Harringay railway station

Harringay railway station (also known as Harringay West for part of its history) is a railway station located in Harringay, North London. It is on the East Coast Main Line between Finsbury Park and Hornsey. It opened on 1 May 1885. This station is managed by First Capital Connect and is on the Great Northern route.

Trains run from the station southbound to Moorgate until 22:00 Monday-Friday and to Kings Cross outside these times, and northbound to Potters Bar, Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City, Hertford North, Stevenage and Letchworth, the "inner" suburban services. These services are operated by First Capital Connect and use dual-voltage class 313 EMUs because these are the only units cleared to run to Moorgate (however, some weekend services may use class 317s as these run to Kings Cross).

Trains calling at this station use the low-speed rail tracks in front of the platforms; there are five more tracks passing through and around the vicinity of the station. Two of these are used for high-speed National Express East Coast, Hull Trains and other First Capital Connect services and the other three are used for freight services. Occasionally when these lines are busy the low-speed tracks are used for the faster services.

History
It was a very busy station between about 1948 and 1983 with school traffic as boys attending the nearby Stationers' Company's School (see Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers. There was a reciprocal agreement with the borough of Potters Bar for Hornsey Council and later, Haringey Council to provide Grammar school education at the school - free or subsidised transport was provided for pupils travelling by train between Potters Bar and Harringay West.

The footpath to the west of the station overlooking the station and the marshalling yards was very popular with Train spotters. This footpath was known locally as the Hog's Back. It was closed and built over when Chettle Court was built in the late 1970s.

Under plans approved in 1897, the station was to be served by 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 from Alexandra Palace to Finsbury Park and then into central London. The GN&SR stations on each side would have been the same as the main line stations. 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 & Piccadilly Circus Railway to form a route from Finsbury Park to Hammersmith (now part of the London Underground's Piccadilly line).

Station Infrastructure
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). There are benches on the platforms as well as 2 waiting rooms one on each platform. There is a payphone just outside the station on Quernmore Road as well as a few local shops. These facilities are also available at the other exit on Wightman Road. The station has cycle access but no wheelchair access. It also has four electronic timetables, one per platform, one inside the ticket office and one outside the ticket office(for when it is closed), this station is also fitted with a hearing loop.

Harringay has a ticket office on the footbridge leading over it, here you can buy tickets/fares, find London connections maps and First Capital Connect timetables and other information. it's opening hours are; Monday - Friday: 06:20 - 14:15, Saturday: 07:20 - 15:15 and it is closed on Sundays.

Local connections
Transfer on a single ticket is allowed from Harringay to Harringay Green Lanes station (8-10 minute walk to the east), and some tickets have this as an explicit routing (e.g. Finsbury Park to Southend Central can be routed this way, changing at Harringay/Green Lanes and at Barking).

The W5 bus route serves Stapleton Hall Road (eastbound) toward Crouch End Broadway and Archway tube station and Oakfield Road (westbound) toward Harringay Green Lanes railway station reached from the station's west exit.

Local projects
Outside the Quernmore Road exit there is a mural depicting the lifestyle of people living in the area; it was painted by locals and residents of nearby estate Chettle Court.

Services
The typical off-peak service is:
 * 6tph (trains per hour) to Moorgate
 * 3tph to Welwyn Garden City, via Potters Bar
 * 3tph to Hertford North railway station, with 1tph extended to Letchworth Garden City railway station via Stevenage railway station

On Saturdays and Sundays (when there is no engineering work) this drops to:

4tph to Kings Cross Station 2tph to Welwyn Garden City Station, via Potters Bar railway station 2tph to Hertford North railway station, with 1tph extended to Stevenage railway station

Future Developments

 * Oyster pay and go will have arrived at the station between April and September 2009 but no exact date has been confirmed for this particular station.