Greenford station

Greenford is a London Underground and National Rail station in Greenford, Greater London, and is owned and managed by London Underground. It is the terminus of the National Rail Greenford Branch Line, 2 miles 40 chains (4.0 km) down the line from West Ealing and 9 miles 6 chains (14.6 km) measured from London Paddington. On the Central line, it is between Perivale and Northolt stations while on National Rail, the next station to the south on the branch is South Greenford.

Greenford
Greenford Location of Greenford in Greater London
Location	Greenford
Local authority	London Borough of Ealing
Managed by	London Underground
Owner	Transport for London
Station code	GFD
Number of platforms	3 (2 LU, 1 bay); 1 bay platform face disused
Fare zone	4
London Underground annual entry and exit
2015	4.72 million[1]
2016	4.81 million[1]
2017	4.68 million[1]
2018	4.25 million[2]
2019	4.17 million[3]
National Rail annual entry and exit
2015–16	0.260 million[4]
2016–17	0.230 million[4]
2017–18	0.151 million[4]
2018–19	0.153 million[4]
2019–20	0.170 million[4]
Key dates
1904	Opened
30 June 1947	LU station opened
17 June 1963[5]	Original main line platforms closed
Other information
External links	TfL station info page Departures Layout Facilities Buses
WGS84	51.5426°N 0.3463°W
London transport portal

Greenford station is in Travelcard Zone 4.

History

A 1914 Railway Clearing House map of railways in the vicinity of Greenford

The original Greenford station was opened by the Great Western Railway on 1 October 1904 on the joint "New North Main Line" (present-day Acton–Northolt line).[6]

The present station, adjacent to the original, was designed by Brian Lewis and built in the Central line extension of the 1935-40 New Works Programme of the London Passenger Transport Board. It was completed by Frederick Francis Charles Curtis and opened on 30 June 1947 after delay due to World War II.[6] Service at the original ("main-line") station was gradually reduced and it was closed in 1963. Operational responsibility for the station transferred from British Rail to London Transport with effect from 13 November 1967.[7]

The site of the old station for the New North Main Line can still be seen from inside Central line trains.

The station today

Greenford station is above ground level with an island platform for the Central line. A bay platform facing south-east between the Underground platforms serves the Greenford branch service operated by Great Western Railway. The branch line then continues south and joins the Great Western Main Line at West Ealing.

Platform 1 is for westbound Central line trains, and platform 3 for eastbound trains. The access to the platform via escalators takes passengers to the front of the train for westbound service, and the rear for eastbound service.

The remaining wooden escalators at Greenford, removed in 2014 and replaced with an inclinator

Greenford was the first London Underground station to have an escalator up to platforms above street level.[8] Until 2014 it remained the final London Underground station with a wooden-treaded escalator in service; all other such escalators were previously converted to fully metal treads, or removed altogether from sub-surface Underground stations in the wake of the fatal 1987 King's Cross fire.

The line between Greenford and West Ealing carries infrequent freight services from Paddington New Yard and sand traffic for Park Royal and is occasionally used by passenger services.

In 2009, because of financial constraints, TfL decided to stop work on a project to provide step-free access at Greenford and five other stations, on the grounds that these were relatively quiet stations and some were already one or two stops away from an existing step-free station.[9] £3.9 million was spent on Greenford before the project was halted.[10] The step-free access project, consisting of an innovative glass incline lift, was later restarted, and the incline lift opened on 20 October 2015.[11]

Signalling

One of the few remaining semaphore signalling installations in London is on the adjacent New North Main Line which Greenford East signal box controls along with the Greenford branch as far as South Greenford. Great Western type lower quadrant signals are still in use.

British Rail plans from the early 1990s to do away with Greenford East signal box and its semaphore signals, with upgraded signalling controlled by Slough and Marylebone signalling centres, were postponed indefinitely as the decline of rail traffic controlled by Greenford East did not justify the cost.

Services

London Underground

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) is:

• 9 tph westbound to West Ruislip
• 3 tph westbound to Northolt
• 9 tph eastbound to Epping
• 3 tph eastbound to Loughton

National Rail

Great Western Railway operate a shuttle service to West Ealing every 30 minutes between Mondays and Saturdays. There is no Sunday service on the line. Services call at South Greenford, Castle Bar Park, Drayton Green and West Ealing and the journey time is just over 10 minutes. The final service of the day runs through to London Paddington, as well as the first terminating service. Until January 2017, all services used to run to and from London Paddington however it was then reduced to just a shuttle to and from West Ealing after the new bay platform was built there to allow for Elizabeth Line services to Reading.

Connections

London Buses routes 92, 105, 395 and E6 serve the station.

References

1. "Multi-year station entry-and-exit figures (2007–2017)" (XLSX). London Underground station passenger usage data. Transport for London. January 2018. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
2. "Station Usage Data" (CSV). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2018. Transport for London. 21 August 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
3. "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2019. Transport for London. 23 September 2020. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
4. "Station usage estimates". Rail statistics. Office of Rail Regulation. Please note: Some methodology may vary year on year.
5. Chronology of London Railways by H.V.Borley
6. "Central Line, Dates". Clive's Underground Line Guides. Retrieved 11 October 2009.
7. "Platform Ticket News: Greenford". Journal of the Transport Ticket Society. Luton: Transport Ticket Society (48): 348. December 1967. ISSN 0144-347X.
8. Bruce, J. Graeme; Croome, Desmond F. (1996). "The New Works Programme Resumed". The Twopenny Tube: The Story of the Central Line. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport. p. 52. ISBN 1-85414-186-4.
9. "Disability and Deaf Equality Scheme (DES) 2009-2012". TfL. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2010.
10. "TfL wastes £64million abandoning disabled access plans on the Tube". Evening Standard. London. 21 April 2010. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
11. UK’s First Incline Lift Coming To Improve Disabled Access At Greenford Underground… But 8 Crossrail Stations Won’t Have Step-Free Access

External links

• Train times and station information for Greenford station from National Rail