Closure of Broad Street station - Why?

[leytongabriel]

In hindsight, it was a much better idea to have done away with Broad Street and instead create a connecting route from Dalston Junction to Surrey Quays with the Overground service, even though that probably wasn't the original plan!

A better idea perhaps but not so sure about it being a shared idea. What hasn't been mentioned in the thread so far ( unless I've missed it) is that the catalyst for final rundown and closure seems to have been a political mistake. Ken Livingstone agreed to help fund the electrification of the NLL through Stratford to North Woolwich to support the regeneration of East London, much of which was in a terrible state. What he didn't anticipate ( and I believe made it clear that he had not agreed to) was that BR would then switch NLL trains from Broad St to North Woolwich instead of running North Woolwich trains out of Camden Rd to replace the previous diesel service. So in a sense the then GLC was duped by a BR board who could see the value of the property and Broad Street was left with just an unattractive roundabout skeleton rush-hour only service which clearly didn't justify such a large terminus and was easy to withdraw.

 

[daodao]

I think Broad Street's true downfall came because it never had a main line of its own. It was, I guess, the North London Line's terminus, but the means of getting to Broad Street were always reasonably convoluted.

For a short period from 1910 up to WW1, there was a weekday mainline LNWR train, the City-to-City Express, that ran from Birmingham New St in the morning, returning in the early evening, taking 2h 15min for the trip.

 

[Busaholic]

A better idea perhaps but not so sure about it being a shared idea. What hasn't been mentioned in the thread so far ( unless I've missed it) is that the catalyst for final rundown and closure seems to have been a political mistake. Ken Livingstone agreed to help fund the electrification of the NLL through Stratford to North Woolwich to support the regeneration of East London, much of which was in a terrible state. What he didn't anticipate ( and I believe made it clear that he had not agreed to) was that BR would then switch NLL trains from Broad St to North Woolwich instead of running North Woolwich trains out of Camden Rd to replace the previous diesel service. So in a sense the then GLC was duped by a BR board who could see the value of the property and Broad Street was left with just an unattractive roundabout skeleton rush-hour only service which clearly didn't justify such a large terminus and was easy to withdraw.

That all sounds very plausible to me.

 

[PeterC]

and Broad Street was left with just an unattractive roundabout skeleton rush-hour only service which clearly didn't justify such a large terminus and was easy to withdraw.

IIRC the planned closure was announced at the same time as the diversion of the NLL to Stratford. I remember the rush hour only service running from a temporary platform in Sun Street Passage behind the Broadgate building work.

At the time having an extra service between Dalston (from a different station) to Camden Road seemed pretty silly. Considering how the usage of the NLL has increased we really don't know if retaining Broad Street would have been justified operationally.