Harold Wood railway station is on
the Great Eastern Main Line in east London, serving the Harold
Wood area of Romford in the London Borough of Havering. It is 14
miles 76 chains (24.1 km) down the line from London Liverpool
Street and is situated between Gidea Park and Brentwood. Its
three-letter station code is HRO and it is in Travelcard zone 6.
The station is currently managed by Transport for London and is
served by the Shenfield – Liverpool Street stopping service as
part of the Elizabeth line. Eventually, the Elizabeth line
service will be extended beyond Liverpool Street to Paddington
and onwards to Reading and Heathrow Airport.
Harold Wood station was opened on 1 December 1868 by the Great
Eastern Railway on its main line from Bishopsgate in London to
the east of England and consisted of two staggered platforms of
wooden construction, the down platform accessed from Station
Road and the up platform from Oak Road. Goods facilities
consisted of two sidings on the north side of the line opposite
the up platform, and there was also a long siding serving a
brickworks. A signal box was provided at the up end of the down
platform controlling the signals, access to the goods
facilities, and a trailing crossover.
Two additional tracks were built in 1934 under London and North
Eastern Railway ownership (the original tracks are normally used
today by express services which do not call at Harold Wood). At
this time the current station building was constructed on the
overbridge at Gubbins Lane, and new platforms of precast
concrete construction located slightly further east nearer to
the new station building. The signal box was removed as part of
these works, with control of the new colour light signals shared
between Gidea Park and Brentwood.
The typical Monday-Saturday off-peak service from the station is
eight trains per hour to Shenfield and eight to London Liverpool
Street. On Sundays this reduces to six in each direction.
London Buses routes 256, 294, 347, 496, 497, 646 and 656 serve
the station.
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