Station Reviews: Goodmayes

Happy July! I know. 7 months into 2021 already. Would you believe it? Feels quick. Thought I should do a station reviews post to keep the blog going.

Goodmayes Station. Based in East London and in Zone 4 of the tube map. One of many stations on the heavily used Great Eastern Main Line, operated by TFL Rail which does the London Liverpool Street to Shenfield service. 

The station itself requires a walk to get there. There are 5 routes that could be used to reach the station  (86, 128, 150, 364 and EL3) - 3 of those routes (86, 128 and 150) require a few-minutes walk to get to the station from the bus stop. Previously the station was operated by Abellio Greater Anglia and there were no barriers but, since the TFL Rail takeover in May 2015, it has been added to the station entrances. 

There's 4 platforms when you enter Goodmayes. 2 for the slow lines (Platform 3 and 4) and other for the fast lines. The slow line platforms will be the ones nearest to you. Platform 1 and 3 are the London-bound while Platform 2 and 4 are Shenfield bound. The fast platforms (Platform 1 and 2) on the right are not really used, unless there is engineering works taking place. To access Platform 2 you would need to go down the stairs (the same one that goes to Platform 3) via the gate on the right, which again has been put in use. The signage is pretty simple here anyway so you should not get lost.

Platforms 3 and 4 are currently being extended to accommodate 9-car in preparation for Crossrail. As of typing, the platforms can fit 8-cars. Usually a mix between the Class 315s and Class 345s. The 315s are in single digits and probably will be replaced by the time you are reading this. I would like to mention that the walkthrough layout on the 315s is quite tight with the 3 and 2 seating being separate to each other. Meanwhile the 345s are walkthrough so you can go from one end of the train to the other.

The frequency is between 7-8 mins within each service, so that helps alot. On weekends it's a bit longer. While that's great there is a problem. On a number of occasions, I have missed the train literally by a second because the train arrives than the earlier expected time - though luckily I also managed to get onto the train before the doors shut. Thankfully the trains stop right near the stairs. 

What I am saying now might sound silly - give yourself enough time to get to the station. Get there early. Even if it's 10 mins just do it, the last thing you want to see while going down the stairs is to see that the train, arrived earlier than you thought and it departs without you.  

On a busyness scale, I wouldn't say it's that busy compared to other stations on the route, but not quiet either. On Platform 3 (towards London) there is a shelter which used to have sliding doors when you clicked a button, though these have been taken out as of today. The shelter still exists (as of typing) seen in the 315 picture below.

Overall yeah. There are a few bus routes serving the station and decent amount of shops around including a Tesco - if you are willing to walk it around the corner. That's pretty much it really.

Used to be very common sight on this line until they were restricted to weekday appearances in 2019 I believe. 

The replacement for the 315s since 2017 - though it
has taken quite sometime to do so! The new face on this line and for Crossrail. 

And that brings another blog post to a close. Expect to see more of the 345s appearing as the 315s will become (or is already) a distant memory on the route.

Thanks so much for reading and happy riding! :)

The sunset was really nice on this day so I thought I should include it.