West Anglia Main Line
Greater Anglia 379021 atBethnal Green in August 2012
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	Network Rail
Locale	Greater London East of England
Termini	Liverpool Street, London Cambridge
Stations	28
Service
Type	Commuter rail,Suburban rail
System	National Rail
Operator(s)	Greater Anglia (Stansted Express) CrossCountry London Overground
Rolling stock	Class 170Turbostar Class 710Aventra Class 720Aventra Class 745FLIRT Class 755FLIRT
Technical
Number of tracks	2–4
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge
Electrification	25 kV 50 Hz ACOHLE
Operating speed	85 mph (137 km/h) maximum
Route map (Click to expand)

v t e West Anglia Main Line
Legend
fromLondon Liverpool Streetmi-ch Fen line toKing's Lynn & Breckland line toNorwich Cambridge North 57-75 Cambridge–Ipswich line Cambridge 55-52 Varsity Line Cambridge South (opens 2026) Cambridge line toLondon King's Cross Shelford 52-36 Stour Valley Railway River Cam Whittlesford Parkway 49-01 A505 road M11 motorway 46-23 Newmarket & Chesterford Rly River Cam Great Chesterford 45-56 Littlebury Tunnel Audley End Tunnel Saffron Walden Railway Audley End 41-55 Audley End Viaduct Newport Viaduct Newport 39-72 Elsenham & Thaxted Light Rly Stansted Airport 36-67 Stansted Tunnel Elsenham 35-45 M11 motorway Stansted Mountfitchet 33-28 Bishop's Stortford– Braintree branch line Bishop's Stortford 30-27 River Stort Navigation Sawbridgeworth 26-57 Harlow Mill 24-36 Harlow Mill aggregate terminal Harlow Town 22-59 River Stort Navigation Roydon 20-09 River Lee Navigation Hertford East branch line toHertford East Broxbourne 17-17 Cheshunt 14-01 M25 motorway Lea Valley lines Great Eastern Main Line toNorwich Stratford 4-03 London Liverpool Street 0-00

TheWest Anglia Main Line is one of the two main line railways that operate out ofLiverpool Street (the other being theGreat Eastern Main Line toIpswich andNorwich). It runs generally north throughCheshunt,Broxbourne,Harlow,Bishop's Stortford andAudley End (nearSaffron Walden) toCambridge, with branches between servingStratford,Hertford andStansted Airport. The line runs along the boundary betweenHertfordshire andEssex for much of its length.

In the early years, the line was the main route from London to Cambridge. Following the opening of theCambridge Line betweenHitchin andCambridge, the West Anglia Main Line is now primarily a commuter route for stations between Cambridge and London. It was an important goods route for many years as the southern end of a route from coalfields inYorkshire, and there are stillfreight trains which run occasionally toHarlow andRye House Power Station, along with aNetwork Rail base atBroxbourne.

The first section was built for theNorthern and Eastern Railway fromStratford toBroxbourne and opened in 1840. It was extended northwards in stages, reachingSpellbrook, 3 miles (5 km) short of Bishops Stortford, in 1842. In 1843 the line reachedBishops Stortford, and in the following year the Northern and Eastern Railway was leased by theEastern Counties Railway. It was this railway company opened the section from Bishops Stortford toCambridge as part of its extension toEly andBrandon in 1845.

By the 1860s the railways in East Anglia were in financial trouble, and most were leased to the Eastern Counties Railway. Although they wished to amalgamate formally, they could not obtain government agreement for this until 1862, when theGreat Eastern Railway (GER) was formed by amalgamation.^[1]

The opening of theGreat Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway in 1882 saw the Great Eastern open up a direct link with coal-producing areas inNottinghamshire andSouth Yorkshire joining the line north of Cambridge at Chesterton Junction, generally routed to the large marshalling yards atTemple Mills.

Following the grouping in 1923 the line became part of theLondon & North Eastern Railway.

In 1948 followingnationalisation the line passed toBritish Railways Eastern Region.

In 1952 the branch from Elsenham to Thaxted (known as the "Gin & Toffee Line") closed to passengers, and goods services were withdrawn a year later. The Saffron Walden line closed to passengers on 7 September 1964 and to freight three months later.

Electrification first came in the early 1960s underBritish Rail in sections. Electrification to Chingford included the Stratford – Lea Bridge – Hall Farm Junction section (although this was never completed), and the line from Liverpool Street to Broxbourne via Seven Sisters and the Southbury Loop was electrified. The route via Tottenham Hale was still operated by diesel traction, theBritish Rail Class 125 'Lea Valley' DMUs.^[2]

The line from Clapton Junction (on the Chingford line) throughTottenham Hale to Cheshunt and from Broxbourne to Bishops Stortford was electrified on 9 March 1969^[3] and from there to Cambridge in 1987. Stratford to Coppermill Junction was electrified in 1989. The power supply is25 kV ACoverhead line.

In 1991, asingle-trackbranch line to Stansted Airport was opened, and services to London Liverpool Street commenced.

In early 2011,ticket barriers were installed atBishop's Stortford,Harlow Town, Broxbourne, Cheshunt and Hackney Downs, some of the busiest stations on the line, to reduce the need for ticket inspectors on theStansted Express service and reduce fare evasion.

In May 2015, services fromLiverpool Street toChingford,Enfield Town andCheshunt viaSeven Sisters transferred toLondon Overground, along with a new station opening atLea Bridge. In August the same year, a directcovered walkway opened betweenHackney Downs andHackney Central on theNorth London Line.

In September 2019, theLea Valley Rail Project was completed between Lea Bridge, and the new station atMeridian Water. This removed the level crossing atNorthumberland Park, and added a new third platform for both there andTottenham Hale, along with a third track.

As a result of the new720 and745, platform extensions are necessary at many stations to allow for ten/twelve car trains to stop at stations respectively. However, the class 720 hasselective door opening, allowing for some platforms not having to be extended.

Services from Liverpool Street to Cambridge, Hertford East and Stansted Airport are operated byGreater Anglia.

Express services from Liverpool Street to Stansted Airport are operated byStansted Express, a sub-brand of Greater Anglia.

Services from Stansted Airport to Cambridge (and onward toBirmingham New Street viaPeterborough) are operated byCrossCountry.

The line is part of theNetwork Rail Strategic Route 5, which comprises SRS 05.01 and part of 05.05. It is classified as a London and South East commuter line.^[4]

In London, the line forms the Tottenham Hale branch of theLea Valley Lines.

The line was initially5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge, but between 5 September and 7 October 1844 it was converted to1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge.

Currently, the line has double track for most of its length, with two exceptions at Stansted Airport Tunnel and atWare. There is also a short section of quadruple track betweenHackney Downs andBethnal Green, from which the West Anglia Main Line runs alongside theGreat Eastern Main Line toLondon Liverpool Street as two of six tracks into the terminus. The line iselectrified at25 kV AC and has aloading gauge of W8 except for the Stansted branch, which is W6.^[4]

Line-side train monitoring equipment includes hot axle box detectors (HABD) on the up main south of Newport (39 miles 48 chains from Liverpool Street) and on the down main north of Shepreth Branch Junction (53 miles 10 chains). There are no wheel impact load detectors (WILD) ‘Wheelchex’ on the line.^[5][6]

Major civil engineering structures on the West Anglia Main Line include the following.^[5]

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Throughout the steam era trains were predominantly hauled by Great Eastern Railway (or its constituent companies') locomotives: when steam ended in East Anglia in the 1960s some of these locomotives were still operated – seeStratford TMD andGreat Eastern Railway. After the grouping of 1923 LNER-designed locomotives were used with the B17 4-6-0 class working many main line services. Following nationalisation in 1948 British Railways introduced the Britannia 4-6-2 class on some main line services until succeeded by diesels in the late 1950s.

East Anglia was the first area to be worked completely by diesel trains withClass 31s taking over some express workings. These were succeeded by more powerfulClass 37 andClass 47 until full electrification to King's Lynn in the 1980s whenClass 86 locomotives took over.

Suburban services from about 1958 were operated byClass 125 DMUs, and following the 1969 electrificationClass 305 andClass 308 units. Other units from the GE section such asClass 302 and306 also operated services during this period,^[7] withClass 310s temporarily operating once electrification to Cambridge was complete. Thesefirst-generation units were replaced soon after byClass 315 andClass 317units.

In 2011, new BombardierClass 379s began operation mainly to replace class 317 fromStansted Express duties to mainline services (which in-turn relocated class 315s to inner suburban routes).Class 170DMUs operate fromStansted Airport north through Cambridge to Birmingham onCrossCountry services.

In 2020, newClass 745s were introduced onStansted Express services, cascading the Class 379s to other WAML services. The delayedClass 720s began to replace both class 317s & class 379s on the route on 25 August 2021,^[8][9] with full fleet replacement on this route completed in August 2022.^[10]

It seems likely that two tracks will be built alongside the line toCheshunt as part ofCrossrail 2. Intermediate stations fromTottenham Hale will transfer to Crossrail 2 releasing capacity on the mainline for additional trains.^[11] In August 2019, it was announced that funding had been approved for four-tracking and related platform construction work between Tottenham Hale and Meridian Water to enable up to 8 trains per hour to make local stops in this section at peak times.^[12]

East West Rail are also proposing to add 2 additional tracks next to the West Anglia Main Line between theShepreth Branch Junction and Cambridge.^[13]

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