| Lea Valley lines | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 London Overground Class 710 atHackney Downs | |||
| Overview | |||
| Status | Operational | ||
| Owner | Network Rail (Anglia Route) | ||
| Locale | |||
| Termini | |||
| Stations | 39 | ||
| Service | |||
| Type | Commuter rail,Suburban rail | ||
| System | National Rail | ||
| Services | 5 | ||
| Operator(s) | |||
| Depot(s) | Ilford | ||
| Rolling stock | |||
| Technical | |||
| Number of tracks | 2–4 | ||
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge | ||
| Electrification | 25 kV 50 Hz AC Overhead lines | ||
| Operating speed | 40–50 mph (64–80 km/h) | ||
| |||
Lea Valley lines |
|---|
 London Overground:Liverpool Street to Cheshunt / Enfield Town via Seven Sisters, and to Chingford  National Rail:Liverpool Street / Stratford to Cheshunt via Tottenham Hale |
TheLea Valley lines are a set ofsuburban rail lines running along theLea Valley inEast London,North London andHertfordshire toLiverpool Street andStratford. Historically part of theGreat Eastern Railway,[2] the lines now form part of theAnglia Route ofNetwork Rail. Services are operated byLondon Overground andGreater Anglia.
The lines include theEnfield Town branch, theChingford branch, theHertford East branch, theSouthbury Loop, the Temple Mills branch, and the section of theWest Anglia Main Line fromBroxbourne towardsLondon Liverpool Street andStratford.
On 31 May 2015, services fromLondon Liverpool Street toChingford,Cheshunt andEnfield Town were transferred toLondon Overground; services from London Liverpool Street andStratford viaTottenham Hale remain withGreater Anglia. Services operated by London Overground are now fully operated by new-builtClass 710 rolling stock, replacing olderClass 315 andClass 317 stock inherited from Greater Anglia.[3] Services operated by Greater Anglia are operated by newClass 720 andClass 745 stock, replacing Class 317 andClass 379 trains.
In February 2024, London MayorSadiq Khan announced that Lea Valley line services operated by London Overground will be branded "Weaver line" in honour of the weaving industry that was once a major employer in theEast End districts closest to the lines'Liverpool Street terminus.
The first section was opened by theEastern Counties Railway (ECR) on 20 June 1839 from the London end atDevonshire Street to Romford, extended on 1 July 1840 toBishopsgate (London end) and Brentwood. TheNorthern and Eastern Railway (N&ER) opened its first section from that line atStratford to Broxbourne on 15 September 1840, and to Harlow in 1841; though it remained a separate entity, its line was leased to the ECR from 1 January 1844. A branch from Broxbourne toHertford opened in 1843.
Enfield was reached on 1 March 1849 by the single-trackEnfield Town branch from the N&ER atAngel Road viaLower Edmonton. The ECR was incorporated into theGreat Eastern Railway (GER) in 1862. A shorter route to Edmonton was provided by the GER in 1872, fromBethnal Green viaHackney Downs andStoke Newington, which opened on 27 May; the section viaSeven Sisters and Lower Edmonton, at a new high-level station provided adjacent to the old low-level station, opened on 22 July. The line from there to Enfield was doubled at the same time. The old line between Angel Road and Lower Edmonton was closed to passenger trains in 1939, except for occasional diversionary traffic including the period in the 1950s when the rest of the local network was being electrified under theEastern Region; the line closed completely in 1964 and the track was removed soon after.
Another branch, theChingford branch line, went from Lea Bridge to Walthamstow, Shern Hall Street, in 1870, extended southwards to Hackney Downs in 1872 and northwards to Chingford in 1873.
The final section linked Lower Edmonton on the Enfield branch via Churchbury (laterSouthbury) with the Broxbourne line at Cheshunt, opening on 1 October 1891; it was known as theChurchbury loop until the renaming of that station in 1960, then the Southbury loop.
A station was proposed near Clapton called Queens Road but never opened.[4]
Electrification of the lines via Seven Sisters to Hertford East, Enfield Town and Bishops Stortford, plus the Chingford branch, were completed in 1960. The line via Tottenham Hale was not electrified until 1969, usingClass 125 diesel multiple units between 1958 and 1969.
In 2021,Sadiq Khan announced that if re-elected asMayor of London, he would give the six services operated by London Overground unique names that would reflect London's diversity, working with hisCommission for Diversity in the Public Realm.[5] This included services between Liverpool Street and Enfield Town, Cheshunt, and Chingford, which were transferred from Greater Anglia to London Overground in 2015.
The name proposed for this service in 2015 was the 'Lea Valley line', the established name used for the lines on which this service operates.[6] On 25 August 2023, TFL announced that it would be giving each of the six Overground services unique names by the end of the following year.[7][8] On 15 February 2024, it was confirmed that the Lea Valley section would be named theWeaver line and would be coloured maroon on the updated network map.[9]
The weaving and textile industry (Colloquially "the Rag Trade") was a major employer in theEast End districts (such asShoreditch,Spitalfields,Haggerston,Hackney andBethnal Green) close to theLiverpool Street terminus.[10] Walthamstow, an area on the lines' Chingford branch, was home to the prominenttextile artistWilliam Morris.
The importance of the industry was such that two elements of theCoat of Arms of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets – themulberry and theshuttle – are symbols of the industry.
There had been a local textile industry for time immemorial, but the arrival ofHuguenot refugees bringing knowledge of advanced French techniques gave the industry a significant boost. The English word 'refugee', aloanword adopted from French, has its origin in the French word the Huguenots used to describe themselves.[11]
Over the years much of the industry’s workforce would be made up of further waves of migrants from overseas including Ireland, Bangladesh and Jewish refugees from theRussian Empire.
Allexpress andinter-city services utilising the lines, such as those towardsStansted Airport andCambridge, are operated byGreater Anglia as part of theGreater Anglia franchise.
Suburban services are operated by both London Overground and Greater Anglia. Services operating on the Southbury Loop terminating at Cheshunt, on the Enfield Town branch, and on the Chingford branch are operated by London Overground. All services via Tottenham Hale, services originating at Stratford, and services operating via the Southbury Loop that continue beyond Cheshunt, are operated by Greater Anglia. The routes are:
Until 1968 theHall Farm Curve allowed trains from Stratford to Chingford. It may be reconstructed.[12]
The lines were historically part of theNetwork Rail Strategic Route 5, SRS 05.02, 05.04 and part of 05.01. This was classified as a London and South East Commuter line.[13]
A number of services to/from Liverpool Street/Enfield Town start or terminate in different places on special occasions. WhenTottenham Hotspur F.C. are playing at home, additional trains run, some starting/terminating from White Hart Lane or Seven Sisters.
The lines aredouble track for most of its length, however between Hackney Downs and Liverpool Street it is multitrack – thesuburban lines for trains stopping at Bethnal Green, Cambridge Heath and London Fields and theMain Lines for non-stop West Anglia/Stansted Express services. It iselectrified at25 kV AC usingoverhead line equipment and has a line speed of 40–75 mph (64–121 km/h) except between Cheshunt and Coppermill junction where it is 60–85 mph (97–137 km/h). Different sections have differentloading gauges. Most is W8, with the branches to Enfield Town and Chingford being W6 and the branch to Stratford W9.[13]
The Tottenham Hale–West Anglian route was planned to become part ofCrossrail 2 to Cheshunt, Broxbourne and Hertford East. In 2020 plans for Crossrail were put on hold.[14]
Brown, Joe (2006).London Railway Atlas.ISBN 978-0-7110-3137-1.
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