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Roding Valley

With roughly 210,000 passengers a year, Roding Valley is the least-used station on the entire Underground network.

Roding Valley is an area of Buckhurst Hill and was a new name created for the station - named after the nearby river. The floodplain of the river has effectively stopped the eastward expansion of housing.

The tracks through Roding Valley were opened on 1 May 1903 by the Great Eastern Railway (GER) on its Woodford to Ilford line (the Fairlop Loop). The station was not opened until 3 February 1936 by the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER, successor to the GER). It was originally named "Roding Valley Halt" and was opened to serve new housing developments between Buckhurst Hill and Woodford. The track rises towards Chigwell and crosses the Roding over an impressive viaduct.

As part of the 1935–1940 "New Works Programme" of the London Passenger Transport Board the majority of the Woodford to Ilford loop was to be transferred to form the eastern extensions of the Central line. Although work started in 1938 it was suspended at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and work was only was resumed in 1946.

From the mid 1960s until the early 1990s the Woodford-Hainault section was largely operated separately from the rest of the Central Line, using four-car (later three-car) trains.

The separate operation has now been abolished, the 1960 Stock withdrawn and through trains to Central London now operate, albeit via Hainault.

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