Seven Kings railway station
Seven Kings railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line serving the district of Seven Kings in the London Borough of Redbridge, east London. It is down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between and. Its three-letter station code is SVK and it is in Travelcard Zone 4.
The station was opened in 1899 by the Great Eastern Railway. It is currently managed by TfL Rail. Services call at Seven Kings as part of the -Liverpool Street stopping "metro" service. In the future the TfL Rail service will be re-branded as the Elizabeth line as part of the Crossrail project. Eventually, the Elizabeth line service will be extended beyond Liverpool Street to Paddington and onwards to and Heathrow Airport.
History
Seven Kings station was opened on 1 March 1899. Before the London Underground's Central line was extended from via to in 1947, Seven Kings was one of two junctions for the Fairlop Loop to via. Seven Kings West Junction was closed in 1956, though the other connection, from Ilford, was severed as early as 1947 due to the expansion of the Ilford sheds, which are visible from the western end of Seven Kings' platforms. The carriage sheds comprise a large depot which includes two workshops.Accidents and incidents
On 23 January 1963, eight people were injured in a collision between two trains on the main line just outside of Seven Kings station. An express train from Harwich Parkeston Quay to London passed a signal at danger and ran into the rear of a Southend-London stopping service at "fairly low speed". The express train was subsequently found to have a fault with one of its brakes. A Ministry of Transport report on the incident stated that the express train's driver "cannot be excused entirely from responsibility" given his passing of the red signal. The line was reopened four hours after the incident.Services
The typical Monday-Saturday off-peak service is six trains per hour in each direction between Liverpool Street and Shenfield, reduced on Sundays to four per hour in each direction:| Operator | Route | Rolling stock | Frequency |
| TfL Rail | London Liverpool Street - Stratford - Maryland - Forest Gate - Manor Park - Ilford - Seven Kings - Goodmayes - Chadwell Heath - Romford - Gidea Park - Harold Wood - Brentwood - Shenfield | Class 315, Class 345 | 6x per hour |
During peak times service frequency is increased and calling patterns may be varied. In addition, there is one early-morning service between Colchester and Liverpool Street operated by Abellio Greater Anglia.
In June 2017 new trains began entering service in preparation for the opening of Crossrail. There are no plans to extend the regularly-used platforms 3 and 4 from their current length of to accommodate the new trains which will be over long, so selective door opening will be utilised. New lifts, signage, help points, customer information screens and CCTV will be installed.