Abbey Wood railway station

Infobox UK station
name = Abbey Wood
manager = Southeastern
locale = London
borough = London Borough of Bexley
platforms = 2

---

caption = Abbey Wood railway station (2006)
code = ABW
usage0203 = 2.425
usage0405 = 2.202
usage0506 = 2.090
usage0607 = 2.804
years = 30 July 1849
events = Opened
latitude = 51.4903
longitude = 0.12113
gridref = TQ473789

Abbey Wood railway station serves the suburb of Abbey Wood in South East London. It is served by Southeastern, and is between Plumstead and Belvedere stations on the North Kent Line. Crossrail line 1's south eastern branch is expected to terminate here, as is the Greenwich Waterfront Transit a putative segregated busway. Local interests are campaigning for both these schemes to extend further eastwards, to Ebbsfleet/Gravesend and Erith respectively.

The station's name boards identify it as Abbey Wood for Thamesmead, as it is the closest railway station to Thamesmead (buses run from the station to Thamesmead proper).

History

Opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1849, then by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway, it became part of the Southern Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The line then passed on to the Southern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

When BR was divided into sectors in the 1980s the station was served by Network SouthEast until the Privatisation of British Railways.

During the 1860s William Morris famously used a decorated wagon to commute between this station and his new home at Red House, Bexleyheath, occasionally with his eccentric and artistic house guests.

The station has been rebuilt twice over the past 50 years to cater for the changing nature of the area [cite web|title=Abbey Wood|publisher=Kent Rail|author=David Glasspool|date=2007|url=http://www.kentrail.co.uk/abbey_wood.htm|accessdate =2007-03-29] .

Services

Currently (Autumn 2007) the weekday daytime service pattern consists of 6 trains an hour in each direction along the North Kent Line: three routes each operating at a 30 minute frequency:

* Charing Cross to Gillingham (fast)
* Cannon Street to Dartford via Greenwich (stopping)
* Cannon Street to Slade Green via Greenwich (and then returning to Cannon Street via Sidcup) (stopping)

The two stopping services are timed to give a 15 minute frequency on the North Kent Line stopping everywhere between Cannon Street and Slade Green.

Routes

Future Development

###@@@KEYEND@@@###

References

*cite book|author=R.V.J.Butt, |title= The Directory of Railway Stations |publisher=Patrick Stephens Ltd |year=1995 ISBN 1 85260 508 1
*cite book|author=A. Jowett, |title= Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas |publisher=Atlantic Publishing |year=2000 ISBN 0 906899 99 0