Abbey Wood railway station

An Elizabeth line Class 345 (left) alongside a Thameslink Class 700 at Abbey Wood in 2022

Abbey Wood is the terminus of one of two eastern branches of the Elizabeth Line and offers interchange between terminating Elizabeth Line services (at 12 trains per hour on new line) and existing Southeastern and Thameslink services.

The Elizabeth Line provides a link north west to ExCeL London and Canary Wharf, then onwards to the city centre, Heathrow Airport and Reading.

Services at Abbey Wood are operated by Southeastern and Thameslink using Class 376, 465, 466, 700 and 707 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[9]

• 4 tph to London Cannon Street (2 of these run via Greenwich and 2 run via Lewisham)
• 2 tph to Luton via Greenwich
• 2 tph to Barnehurst, returning to London Cannon Street via Bexleyheath and Lewisham
• 2 tph to Gravesend
• 2 tph to Rainham via Chatham

During the peak hours, the station is served by an additional half-hourly circular service to and from London Cannon Street via Sidcup and Lewisham in the clockwise direction and via Greenwich in the anticlockwise direction.

Elizabeth line services at Abbey Wood are operated using Class 345 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[10]

• 4 tph to Maidenhead of which 2 continue to Reading
• 4 tph to Heathrow Terminal 4

Additional services run to and from the station during the peak hours, increasing the service to up to 12 tph in each direction.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Plumstead		Thameslink North Kent Line		Slade Green
		Southeastern North Kent Line		Belvedere
Elizabeth line
Woolwich towards Reading or Heathrow Terminal 4		Elizabeth line		Terminus
	Historical railways
Church Manor Way Halt		South Eastern and Chatham Railway North Kent Line		Belvedere

An extension of the London Overground Gospel Oak to Barking line from Barking across the river to Thamesmead and Abbey Wood was proposed in August 2015.[12] The section from Barking to Barking Riverside opened in summer 2022,[13][14] but there are no current plans to extend the line further towards Abbey Wood. Rather than this, in 2019 Transport for London and City Hall proposed an extension of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to serve Thamesmead as part of the proposed Thamesmead and Abbey Wood OAPF (Opportunity Area Planning Framework).[15] A DLR extension was chosen due to lower connectivity benefits of an Overground extension, the low frequency (4 trains an hour) of the Gospel Oak to Barking line, and — most significantly — a construction cost twice as much as the DLR, as the gradients required to cross the River Thames would require large scale tunnelling works when compared to the DLR.[16] Despite making this recommendation, the consultation also noted that an extension of the Gospel Oak to Barking line could provide good orbital transport links in the long term.

As of 2021, there were proposals to extend some Elizabeth Line services further east to Gravesend and Hoo Junction; the route is safeguarded and would use one of the two terminating tracks at Abbey Wood and onto either existing National Rail tracks (upgraded for 25 kV AC overhead line electrification) or a separate 4-track line.[17] Another proposal is continuing Elizabeth line services to Ebbsfleet International along existing tracks, although those lines are congested and may delay the Elizabeth line services.[18][19]