My commute into London has had an added interesting aspect since the beginning of 2023 – witnessing the day-to-day progress of a new station being constructed at Beaulieu Park, Chelmsford – the first new station on the Great Eastern Mainline in over 100 years!
It’s really exciting to see a new piece of infrastructure being built, which very closely follows the principle we love to see of development being focused around excellent access to public transport. Residents of the new homes on the doorstop of this station will have fantastic access to a frequent rail service into central London, with direct access also provided to the centre of Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich.
The scale of works is mind-blowing, with costs to match – £218m funding was secured from the Government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF), together with £34m from the South-East Local Enterprise Partnership and the Beaulieu developer, Countryside Zest. It’s an excellent showcase to demonstrate that new development coupled with new public transport infrastructure can happen. Station facilities will include:
- three station platforms
- access to platforms via lifts
- accessible toilets and baby changing facilities
- ticketing facilities
- 500 cycle parking and storage spaces
- bus interchange
- dedicated taxi bays
Construction is set to be completed in December 2025 – I can’t wait to see trains stopping at the new station. I’ll even contemplate whether I can extend the part of my commute I do by bike to travel via the new station – on the odd occasion!
