Seven Kings railway station

Seven Kings
The station seen in 2019
Seven Kings Location of Seven Kings in Greater London
Location	Seven Kings
Local authority	London Borough of Redbridge
Managed by	Elizabeth line
Station code	SVK
DfT category	C2
Number of platforms	4
Accessible	Yes
Fare zone	4
National Rail annual entry and exit
2016–17	3.099 million
2017–18	2.960 million
2018–19	3.168 million
2019–20	3.157 million
2020–21	1.286 million
Key dates
1 March 1899	Opened
Other information
External links	Departures Layout Facilities Buses
Coordinates	51.5635°N 0.0969°E / 51.5635; 0.0969
London transport portal

Seven Kings railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line serving the district of Seven Kings in the London Borough of Redbridge, east London. It is 8 miles 46 chains (13.8 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Ilford and Goodmayes. Its three-letter station code is SVK and it is in Travelcard Zone 4. The station was opened on 1 March 1899 by the Great Eastern Railway. It is currently managed by Transport for London. Services call at Seven Kings as part of the Shenfield – Paddington Elizabeth line service. Eventually, the Elizabeth line service will be extended beyond Paddington to Reading and Heathrow Airport.

History

Seven Kings station was opened on 1 March 1899. Before the London Underground's Central line was extended from Stratford via Gants Hill to Newbury Park in 1947, Seven Kings was one of two junctions for the Fairlop Loop to Woodford via Hainault. 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 and ran into the rear of a Southend-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 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 Monday-Saturday off-peak service is six trains per hour in each direction between Liverpool Street and Shenfield, reduced on Sundays to four per hour in each direction:

Operator	Route	Rolling stock	Frequency
Elizabeth line	Paddington – Bond Street – Tottenham Court Road – Farringdon – Liverpool Street – Whitechapel – Stratford – Maryland – Forest Gate – Manor Park – Ilford – Seven Kings – Goodmayes – Chadwell Heath – Romford – Gidea Park – Harold Wood – Brentwood – Shenfield	Class 345	8x per hour

During peak times service frequency is increased and calling patterns may be varied. In addition, there is one early-morning service operated by Abellio Greater Anglia; from Colchester to Liverpool Street.

In June 2017 new Class 345 trains began entering service in preparation for the opening of Crossrail. There are no plans to extend the regularly-used platforms 3 and 4 from their current length of 187 metres (205 yd) to accommodate the new trains which will be over 200 metres (220 yd) long, so selective door opening will be utilised. New lifts, signage, help points, customer information screens and CCTV will be installed.

Preceding station	Elizabeth line			Following station
Ilford towards Paddington		Elizabeth line		Goodmayes towards Shenfield

Connections

London Buses routes 86 and N86 serve the station.

External links

• Train times and station information for Seven Kings railway station from National Rail
• Excel file displaying National Rail station usage information for 2005/06 Archived 22 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine