A little railway station currently serving the Essex town of Purfleet is to be moved and renamed as part of a £1 billion housing and regeneration scheme for the area which is to be renamed as Purfleet-on-Thames.
The redevelopment area covers most of the land between the river and the Channel Tunnel rail link, which is around 155 acres of currently a mix of light industrial and warehousing, all of which is to be demolished and replaced with a new town centre.
Purfleet-on-Thames masterplan
Up to 2,850 new homes will be provided as well, alongside an integrated medical centre, improved transport infrastructure and a new primary school. Later phases could include the delivery of a new Higher Education/Further Education campus.
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.
Purfleet station – Google satellite view
The plans will see the station entrance shifted slightly northwards and an entirely new station building constructed. The road next to the former station location will also move northwards, and become a bridge over the railway, closing the level crossing entirely.
Due to the need to move the road early in the masterplan, they will close the existing Purfleet station ticket office and build a temporary ticket office, then the road can shift northwards, and will run right over where the footbridge and existing ticket office are.
Once all that’s done, they can then build the replacement ticket office building.
New road layout – overlay on Google Map
The unknown is if they will attempt to rename the station to match the housing development, in which case Purfleet station will close, and Purfleet-on-Thames station will open.
But, if you want to see the current Purfleet station, hurry, as construction work on housing has already started, and the station’s redevelopment won’t be far behind.
The proposed station building (c) Our Purfleet / AHMM
The station will not be named after the development it will be named after the place. On 4th July 2020 Purfleet was officially renamed Purfleet-on-Thames, The developer who heard about the name change immediately embraced the new name. Reasons and history of the name change https://purfleet-on-thames.org/petition/
Give it 50 years and it will be Purfleet-under-Thames…
A link to hr1 would be the best way.all in one station and a link to the Kent coast .
You mean HS1 – and what would be the benefit? It would add extra time to Eurostar trains, merely to serve a backwater.