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Limehouse is a National Rail and connected Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station in Limehouse, east London. It is served by main line services operated by c2c to and from Fenchurch Street, and by the DLR to and from Tower Gateway or Bank. On the main line, Limehouse is located down-line from Fenchurch Street and the following station is West Ham; on the DLR it is between Shadwell and Westferry. The station was opened by the Commercial Railway (later the London and Blackwall Railway) in 1840 with the name Stepney. At that time, the Commercial Railway had a separate station named Limehouse one stop along the line. Stepney was renamed Stepney East in 1923, and in 1926 the other Limehouse station was closed. Stepney East adopted the current Limehouse name in 1987, just before the DLR opened. ==History== The station was opened on 6 July 1840 by the Commercial Railway, located in the parish of Stepney within the hamlet of Ratcliff. It was named Stepney, lying between Shadwell and a separate station called Limehouse,〔 located within the Limehouse parish. The initial train service operated between a temporary terminus at Minories and Blackwall until 2 August 1841 when Fenchurch Street opened; the Commercial Railway was then renamed the London and Blackwall Railway (LBR). The service was a rope-powered operation and it was not until 15 February 1849 that steam operation commenced. On 28 September 1850 an extension was opened from Stepney to Bow, to join the LBR with the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR), with a second set of platforms (the present-day platforms 1 and 2) constructed to serve that line.〔 The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LTSR) was opened in 1854 and it eventually became the sole railway using the Bow platforms. Twenty people were injured in a minor collision at the station on 22 November 1861. A Board of Trade report found a signaller's error the primary cause of the incident.〔http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/eventsummary.php?eventID=2521〕 The LTSR became part of the Midland Railway in 1912. On 1 January 1923 the Midland Railway became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) which took over operation of Stepney station. The station was renamed Stepney East on 1 July 1923.〔 The LBR platforms were closed on 3 May 1926 as passenger services were withdrawn, leaving the LTSR as the only railway company regularly serving the station. The LBR platforms were demolished in circa 1936〔 and the line gradually fell into disuse. There was also a rail link on a curved viaduct to the east of the station known as the Limehouse Curve. This had opened on 5 April 1880 and was generally used for goods trains heading towards London's docks. There was a short-lived passenger train service between Blackwall and Palace Gates (via Stratford, Tottenham South and Seven Sisters) which operated from 1 September 1880 until 1 March 1881. Some special excursion trains also used the curve about this time running from Blackwall to Southend and Southminster on summer Sundays in 1890 and 1891.〔 Following nationalisation of Britain's railways in 1948, Stepney East transferred to the British Railways Midland Region, although on 20 February 1949 the station and line were transferred to the British Railways Eastern Region. (Despite these organisational changes, the old LTSR still was a distinctive system.) The line was electrified in 1961-62 with full electric services commencing on 17 June 1962. The Limehouse Curve was last used on 5 November 1962 and on 10 May 1963 it was officially abandoned. Between 1982 and 1992 the station was operated by Network South East, one of British Rail's three passenger business sectors, before being handed over to a business unit in preparation for privatisation. On 31 July 1987 the Docklands Light Railway, which operated over the old LBR line, commenced operations, with new platforms (platforms 3 and 4) built on the site of the old LBR platforms;〔 the station had been renamed Limehouse on 11 May that year.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 work=Clive's UndergrounD Line Guides )〕 The DLR platforms were extended in 1991 to accommodate the DLR's new longer two-carriage trains. In April 1996 Railtrack became responsible for the maintenance of the infrastructure at Limehouse station. Railtrack was succeeded by Network Rail in 2002. In May 1996 the franchise for the London, Tilbury and Shoeburyness line was awarded to Prism Rail by the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising for a 15-year period with an average annual subsidy of £18.4 million. It began operating as LTS Rail on 26 May 1996. Prism was bought out by National Express who named the franchise c2c in 2003 and continue to operate the station.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.c2c-online.co.uk/about-us/c2c-history/index )〕 Since the opening of the DLR, Limehouse has become a well-used interchange for Essex and east London commuters who work in the Canary Wharf area, but the two viaducts remained separate, resulting in an awkward interchange between the DLR platforms and the National Rail platforms, as passengers had to pass down and then up flights of stairs. To remedy this, at least in part, a bridge was built to connect the westbound (London-bound) main line platform with the adjacent eastbound (Canary Wharf-bound) DLR platform. It was originally due for completion by the end of 2008, but was finally opened in November 2009. At the same time as the bridge was being built, other improvements were made, including readying the station for three-carriage operations on the DLR and the construction of an additional eastern entrance, with lifts and stairways for platform access. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Limehouse station」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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