Stansted Airport railway station
Stansted Airport railway station is on a branch line off the West Anglia Main Line in the east of England and was opened in 1991 to provide a rail link to London Stansted Airport. It is 36 miles 67 chains (59.3 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street station, to which a frequent dedicated service called the Stansted Express operates.
Location | London Stansted Airport, District of Uttlesford England |
---|---|
Grid reference | TL556235 |
Managed by | Greater Anglia |
Platforms | 3 |
Other information | |
Station code | SSD |
Classification | DfT category B |
History | |
Opened | 1991 |
Original company | British Rail |
Passengers | |
2014/15 | 4.502 million |
2015/16 | 6.013 million |
2016/17 | 7.632 million |
2017/18 | 8.934 million |
Interchange | 32,632 |
2018/19 | 9.774 million |
Interchange | 26,348 |
Notes | |
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road |
The short branch line was constructed at a cost of £44 million and opened by British Rail to coincide with the completion of the airport's new terminal building.[1]
Layout
Platforms 1 and 3 run the full length of the station and are used for Stansted Express and Norwich services. The shorter platform number 2 is used for the three CrossCountry-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
The principal service to Stansted Airport is the Stansted Express, a dedicated airport link service from London Liverpool Street operated by Greater Anglia which runs every 30 minutes.
The station was also served by a regular hourly CrossCountry service to Birmingham New Street via Cambridge , Peterborough and Leicester until March 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak, with the majority of services now terminating at Cambridge. Three a day are extended to serve the airport. From December 2019, Greater Anglia began to operate services to Norwich via Cambridge and Ely using new Class 755 Stadler bi-mode trains, operating roughly hourly.
References
- Blow, Christopher (2005). "6: Taxonomy of rail, bus/coach and air transport interchanges". Transport Terminals and Modal Interchanges (1 ed.). Oxford: Architectural Press. p. 70. ISBN 0-7506-5693-X.
External links
- Media related to Stansted Airport railway station at Wikimedia Commons
- Train times and station information for Stansted Airport railway station from National Rail
- Stansted Airport Trains
Preceding station | National Rail | Following station | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Stansted Mountfitchet | Greater Anglia Stansted Express |
Terminus | ||
Audley End | Greater Anglia West Anglia Main Line |
Terminus | ||
Audley End | CrossCountry Cross Country Network |
Terminus |