Greenford station

Greenford station is a London Underground and National Rail station in Greenford, Greater London, and is owned and managed by LUL. It is the terminus of the National Rail Greenford Branch Line, and is in Travelcard Zone 4.

History


The original Greenford station was opened by the Great Western Railway on 1 October 1904 on the joint New North Main Line.

The present station, adjacent to the original, was built in the Central line extension of the 1935-40 New Works Programme of the London Passenger Transport Board. It opened on 30 June 1947 after delay due to the Second World War. Service at the original station was gradually reduced and it was closed in 1963.

The station today
Greenford station is above ground level with an island platform for the Central line, where it is between Perivale and Northolt stations. A bay platform facing south-east between the Underground platforms serves the Greenford branch service operated by First Great Western, the next station on the branch is South Greenford and the line joins the Great Western Main Line at West Ealing.

Greenford was the first London Underground station to have an escalator up to platforms above street level. It remains the only London Underground station with a wooden-treaded escalator in service; all other such escalators were converted to fully metal treads, or removed altogether from sub-surface Underground stations in the wake of the fatal 1987 King's Cross fire.

Greenford branch trains run to Paddington but there is no Sunday service.

The line between Greenford and West Ealing carries infrequent freight services from Paddington New Yard and sand traffic for Park Royal and is used by occasional diverted passenger services. One of the few remaining semaphore signalling installations in London is on the adjacent New North Main Line which Greenford East signal box controls along with the Greenford branch as far as South Greenford. Great Western type lower quadrant signals are still in use.

British Rail plans from the early 1990s to do away with Greenford East signal box and its semaphore signals, with upgraded signalling controlled by Slough and Marylebone signalling centres, were postponed indefinitely as the decline of rail traffic controlled by Greenford East did not justify the cost.

Transport Link
London bus routes 92, 95, 105, 395 and E6.