Abbey Wood railway station

Station platforms, looking eastbound

Opened by the South Eastern Railway on 30 July 1849, the operations of which were handed over to the South Eastern and Chatham Railway in 1899, it became part of the Southern Railway during the grouping of 1923. The line then passed on to the Southern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. When BR was divided into sectors in the 1980s the station was served by Network SouthEast until the privatisation of British Railways.

During the 1860s William Morris famously used a decorated wagon to commute between this station and his new home at Red House, Bexleyheath, occasionally with his eccentric and artistic house guests.

The ticket office at Abbey Wood was APTIS-equipped by November 1986, making it one of the first stations with the ticketing system which was eventually found across the UK at all staffed British Rail stations by the end of the 1980s.

The station was to be served by the proposed Greenwich Waterfront Transit, however the project was cancelled by Mayor of London Boris Johnson owing to lack of funds.[4]

Construction of the new station, 2017

The first station opened with the line in 1849 and was a typical South Eastern Railway brick building with metal platform shelters.

The station has been rebuilt twice over the past 50 years to cater for the changing nature of the area.[5] In 1987 a new station was constructed which, in 2014, was replaced by Network Rail with an interim station whilst the new Crossrail station was constructed. The new station opened on 23 October 2017.[6] It was designed by architects Fereday Pollard and includes step free interchange between platforms and bus connections with the Harrow Manorway, a dual carriageway which runs next to the ticket hall.[7]

Abbey Wood will be the terminus of one of two eastern branches of the Elizabeth Line and will offer interchange between terminating Elizabeth Line services (at 12 trains per hour on new line) and existing Southeastern services. This is instead of continuing services to Ebbsfleet International along existing tracks as those lines are congested and might have delayed Crossrail services.[8][9]

The Elizabeth Line will provide a link north west to ExCeL London and Canary Wharf, then onwards to the city centre, Heathrow Airport and Reading. As of 2021 there are proposals to extend some Elizabeth Line services further east to Gravesend; the route is safeguarded and would use one of the two terminating tracks at Abbey Wood onto either existing National Rail tracks (upgraded for AC) or a separate 4-track line.[10]

Services at Abbey Wood are operated by Southeastern and Thameslink using Class 376, 465, 466, 700 and 707 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[11]

• 2 tph to London Cannon Street via Greenwich
• 2 tph to London Charing Cross via Lewisham
• 2 tph to Luton via Greenwich
• 2 tph to Crayford, returning to London Cannon Street via Sidcup and Lewisham
• 2 tph to Dartford
• 2 tph to Rainham via Dartford and Gravesend

During the peak hours, the station is also served by direct trains to and from Bexleyheath and Barnehurst.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Plumstead		Thameslink North Kent Line		Slade Green
		Southeastern North Kent Line		Belvedere
	Future development
Preceding station		Crossrail		Following station
Woolwich towards Reading or Heathrow Airport		Crossrail Elizabeth line Abbey Wood Branch		Terminus
	Historic services
Church Manor Way Halt		Southern Railway North Kent Line		Belvedere

London Buses routes 180, 229, 244, 301, 469, B11, school routes 602, 669 and night route N1 serve the station.[12]

An extension of the London Overground Gospel Oak to Barking line from Barking across the river to Thamesmead and Abbey Wood was proposed in August 2015.[13] The section from Barking to Barking Riverside is currently under construction and is planned to open in autumn 2022,[14] but there are no current plans to extend the line further towards Abbey Wood. Rather than this, in 2019 Transport for London and City Hall proposed an extension of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to serve Thamesmead as part of the proposed Thamesmead and Abbey Wood OAPF (Opportunity Area Planning Framework).[15] A DLR extension was chosen due to lower connectivity benefits of an Overground extension, the low frequency (4 trains an hour) of the Gospel Oak to Barking line, and — most significantly — a construction cost twice as much as the DLR, as the gradients required to cross the River Thames would require large scale tunnelling works when compared to the DLR.[16] Despite making this recommendation, the consultation also noted that an extension of the Gospel Oak to Barking line could provide good orbital transport links in the long term.

Notes

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Abbey Wood railway station.

• Train times and station information for Abbey Wood railway station from National Rail
• The remodelled exterior of Abbey Wood station Image at Crossrail, London
• fereday pollard
• marks barfield
• Abbey Wood station on navigable O.S. map