Hackney Wick is a station on the North London Line in the area of Hackney Wick, East London. It is in Travelcard Zone 2. The station and all trains serving it are operated by London Overground. It opened on 12 May 1980 by British Rail on the re-routed line which bypassed the site of the former Victoria Park station as part of the CrossTown Link line between North Woolwich and Camden Road stations. Between Spring 2017 and May 2018 the station was rebuilt and modernised, including replacement of the footbridge by a subway. The new subway, in addition to linking the two platforms will, later in 2018, provide a cycle and pedestrian link between Hackney and Tower Hamlets.
As part of the programme to introduce four-car trains on the London Overground network, the North London Line between Gospel Oak and Stratford closed in February 2010; reopening 1 June 2010. This was to enable the installation of a new signalling system and the extension of 30 platforms. Engineering work continued to June 2011, during which reduced services operated and Sunday services were suspended.
The typical service at the station is 4 trains per hour westbound to Richmond via Hackney, Highbury, Camden Road and Willesden, 2 trains per hour to Clapham Junction, and 6 trains per hour eastbound to Stratford.
Until 9 December 2006, when the line from Stratford to North Woolwich was closed to be converted to a Docklands Light Railway line, the eastbound service ran to North Woolwich.
Hackney Wick station was a key transport point for the 2012 Summer Olympics as it is situated 100m from the western periphery of the Olympic Park. However, due to potential overcrowding, TfL announced that westbound trains would not stop at this station for the duration of the Games.
Hackney Wick is one of four stations located around the park, along with Stratford station, Stratford International and Pudding Mill Lane DLR station.
On 29 December 1985, the station was the scene of one of the murders of the serial rapists John Duffy and David Mulcahy.
The station is near the scene of the first railway murder. The victim, Thomas Briggs of 5 Clapton Square, was returning from dining with his niece in Peckham in July 1864 and, aged 69, had the misfortune to meet his murderer on the train.
Two clerks discovered a compartment sticky with blood at Hackney, but Franz Muller had slipped away unnoticed to return to his lodgings at 16 Park Terrace. The victim was discovered on the line between Bow and Hackney Wick and was brought initially into the Mitford Castle public house (now the Top o' the Morning) in Cadogan Terrace and subsequently taken home, where he died. A hat belonging to Muller was discovered in the compartment.
In the next few days, a Cheapside jeweller came forward with Briggs's missing watch and chain, and a description of Muller. The theft was to pay for Muller's emigration to America, and he departed soon after on the Victoria, but the police went to New York by a faster boat and were awaiting his arrival in New York. He was returned to England, tried, convicted, and hanged at Newgate Prison.