I used this station this morning. There was a carnival
atmosphere with a five piece jazz band, several photographers,
a cluster of small children on cheer leader duties - why weren't
they at school? - half a dozen security guards giving out wrong
information, myriad well-dressed types being interviewed and
photographed, waitresses handing out refreshments and even
a few passengers. I was one of the latter. I wasn't interviewed
or photographed!

Contrary to what a security guard told me, the open-access
entrance is in Argall Way and leads onto the platform for trains
to Stratford. The original entrance in Lea Bridge Road is boarded
up, and there was no poster saying this is just a temporary
arrangement. There is no provision for bus passengers except
for bus stops in Lea Bridge Road. There is a covered cycle stand.
Oh yes, a lovely touch: to protect the assembled notables, the
cycle lane was closed! The platforms are quite long and will be
able to take 8 car trains, perhaps more.

I took the 11.00 train to Stratford which arrived two minutes late.
I think about ten other passengers boarded the train. There were
five passengers on the other platform. Our train made reasonable
progress until making the regulation stop outside Stratford, before
dawdling into the vacated platform. If this service is to lure
Stratford-bound Leyton residents away from the Underground,
something will have to be done about this delay which I've
experienced every time I've travelled this route.

Returning, I went through to Tottenham Hale on a Bishops Stortford
train. About six passengers joined the train at Lea Bridge, and off
we went, only to stop a few hundred yards later and wait five
minutes. I've always experienced this delay too. At Tottenham Hale,
our platform had no signs or notices mentioning the Victoria Line
which I find astonishing.

Last week the Standard carried an article about the station and
claimed Waltham Forest Council had contributed £ 5 million to the
cost of re-building the station. As always with tax payer funded
projects, one has to ask how it could possibly have cost so much.