Romford railway station is an interchange station on the Great Eastern Main Line, serving the town of Romford in the London Borough of Havering, east London. It is 12 miles 30 chains (19.9 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Chadwell Heath and Gidea Park. Its three-letter station code is RMF and it is in Travelcard Zone 6.
The station is currently managed by TfL Rail. The majority of services call at Romford as part of the Shenfield-Liverpool Street "metro" service operated by TfL Rail, but the station is also served by some Abellio Greater Anglia trains to and from Southend Victoria and Colchester Town. It is also the northern terminus of a branch line to Upminster operated by London Overground. From 2019, Romford will be fully served by Crossrail, linking it to additional stations in central London as well as Reading and London Heathrow Airport.
Romford station opened on 20 June 1839 as the eastern terminus of the Eastern Counties Railway from Mile End. Both stations acted as temporary termini, with the line extending east to Brentwood and west to Bishopsgate (Low Level) in 1840. On 7 June 1893 the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway opened a second station in Romford, on a branch line to Upminster. The two stations were combined in 1934.
In May 2015 the Upminster branch Iine transferred from Abellio Greater Anglia to London Overground and the regular Shenfield "metro" service transferred to TfL Rail.
On 29 December 1944, one person was killed and three were injured when, in darkness and heavy fog, a Chelmsford-London service passed two signals at danger on the approach to Romford and ran into the rear of a stationary freight train. The passenger train's speed at the moment of impact was about 15 mph. One crew member on the goods train was killed instantly. The Chelmsford train driver was held responsible for the collision in a Ministry of War Transport report.
On 4 February 2010, two people standing on the platforms at Romford were injured when a quantity of stone ballast was shed from a freight train passing through the station. Subsequent examination found that the train wagon's doors had not been properly closed when it departed from the goods yard at Acton, west London, bound for Ipswich.
The majority of services are currently operated by TfL Rail which runs the stopping "metro" route between Liverpool Street and Shenfield. Greater Anglia also operates medium-distance services between Liverpool Street and destinations in the East of England, while London Overground runs the half-hourly "push and pull" service between Romford and Upminster.
In 2017 new Class 345 trains will enter service as Crossrail partially opens. The route will be extended through central London to London Heathrow Airport and Reading in 2019. Platforms 2 to 5 will be extended from their current length of between 179 metres (196 yd) and 182 metres (199 yd) to accommodate the Crossrail trains which will be over 200 metres (220 yd) long. New lifts, signage, help points, customer information screens and CCTV will also be installed.
London Buses routes 5, 66, 86, 103, 128, 165, 174, 175, 193, 247, 248, 252, 294, 296, 347, 365, 370, 375, 496, 498, 499, 647, 648, 649, 650, 651, 674 and 686 and night routes N15 and N86 and LSP route 575 all serve the station.