Looking north from the footbridge. |
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Alexandra Palace
Location of Alexandra Palace in Greater London |
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| Location | Wood Green |
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| Local authority | London Borough of Haringey |
| Managed by | First Capital Connect |
| Station code | AAP |
| Number of platforms | 4 |
| Fare zone | 3 |
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| National Rail annual entry and exit | |
| 2004–05 | 0.610 million[1] |
| 2005–06 | 0.693 million[1] |
| 2006–07 | 1.043 million[1] |
| 2007–08 | 1.267 million[1] |
| 2008–09 | 1.058 million[1] |
| 2009–10 | 1.063 million[1] |
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| 1 May 1859 | Station opens as Wood Green |
| 1 August 1864 | Station renamed Wood Green (Alexandra Park) |
| 18 March 1971 | Station renamed Wood Green |
| 17 May 1982 | Station renamed Alexandra Palace |
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| List of stations | Underground · National Rail |
| External links | Departures • Layout |
| Facilities • Buses | |
Alexandra Palace railway station (originally named Wood Green and later Wood Green (Alexandra Park)) is in the London Borough of Haringey in north London, and is in Travelcard Zone 3. The station, and all trains serving it, are operated by First Capital Connect. 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.
It is the only surviving station of three that have served Alexandra Palace. Alexandra Palace, sited actually at the palace, was on the Highgate - Alexandra Palace line, and Palace Gates (Wood Green) was on the Palace Gates Line.
In Autumn 2008, a new SHERE self-service ticket machine, accepting both cash and credit cards, was installed here (and similarly at other local FCC stations).
Just outside the station to the north is Bounds Green Depot, used for storage and maintenance of the high speed trains used on the East Coast Main Line. A line adjacent to the station platforms is used by shunters moving carriages and engines around in the depot.
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The station was opened by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) on 1 May 1859 as Wood Green, being renamed to Wood Green (Alexandra Park) in 1864.[2] 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.[3]
Under plans approved in 1897, the station was to be the northern terminus for the Great Northern and Strand Railway (GN&SR), 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 (now part of the London Underground's Piccadilly line).[4]
When sectorisation was introduced, the station was served by Network South East until the Privatisation of British Rail.
The station has old buildings on Buckingham Road, with a modern footbridge connection to the platforms and across the tracks to Bedford Road. On the platforms there are only rudimentary modern buildings but during 2004 a station refreshment kiosk opened at Alexandra Palace.
Platform 1 is on the up slow line to London (served from either the Welwyn or Hertford directions), platform 2 is the up fast line, with few scheduled departures. The down fast is a through road, without a platform face. Platform 3 is used by northbound trains on the ECML slow line and trains on the Hertford Loop Line use platform 4. Note that trains to/from Hertford must use the outer platform lines.
This station is served by the W3 and 184 buses. The former runs between Northumberland Park railway station and Finsbury Park station, the latter being between Barnet Chesterfield Road and Turnpike Lane. This station is a short walk away from Wood Green and Alexandra Palace.
Services from the station run to Moorgate on weekdays until about 10.00pm, and into London Kings Cross after 10.00pm Mondays to Fridays and all day on Saturdays and Sundays. Normally the service uses class 313 EMUs, as these are the only units cleared to Moorgate, although on weekends sometimes class 317 EMUs are used instead. Early mornings and late nights see a couple of four car (class 317 or class 365) trains scheduled to call (to/from Cambridge or Peterborough).
North of the station, the line divides, with half the trains running to Welwyn Garden City and the other half running to Hertford North or Letchworth Garden City. The typical Monday to Friday off-peak service frequency is:
On Saturdays and Sundays (when there is no engineering work) this drops to:
First Capital Connect services between Peterborough, Cambridge and London often pass through the station non-stop, as do all East Coast, First Hull Trains and Grand Central services between London and the North. Northbound trains usually use the central line, away from the platforms, while southbound trains speed non-stop past Platform 2.
| Preceding station | National Rail | Following station | ||
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| First Capital Connect
East Coast Main Line stopping
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