Station code LEM Fare zone 3 Address London, United Kingdom | DfT category E 2011–12 0.749 million Opened 9 July 1894 Number of platforms 2 | |
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Similar Leytonstone High Road railway st, Walthamstow Queen's Road rail, Woodgrange Park railway st, Wanstead Park railway st, Crouch Hill railway station | ||
Leyton Midland Road is a London Overground station in Leyton of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line, between Walthamstow Queen's Road and Leytonstone High Road stations and is in Travelcard Zone 3.
Contents
History
The station opened on 9 July 1894 as part of the Tottenham & Forest Gate Railway and was originally just called "Leyton".
On 17 August 1915, three explosive bombs from the German Zeppelin L.10 landed on or near the station, destroying the ticket office, a billiard hall in the arches under the platform and damaging several houses nearby; four people were killed.
The station was renamed on 1 May 1949 to its current name. The goods yard was just beyond the station, and closed on 6 May 1968. Like Leytonstone High Road and Wanstead Park, the booking office here was built into the viaduct arch, but by the 1980s all the old buildings had gone, although the Greater London Council built a new booking office on Midland Road itself. A few years later that was closed, as like other stations it became unstaffed, and it too was demolished.
Station today
Since the takeover by London Overground the station has benefited from a major refit including deep clean, new signing, a ticket machine and additional waiting shelters. The community garden which was started by members of the GOBLIN support group is tended by station staff now, one of whom recently won an award for outstanding service to passengers. The station also contains help points and automatic ticket gates have now been installed. Controversially, the Midland Road entrance is now closed.
Services and connections
The service has been improved in stages to four trains per hour, weekdays and weekends except late evenings when it goes down to two trains per hour.
London Bus routes 69, 97 and W16 and night route N26 serve the station.
Future proposals
In common with other stations on the line, usage has greatly increased in recent years, following improvements in train services and the reintroduction of station staff, and peak-hour overcrowding of the two-car diesel trains is now a major issue. Electrification of the line has been finally approved after a long campaign and is anticipated for 2017. This will though see services from the station suspended for 8 months (June 2016 - February 2017) whilst the work is carried out.