Replacing The Angel (3)

What Started It : The Trains

We were at the now defunct Angel Road station, enjoying (?) its industrial landscape and relishing its total lack of facilities. We saw that this luxurious halt had a very "industrial" train service with peak hour stops north- and south-bound on Mondays to Fridays only.

But now we have Meridian Water ...

... glorious beyond desire compared with its predecessor. It has a covered entrance area with ticket machines ...

... lifts and platform shelters. And, excitingly, it has a bench seat on both platform areas. 

But the station is unstaffed and there is no ticket office. But hang on there, it has a Monday to Sunday timetables, so surely a huge improvement on that at Angel Road.

We need to remember that there is a complex pattern of services on these lines, a mixture of local stopping trains, what used to be called "The Stansted Express", fast trains to Cambridge and the locals to Hertford East.

Here is the faster service pattern ...

... with no stops shown for Meridian Water. Nothing calls between Cheshunt (for the Overground) and Tottenham Hale (for the Victoria Underground line). Note that there are two trains an hour between Bishops Stortford and Stratford, taking a left hand turnat Tottenham Hale.

So we need to look at the stopping service from Hertford East?

Disappointingly we only have a few trains stopping at Meridian Water. The last stop of the morning 'peak' is the 0922 to Stratford.

And that's it!

In fact the service is worse than the original at Angel Road. Seems a very poor timetable for a shiny new station. Maybe it will get better as the development develops.

And look at this:-

There is a brand new (well new-ish) third track between Meridian Water and just short of Lea Bridge on the Stratford line.

A search among the on-line timetables on the Anglia web site we find a full table for local trains from Bishops Stortford.

There is the service to Stratford mentioned above, every 30 minutes but it is joined by an additional 30 minute headway between Meridian Water and Stratford. Seems very lavish for a backwater service; maybe the crowds rush in their train loads to the Westfield shopping heaven at Straford?

This 15 minute frequency calls at Lea Bridge ...

... which appears on Nick Catford's disused stations web site. It closed in 1963.

The station was re-opened with the restoration of trains between Tottenham Hale and Stratford.

The service returned in 2016 with the 'new' Lea Bridge ...

... sadly lacking the character of the original station.

fbb guesses that the Stratford trains use the extra platform as installed at Meridian Water.

fbb is intrigued with that walkway leading from platforms 2 and 3 ...

... with a gate just across the road from Tesco.

Is It an official entrance?

So, apart from a few peak hour trains, the only places you can get to with any frequency are Northumberland Park, Tottenham Hale Lea Bridge and Stratford.

Lets hope the planners devise a better service to be in place as the new housing development actually happens.

STOP PRESS

Thanks to a blog correspondent for informing fbb of some proposals for bus route revisions at Meridian Water. They will feature in tomorrow's  blog

We Have Crenellations!

A very sticky job and not the best results. But castles can be a bit messy in construction after a few years! Well this one is, anyway. There will be foliage to disguise the worst bits. There has already been some lead pencil at work!

Today will allow the grade 1 bodger to begin to fit the new bit of castle to the old bit!

  Next Variety blog : Saturday 17th Jan