On 6 Jul, 21:07, Richard Dixon wrote:
David Jackman pleasereplytogroup wrote 6.109.145:

(The best advice here is of course to wait until September
when everybody is back at work, get up early, fork out £9.70 and find
out for yourself!)

Thanks for all the feedback. I plan to do just this in the next week or
two. If trains do indeed start at Broxbourne (not that I can find any on
the timetables) then that would be a boon !


I have been catching peak trains between Cambridge and Liverpool
Street about two or three times a week for the past seven years. They
all stop at Broxbourne. Since I always get a seat at Cambridge I tend
not to pay too much attention to how crowded they get in the morning,
but my general impression is that although it is almost certain you
would need to stand from Broxbourne, the trains are not "heaving" and
only have a few people standing per carriage. A lot of people get off
at Tottenham Hale, so you may be able to get a seat from there to
Liverpool Street (which is about half the journey time).

In the evening, you have a good chance of getting a seat on a train to
Cambridge (e.g. the 1758). They normally only become crowded at
Tottenham Hale.

The West Anglia timetable was completely reorganised a couple of years
ago. The biggest change was to add extra stops to the Stansted Express
(many more of them now call at Harlow Town), which seems to have had a
big impact on reducing overcrowding on trains to and from Cambridge.
Another big change was to make every Cambridge train stop at
Broxbourne.

However if you're seriously planning moving to Broxbourne, the best
thing is to spend a few days there and try out the commute for
yourself.

PaulO