On Friday 31 May 2019, London's former least used station,
Angel Road, closed. The 19:52 service to Stratford became the last station to depart from the quiet north London station. Angel Road ultimately closed because 580 metres to the south a station has been constructed as part of the Meridian Water development, a major a £6 billion regeneration programme in Upper Edmonton that will see 10,000 new homes being built.
Today, Monday 3 June 2019, a few days after Angel Road closed, London gained its newest station, Meridian Water. The Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, and the Deputy Mayor of London for Transport, Heidi Alexander, opened the station on Monday morning. The 05:57 Greater Anglia service to Liverpool Street became the first train to depart from the new station. Although I was committed to boarding the last service from Angel Road, like Chris Grayling and Heidi Alexander, I was not prepared to wake up at 05:00 on a Monday morning, so I visited Meridian Water after work.
Until the new time table is released in September 2019, Meridian Water will receive the same infrequent service pattern that its predecessor did. This will however change, and services from Meridian Water will eventually be much more frequent. The Meridian Water station build and Lea Valley line improvements was an impressive project, building a railway station and extra track, with two railway lines with frequent rail services still in operation.
A third track has been added to the Lea Valley line from Meridian Water to just north of
Lea Bridge station. This track will enable services to run on this line every 15 minutes in each direction. It is likely that half of the services will terminate/depart at Meridian Water from the bay platform, platform 2, and the remaining services will terminate/depart from Hertford East or Bishops Stortford.
The station has been future proofed by building four platforms. Platforms 3-4 are in operation, and platform 2 will be in operation from September. Platform 1 has been prepared for, but no track has been laid yet. Meridian Water is also on the proposed Crossrail 2 route, which is expected to open in the 2030s. It is expected that 4 million people will use the station each year, this is 125 times more than the number of people that used Angel Road in 2017-18 according to the Office of Rail and Road statistics. Already on the first day, there were clearly 'regular passengers' using Meridian Water, 12 people boarded the 17:53. There were also fellow rail enthusiasts and train spotters visiting the station for the first time in operation.
Angel Road station has already seen substantial works over the weekend. Despite closing on Friday evening, by Sunday evening the footbridge was removed and the platforms had been completely stripped. If you are planning on visiting Meridian Water, the station is currently named 'MWRWSTN' on Network Rail's website, live trains and dot matrix boards along the line.
Although the station is less than 24-hours into operation, there are already notable things to be aware of. If you visit, try and find the TfL map that has both Angel Road and Meridian Water, perhaps TfL and/or Greater Anglia were expecting the opening of the station to be delayed? It is also interesting to note two things I believe are missing. There is no British Rail symbol outside the station, and the platforms signs from the concourse are laminated A3 pieces of paper, a likely last minute job?
For more photos and videos of the final day of Angel Road, including the 19:52 service, and updates from the first day of operation at Meridian Water, find me on Instagram and Twitter where my name is @TubeSpottingDan
On Friday 31 May 2019, London's former least used station, Angel Road, closed. The 19:52 service to Stratford became the last station to depart from the quiet north London station. Angel Road ultimately closed because 580 metres to the south a station has been constructed as part of the Meridian Water development, a major a £6 billion regeneration programme in Upper Edmonton that will see 10,000 new homes being built.
Today, Monday 3 June 2019, a few days after Angel Road closed, London gained its newest station, Meridian Water. The Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, and the Deputy Mayor of London for Transport, Heidi Alexander, opened the station on Monday morning. The 05:57 Greater Anglia service to Liverpool Street became the first train to depart from the new station. Although I was committed to boarding the last service from Angel Road, like Chris Grayling and Heidi Alexander, I was not prepared to wake up at 05:00 on a Monday morning, so I visited Meridian Water after work.
Until the new time table is released in September 2019, Meridian Water will receive the same infrequent service pattern that its predecessor did. This will however change, and services from Meridian Water will eventually be much more frequent. The Meridian Water station build and Lea Valley line improvements was an impressive project, building a railway station and extra track, with two railway lines with frequent rail services still in operation.
A third track has been added to the Lea Valley line from Meridian Water to just north of Lea Bridge station. This track will enable services to run on this line every 15 minutes in each direction. It is likely that half of the services will terminate/depart at Meridian Water from the bay platform, platform 2, and the remaining services will terminate/depart from Hertford East or Bishops Stortford.
The station has been future proofed by building four platforms. Platforms 3-4 are in operation, and platform 2 will be in operation from September. Platform 1 has been prepared for, but no track has been laid yet. Meridian Water is also on the proposed Crossrail 2 route, which is expected to open in the 2030s. It is expected that 4 million people will use the station each year, this is 125 times more than the number of people that used Angel Road in 2017-18 according to the Office of Rail and Road statistics. Already on the first day, there were clearly 'regular passengers' using Meridian Water, 12 people boarded the 17:53. There were also fellow rail enthusiasts and train spotters visiting the station for the first time in operation. 
Angel Road station has already seen substantial works over the weekend. Despite closing on Friday evening, by Sunday evening the footbridge was removed and the platforms had been completely stripped. If you are planning on visiting Meridian Water, the station is currently named 'MWRWSTN' on Network Rail's website, live trains and dot matrix boards along the line.
Although the station is less than 24-hours into operation, there are already notable things to be aware of. If you visit, try and find the TfL map that has both Angel Road and Meridian Water, perhaps TfL and/or Greater Anglia were expecting the opening of the station to be delayed? It is also interesting to note two things I believe are missing. There is no British Rail symbol outside the station, and the platforms signs from the concourse are laminated A3 pieces of paper, a likely last minute job?
For more photos and videos of the final day of Angel Road, including the 19:52 service, and updates from the first day of operation at Meridian Water, find me on Instagram and Twitter where my name is @TubeSpottingDan
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