It is 12 miles 30 chains (19.9 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Chadwell Heath and Gidea Park.

The majority of services that call at Romford are Elizabeth line, but the station is also served by off-peak Greater Anglia trains between Liverpool Street and Southend Victoria and Colchester Town.

From its inception, the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) planned a route linking London and Norwich that would take it via Romford.

Both stations acted as temporary termini, with the line extending east to Brentwood and west to Shoreditch in 1840.

[4] Soon after this, the goods depot, which was situated to the south of the station, was connected to the Ind Coope brewery via a tunnel under the line.

[14] In 2017 new Class 345 trains began entering service as Crossrail partially opened under the TfL Rail brand.