Chelmsford railway station

Chelmsford
Chelmsford railway station, including its disused signal box above the platform canopy
Location
Place	Chelmsford
Local authority	City of Chelmsford
Grid reference	TL705070
Operations
Station code	CHM
Managed by	Abellio Greater Anglia
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	C1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	6.698 million
2005/06	6.801 million
2006/07	7.113 million
2007/08	7.448 million
2008/09	7.375 million
2009/10	6.935 million
2010/11	7.336 million
2011/12	7.877 million
2012/13	8.002 million
2013/14	8.287 million
2014/15	8.381 million
History
Key dates	Opened 1842 (1842)
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Chelmsford from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Chelmsford railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the city of Chelmsford, Essex. It is 29 miles 60 chains (47.9 km) down-line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Ingatestone to the west and Hatfield Peverel and to the east. Its three-letter station code is CHM.

The station was opened in 1842. It is currently operated by Abellio Greater Anglia, which also runs all trains serving the station. Trains at Chelmsford run to a number of destinations including Liverpool Street in the London-bound direction, and Braintree, Clacton-on-Sea, Colchester, Harwich Town, Ipswich, Norwich and Witham in the eastbound direction.

History

Street-level entrance to the station in 1984

The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) arrived in Chelmsford in 1842 but due to the geography of the town an 18-arch viaduct had to be built across what is now the town park. The first Chelmsford station was built slightly to the north of the current station. A three-storey building on today's site was constructed in 1885 by the Great Eastern Railway (GER), into which the ECR had been merged. The present station building dates from a rebuild in 1985. Since the railway is elevated on a viaduct the platforms are above street-level.

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 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. The mail platform has been out of use for many years but the sidings saw some intermittent use until 2014 when they were closed for relaying. Lines to the north of the station are used by limited early-morning services that start from Chelmsford running to London and limited late-evening trains from London that terminate at Chelmsford.

Services

The typical Monday-Saturday off-peak service consists of:

• 5 trains per hour (tph) to London Liverpool Street.
• 1 tph to Braintree.
• 1 tph to Clacton-on-Sea.
• 1 tph to Colchester Town.
• 1 tph to Norwich.
• 1 tph to Ipswich.

External links

• Transports - Chelmsford

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Hatfield Peverel		Abellio Greater Anglia Great Eastern Main Line		Ingatestone
Witham				Shenfield
Colchester				Stratford
Witham		Dutchflyer London-Amsterdam		Shenfield
Historical railways
Witham		Anglia Railways London Crosslink		Ingatestone