Northumberland Park railway station

Northumberland Park
Northumberland Park station looking south, with level crossing in foreground (February 2006)
Northumberland Park Location of Northumberland Park in Greater London
Location	Northumberland Park
Local authority	London Borough of Haringey
Managed by	Abellio Greater Anglia
Station code	NUM
DfT category	E
Number of platforms	2
Accessible	Yes [1]
Fare zone	3
National Rail annual entry and exit
2010–11	0.176 million[2]
2011–12	0.213 million[2]
2012–13	0.416 million[2]
2013–14	0.521 million[2]
2014–15	0.594 million[2]
Key dates
1 April 1842	Opened (Marsh Lane)
June 1852	Renamed (Park)
1 July 1923	Renamed (Northumberland Park)
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
External links	Departures Layout Facilities Buses
WGS84	51°36′06″N 0°03′15″W / 51.6017°N 0.0541°W / 51.6017; -0.0541Coordinates: 51°36′06″N 0°03′15″W / 51.6017°N 0.0541°W / 51.6017; -0.0541
London Transport portal UK Railways portal

Northumberland Park railway station is a National Rail passenger station in Northumberland Park, London. The station and all trains serving it are operated by Abellio Greater Anglia.The station is located in London Travelcard Zone 3. The station is immediately south of one of north London's few remaining level crossings. Northumberland Park Depot of London Underground's Victoria line is adjacent to the station. The station is used by Tottenham Hotspur football fans when Tottenham are playing home games at White Hart Lane.

History

Northumberland Park was opened on 1 April 1842^[3] as a Halt on the Northern & Eastern Railway. The station was originally named Marsh Lane after the country lane to Tottenham Marshes on which it is situated.

The Northern and Eastern Railway was leased by the Eastern Counties Railway in 1844 who took over operation of the line. The line was initially laid to a gauge of 5 ft (1,524 mm) but already this had been identified as non standard and between 5 September and 7 October 1844 the whole network was re-laid to 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge.^[4]

In June 1852 the station was renamed Park station.

The Eastern Counties Railway was taken over by the Great Eastern Railway in 1862.

In 1882 the line through the station became part of a major rail freight artery with the opening of the Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway. This provided a link for the Great Eastern Railway from the coal fields in the north to London. This led to a second pair of running lines known as the Slow Lines (the ones that exist today - 2013 - are the old Fast Lines) being added in 1913.^[5]

In 1919 as well as the two sets of main lines there were some private sidings serving local industries including Tottenham Gas works. Adjacent to the station was a marshalling yard for goods traffic.^[6] The yard was under the control of the station master and had three reception sidings and fourteen sorting sidings. Its purpose was the servicing of the various lineside industries on the southern part of the Lea Valley Line as well as the Enfield Town and Chingford branch goods depots. Additionally it used to handle the perishable goods traffic as the policy was to keep this apart from more general traffic.^[7]

In 1923 operation passed to the London & North Eastern Railway and the station was renamed to its current title, Northumberland Park on 1 July 1923, this is also the name of the surrounding district, in Tottenham, North London.

On 7 January 1931 there was an accident at Northumberland Park when a coal train hit a shunting locomotive which was then propelled into a Brake Van of another freight train. This resulted in the brake van catching fire and the train guard was burnt to death.^[8]

The signal box (built 1914) was located near the level crossing and was raised up on stilts.^[9]

In 1940 during World War 2 an unexploded anti-aircraft shell fell on the adjacent marshalling yard.^[10]

Following nationalisation in 1948 the station became part of British Railways Eastern Region.

Around 1961 the marshalling yard was closed^[11] and the site used for the Northumberland Park Depot of London Underground's Victoria line. In 2013 this is the only above ground location where Victoria line stock can be seen and the depot is joined to the main Victoria line at a junction north of Seven Sisters tube station.

The Lea Valley line between Copper Mill Junction and Cheshunt was electrified at 25 kV in 1969.^[12] The station was also rebuilt at this time with the work being completed in 1970.^[11]

When Sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by Network SouthEast until the privatisation of British Railways.

The signal box (by this date only controlling the level crossing gates) was closed.

Recent History

With the privatisation of the UK's railways in 1994 operation of the station was initially allocated to a business unit which succeeded the old British Railways structure before being taken over by West Anglia Great Northern (WAGN) in January 1997. Initially owned by Prism Rail, National Express took over operation in July 2000. In 1994 responsibility for the operational infrastructure passed to Railtrack.

In August 2002 signalling control was transferred to the Liverpool Street Integrated Electronic Control Centre (IECC).^[13]

The WAGN franchise was replaced in 2003 by the 'One' franchise although this was later renamed National Express East Anglia.

The following year following financial difficulties Railtrack was superseded by Network Rail.

In February 2012 operation of the station changed once again with Abellio Greater Anglia taking over the Greater Anglia franchise.

Future

In 2007 Haringey Council supported proposals for platforms for the Victoria line to be built at Northumberland Park. These would be to the east of the main line platforms between the main line and the Northumberland Park Depot.^[14] This was supported by the former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.^[15] It is claimed that this would aid regeneration of the area, and that better transport links would have to be part of plans to increase capacity at White Hart Lane.^[16]

In February 2013, the Crossrail task force of business group London First, chaired by former Secretary of State for Transport Andrew Adonis, published its recommendations on Crossrail 2, favouring a route almost identical to the regional option proposed by TfL in 2011.^[17] The report was endorsed by Network Rail.^[18] If this happens it is likely that few if any main line trains will continue to call at Northumberland Park.

This proposal will see four tracks restored through Northumberland Park to Tottenham Hale and direct links via central London to the south west suburbs.

Connections

London Buses Routes 192, 318, 341, 476, W3 serve the station.

Services

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Tottenham Hale		Abellio Greater Anglia West Anglia Main Line Monday-Saturday		Angel Road or Enfield Lock
	Future Development
Preceding station		Crossrail		Following station
Tottenham Hale towards Hampton Court or Shepperton or Chessington South or Epsom		Crossrail Line 2		Angel Road towards Hertford East

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Northumberland Park railway station.

• Train times and station information for Northumberland Park railway station from National Rail