West Anglia Main Line

The West Anglia Main Line is one of the two main line railways that operate out of Liverpool Street (the other being the Great Eastern Main Line to Ipswich and Norwich). It runs generally north through Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Harlow, Bishop's Stortford and Audley End (near Saffron Walden) to Cambridge, with branches between serving Stratford, Hertford and Stansted Airport. The line runs along the boundary between Hertfordshire and Essex for much of its length.

West Anglia Main Line
Greater Anglia 379021 at Bethnal Green in August 2012
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	Network Rail
Locale	Greater London East of England
Termini	Liverpool Street, London Cambridge
Stations	28
Service
Type	Commuter rail, Suburban rail
System	National Rail
Operator(s)	Greater Anglia (Stansted Express) CrossCountry
Rolling stock	Class 170 "Turbostar" Class 710 "Aventra" Class 720 "Aventra" Class 745 "FLIRT" Class 755 "FLIRT"
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 OHLE
Operating speed	80 mph (130 km/h) maximum
Route map (Click to expand)

West Anglia Main Line
from London Liverpool Street mi-ch Fen line to King's Lynn & Breckland line to Norwich Cambridge North 57-75 Cambridge–Ipswich line Cambridge 55-52 Varsity Line Cambridge South (opens 2025) Cambridge line to London King's Cross Shelford 52-36 Stour Valley Railway River Cam Whittlesford Parkway 49-01 A505 road M11 motorway 46-23 Newmarket & Chesterford Rly River Cam Great Chesterford 45-56 Littlebury Tunnel Audley End Tunnel Saffron Walden Railway Audley End 41-55 Audley End Viaduct Newport Viaduct Newport 39-72 Elsenham & Thaxted Light Rly Stansted Airport 36-67 Stansted Tunnel Elsenham 35-45 M11 motorway Stansted Mountfitchet 33-28 Bishop's Stortford– Braintree branch line Bishop's Stortford 30-27 River Stort Navigation Sawbridgeworth 26-57 Harlow Mill 24-36 Harlow Mill aggregate terminal Harlow Town 22-59 River Stort Navigation Roydon 20-09 River Lee Navigation Hertford East branch line to Hertford East Broxbourne 17-17 Cheshunt 14-01 M25 motorway Lea Valley lines Great Eastern Main Line to Norwich Stratford 4-03 London Liverpool Street 0-00

For details on the routes in the London area, see Lea Valley lines.

In the early years, the line was the main route from London to Cambridge. Following the opening of the Cambridge Line between Hitchin and Cambridge, the West Anglia Main Line is now primarily a commuter route for stations between Cambridge and London. It was an important goods route for many years as the southern end of a route from coalfields in Yorkshire, and there are still freight trains which run occasionally to Harlow and Rye House Power Station, along with a Network Rail base at Broxbourne.

History

The first section was built for the Northern and Eastern Railway from Stratford to Broxbourne and opened in 1840. It was extended northwards in stages, reaching Spellbrook, 3 miles (5 km) short of Bishops Stortford, in 1842. In 1843 the line reached Bishops Stortford, and in the following year the Northern and Eastern Railway was leased by the Eastern Counties Railway. It was this railway company opened the section from Bishops Stortford to Cambridge as part of its extension to Ely and Brandon in 1845.

By the 1860s the railways in East Anglia were in financial trouble, and most were leased to the Eastern Counties Railway. Although they wished to amalgamate formally, they could not obtain government agreement for this until 1862, when the Great Eastern Railway (GER) was formed by amalgamation.

The opening of the Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway in 1882 saw the Great Eastern open up a direct link with coal-producing areas in Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire joining the line north of Cambridge at Chesterton Junction, generally routed to the large marshalling yards at Temple Mills.

Following the grouping in 1923 the line became part of the London & North Eastern Railway.

In 1948 following nationalisation the line passed to British Railways Eastern Region.

In 1952 the branch from Elsenham to Thaxted (known as the "Gin & Toffee Line") closed to passengers, and goods services were withdrawn a year later. The Saffron Walden line closed to passengers on 7 September 1964 and to freight three months later.

Electrification first came in the early 1960s under British Rail in sections. Electrification to Chingford included the Stratford – Lea Bridge – Hall Farm Junction section (although this was never completed), and the line from Liverpool Street to Broxbourne via Seven Sisters and the Southbury Loop was electrified. The route via Tottenham Hale was still operated by diesel traction, the British Rail Class 125 'Lea Valley' DMUs.

The line from Clapton Junction (on the Chingford line) through Tottenham Hale to Cheshunt and from Broxbourne to Bishops Stortford was electrified on 9 March 1969 and from there to Cambridge in 1987. Stratford to Coppermill Junction was electrified in 1989. The power supply is 25 kV AC overhead line.

In 1991, a single-track branch line to Stansted Airport was opened, and services to London Liverpool Street commenced.

In early 2011, ticket barriers were installed at Bishop's Stortford, Harlow Town, Broxbourne, Cheshunt and Hackney Downs, some of the busiest stations on the line, to reduce the need for ticket inspectors on the Stansted Express service and reduce fare evasion.

In May 2015, services from Liverpool Street to Chingford, Enfield Town and Cheshunt via Seven Sisters transferred to London Overground, along with a new station opening at Lea Bridge. In August the same year, a direct covered walkway opened between Hackney Downs and Hackney Central on the North London Line.

In September 2019, the Lea Valley Rail Project was completed between Lea Bridge, and the new station at Meridian Water. This removed the level crossing at Northumberland Park, and added a new third platform for both there and Tottenham Hale, along with a third track.

As a result of the new 720 and 745, platform extensions are necessary at many stations to allow for ten/twelve car trains to stop at stations respectively. However, the class 720 has selective door opening, allowing for some platforms not having to be extended.

Services

Services from Liverpool Street to Cambridge, Hertford East and Stansted Airport are operated by Greater Anglia.

Express services from Liverpool Street to Stansted Airport are operated by Stansted Express, a sub-brand of Greater Anglia.

Services from Stansted Airport to Cambridge (and onward to Birmingham New Street via Peterborough) are operated by CrossCountry.

The line is part of the Network Rail Strategic Route 5, which comprises SRS 05.01 and part of 05.05. It is classified as a London and South East commuter line.

In London, the line forms the Tottenham Hale branch of the Lea Valley Lines.

Infrastructure

The line was initially 5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge, but between 5 September and 7 October 1844 it was converted to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge.

Currently, the line has double track for most of its length, with two exceptions at Stansted Airport Tunnel and at Ware. There is also a short section of quadruple track between Hackney Downs and Bethnal Green, from which the West Anglia Main Line runs alongside the Great Eastern Main Line to London Liverpool Street as two of six tracks into the terminus. The line is electrified at 25 kV AC and has a loading gauge of W8 except for the Stansted branch, which is W6.

Line-side train monitoring equipment includes hot axle box detectors (HABD) on the up main south of Newport (39 miles 48 chains from Liverpool Street) and on the down main north of Shepreth Branch Junction (53 miles 10 chains). There are no wheel impact load detectors (WILD) ‘Wheelchex’ on the line.

Tunnels and viaducts

Major civil engineering structures on the West Anglia Main Line include the following.

Tunnels and viaducts on the West Anglia Main Line

Railway structure	Length	Distance from London Liverpool Street	ELR	Location
Littlebury Tunnel	407 yards (372 metres)	43 miles 46 chains – 43 miles 27 chains	BGK	Between Great Chesterford and Audley End stations
Audley End Tunnel	456 yards (417 metres)	43 miles 11 chains – 42 miles 70 chains
Audley End Viaduct		41 miles 43 chains		South of Audley End station
Newport Viaduct		40 miles 36 chains		North of Newport station
Stansted Airport Tunnel	1 mile 184 yards (1778 metres)	36 miles 23 chains – 35 miles 15 chains	TLA	Stansted Airport branch
Long Bridge Viaduct (River Stort)		19 miles 16 chains (via Clapton)	BGK	South of Roydon station
Hoe Street Tunnel	71 yards (65 metres)	6 miles 52 chains – 6 miles 49 chains	CJC	Chingford branch, between Wood Street and Walthamstow Central stations
Clapton arches (River Lea)	6 chains (c. 120 metres)	4 miles 35 chains – 4 miles 29 chains	BGK	Clapton line, north of Clapton station
Clapton Tunnel	284 yards (260 metres)	3 miles 66 chains – 3 miles 53 chains		Clapton line, between Clapton and Hackney Downs stations
Hackney Downs or Queens Road Tunnel	445 yards (407 metres)	3 miles 39 chains – 3 miles 19 chains
Theobalds Grove arches	10 chains (c. 200 metres)	13 miles 51 chains – 13 miles 41 chains	HDT	Stoke Newington line, Theobalds Grove station
White Hart Lane arches	10 chains (c. 200 metres)	7 miles 03 chains – 6 miles 73 chains		Stoke Newington line, south of White Hart Lane station
Stoke Newington Tunnel	60 yards (55 metres)	4 miles 22 chains – 4 miles 19 chains		Stoke Newington line, north of Stoke Newington station
Bethnal Green – Hackney viaducts	c. 2.5 miles (3900 metres)	3 miles 43 chains – 1 miles 10 chains	BGK
Bishopsgate Tunnel	627 yards (573 metres)	0 miles 56 chains – 0 miles 27 chains	LTN

Locomotives and rolling stock

Throughout the steam era trains were predominantly hauled by Great Eastern Railway (or its constituent companies') locomotives: when steam ended in East Anglia in the 1960s some of these locomotives were still operated – see Stratford TMD and Great Eastern Railway. After the grouping of 1923 LNER-designed locomotives were used with the B17 4-6-0 class working many main line services. Following nationalisation in 1948 British Railways introduced the Britannia 4-6-2 class on some main line services until succeeded by diesels in the late 1950s.

East Anglia was the first area to be worked completely by diesel trains with Class 31s taking over some express workings. These were succeeded by more powerful Class 37 and Class 47 until full electrification to King's Lynn in the 1980s when Class 86 locomotives took over.

Suburban services from about 1958 were operated by Class 125 DMUs, and following the 1969 electrification Class 305 and Class 308 units. Other units from the GE section such as Class 302 and 306 also operated services during this period, with Class 310s temporarily operating once electrification to Cambridge was complete. These first-generation units were replaced soon after by Class 315 and Class 317 units.

In 2011, new Bombardier Class 379s began operation mainly to replace class 317 from Stansted Express duties to mainline services (which in-turn relocated class 315s to inner suburban routes). Class 170 DMUs operate from Stansted Airport north through Cambridge to Birmingham on CrossCountry services.

In 2020, new Class 745s were introduced on Stansted Express services, cascading the Class 379s to other WAML services. The delayed Class 720s began to replace both class 317s & class 379s on the route on 25 August 2021, with full fleet replacement on this route completed in August 2022.

Future developments

It seems likely that two tracks will be built alongside the line to Cheshunt as part of Crossrail 2. Intermediate stations from Tottenham Hale will transfer to Crossrail 2 releasing capacity on the mainline for additional trains. In August 2019, it was announced that funding had been approved for four-tracking and related platform construction work between Tottenham Hale and Meridian Water to enable up to 8 trains per hour to make local stops in this section at peak times.