Trains at Stratford International, HS1, 22/05/26

Stratford International is a National Rail station in Stratford and a separate Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station nearby, located in East Village in London. Despite its name, no international services stop at the station; plans for it to be served by Eurostar trains never came to fruition.

The National Rail platforms are, however, served by domestic Southeastern trains on the High Speed 1 route originating at St. Pancras, with interchange to Eurostar trains at other stops along the route.

Construction of the National Rail station was completed in 2006, but it only opened in 2009 to serve Southeastern services on HS1.

In 2011 an extension of the DLR was opened to connect Stratford International to the wider London public transport network and to the main Stratford station to the south. The DLR station is physically separate and located just across the road from the HS1 station.

Oyster cards and contactless payment cards are valid for travel to and from Stratford International, with the DLR station in Travelcard zone 2/3, but special fares apply at the HS1 station.

The four-platform HS1 station is built within "Stratford Box", a 1.1-kilometre (0.7 mi) concrete-sided cutting, meaning the station is located below ground level.

154  It is located near the centre of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, adjacent to the Westfield Stratford City shopping centre.

The station is on the High Speed 1 railway between London St Pancras International and Ebbsfleet International.

As the station lies just inside the eastern boundary of the London Olympic Park, much of the surrounding land was little more than a construction site until mid-2012.

The tracks descend into a tunnel at both ends of the station as its platforms are closer to the surface than the tunnels; some of the platforms have a noticeable dip along their length at the east end. Stratford International has four platforms in the station box: two at the outer edges and two shorter ones forming a central island.

The main line through tracks run down each side of the station between the adjacent platforms. There is a waiting room on the island platforms but not on the outer platforms.

35 metres (114 ft 10 in) beyond the eastern portals, the tunnels pass just underneath the Central line tunnels curving north from Stratford. The bottom invert of each Central line tunnel is only 4.3 metres (14 ft 1 in) and 8.0 metres (26 ft 3 in) above the high-speed running tunnels.153–156 .

1996 and an order under the Transport and Works Act 1992 had to be made to allow for its construction. In the centre of the station is a single-track inclined viaduct, rising to the east end along and above the length of the island platforms. This is to allow out-of-service trains to leave the station box and reach the depot at Temple Mills.

The Docklands Light Railway extension to Stratford International consists of a short new line from Stratford International to Stratford station, then continues along the former North London Line route between Stratford and Canning Town, stopping at Stratford High Street (on the site of the original Stratford Market railway station), Abbey Road, West Ham and Star Lane before joining the existing DLR branches from Canning Town to Woolwich Arsenal. Its opening was originally planned for July 2010, but was delayed to 31 August 2011.

The original intended purpose of Stratford International station was to act as the London stop for regional Eurostar trains bypassing St Pancras and continuing to other destinations in Britain.

However, these services did not come into being, and Rob Holden, chief executive of LCR and deputy chairman of Eurostar, stated that, "stopping a high-speed train seven minutes out of St Pancras is less than ideal", leaving only the domestic Southeastern trains serving the station.

Critics derided the station as a white elephant.

Duration of the video: 12:48 - 15:12

We’ll be seeing services by Southeastern & Eurostar as well.

I hope you enjoy this video if you did smash that like button and don’t forget to subscribe for more upcoming videos and feel free to leave any comments or suggestions of stations that you would like for me to do in the comments below as I’ll try get back to them as soon as possible.

It’s been a very long time since I last did any train spotting at Stratford International but it’s always an enjoyable station to do any train spotting there plus I was quite lucky to see some Eurostar 373’s bypassing in the duration of the time I spent there and plus the pride Southeastern unit as well.

My next station will be St Pancras International which is situated on the terminus on the Midland Mainline and the HS1 network as well haven’t visited there for quite a long time but I’m sure it’ll be great experience to revisit so until then thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next video.