Chafford Hundred Lakeside railway station, also known simply as Chafford Hundred station, is located on a single-track

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industr ...

of the

London, Tilbury and Southend line The London, Tilbury and Southend line, also known as Essex Thameside, is a commuter railway line on the British railway system. It connects Fenchurch Street station, in central London, with destinations in east London and Essex, including , , ...

, serving the town of Chafford Hundred as well as

Lakeside Shopping Centre Lakeside Shopping Centre, is a large out-of-town shopping centre located in West Thurrock, Essex just beyond the eastern boundary of Greater London. It was constructed on the site of a former chalk quarry. The first tenants moved into the compl ...

in Essex. It is down the line from London Fenchurch Street via ; it is situated between and . Its three-letter station code is CFH. The station has a single platform and was opened on 26 May 1995 by

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...

. Today, all passenger train services are operated by

c2c Trenitalia c2c Limited,Companies House extract company no 789726 ...

, which also manages the station. Although outside the London fare zones 1 to 6, the station became part of the

Oyster card The Oyster card is a payment method for public transport in London (and certain areas around it) in England, United Kingdom. A standard Oyster card is a blue credit-card-sized stored-value contactless smart card. It is promoted by Transport ...

pay-as-you-go network in 2010. According to the ORR, the station is the busiest single-platform station in the UK, beating the next busiest ( Windsor and Eton Central) by some 900,000 passengers per year.

History

The single-track line through the area was opened in 1893 by the

London, Tilbury and Southend Railway The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LT&SR), was a British railway company, whose network connected Fenchurch Street station, in central London, with destinations in east London and Essex, including , , , Tilbury, Southend and . The company ...

(LTSR) as part of a branch from to via . By the late 20th century service on the line had been reduced to a relatively infrequent shuttle between Upminster and Grays, calling at the only intermediate station at . Following the opening of

in 1990 a new single-platform station was opened on 26 May 1995 by

. The £1 million station was funded by the Chafford Hundred development consortium. Initially a free shuttle bus connected the station to the shopping centre, with a direct pedestrian bridge link replacing the bus in 2000. The shuttle train service was eventually extended beyond Upminster to in London and beyond Grays to in Southend-on-Sea, with service frequency increased to two trains an hour in each direction. Usage is moderate for a suburban station and increasing; to expand capacity the buildings were rebuilt in 2006. The "Lakeside" suffix has occasionally been added to the name to not only reflect its location in the town of Chafford Hundred but also its proximity to the shopping centre. However, many continue to simply call the station Chafford Hundred for sake of brevity.

Services

The typical off-peak service frequency is: * 2 trains per hour (tph) to ; * 2 tph to .

Connections

Local buses 33 and X80 serve the station.

Notes

References

External links

{{Railway stations served by c2c Transport in Thurrock Railway stations in Essex DfT Category E stations Railway stations opened by Railtrack Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1995 Railway stations served by c2c