Before Overground – Southbury
A Surprisingly Busy Station With Work Needed – Rating 3/10
I must have been past Southbury station hundreds of times, but I’d never used it until today.
The station is unusual in that, all pedestrian approaches are up-hill.
The station also suffers from being on a busy main road, with badly-placed bus stops and no easy way to cross the road.
These factors and the non-existent step-free access probably accounts for the facts that Enfield Town station, a couple of miles up the road, gets four times the passengers and the next station towards London; Edmonton Green gets nearly six times. Although saying that, it was quite busy, when I passed through!
I wouldn’t be surprised if London Overground put this station at the back of the queue for improvements.
Before Overground – Enfield Town
A Classic 1950s-built Concrete Station – Rating 6/10
I have a long history of travelling through Enfield Town station.
It was built in 1957 and that was probably about the time, I used it for the first time, as it was just a 107 bus ride away from where I lived in Cockfosters.
Coming back from White Hart Lane in the 1960s after seeing Spurs play, you folded the doors back, as you entered the station and when the train had slowed to a flat out run, you jumped. That way, you tended to beat all the other hundreds of people wanting to get a 107 bus home.
London Overground could probably make this station into one of their best, as there are no step-free problems, except a high step into the Class 315 trains. But hopefully, the step up from the platforms to the new trains will be minimised.
Before Overground – Seven Sisters
Rabbits Would Be At Home Here – Rating 4/10
Seven Sisters station is a bad station, that was made a lot worse by tacking a Victoria Line station on with all the subtlety of the worst of 1060s-architecture and design.
I approached the station on a 76 bus from near where I live.
The first time, I did this, I entered the station from the Tottenham High Road end and went down and up escalators and steep staircases to get to the platform for Enfield Town and Cheshunt.
This time, I stayed on the surface and walked up Seven Sisters Road to the southern entrance of the station.It is a route that is almost as tortuous.
The station itself has some problems that are easily fixed and others like the narrow down platform that aren’t!
I should say that Seven Sisters is a station I avoid, as for me Hackney Downs is an alternative, that although it has long staircases, it wasn’t built for rabbits.
London Overground will have fun, making a customer-friendly station out of this one.
The Anonymous Widower 