and a new footbridge at Northumberland Park started. The new platform accommodates the new third track allowing an additional two trains per hour to be operated. The level crossing for cars was closed and removed. The work was completed in 2019.

Connections

London Buses London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus s ...

Routes 192, 318, 341, 476 and W3 serve the station.

Services

All services at Northumberland Park are operated by Greater Anglia. The typical off-peak service is: * 3 tph to * 1 tph to * 2 tph to When there are events at the nearby

, some Greater Anglia services to Cambridge and

Hertford East Hertford East railway station is the northern terminus of the Hertford East branch line off the West Anglia Main Line in the east of England, and is located in the town of Hertford in Hertfordshire. It is down the line from London Liverpool Str ...

make additional stops at this station.

References

External links

{{Railway stations served by Abellio Greater Anglia Railway stations in the London Borough of Haringey Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1842 Greater Anglia franchise railway stations