Abbey Wood railway station

This article is about the station in London. For the station in Bristol, see Filton Abbey Wood railway station.

Abbey Wood
Abbey Wood railway station (2008)
Abbey Wood Location of Abbey Wood in Greater London
Location	Abbey Wood
Local authority	Royal Borough of Greenwich
Grid reference	TQ473789
Managed by	Southeastern
Station code	ABW
DfT category	C2
Number of platforms	2
Accessible	Yes
Fare zone	4
National Rail annual entry and exit
2002–03	2.425 million
2004–05	2.202 million
2005–06	2.090 million
2006–07	2.804 million
2007–08	3.096 million
2008–09	3.029 million
2009–10	2.883 million
2010–11	3.030 million
2011–12	3.134 million
2012–13	3.175 million
2013–14	3.282 million
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
External links	Departures Layout Facilities Buses
London Transport portal UK Railways portal

Abbey Wood railway station serves the suburb of Abbey Wood in south east London. It is served by Southeastern, and is between Plumstead and Belvedere stations on the North Kent Line. The station will be served by Crossrail from 2018, giving a direct service to Central London and onto Heathrow, Maidenhead and Reading.

It is the closest railway station to the suburb of Thamesmead (buses run from the station to Thamesmead proper). Alphabetically, it is the second station in the UK, after Abbey Road on the DLR.

History

Station platforms, looking eastbound

Opened by the South Eastern Railway on 30 July 1849, the operations of which were handed over to the South Eastern and Chatham Railway in 1899, it became part of the Southern Railway during the grouping of 1923. The line then passed on to the Southern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. When BR was divided into sectors in the 1980s the station was served by Network SouthEast until the privatisation of British Railways.

During the 1860s William Morris famously used a decorated wagon to commute between this station and his new home at Red House, Bexleyheath, occasionally with his eccentric and artistic house guests.

The ticket office at Abbey Wood (NLC5131) was APTIS-equipped by November 1986, making it one of the very first stations with the ticketing system which was eventually found across the UK at all staffed British Rail stations by the end of the 1980s.

The station has been rebuilt twice over the past 50 years to cater for the changing nature of the area. The station was to be served by the proposed Greenwich Waterfront Transit, however the project was cancelled by Mayor of London Boris Johnson due to lack of funds.

Future

Abbey Wood is being rebuilt in preparation for Crossrail, due to commence operation in 2018. Abbey Wood is the terminus of one of two eastern branches of Crossrail and will offer cross-platform interchange between terminating Crossrail services (at 12 trains per hour on new line) and existing Southeastern services (along existing tracks). This is instead of continuing services to Ebbsfleet International along existing tracks as those lines are congested and may delay Crossrail services.

Crossrail will provide a link north west to ExCeL London and Canary Wharf, then onwards to the city centre, Heathrow Airport and Maidenhead. There are proposals to extend Crossrail further east to Gravesend; the route is safeguarded but it is not intended to be implemented as part of the current phase. A proposed extension of the London Overground to Thamesmead and Abbey Wood was proposed in August 2015.On the 8th December 2015 it was proposed that a DLR Extension across the Gallions Reach Crossing could link with Thamesmead, Abbey Wood and Woolwich.

Services

The typical off-peak service from the station is:

• 6tph (trains per hour) to London Cannon Street via Greenwich
• 2tph to London Charing Cross via Lewisham
• 2tph to Barnehurst via Slade Green returning to London via the Bexleyheath line
• 2tph to Dartford
• 2tph to Gillingham (Kent)
• 2tph to Crayford via Slade Green returning to London via the Sidcup line

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Woolwich Arsenal		Southeastern North Kent Line		Dartford
Plumstead		Southeastern Greenwich Line		Belvedere
	Future Development
Preceding station		Crossrail		Following station
Woolwich towards Reading or Heathrow Airport		Crossrail Elizabeth Line		Terminus
	Disused Railways
Church Manor Way Halt		Southern Railway North Kent Line		Belvedere
	Possible services
Preceding station		London Overground		Following station
Thamesmead towards Gospel Oak		Gospel Oak to Barking Line		Terminus
Preceding station		DLR		Following station
Thamesmead towards Bank, Tower Gateway or Stratford		Docklands Light Railway		Woolwich Arsenal Terminus

Connections

London Buses routes 180, 229, 244, 469, B11 and 602 and night route N1 serve the station.

References

Notes

Bibliography

• ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7
• ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1

External links

• The remodelled exterior of Abbey Wood station Image at Crossrail, London
• fereday pollard
• marks barfield
• Abbey Wood station on navigable O.S. map