Wood Street railway station

Wood Street
Wood Street Location of Wood Street in Greater London
Location	Walthamstow
Local authority	London Borough of Waltham Forest
Managed by	London Overground
Station code	WST
DfT category	D
Number of platforms	2
Fare zone	4
National Rail annual entry and exit
2004–05	0.418 million
2005–06	0.339 million
2006–07	0.654 million
2007–08	0.653 million
2008–09	0.641 million
2009–10	0.590 million
2010–11	0.675 million
2011–12	0.750 million
2012–13	0.786 million
Key dates
1873	Opened
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
External links	Departures Layout Facilities Buses
London Transport portal UK Railways portal

Wood Street railway station is in Walthamstow, now part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest in north east London. It is in Travelcard Zone 4, and the station and all trains are operated by London Overground. It is also occasionally known as Walthamstow Wood Street. The station is located on the Chingford Branch Line and is part of the Lea Valley Lines network.

History

The station was opened in 1873 by the Great Eastern Railway.

On 13 February 1919 there was an accident at Wood Street when a passenger train ran into an empty stock train. Five people were injured – none seriously. The cause was a signal failure.

In 1923 the Great Eastern Railway became part of the London and North Eastern Railway.

In 1948 British Railways Eastern Region took over operation of the line following nationalisation.

There was an engine shed located just north of Wood Street which was a sub-shed of Stratford TMD and was built in 1878. The engine shed was a two road affair with space for 6 tank locomotives – there was also a short siding for coal wagons. An additional siding was added c1934. By the 1950s the staff complement was 36 drivers, 36 Firemen and 6 Passed Cleaners although recruitment for what was a hard dirty job became more difficult during that decade. The main allocation of the shed was tank engines for working suburban services to and from London Liverpool Street. From the 1920s the allocation was exclusively the LNE N7 0-6-2T locomotives.

The shed was closed in 1960 when the line was electrified. Electric services commenced on 12 November 1960. Early services were formed of Class 305 EMUs but initial technical problems with these saw replacements by Class 302 and Class 304 EMUs.

To the north of these there were a number of carriage sidings located either side of the tracks.

Until a last minute decision was made in 1961, it had been intended to build the Victoria line past Walthamstow Central station to Wood Street, where the line would surface to terminate next to the British Railways station, on land previously used as a coal depot. The goods depot closed on 6 May 1968.

In April 1994 Railtrack took over responsibility for the operation of the infrastructure. Train services have been operated since then by West Anglia Great Northern, One railway, National Express East Anglia, Abellio Greater Anglia and currently in 2015 by London Overground.

Typical journey times are according to the December 2012 public timetable 7 minutes to Chingford and 19 minutes to London Liverpool Street.

There were previously bike racks but they were removed at some point. David Beckham is known to have used the station in his youth, he is reported to have visited the nearby Hollow Ponds often to play football.

Connections

London Buses routes 230 and W16 serve the station.

Service

The typical off-peak service is:

• 4 trains per hour to Chingford
• 4 trains per hour to Liverpool Street via Hackney

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Walthamstow Central towards Liverpool Street		Lea Valley Lines		Highams Park towards Chingford

Layout

Side Platform Platform 1

⇒ London Overground towards Liverpool Street via Hackney ⇒

⇐ London Overground towards Chingford ⇐

Side Platform Platform 2

External links

• Train times and station information for Wood Street railway station from National Rail

Gallery

• 

  Platforms looking towards Chingford

• 

  Platforms looking towards London

• 

  Platform signage