Long standing plans to move and rebuild a little railway station currently serving the Essex town of Purfleet-on-Thames have advanced as the formal planning application has been submitted to the council for approval.
View from New London Road looking north (c) AHMM Architects
The impetus to upgrade the station comes from plans for a major redevelopment of the area around it to replace light industrial sites with nearly 3,000 new homes, and the current station is not just unable to cope with increased passengers, it’s in the wrong place as well.
The area is currently served by C2C trains calling at Purfleet railway station, which is not much more than a couple of platforms, a footbridge and a ticket office. It’s situated right next to a level crossing which is not ideal for pedestrians and road traffic.
The new location is slightly to the north of the current station and will be a much larger building with a public footbridge across the railway linking both sides of the new housing development.
Access to the platforms will be down from the footbridge via stairs and lifts.
The redeveloped area on one side of the station will be raised up on a podium covering a car park, so the approach to the station will appear to be at street level, while the other side of the station will show the elevated footbridge with stairs and lift up to the crossing.
Approach view from the south-east, looking north (c) AHMM Architects
The station entrance, which will sit above the tracks within the footbridge will come with two ticket machines, and 6 ticket gates plus 2 wide aisle gates. There will also be a passenger accessible toilet and a separate accessible baby change facility
Unusually for a new station, it won’t come with the ubiquitous small retail unit, but less unsurprisingly, they’re leaving space for one to be added later.
View through the public footbridge looking east and showing the ticketing facilities (c) AHMM Architects
The roof is intended to be the defining architectural feature of the main station building, taking the form of a modular timber oversailing canopy that will float above the footbridge.
If the plans are approved, then the proposed railway station, car park and town centre will be one of the first to be constructed as part of the wider masterplan development. The current timeline for the project suggests that the new station will open in 2025.
The regeneration project is being delivered by Purfleet Centre Regeneration Limited (PCRL), in partnership with Thurrock Council.
A curiously Gothic literary connection sees Count Dracula purchase Carfax House in Purfleet, relocating there from his Transylvanian castle in Bram Stoker’s novel. No garlic needed to visit the railway station though.
Have been following the Purfleet regeneration project for a while now, interesting to see. Will the station remain open whilst under construction?
Sammy
Very likely – since the station is “shuffling north”, they can use the old one, whilst constructing the new one … end-on, so to speak.
This slight relocation appears to be moving the main part of the station back to its original position. The former approach road, which also led to the goods shed, remains and presumably will be reused.