Romford–Upminster line
London OvergroundClass 710 betweenUpminster andEmerson Park in 2021
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	Network Rail
Locale	Greater London
Termini	Romford Upminster
Stations	3
Website	tfl.gov.uk/overground/route/liberty
Service
Type	Suburban rail;heavy rail
System	National Rail
Services	1
Operator(s)	London Overground
Depot(s)	Ilford
Rolling stock	Class 710
History
Opened	7 June 1893
Technical
Line length	3 miles 30 chains (5.4 km)
Number of tracks	1
Character	Branch line
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge
Electrification	Overhead line, 25 kV 50 Hz AC
Operating speed	30 mph (48 km/h)
Route map (Click to expand)

TheRomford–Upminster line is a railway line inGreater London that connectsRomford, on theElizabeth line andGreat Eastern Main Line, toUpminster, on theLondon, Tilbury and Southend line andLondon Underground. The route is 3 miles 28 chains (5.4 km) in length and there is one intermediate station atEmerson Park which is located 1 mile 62 chains (2.9 km) from Romford.^[1] The line is part ofNetwork Rail Strategic Route 7, SRS 07.09, and is classified as a rural line.^[2]

Services on the line are provided byLondon Overground; there are no connections to any other lines in the Overground network. In February 2024, TfL announced a re-branding of this service as theLiberty line;^[3] the new name took effect in November 2024.^[4] Prior to renaming, it was labelled inTransport for London timetables as theRomford to Upminster route.^[5]

The line issingle-track throughout,electrified at25 kV 50 Hz AC, has aloading gauge of W6, and a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour (48 km/h).^[2] As of December 2022^[update], there is a service two trains per hour in each direction. The timetabled journey time from one terminus to the other is nine minutes.

The first line proposed to link Romford to the north shore of theRiver Thames was put forward by theThames Haven Railway and Dock Company who proposed a 16-mile (26 km) line from Romford toShell Haven. AnAct of Parliament was obtained in 1836 and powers were renewed 10 years later but no work was ever commenced.^[6]

Interest in a connection to the Thames waned with the building of theLondon, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LT&SR) but after that company gained independence from the Great Eastern Railway (GER) interest increased again and in 1882 the Romford and Tilbury Railway proposed a line from Romford to the LT&SR atGrays. This line was linked to another proposed line from Tilbury to Gravesend which included a tunnel beneath the Thames but the line failed to gain parliamentary support.^[6]

The following year the GER themselves proposed a line from Romford passing betweenHornchurch andUpminster and then connecting directly toTilbury Docks and in competition the LT&SR submitted their own proposal and it was this proposal that was authorised the following year.^[7]

The line as originally built was a branch of theLondon, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LT&SR) and opened on 7 June 1893 providing the LT&SR with a link to theGreat Eastern Railway (GER) atRomford. The LT&SR had requested use ofRomford but the GER opposed this and made a counter-offer to lease the line between Romford and Upminster. This in turn found no favour with the LT&SR who eventually constructed a separate station. For the first three years the LT&SR were able to share goods facilities at Romford, but 1896 they constructed their own small goods yard where the branch joins theGreat Eastern Main Line and with access to Victoria Road. Additional freight business came after theMidland Railway takeover of the LT&SR when a private siding was added at Romford for a builders' merchants.^[7]

Initially there were 8 trains per day between Romford and Grays with a reduced service on Sundays. Trains were operated bytank engines while freight was usually hauled by a small tender engine.^[7] With the opening of the station at Emerson Park an additional late train provided connection to a train leavingFenchurch Street just after midnight for the use of returning theatergoers.^[8]

v t e Liberty line
Legend
mi+ch Great Eastern Main Line toLiverpool Street 0+00 Romford Great Eastern Main Line toNorwich 1+64 Emerson Park District line viaTower Hill LTS line toFenchurch Street 3+30 Upminster Upminster depot LTS line toShoeburyness

Emerson Park Halt was opened on 1 October 1909, and a run-round loop was constructed 500 yards (457 m) to the west to enable extra trains to run between Emerson Park and Upminster. Push-pull working began in 1934 usingMR 0-4-4T engines and the service frequency was increased.^[9] As locomotives were no longer required to run round their trains the loop was no longer needed and was removed in circa 1936. Provision of services reversing at Emerson Park ceased on nationalisation in 1948.^[10]

In the April 1920 timetable there are 27 down (towards Tilbury) and 22 up (towards Romford) trains a day. There were six through trains to Grays, four toTilbury and five short runs between Emerson Park and Upminster, with a similar number of return trains. On Sundays there were nine trains in each direction.^[11] By 1939 this had increased to 35 down trains and 27 up services on weekdays, still with nine in each direction on Sundays and a similar service pattern.^[12] The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway was purchased by theMidland Railway in 1912 and was amalgamated into theLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway on 1 January 1923. The line became part ofBritish Railways on 1 January 1948, initially as part of the London Midland Region and then the Eastern Region from 20 February 1949. The short workings between Emerson Park and Upminster were eliminated with all services on the line calling at Upminster, Emerson Park and Romford from the 1949 timetable.^[13] After this time services were taken over byN7 tanks and from February 1951 the Sunday service was removed.^[9]

From 17 September 1956,Metro-Cammell Lightweightdiesel multiple units fromStratford replaced the steam service and a twice-hourly service was introduced, effectively doubling the frequency.^[9] In 1956Upminster was enlarged and a new underground depot opened and the end through service from Romford to Grays ceased. To accommodate the truncated service, from 20 April 1957 a newbay platform numbered six opened at Upminster and as a result the link between the branch and the LT&S line was removed in 1959 effectively making it part of the Great Eastern route.

A survey of passenger numbers was carried out in 1964 as part of theBeeching report and a closure notice was rapidly published. Local opposition was loud and organised and the closure was rejected, mainly due to the large number of commuters using Emerson Park Halt. A further attempt at closure was made around 1970 but use of the line was increasing and the attempt again failed, but freight traffic was withdrawn with the yard at Victoria Road closing in 1974 after the private siding had succumbed a few years earlier.^[14] By the late 1970s the service was in the hands ofCravens DMUs.^[1]

At the end of diesel operation there were 31 journeys each way every day except Sunday where there was no service. There was also no service on public holidays.^[15]

The line was electrified in the 1980s andelectric trains using a singleClass 315 unit based atIlford began operating on 17 April 1986.^[16] Following theprivatisation of British Rail, passenger services were operated byFirst Great Eastern from 1997 to 2004,National Express East Anglia from 2004 to 2012 andGreater Anglia from 2012 to 2015. Under this franchise services were operated byClass 321 units.^[17] The line transferred to become part of theLondon Overground network in May 2015 and services were again provided by a single Class 315 unit.^[18] Sunday service was restored from the 13 December 2015 timetable. From 5 October 2020 the line has been operated usingBritish Rail Class 710 rolling stock, taking over fromBritish Rail Class 315 andBritish Rail Class 317 rolling stock.

In July 2023, TfL announced that it would be giving each of the six Overground services unique names by the end of the following year.^[19][20] In February 2024, it was confirmed that the Romford–Upminster service would be named theLiberty line ("to reference the historical independence of the people of theborough of Havering") and would be coloured grey on the updated network map.^[21] The name references theRoyal Liberty of Havering, and the wider freedom that is a "defining feature of London".^[22]

The branch is known colloquially as the "Romford Push and Pull" and has always been single-track throughout. The only structure of any note on the line is the bridge across theRiver Ingrebourne which is just over 100 feet (30 m) in length. When first opened the LT&SR constructed a separate station building at Romford where a cast-iron footbridge over South Street was provided to link to the GER station, this only being opened when an LT&SR train was due. This building itself was directly opposite the GER station entrance and was of 3 storeys with the booking hall on the ground floor and including accommodation for the stationmaster.^[7] In April 1934 the LT&SR building ceased use as a station and the ground floor was rented as a shop and theLondon and North Eastern Railway, the successor of the GER, took control of the whole station. The barriers that had restricted access between the two stations at rail level were then removed. The branch has just one signal, on approach to Romford.^{[citation needed]}

AtUpminster a small engine shed was initially provided in the area which is now occupied by the underground depot,^{[clarification needed]} and the station was substantially rebuilt in the early 1930s to accommodate theDistrict Railway extension with a separate Grays-facing bay platform being added at this time.^[23] The connection west of the station to the LT&S main line remained after the works, but was severed in 1968 with a further rebuilding of the station.^[24] There were plans to link the line from platform six at Upminster to the reception tracks of theLondon Underground depot there in order to enable the transfer ofLondon Underground D78 Stock units onto the main line to be hauled away by diesel locomotive for refurbishment at the Ilford depot. These plans were scrapped when the refurbishment work was transferred to Wakefield in Yorkshire and the transfer was done by road.^[25] The point-work for this connection, which was half installed, is still visible from the eastern end of platform five at Upminster.

There is only one intermediate station, atEmerson Park. In the year 2017/18 there were over 300,000 passenger journeys to/from Emerson Park, more that three times the number 10 years previously, but still a small enough number for the line to come top of the list of least busy Overground stations.^[26]

In the mid-1980s the line waselectrified at25 kV AC. Electrification of the line saw an end to years of speculation about its future.

The line is entirely withinfare zone 6.

Services are currently operated byLondon Overground, which replaced the previous operator,Abellio Greater Anglia, in May 2015.^[27]

As of June 2021, the service pattern on the route is one train every 30 minutes between approximately 6:15 am and 10 pm Mondays to Saturdays, and approximately 8:30 am and 8 pm on Sundays. The journey time from one terminus to the other is timetabled as nine minutes.^[27]

Annualised entry/exit data from Transport for London for London Overground trips is as follows:^[28]

As of November 2024^[update], the typical off-peak service pattern is:^[5]

v t e London Overground
Cheshunt Theobalds Grove Enfield Town Turkey Street Romford Bush Hill Park Southbury Emerson Park Upminster Edmonton Green Silver Street Chingford White Hart Lane Highams Park Watford Junction Bruce Grove Wood Street Watford Seven Sisters Walthamstow Central High Street Harringay Blackhorse Road Walthamstow Queen's Road Bushey Green Lanes Carpenders Park Crouch Hill South Tottenham St. James Leyton Midland Road Hatch End Upper () Stamford Hill Street Leytonstone Headstone Lane Holloway Stoke Newington Clapton High Road Harrow & Kentish Town West Rectory Road Wanstead Park () Wealdstone Gospel Oak Camden Road () Hackney Woodgrange Park () Kenton () Caledonian Road Canonbury Dalston Kingsland Downs Barking South Kenton & Barnsbury Barking Riverside () North Highbury & Islington Hackney Central Wembley Hampstead Heath Dalston Wembley Finchley Road & Frognal () Junction London Fields Central West Hampstead () Haggerston Cambridge Homerton Stonebridge Brondesbury Hoxton Heath Hackney Wick Park Brondesbury Park Shoreditch High Street Bethnal Green Stratford Harlesden Kensal Rise Kensal Green Liverpool Whitechapel Willesden Queen's Park Street Shadwell () Junction Kilburn High Road Wapping South Hampstead Rotherhithe Shepherd's Bush () Euston () Canada Water Kensington (Olympia) Surrey Quays West Brompton Battersea Park Imperial Wharf () (limited service) New Cross Clapham Queens Road Peckham New Cross Gate Junction Peckham Rye Brockley Acton Central Wandsworth Road Denmark Hill Honor Oak Park South Acton ()Clapham Forest Hill Gunnersbury High Street Sydenham Kew Gardens Richmond Crystal Palace Penge West Anerley Norwood Junction West Croydon ()
Legend
Station National Rail Liberty line Accessible station Thameslink Lioness line Interchange station Elizabeth line Mildmay line Accessible interchange Docklands Light Railway Suffragette line Internal interchange London Underground Weaver line Out-of-station interchange London Trams Windrush line (   ) Nearby interchange London River Services

During the construction of the railway in 1892, the geologist T. V. Holmes discovered a five-metre layer of boulder clay underlying the gravel and sand in a section just north of what is nowSt Andrew's Park. This is now theHornchurch CuttingSite of Special Scientific Interest, which exhibits the southernmost limit of theAnglian ice sheet 450,000 years ago, the furthest south that any ice sheet reached.^[29]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toRomford to Upminster Line.

• Holmes, T. V. (1892),"The New Railway from Grays Thurrock to Romford: Sections between Upminster and Romford",Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,48 (1–4), The Geological Society:365–372,doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1892.048.01-04.21,S2CID 130901888

• Transport in the London Borough of Havering
• Railway lines in London
• Standard gauge railways in London
• Railway branch lines
• Railway lines opened in 1893
• 25 kV AC railway electrification

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