The station serves a primarily industrial area adjacent to the River Thames, including the Ford Dagenham site, that is now going through redevelopment as a commercial and residential district.

They drained the marshes and established a deep water jetty on the river as well as a link to the LT&SR east of Chequers Lane level crossing.

An early station was built 200 yards east of Chequers Lane but this appears never to have opened although trains apparently stopped for local fisherman.

The station was located west of Chequer Lane Level Crossing and a signal box was provided to the east on the down side.

During World War II many of the 3-cylindered 2-6-4Ts were transferred away from the area and haulage reverted to older LT&SR locomotives, but the 3-cylindered tanks were back before the end of 1945.

[7] Motor manufacturer Ford bought a 244-acre site off SW&CO in 1924 and in 1931 opened the Dagenham Car Plant.

[8] With a growing number of non-rail connected factories opening in the 1930s the LMS extended the goods yard and it was moved eastwards.

[9] Just after World War II started in September 1939, the passenger service was reduced as a wartime economy measure.Wartime production at Fords included large numbers of vans and trucks, along with Bren gun carriers and numerous 'special purpose' engines.

[12] During the late 1950s the LTS was being electrified and re-signalled and a full electric timetable started operating in June 1962 which was primarily worked by Class 302 EMUs.

At this time passenger numbers declined as car ownership rose as workers preferred driving to the local factories.

[17] In 1998 a new viaduct crossing over the station site was opened carrying the A13 road (England) to the south of the railway line.

[18] East of the station the former 1901 goods yard is now an aggregates terminal and Dagenham Down Sidings is now a headshunt for that facility.

An accessible footbridge with stairs and lifts outside the station connects the northern entrance building with the East London Transit terminal to the south.

[20] As of the June 2024 timetable[21] the typical Monday to Friday off-peak service is: The LMS already had built a yard on this site in 1937 because Plaistow was at capacity and there was a need to serve local industries.

On the up side a new Freightliner terminal was built Situated to the immediate west of the station, the Ripple Lane inter-modal freight depot was originally developed to supply parts from across Europe to the Ford Dagenham plant.

During 2005 to 2009 part of the yard was used by High Speed 1 construction trains as that line ran past Ripple Lane.

In 2009 Stobart Rail commenced a new, weekly refrigerated train service, operated in conjunction with DB Schenker.

The 1,100 miles (1,800 km) from Valencia in Spain terminates at Ripple Lane, providing for an alternative to lorries for the import of fresh Spanish produce.

Under these plans the station has become the southern terminus of phase one of the East London Transit[28] and it was proposed that an eastern extension of the Docklands Light Railway would terminate here.

[32] However, in November 2024, the Court of Common Council announced it did not intend to proceed with these plans as they were no longer economically viable.