Stansted Airport railway station is on a branch line off the
West Anglia Main Line
The West Anglia Main Line is one of the two main lines that operate out of , the other being the Great Eastern Main Line, which operates services to Ipswich and Norwich via Colchester. It runs generally north through Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Har ...
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 ...
and was opened in 1991 to provide a rail link to
London Stansted Airport
London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London.
London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acro ...
. It is down the line from
London Liverpool Street station
Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a London station group, central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the Wards of the City of ...
, to which a frequent dedicated service called the
Stansted Express
The Stansted Express is a direct train service linking London Liverpool Street to London Stansted Airport. It is a sub-brand of Greater Anglia, the current franchise operator of the East Anglia franchise.
History
In 1986, British Rail (BR) e ...
operates.
The short branch line was constructed at a cost of £44 million and opened by
British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
to coincide with the completion of the airport's new terminal building.
Layout
Platforms 1 and 3 run the full length of the station and are used for Stansted Express and services. The shorter platform number 2 is used for the
CrossCountry
CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the Cross Country franchise.
The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) ...
-operated services to Birmingham New Street.
In 2011 platform 1 was extended to accommodate two trains simultaneously in combinations of up to 16 coaches, and platform 2 was extended to accommodate four-coach trains.
The station is in a concrete box structure that is unusually above ground level rather than below ground, being constructed under the terminal building. This is evident at the western end of the platforms which are left open and is a similar design to
Wembley Central railway station.
Services
Services at Stansted Airport are operated by
Greater Anglia (including services under the
Stansted Express
The Stansted Express is a direct train service linking London Liverpool Street to London Stansted Airport. It is a sub-brand of Greater Anglia, the current franchise operator of the East Anglia franchise.
History
In 1986, British Rail (BR) e ...
brand) and
CrossCountry
CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the Cross Country franchise.
The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) ...
.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:
* 2 tph to
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 ...
* 1 tph to via
* 1 tp2h to via Cambridge and
References
External links
*
Stansted Airport Trains
{{authority control
Railway stations in Essex
DfT Category B stations
Railway stations opened by British Rail
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1991
Railway stations served by CrossCountry
Railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
Greater Anglia franchise railway stations
Airport railway stations in the United Kingdom
1991 establishments in England