Was Baldrick An Essex Man?
I have been looking at Network Rail’s page for Beaulieu Park station.
This is the heading.
Network Rail and Essex County Council are working together to develop proposals for the first railway station to be built on the Great Eastern main line for over 100 years.
These two paragraphs outline the project and where the finance is being obtained.
The new station is part of a wider regeneration of the Beaulieu Park estate in Chelmsford with new road infrastructure and up to 14,000 homes.
Essex County Council, in partnership with Chelmsford City Council, successfully secured £218m of funding from the Government’s Housing and Infrastructure (HIF) fund together with £34m contributions from the South East Local Enterprise Partnership and the developers of Beaulieu, Countryside and L&Q.
These features of Beaulieu Park station are listed on the page.
- Three platforms with a central loop line and new tracks to enable stopping services to call at the station while allowing fast trains to pass through unimpeded
- Step free access to all platforms via 2 lifts
- Accessible toilets, baby change facilities, waiting area and space for retail/catering
- Ticketing facilities, with ticket vending machines and a gate line
- Pedestrian and cycle access routes to the station
- 500 spaces for cycle parking and storage
- A bus interchange including bus stands for local services
- Pick up and drop off area with dedicated taxi bays
- Parking for over 700 cars, 5% of which to be designated Blue Badge bays, and motorcycle spaces, as well as dedicated parking for station staff, emergency services, and a dedicated space for service access.
Note.
- How many other parkway stations, other than Ebbsfleet International station have 700 parking spaces?
- The parking at Whittlesford Parkway can only hold 377 vehicles.
- How many other parkway stations have an overtaking loop for faster trains?
Beaulieu Park is not your average parkway station!
I have a few thoughts.
Which Of The Current Services Will Call?
The Network Rail page says this about services.
It will provide additional access to the railway with regular connections to the capital (only 40 minutes from London Liverpool Street station) and other destinations in the east of England. New tracks will enable stopping services to call at the station while allowing fast trains to pass through unimpeded.
Note.
- Trains between London and Hatfield Peverel station typically take under forty minutes.
- Two fast trains per hour (tph) between Liverpool Street and Norwich via Colchester, Ipswich and Stowmarket pass through.
- Only one of the fast trains stops at Chelmsford.
- Four stopping tph, one to each of Braintree, Clacton-on-Sea, Colchester Town and Ipswich pass through.
If all the stopping trains stopped, Beaulieu Park would have the following services.
- Braintree – 1 tph
- Chelmsford – 4 tph
- Clacton-on-Sea – 1 tph
- Colchester – 3 tph
- Colchester Town – 1 tph
- Hatfield Peverel – 1 tph
- Ingatestone – 2 tph
- Ipswich – 1 tph
- Kelvedon – 2 tph
- London Liverpool Street – 4 tph
- Marks Tey – 2 tph
- Romford – 1 tph
- Shenfield – 3 tph
- Stratford – 4 tph
- Witham – 4 tph
All trains are new Class 720 electric trains.
I also feel, that Network Rail could be being cunning.
Suppose, the Liverpool Street and Norwich express, that doesn’t stop at Chelmsford, stopped instead at Beaulieu Park.
- This would give an hourly express service between Beaulieu Park and Norwich, which stopped at Colchester, Manningtree, Ipswich, Stowmarket and Diss.
- It would also enable two tph between Beaulieu Park and Ipswich.
The 700 parking spaces at Beaulieu Park now start to make sense.
- Both Ipswich and Norwich stations are within walking distance of the town centres and the football grounds.
- Ipswich station has a shuttle bus service to the town centre and the hospital.
- Both stations have several local train services.
Beaulieu Park station appears to have been designed as a Park-and-Ride station for the Great Eastern Main Line and all its branches.
Services To And From Lowestoft
In Making Sense Of The New East Anglia Franchise, I looked in detail at Greater Anglia’s promises.
In a section, which is entitled London – Lowestoft – Yarmouth Services, I said this.
There are going to be four direct services between London and Lowestoft each day. This probably initially means two trains to London in the morning peak and two trains back in the evening one.
When, I first moved back to Suffolk in the 1970s, I regularly caught a diesel-hauled train from Wickham Market to London for the day.
This is all motherhood and apple pie for those in Lowestoft wanting to go to London, but I suspect it isn’t the easiest service for a train operator to schedule efficiently and make money.
Would a train operator really want to start a full train at Lowestoft at say six in the morning and then have it wait around all day in London before returning in the evening?
The service hasn’t started.
Services To And From Cambridge Or Peterborough
At some time in the last decade, one of the predecessors of Greater Anglia, used to run a service to Peterborough via Colchester and Ipswich, so that travellers in Essex could catch trains to the North.
Given too that Cambridge has an employment problem, if a service was run, it might attract passengers.
The Class 755 trains Could Serve Bury St. Edmunds, Cambridge, Lowestoft, Newmarket, Peterborough And Yarmouth
Consider.
- A pair of Class 755 trains would leave Liverpool Street.
- They would use electric power to run to Ipswich.
- The trains would run in one of the paths of the current hourly Ipswich service.
- Like their all electric siblings; the Class 745 trains, they would probably run most of the journey at near 100 mph.
- At Ipswich the trains would split.
- One train would go to on to Lowestoft and Yarmouth and the other would go to Cambridge and Peterborough.
If passenger numbers felt it was a good idea, I’m certain, it could be timetabled.
The Chelmsford Avoiding Line
In Will The Chelmsford Avoiding Line Be Rebuilt?, I described the avoiding line, that used to be between the two tracks at Chelmsford station.
It probably saved a few minutes, by allowing fast expresses to pass stopping trains.
Effectively, a new avoiding line is being built at Beaulieu Park, a few miles from the original position at Chelmsford.
So will the fast expresses save a few minutes?
Could The Elizabeth Line Run To Beaulieu Park?
Consider
- The end sections of the Elizabeth Line seem to be busy, as I wrote in Very Busy Lizzie.
- The City of Chelmsford is between Shenfield and Beaulieu Park.
- Paddington and Reading is 35.9 miles.
- Liverpool Street and Hatfield Peverel is 35.9 miles.
So Beaulieu Park is actually closer to London than Reading.
Perhaps, at some time in a few years, passenger traffic between Beaulieu Park and Shenfield will be such, that the Elizabeth Line will be extended to Beaulieu Park.
The ideal service from Beaulieu Park would surely be two tph to Heathrow, as getting to Heathrow from East Anglia by train needs a change at Liverpool Street.
The only drawback is that to work effectively on the Great Eastern Main Line, a sub-variant of the Class 345 trains will be needed with a 100 mph operating speed. I wrote about these trains in Extending The Elizabeth Line – High Speed Trains On The Elizabeth Line.
But they may have the advantage of being able to take the fast lines between Shenfield and Stratford.
Conclusion
Beaulieu Park may just look like any other station to serve a housing development.
But it’s a lot more than that!
- It’s a Park-and-Ride for the whole Great Eastern Main Line and London.
- It should speed up expresses between London and Colchester, Ipswich or Norwich.
- It should improve local connectivity.
- It could take a lot of traffic off the nearby A12.
- It could give the City of Chelmsford its own local metro.
- It could give Heathrow a direct link to much of Essex.
- How much carbon will be saved by passengers?
We need many more well thought out Park-and-Ride stations.
Essex And Network Rail Get Planning For Beaulieu Station
This page on the Network Rail website is entitled Network Rail And Essex County Council Are Working Together To Develop Proposals For The First Railway Station To Be Built On The Great Eastern Main Line For Over 100 Years.
These are the first two paragraphs.
The new station is part of a wider regeneration of the Beaulieu Park estate in Chelmsford with new road infrastructure and up to 14,000 homes.
Essex County Council, in partnership with Chelmsford City Council and the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), successfully secured £218m of funding from the Government’s Housing and Infrastructure (HIF) fund together with £34m contributions the South East Local Enterprise Partnership and developer Countryside Zest to deliver the wider scheme.
These are some more points from the page.
- There will be three platforms with a central loop line and new tracks to enable stopping services to call at the station while allowing fast trains to pass through unimpeded.
- The station will have lifts.
- There will be a large number of parking spaces and secure cycle storage.
- There will be taxis and buses.
There is a comprehensive video that describes the new station, the new roads and the housing developments.
Finally, Chelmsford is getting the transport system it needs.
Property Buyers Want Train To Take The Strain, Says Rightmove
The title of this post is the same as that of this article in today’s Times.
Aooarently people are buying houses within an hour’s commute to London, with Chelmsford, Crewe and Sittingbourne being especially popular.
Note.
- Chelmsford will soon be served by a new train fleet.
- Sittingbourne is served by Southeastern’s HighSpeed trains.
- Crewe is served by fast services and will be on High Speed Two, earlier than many places.
Liverpool and Birmingham City Centres are also popular according to the article.
Manchester Piccadilly, Liverpool Lime Street And Some Other Stations Compared
I am doing this exercise to get a handle on the scale of the problem at Platforms 13 and 14 at Manchester Piccadilly station.
In 2018/19, these were some passenger statistics for the two stations and some others.
- Birmingham New Street station handled 47.928 million passengers on its thirteen platforms or 3.62 million per platform per year.
- Brighton station handled 17.385 million passengers on its eight platforms or 2.17 million per platform per year.
- Bristol Temple Meads station handled 11.368 million passengers on its thirteen platforms or 0.87 million per platform per year.
- Cardiff station handled 14.205 million passengers on its eight platforms or 1.78 million per platform per year.
- Chelmsford station handled 8.927 million passengers on two platforms of 4.46 million per platform per year.
- Crewe station handled 3.318 million passengers on its twelve platforms or 0.28 million per platform per year.
- Deansgate station handled 0.458 million passengers on its two platforms or 0.23 million per platform per year.
- Doncaster station handled 3,918 million passengers on its nine platforms or 0.44 million per platform per year.
- East Croydon station handled 24.770 million passengers on its six platforms or 4.12 million per platform per year.
- Exeter St. Davids station handled 2.620 million passengers on its six platforms or 0.44 million per platform per year.
- Gatwick Airport station handled 21.225 million passengers on its seven platforms or 3.03 million per platform per year.
- Leeds station handled 30.839 million passengers on its seventeen train platforms or 1.81 million per platform per year.
- Leicester station handled 5.582 million passengers on its four platforms or 1.40 million per platform per year.
- Liverpool Lime Street station handled 14.221 million passengers on its eleven platforms or 1.29 million per platform per year.
- London Bridge station handled 61.308 million passengers on its fifteen platforms or 4.08 million per platform per year.
- London Fenchurch Street station handled 18.508 million passengers on its four platforms or 4.63 million per platform per year.
- London Paddington station handled 38.18 million passengers on its thirteen platforms or 2,94 million per platform per year.
- Manchester Oxford Road station handled 9.338 million passengers on its five platforms or 1.87 million per platform per year.
- Manchester Piccadilly station handled 30.252 million passengers on its fourteen platforms and two tram platforms or 1.89 million per platform per year.
- Manchester Victoria station handled 8.950 million passengers on its eight platforms or 1.12 million per platform per year.
- Newcastle station handled 8,914 million passengers on its twelve platforms or 0.74 million per platform per year.
- Nottingham station handled 8.005 million passengers on its nine platforms or 0.89 million per platform per year.
- Peterborough station handled 5.060 million passengers on its seven platforms or 0.72 million per platform per year.
- Preston station handled 4.646 million passengers on its nine platforms or 0.52 million per platform per year.
- Reading station handled 17.081 million passengers on its fifteen platforms or 1.14 million per platform per year.
- York station handled 9.991 million passengers on its eleven platforms or 0.90 million per platform per year.
These figures have given rise to a few thoughts.
Brighton
Brighton station is an eight platform terminal station, that handles a lot of passengers, considering that the City doesn’t have any mass transit system and passengers rely on walking, bicycles, buses and private cars for onward travel.
- There are upwards of eight trains per hour (tph) at the station to and from London, all of which can be up to twelve cars.
- The West Coastway and East Coastway Lines have at least six tph in the Off Peak.
- Arriving passengers can walk straight through the wide gate line and out to walking routes and the buses, with leaving passengers walking the other way.
I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Brighton station is at capacity.
Chelmsford
It is truly remarkable that Chelmsford station is the second busiest station in terms of passengers per platform per year on my list.
- The station has two separate platforms on either side of the tracks.
- Access is via wide stairs and lifts.
- The station appears to handle five tph in both directions in the Off Peak, with up to twice that number in the Peak.
- Most trains calling at the station are between eight and twelve cars.
- Chelmsford station could get even busier in terms of passengers when the new longer Class 720 trains and Class 745 trains are brought into service in the next twelve months, as these trains have higher capacities, than the current trains.
- It is aimed, that the new trains though will have level access between train and platform, at some point in the future.
I very much feel, that Chelmsford shows what can be done at an ordinary two platform station with the application of good simple design.
London Fenchurch Street
London Fenchurch Street is the busiest station on my list.
- The limited number of platforms will increase the number of passengers per platform per year.
- The station has two entrances to each platform.
- Arriving passengers can walk straight through the wide gate line at the main entrance and down escalators to walking routes at street level, with leaving passengers walking the other way.
- Many trains in the Peak are twelve cars.
- Adding extra platforms would be difficult.
It does appear, that work has been done to maximise the station’s capacity.
Crewe, Doncaster, Exeter St. Davids, Newcastle, Peterborough, Preston and York
All these stations are interchange stations on the main lines, that may have been improved, but have not been substantially rebuilt.
They all manage to handle between 0.5 million and 1 million passengers per platform per year.
Leeds
Leeds station has been improved over the last few years.
- There are six through platforms and eleven where trains can terminate.
- After passing through the gate line, passengers are in a concourse from where long distance services to London and the North and local services to Bradford, Harrogate, Ilkley and Skipton can be boarded.
- A new wide bridge with escalators, a lift and steps leads from this concourse across the through lines and platforms to the other side of the station.
- There are lifts and escalators from the bridge to some of the through platforms and the terminating platforms beyond them.
- At the far side of the bridge, a new Southern entrance has been added.
<The bridge works well and shows how a wide bridge over or a wide concourse under the tracks, can improve circulation in a station.
If you compare the bridge at Leeds, with the bridge at Reading, which was designed at around the same time, the Reading one is better in that it is wider and has more escalators, with one up and one down escalator to each pair of platforms.
Was a certain amount of design at Leeds station performed by accountants?
London Bridge
London Bridge station shows what can be done by applying good design in a new or rebuilt station.
- There are nine through and six terminal platforms.
- All platforms can take full-length twelve-car trains.
- There is a massive concourse underneath all fifteen platforms.
- There are lots of escalators and lifts between the concourse and the platforms.
- Steps provide additional and reserve capacity.
- Passengers changing between routes can take an escalator or lift to the concourse and another one to their new route.
- Arriving passengers can walk straight through the wide gate lines and out to walking routes, the Underground and the buses, with leaving passengers walking the other way.
- London Bridge station was designed by Grimshaw Architects
It is a design with a wow factor that works very well.
Reading
Reading station is another good design applied to a rebuilt station.
- There are nine through platforms, three East-facing bay platforms and three West-facing bay platforms.
- All through platforms can take full-length trains.
- All bay platforms are a level walk from the Southernmost through platform and the main entrance gate line to the station.
- There is a massive bridge over all nine through platforms.
- There are lots of escalators and lifts between the bridge and the through platforms.
- Steps provide additional and reserve capacity.
- Passengers changing between routes can take an escalator or lift to the bridge and another one to their new route.
- Arriving passengers can walk straight through the wide gate lines and out to walking routes, the car-parks and the buses, with leaving passengers walking the other way.
- Reading station was designed by Grimshaw architects.
It is a design with a wow factor that works very well.
Redesigning Manchester Piccadilly
Could some of the principles of these stations be applied to rebuilding Manchester Piccadilly station?
There are currently twelve terminal platforms numbered 1-12 in the main part of the station.
- Platforms 1 to 4 are used for services to Marple, New Mills, Rose Hill and Sheffield via the Hope Valley Line, and services on the Glossop Line.
- Platforms 5 to 9 are the longest and used by Avanti West Coast and CrossCountry services.
- Platforms 10 to 12 are shorter than the others and are usually used to accommodate local trains to Crewe and Manchester Airport, plus Mid-Cheshire line, Buxton Line and South Wales services.
The two through platforms 13 and 14 are on the Southern side of the station.
These ideas might be possible.
A Wide Bridge Or Concourse Connecting The Platforms At The London End
Currently, there is a bridge over the platforms 1 to 12 at the London end, but compared to the bridges at Leeds or Reading stations, it is a rather feeble affair.
- It is narrow.
- It doesn’t have any kiosks or shops.
- It is only connected to the platforms by steps.
Could this be replaced by a wide bridge, like say the one at Reading?
It would certainly give advantages if it could!
- Passengers arriving in Manchester Piccadilly needing to change to another service, might find it more convenient to use the bridge, rather than exit on to the main concourse.
- The bridge could be designed as a waiting area, with kiosks, shops, cafes and other facilities.
- The bridge would be connected to all platforms by escalators and lifts.
- Steps would provide additional and reserve capacity.
Note that if you buy a ticket to Manchester stations, that allows you to go to either Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Oxford Road, Deansgate or Manchester Victoria stations, So a quick route up and down an escalator at the London end of Piccadilly station to Platform 14 would be very convenient.
Access To Platforms 13 And 14
Compared to the wide island platforms at Leeds and Reading, platform 13 and 14 are a bit narrow, but I’m fairly sure, that a good layout for escalators and lifts could be designed, so that access to these two platforms can be improved.
Trains Through Platforms 13 and 14
These must be arranged, so that they are all similar with wide double doors and step-free access between platform and train.
Improvement Along The Castlefield Corridor
Various improvements need to be done on the Castlefield Corridor.
- Deansgate can be improved to provide better access to the Metrolink at Castlefield.
- Manchester Oxford Road station needs a complete rebuilt and a better track layout.
- The Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Airport service via Warrington and Manchester Oxford Road needs a strong rethink.
It appears that it has already been decided to reduce the number of trains, as I wrote about in Castlefield Corridor Trade-Off Plan For Fewer Trains.
Wide Gate Lines
Passengers arriving at Manchester Piccadilly station in the main part of the station should be able to walk forward to a gate line stretching right across all the platforms.
- The present gate line isn’t continuous.
- There is still a lot of manual checking of tickets.
The current layout can certainly be improved.
Access To Metrolink
I also wonder if better access to the Metrolink could be provided, so that passengers access the Metrolink station from inside the gate line. Now that the Metrolink allows contactless ticketing, this might be easier.
Conclusion
I believe there’s a solution in there somewhere!
Will The Chelmsford Avoiding Line Be Rebuilt?
I took this picture at Chelmsford station yesterday.
Note the wide space between the two tracks. This was for an avoiding line as detailed in Wikipedia.
There were originally three lines through the station: two platform lines and an avoiding line between them. An unusual signal box (being some five storeys high at the rear) on the London-bound platform controlled the station including, at the eastern end, a set of sidings that served the goods yard and Hoffman ball bearing factory. The signal box ceased to be used in 1994 but the structure has remained in situ since. The avoiding line has been removed and the sidings were reduced to serve only a mail sorting office and building materials yard.
Given that more and faster trains will be running through the station, could the avoiding line be reinstated?
- Faster trains could overtake trains, that were stopped in the station.
- It would probably make it easier for trains to terminate at Chelmsford, as they would block a platform.
- Modern slab track means that lines can be more precisely positioned.
- It might be possible for freight trains to use the avoiding line.
- Does Norwich-in-Ninety need the avoiding line?
I also suspect that it is probably about time, that the track was fully relaid.
Factors against reinstatement include.
- The modern trains arriving in a few years all have a higher cruising speed, so the need to overtake may be needed less.
- The modern trains will be able to perform a stop, reload and start at a station much quicker than the current stock.
- It is probably reasonable to assume that both fleets of trains; Flirts and Aventras, will have a similar performance and stop profile.
- A new station could be built at Beaulieu, which is a few miles North of Chelmsford and might be a better terminus in the area.
- Trains could also overtake at Beaulieu.
In addition, does Chelmsford need all the disruption?
I think that for the near future, the modern trains and Beaulieu station may be sufficient to allow Norwich-in-Ninety and Ipswich-in-Sixty to be fully implimented.
But long term, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a new Chelmsford station built at the site.
The Anonymous Widower 