UK: The £175m Beaulieu Park railway station on the Great Eastern Main Line on the northern outskirts of Chelmsford opened to passengers on October 26, with a formal ceremony held the following day.
The station offers a 40 min journey time to and from London Liverpool Street. It has been built to support the Chelmsford Garden Community development of more than 10 000 new homes, to reduce car journeys into the city centre and to ease pressure on the existing station.
Beaulieu Park station facilities
It has three platforms with a central loop line allowing fast trains to overtake stopping services, step-free access via two lifts, ticket vending machines and a gate line, accessible toilets, baby changing facilities, waiting areas and space for retail/catering.
Access includes a bus interchange, parking for 705 vehicles across two car parks with 38 designated Blue Badge bays, dedicated parking for motorcycles, station staff and emergency services, space for service access and 10 electric vehicle charging points. There are 500 free covered bike storage spaces and paid secure storage, and improvements to local walking and cycling routes
Martin Beable, Managing Director at recently nationalised train operator Greater Anglia, said the station will have ‘a regular and reliable service of up to four trains per hour during peak times and two trains per hour during off peak periods, making rail travel simple and convenient for passengers’.
Funding and construction
The funding package included £141m from the government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund administered by Homes England, £12m from the South East Local Enterprise Partnership and £22m from housing developers Countryside (now part of the Vistry Group) and L&Q.
In January 2023 J Murphy & Sons was awarded a £37·8m enabling works contract, covering site set-up, civils, earthworks and modifications to track and signalling. This was followed in September 2023 by the £124m main works contract awarded by Network Rail on behalf of Essex County Council and Chelmsford City Council.
Murphy began construction in March 2023 with opening planned for the end of 2025, but good progress meant the station was able to open early.
Murphy installed two turnouts and three crossovers, 5 156 m of new and 1 768 m of re-used rail, 14 new signals, 36·5 km of new overhead wire along with support structures and enough paving blocks ‘to fill nine Olympic swimming pools’.
‘The early completion of such a complex project – encompassing railway systems, highways and the station building – is a testament to the collective expertise of all stakeholders’, said Nick Fletcher, UK Managing Director for Murphy.
Katie Frost, Network Rail’s Route Director for Anglia, said the project ‘shows how public and private sector can work together to create the transport infrastructure necessary to serve a new community’.
Councillor Louise McKinlay, Deputy Leader at Essex County Council, said ‘this key piece of infrastructure will improve journey times and connectivity around the county and into the capital. It is a great example of how planning should be done — new developments built with the infrastructure that works for residents, visitors and businesses.’
