Alresford railway station (Essex)

Alresford
Location
Place	Alresford
Local authority	Tendring
Grid reference	TM064215
Operations
Station code	ALR
Managed by	Abellio Greater Anglia
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2012/13	57,342
2013/14	57,480
2014/15	62,098
2015/16	68,436
2016/17	69,720
History
8 January 1866	Opened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Alresford from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Alresford railway station is on the Sunshine Coast Line, a branch of the Great Eastern Main Line, in the East of England, serving the village of Alresford, Essex. It is 57 miles 63 chains (93.0 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street^[1] and is situated between Wivenhoe to the west and Great Bentley to the east. In official literature it is shown as Alresford (Essex) in order to distinguish it from the station of the same name in Hampshire. Its three-letter station code is ALR.

The station was opened by the Tendring Hundred Railway, a subsidiary of the Great Eastern Railway, in 1866. It is currently managed by Abellio Greater Anglia, which also operates all trains serving the station.

History

Alresford station in 1992

The station was opened on 8 January 1866 by the Tendring Hundred Railway, then owned by the Great Eastern Railway. It later became part of the London and North Eastern Railway following the Grouping of 1923, and then passed to the Eastern Region of British Railways upon nationalisation in 1948. After sectorisation was introduced, the station was served by Network SouthEast until the privatisation of British Rail.

Prior to the electrification of the line, the ticket clerk operated the level crossing gates, the home and distant signals on both the "up" (London-bound) and "down" (country-bound) lines, and his own level crossing gate lock and the one for the level crossing a short distance down the line, at all times that the signal box was unmanned. Edward Burbage fulfilled this duty for nearly 50 years. The crossing gates were replaced with automatic barriers as part of an upgrade of the line in 2008 and 2009.^[2]

Tickets are sold from a small cabin close to Station Road as the original station building has been disused for many years but has been maintained by volunteers. In 2016 it was reported that the line franchisee, Abellio Greater Anglia, planned to demolish the station building and provide platform shelters in its place. It also planned to demolish the station buildings at Weeley and Kirby Cross.^[3] The buildings were subsequently offered to Tendring Borough Council for £1 each, should the council wish to renovate them.^[4]

Services

The typical off-peak service pattern is:

At peak times there are some additional services between Liverpool Street and Clacton-on-Sea.

References

• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
• Station on navigable O.S. map

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alresford (Essex) railway station.

• Train times and station information for Alresford railway station (Essex) from National Rail

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Wivenhoe		Abellio Greater Anglia Sunshine Coast Line		Great Bentley
Historical railways
Wivenhoe Line and station open		Great Eastern Railway Tendring Hundred Extension Railway		Thorington Line open, station closed

Coordinates: 51°51′14″N 0°59′49″E / 51.85389°N 0.99694°E / 51.85389; 0.99694