Southend Airport railway station is on the Shenfield to Southend Line in the

East of England The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire ...

, serving

London Southend Airport London Southend Airport is an international airport situated on the outskirts of Southend-on-Sea in Essex, England, approximately from the centre of London. The airport straddles the boundaries between the city of Southend-on-Sea and the Ro ...

, the village of

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a List of United Kingdom locations: Stu-Sz#Su, location * S ...

and northern parts of

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

. It is down the line from

London Liverpool Street Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...

and is situated between and . Train services provide an

airport rail link An airport rail link is a service providing passenger rail transport from an airport to a nearby city by mainline or commuter trains, rapid transit, people mover, or light rail. Direct links operate straight to the airport terminal, while o ...

between Southend Airport and

Central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...

. The station is managed by

but the trains serving it are operated by Greater Anglia. The

Engineer's Line Reference {{Use British English, date=April 2020 An Engineer's Line Reference (ELR) is a three alpha, or four alpha-numeric, code used to uniquely identify a railway line on the main-line railway of Britain owned, or maintained, by Network Rail but officia ...

for the line is SSV; the station's three-letter station code is SIA. The platforms have an operational length for 12-coach trains.

History

When Southend Airport officially opened as a municipal airport in 1935, the mayor of Southend suggested that it would be a good idea to open a railway station to serve the airport. For the first 75 years of the airport's operation, the nearest railway station was . After Southend Borough Council sold the airport to Regional Airports Ltd, a scheme was proposed in 1997 to build a station, and planning permission was obtained from Rochford District Council. It was not until 2008 that the Stobart group began to advance the project, and construction began in late 2009. The station was originally planned to open in 2009, but the opening date was postponed several times. In June 2011, National Express trains began stopping at the station, but passengers were not permitted to get off. The station was designed by

Atkins Atkins may refer to: Places in the United States * Atkins, Arkansas, a city * Atkins, Iowa, a city * Atkins, Louisiana, an unincorporated community * Atkins, Nebraska, an unincorporated community * Atkins, Virginia, a census-designated place * ...

and constructed by Birse Rail; it was opened by the Transport Minister

Theresa Villiers Theresa Anne Villiers (born 5 March 1968) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chipping Barnet since 2005, having previously served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2005. A member of the ...

in 2011. A new terminal building adjoining the station opened in 2012.

Services

The typical Monday-Saturday off-peak service is: * 2 trains per hour (tph) to

, calling at all stations to then and Liverpool Street. * 1 tph to London Liverpool Street, calling at all stations to Shenfield then , Stratford and Liverpool Street. * 3 tph to , calling at and Southend Victoria. When the

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway ...

project is completed, interchange will be possible at Shenfield, Stratford and Liverpool Street between Southend Airport rail services and the new

Elizabeth Line The Elizabeth line is a high-frequency hybrid Urban rail, urban–suburban rail service in London and its suburbs. It runs services on dedicated infrastructure in central London from the Great Western Main Line west of London Paddington statio ...

, providing onward links to central London and

Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...

. Glyn Jones, chief executive of Stobart Aviation, proposed in 2018 that Crossrail should be extended to Southend Airport to alleviate capacity problems at Heathrow. London airport links map

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Southend Airport Railway Station Transport in Rochford District Railway stations in Essex Railway stations opened by Network Rail Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 2011 Greater Anglia franchise railway stations Airport railway stations in the United Kingdom