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Brentwood railway station

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Location
  
Brentwood

Managed by
  
TfL Rail

DfT category
  
C2

Local authority
  
Borough of Brentwood

Grid reference
  
TQ593930

Station code
  
BRE

Number of platforms
  
4

Original company
  
Eastern Counties Railway

Brentwood railway station

Accessible
  
Yes (except Platform 4)

Address
  
Warley, Brentwood CM14 5EZ, United Kingdom

Similar
  
Shenfield railway station, Goodmayes railway station, Gidea Park railway station, Harold Wood railway st, Chadwell Heath railway st

Brentwood railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the town of Brentwood, Essex. It is 18 miles 16 chains (29.3 km) down-line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Harold Wood and Shenfield. Its three-letter station code is BRE.

Contents

The station was opened in 1840 by the Eastern Counties Railway. It is currently managed by TfL Rail. The vast majority of services call at Brentwood as part of the Liverpool Street-Shenfield stopping "metro" service but Abellio Greater Anglia services for Southend Victoria also call on Sundays. From 2019 the station will be fully served by Crossrail, linking it to additional stations in central London, as well as Reading and London Heathrow Airport. TfL Rail, the precursor of Crossrail, took over the running of the Shenfield "metro" in May 2015.

History

Brentwood station was opened on 1 July 1840 as a temporary terminus by the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) on what was to become the Great Eastern Main Line, until 1843, when the line was extended towards Colchester.

The Great Eastern Railway (GER) took over in 1862 and renamed the station as Brentwood & Warley for Billericay in 1882, shortened to Brentwood & Warley in 1889. After the grouping of 1923 the station passed to the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), which quadrupled the number of tracks passing through in 1934. In 1969 the station's name was changed back to Brentwood.

The station is sited at the bottom of a bank which ascends to the east towards Shenfield. This presented a significant climb to down-steam trains. Until 2001, embankment ladders were present to allow workmen to access the tracks but these were replaced with a walkway along the tracks.

In 2010, National Express East Anglia, then the operating company for the line, commenced an improvement programme at the station, including the expansion of the entrance and ticket hall, refurbishment of waiting rooms and provision for the installation of customer lifts to the platforms.

Accidents and incidents

  • On 19 September 1850, nine workmen were killed when they were struck by a train at Brentwood station in dense fog. The ECR was criticised by the coroner's jury for not adequately protecting the men.
  • On 20 November 1902, approximately 80 passengers were injured on an Ipswich-Liverpool Street service waiting at Brentwood & Warley station when it was rear-ended by a train that was not in service. A Board of Trade report stated that the empty train's speed "was not more than four or five miles an hour" at the time of the collision.
  • On 8 July 1926, 12 people were injured when a passenger and mail train from Liverpool Street was approaching Brentwood & Warley and collided head-on with a train pilot engine. At the moment of impact the speed of the passenger train had been about 10 mph, whilst the light engine was almost or completely stationary. The primary causes of the accident were recorded as driver and shunter errors, as well as excessive speed.
  • On 10 February 1941, six passengers and one crew member were killed in a collision on the track between Harold Wood and Brentwood. An express train travelling from Liverpool Street to Norwich came to a stand, unable to ascend the bank due to a shortage of steam, and was run into from the rear by a Southend Victoria-bound service which had passed a red signal. The speed of the Southend train was reported to have been around 30 mph, resulting in a violent collision. The driver of the Southend train was fully fit, highly experienced and should have noticed both the red signal and the stopped train ahead. He "fully admitted his responsibility for the collision" and according to a Ministry of War Transport investigation: "Such a grave lapse on the part of an experienced main line driver is difficult to explain."

    • Services

    Trains serving Brentwood are currently operated by TfL Rail and some on Sundays only are operated by Abellio Greater Anglia. The typical Monday-Saturday off-peak service from the station is six trains per hour in each direction on the stopping "metro" service between Shenfield and Liverpool Street. On Sundays the TfL Rail service is reduced to two and two Abellio Greater Anglia Southend services call.

    The following services typically call at Brentwood:

    In 2017 new Class 345 trains will enter service as Crossrail partially opens. The route will be extended through central London to London Heathrow Airport and Reading in 2019. The platforms at Brentwood will be extended from their current length of between 184 metres (201 yd) and 187 metres (205 yd) to accommodate the Crossrail trains which will be over 200 metres (220 yd) long. New lifts, signage, help points, customer information screens and CCTV will also be installed.

    References

    Brentwood railway station Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA