Britain’s Busiest Railway Stations No 6

Saturday 18th May 2024

It’s a measure of the impact of the Elizabeth line on London’s public transport that yet another station that sees purple trains calling has a place in the Top 10 chart of Britain’s busiest railway stations.

Stratford appears at sixth place having clocked up 44,136,784 passenger entries and exits in the year ended March 2023 thanks not only to the Elizabeth line but also the presence of Greater Anglia, London Overground and half hourly journeys on c2c at weekends. And not forgetting passengers interchanging between those Train Operating Companies and the Central and Jubilee Underground lines as well as two of TfL’s DLR lines and a myriad of bus routes at two adjacent bus stations along with express coaches to Stansted Airport.

Goodness knows how the Office of Rail and Road compile the station usage statistics of passenger journeys on National Rail from that melee, but they do.

By a strange quirk of oddball statistics, during Covid lockdowns, Stratford actually achieved the coveted top spot as Britain’s busiest railway station for year ended March 2021 with 13,985,162 entries and exits, thanks to many workers living within its catchment area in East London who continued to work during that strange period, particularly those in the construction and service industries.

But sixth place is still an impressive result for a non Zone 1 station particularly, as we’ll see in future blogs in the coming months, the top five busiest stations are all central London main line termini, whereas although Stratford does see some terminating trains, most are stopping trains on a longer journey.

Destinations served directly from Stratford include Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Braintree, Clacton-on-Sea and Southend-on-Sea as well as Bishops Stortford, Heathrow Airport and, at weekends Shoeburyness, on Sundays and weekday peaks Hertford East, and, of course, London Liverpool Street and London Paddington.

When I wrote about St Pancras a couple of months ago it was easy to describe the station’s layout with its compartmentalisation into four easily defined areas for trains operated by Thameslink, Southeastern, East Midlands Railway and Eurostar (as well as the shared London Underground complex next door with Kings Cross).

Stratford is the complete opposite. It’s probably as far from a neat and logical compartmentalised station as is possible to achieve.

Indeed it must rank as Britain’s most confusingly laid out station with illogically located numbered platforms including a missing platform number, two that are seldom used, others with an A or B suffix, what seems like a maze of subways, and even two railway tracks passing right through the middle of the complex at ‘ground level’ leading to some platforms at low level and others at high level along with two ticket offices, one at the south and the other at the north of the station, and two separate adjacent bus stations.

There used to be diagrams to help strangers navigate the labyrinthine corridors and subways but they seem to have disappeared in recent times. I found this poster as I wandered around the maze of corridors which helpfully describes what each platform does, but it’s noteworthy for being out of date in its references to TfL Rail rather than the Elizabeth line.

Plenty of other directional signs can be found along the subways which containing essential information but can be rather overpowering at first sight.

Let’s try and unpack what goes where.

Here’s Network Rail’s diagram of the station layout which helpfully shows the two levels as well as the three subways at ‘Lower Level’ including the eastern most one which takes you to a dead-end, while the other two are located either side of the railway tracks used by the DLR which go through the middle of the station.

Taking the platforms from the top, as shown on the diagrams, we find an island platform numbered 1 and 2 with access from the north end of the middle subway…

… where there’s a little used corridor which takes you to the eastern most subway that gives access to other platforms (3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 10A, 11, 12)…

… before ending in a dead end.

Platforms 1 and 2 are where trains on London Overground’s Mildmay Line (formerly known as the North London line) depart every 7-8 minutes via Highbury & Islington and Willesden Junction to Richmond or Clapham Junction.

Next down from these are platforms 12 and 11 mostly used for Greater Anglia’s half hourly service via Tottenham Hale to Bishops Stortford…

… supplemented by half hourly stopping journeys as far as Meridian Water from the same platforms. Trains head to Hertford East rather than Bishops Stortford on Sundays as well as extra peak hour trains on weekdays.

Just to keep passengers on their toes Mildmay line trains to Richmond or Clapham Junction sometimes also depart from platform 11. If they left from platform 12 it would be better as there’s direct pedestrian access from platforms 1/2 to 12 via either steps or a ramp at platform level.

Next comes platform 10a which sits all on its own at the far eastern end of the station complex and sees occasional eastbound Greater Anglia trains stopping.

Until the 1990s this was numbered plain 10 but a reconfiguration of platform 9 turned it into an island platform with buildings demolished to create a new platform 9 on the southern side of the island where previously there was no platform. The old platform 9 was renumbered 10 and the old 10 became 10A.

It’s quite a trek to reach platform 10A with access via a lift/stairs from the dead end eastern most subway or from the far end of platform 10.

In the main, eastbound Greater Anglia trains tend to use platform 10 for the hourly Norwich and an hourly stopping train to Ipswich, along with trains heading for Essex (Southend-on-Sea three-per-hour; Colchester Town and Braintree, both hourly).

In the London direction these trains – around seven/eight an hour – stop at the adjacent, relatively new, platform 9.

Next comes another island with platforms 8 and 6. There’s now no platform numbered 7. Many years ago it was a bay platform alongside platform 4 on the western side of the station having been built when there were plans to run a shuttle train from Fenchurch Street to Stratford after the Shenfield line was electrified in the 1940s; but it never materialised and the platform remained abandoned and has now been swallowed up into a larger platform 4 as we’ll see shortly in this tour.

Platform 8 is used by Shenfield bound Elizabeth line trains every 7-8 minutes with handy cross platform interchange with eastbound Central line Underground trains bound for Epping or the Hainault loop on Platform 6.

Shoeburyness bound trains operated by c2c also use platform 8 at weekends.

Then we have island platforms 5 and 3 (platform 4 is on the west side of the station as explained above) which see westbound Elizabeth line trains for Paddington and Heathrow Airport on 5 with cross platform interchange with westbound Central line Underground trains to West Rusilip and Ealing Broadway on 3.

And just to make it interesting for Central line passengers there’s also a platform 3A which was created as recently as 2010 to relieve overcrowding on platform 3. It’s located on the south side of westbound Central line trains such that drivers open both doors giving passengers the choice of alighting on 3 and heading down to the subways or on 3A…

… and taking the ‘upper level concourse’ route to platforms 4a and 4b or down to the lower level for platforms 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 and the station’s southern exit.

Some regulars have worked out a good way to avoid the crowded subways if alighting or boarding an Elizabeth line train on 5 is to wait for a Central line train and dive through both sets of open doors as it waits in 3/3A and use the upper level concourse.

This would be particularly so if interchanging to/from platforms 4a and 4b, located at the far western side of the station along that upper level concourse…

… where DLR trains terminate…

… having arrived from Lewisham via Canary Wharf and the line through Bow Church.

Platforms 4a and 4b can also be accessed from the extreme western end of platforms 3 and 5 via a footbridge which takes passengers over the westbound Central line track as it dives down into a tunnel.

Another option from the upper level concourse is to head down the stairs to the three platforms used by terminating Jubilee line Underground trains, numbered 13, 14 and 15 except 13 (on the far right of the photo below) isn’t often used these days.

And just to complete the picture at ground level we have platforms 16 and 17…

… with the former taking DLR trains northwards to Stratford International (to the right in the above photo) passing underneath the whole station complex, which as you can see divides the lower level into two, while platform 17 (in the foreground in the above photo and the photo below)…

… sees trains heading south to Canning Town (also served by the Jubilee line), London City Airport and under the River Thames to Woolwich Arsenal.

The main gateline to the station’s south exit/entrance is alongside platform 17.

Setting aside Underground and DLR trains, there are 44 train departures classified as National Rail in a typical off-peak hour with 12 more trains arriving and terminating making for 56 train movements each hour – almost one a minute, perhaps explaining why Stratford is at number six in the Busiest Stations chart.

Alongside passenger trains there are also frequent appearances of freight trains making the station’s platforms popular for spotters.

That’s the platforms, now what about those subways?

The western most subway is the widest with direct access to and from the Jubilee line platforms.

It’s wide enough to try and impose a one-way system for passengers, but many choose to ignore this although at busy times you have to comply simply by sheer weight of numbers.

The central subway is much narrower. This can be found to the east of the DLR tracks which carve through the station and is immediately after the main gateline.

It’s worth knowing when changing from a National Rail train arrival on to the Jubilee line to use the western most subway which saves having to double back over the upper concourse if using the central subway as that brings you out on the eastern side of those DLR tracks.

Stratford has two ticket offices, or should I say ‘windows’. One is to the right of the main entrance at the southern end of the station…

… and the other is at the northern end of the station…

… by the main entrance to the Westfield shopping centre.

Shoppers can also access Westfield by using the footbridge that goes over all the platforms just described…

… from the southern bus station.

If you know which subway to use there are some well hidden toilets to be found just inside the main southern entrance by platform 17….

… albeit helpfully identified by a white board displaying the word TOILET on one of my visits.

But the minimalist facilities could best be described as basic and as evidence they’re often out of use, here’s a sign ready prepared to be rolled out.

For a top ten busiest station the toilet provision is, frankly, a disgrace.

Catering outlets are available on the station side of the southern gateline as shown here at the exit from the three Jubilee line platforms.

As already mentioned Stratford station also offers interchange with TfL buses and express coaches (for Stansted Airport). The main bus station is outside the southern entrance to the station and has quite an impressive roof structure..

… as well as an Information and Assistance window that’s often open too.

At the northern end of the station complex alongside the entrance to the Westfield shopping centre is the smaller Stratford City Bus Station,,,

… and where, alongside, express coach departures can be found.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little tour of Stratford. Before closing I’d also like to mention its neighbour, Stratford International station, just a few minutes walk to the north, either through Westfield or around the road bordering the shopping centre.

Obviously, although termed International, it’s never seen an International arrival or departure in its existence but it does see Southeastern High Speed trains between St Pancras and Kent.

If Stratford is Britain’s most confusing station, then its neighbour, Stratford International, has got to be Britain’s most brutalist depressing and uninspiring station. Here are some photos taken from the only two platforms in use (2 and 3) to illustrate my point.

It’s a bit brighter on the upper concourse level but the massive space has never reached its potential and I doubt that W H Smiths sees much trade.

Watch out for Britain’s fifth Busiest Railway Station next month.

Roger French

Previous blogs in this Britain’s Busiest Railway Stations series: No 10 Euston; No 9 Farringdon; No 8 St Pancras International; No 7 Tottenham Court Road.

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS with a Su Bonus Book Review Blog coming tomorrow.

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