Alexandra Palace railway station


Alexandra Palace railway station is on the Great Northern Route that forms part of the East Coast Main Line, and takes its name from the nearby Alexandra Palace in the London Borough of Haringey, north London. It is down the line from and is situated between and either on the main line or on the Hertford Loop Line which diverges from the main line just north of Alexandra Palace.
It is in Travelcard Zone 3. All trains serving it are operated by Great Northern.
It is the only surviving station of three that have served Alexandra Palace. A former station also named Alexandra Palace, sited actually at the venue, was on the Highgate-Alexandra Palace Line, while Palace Gates station was on the Palace Gates Line.
Just outside the station to the north is Bounds Green train depot, used for storage and maintenance of the high-speed trains used on the main line. A line adjacent to the station platforms is used by shunters moving carriages and engines around in the depot.
It is proposed that the station should be a terminus on Crossrail 2.

History

The station was opened by the Great Northern Railway on 1 May 1859 as Wood Green, being renamed to Wood Green in 1864. The GNR became part of the London and North Eastern Railway during the grouping of 1923. The line then passed on to the Eastern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. The station reverted to its original name of Wood Green on 18 March 1971, but was again renamed, this time to Alexandra Palace, on 17 May 1982.
Under plans approved in 1897, the station was to be the northern terminus for the Great Northern and Strand Railway, a tube railway supported by the GNR which would have run underground beneath the GNR's tracks to Finsbury Park and then into central London. The next GN&SR station to the south would have been Hornsey. The GN&SR route and stations north of Finsbury Park were cancelled in 1902 when the GN&SR was taken over by Charles Yerkes' consortium which planned to merge it with the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway to form the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway from Finsbury Park to Hammersmith.
In May 2013 it was announced that the station would be a terminus on the latest proposed route for Crossrail 2.
When sectorisation was introduced, the station was served by Network SouthEast until the privatisation of British Rail.
In Autumn 2008, a new Shere FASTticket self-service ticket machine, accepting both cash and credit cards, was installed here. Oyster card readers were installed at the station during 2008 and activated on 2 January 2010 for use with the Oyster Pay As You Go System.

Station layout

The station has old buildings on Buckingham Road, which house a refreshment kiosk and ticket machines, with a modern footbridge connection to the platforms and across the tracks to Bedford Road. On the platforms there are only rudimentary modern buildings for public use.
On 9 December 2012 the old platforms 1 and 2 were closed for reconstruction. A temporary new platform 1 was provided to the east of the up slow line. All up trains which stop did so at this platform face. On 2 April 2013 the reconstructed platform 1 opened, on the west of the up slow line as before, now numbered as platform 2. This new platform is narrower than the former and the track has been moved to the west. The old platform 2 is permanently closed and has a fence along the edge. This work is part of a scheme to provide greater segregation of stopping, semi-fast and high-speed services in the section between Alexandra Palace and Finsbury Park, to allow a greater quantum of services.
The up fast line now has no platform face at this station. The down fast is a through road, without a platform face. Platform 3 is used by northbound trains on the ECML down slow line and trains on the Hertford Loop Line use platform 4. Trains to/from Hertford must use the outer platform lines.

Connections

routes 184 and W3 serve the station.

Services

Alexandra Palace currently has the following National Rail services off-peak which are served by Class 717 trains:
Weekday services
Weekend services:
Other Great Northern services between Peterborough, Cambridge, King's Lynn and London often pass through the station non-stop, as do all London North Eastern Railway, Hull Trains and Grand Central services between London and the North/Scotland. Northbound trains usually use the central line, away from the platforms, while southbound trains speed non-stop past Platform 2.