Seven Kings railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line serving the district of

Seven Kings Seven Kings is a district of Ilford in London, England, part of the borough of Redbridge. Situated approximately two miles from Ilford town centre, Seven Kings forms part of the Ilford post town. Historically part of Essex, it was part of the ...

in the London Borough of Redbridge, east 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 SVK and it is in

Travelcard Zone 4 Fare zone 4 is an outer 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. It ...

. The station was opened on 1 March 1899 by the Great Eastern Railway. It is currently managed by Transport for London and is on the

Elizabeth line The Elizabeth line is a high-frequency hybrid urban–suburban rail service in London and its suburbs. It runs services on dedicated infrastructure in central London from the Great Western Main Line west of Paddington to and via Whitechapel ...

between and

London Paddington Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great ...

History

Seven Kings station was opened on 1 March 1899. Before 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 ...

's Central line was extended from via to in 1947, Seven Kings was one of two junctions for the

Fairlop Loop The Hainault Loop was originally opened as the Fairlop Loop, a branch line of the Great Eastern Railway (GER). It once connected Woodford on the Ongar (now Epping) branch to Ilford on the Main Line, with an eastward connection for goods, ...

to via . 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 A signal passed at danger (SPAD), known in the United States as a stop signal overrun and in Canada as passing a stop signal, is an event on a railway where a train passes a stop signal without authority. In the United States and Canada, this ...

and ran into the rear of a

Southend Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

-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 A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government ag ...

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.

Services

The typical off-peak service is eight trains per hour in each direction between Paddington and Shenfield (on Sundays four of the eight trains terminate instead at Gidea Park). During peak times service frequency is increased. In addition, there is one early-morning service operated by

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 ...

; from

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

to Liverpool Street. In June 2017 new trains began entering service in preparation for the opening of

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway l ...

. There are no plans to extend the regularly-used platforms 3 and 4 from their current length of to accommodate the new trains which will be over 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

External links

Excel file displaying National Rail station usage information for 2005/06
{{Crossrail navbox Railway stations in the London Borough of Redbridge Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1899 Railway stations served by the Elizabeth line

Railway stations A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing such ...