Should Crossrail be extended to Southend Victoria?

Is that a purple train at Southend Victoria? Image Credit: Steven Quy

Despite years of frustrating delays, the finish line is finally in sight for the Crossrail project. Set to open in February 2022 after four years of funding negotiations and contractor changes, the line will connect Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east to Heathrow Airport and Reading in the west via two tunnel-borne routes underneath central London.

The line's south-eastern branch, which will link the central section to Abbey Wood, currently has proposals in place to extend the line further into the south east, perhaps to Dartford, or even further to Gravesend. A number of years ago, a similar unsuccessful campaign was launched to try and get services on the other eastern branch to extend to Southend Victoria, which is currently served by mainline trains into Liverpool Street than run alongside the Crossrail route west of Shenfield.

Below I'd like to present what I would propose if I was hypothetically to start a campaign myself to try and get the line extended. I should point out - there are no plans at all, at the current time, for this extension to go ahead. This is merely a hypothetical proposal, but in my opinion, having weighed up the positives and negatives, and with a few compromises, the positives of such an extension outweigh the negatives quite significantly.

Backstory

Firstly, a bit of backstory about why I would very heavily support an extension of Crossrail to Southend-on-Sea. I grew up in the area near Goodmayes station, on the eastern branch of the route. I went to school in Southend-on-Sea. In addition to this, in September of this year, I'll be starting a Computer Science degree at a university campus on the western side of the route. My typical journey to Southend, whilst travelling to school would typically be on c2c trains, which stop at Barking and provide a fairly hassle-free and fast journey to Southend as it is. The alternative route is travelling from Goodmayes to Shenfield (or Romford, depending on the time of day) and then changing onto Greater Anglia trains. This second route is significantly slower due to having to change trains and wait for connections at Shenfield or Romford. The route between Shenfield and Southend has also had a poor service until recently with the introduction of new Greater Anglia trains that are quite similar to the class 345 trains used on Crossrail. Not having to change trains would have been far more convenient, and in addition to this, an increase in the number of services on the Shenfield-Southend line would give the c2c route a greater level of competition.

With that said, below is what I would propose as an extension plan, and what the added benefits would be.

Positives of extending

The Capacity Exists

The line between Shenfield and Southend is under-capacity. Currently there are 3 trains per hour each way between Southend Victoria and Liverpool Street, despite the line being able to handle up to 8 trains per hour based on the distance between signalling points. The low service frequency is due to bottlenecking on the main lines beyond Shenfield which are shared with services travelling to/from Colchester Town, Braintree, Ipswich, and Norwich, leaving little capacity for extra Southend services.

As shown, 9 trains per hour will pass through Shenfield station on the main lines in each direction during the typical off-peak weekday.

Crossrail trains run on their own dedicated tracks (commonly known as the 'electric lines') to allow the main line service to run fast. I do believe there are ways to implement an extension without causing major disruption to services on the main lines.

Slower journey times for Southend passengers? No!

Image: Shenfield Station before Platform 6 was built

The plans would not disadvantage passengers between Shenfield and Southend. One of the main points of opposition for Crossrail services to Southend is the idea that passengers between Shenfield and Southend will lose their current Greater Anglia fast service, which runs non-stop between Shenfield and Stratford (with a small number of trains calling at Romford too).

The loss of fast trains in favour of slower 'metro' services has shown to be unpopular in the past. When Greater Anglia stopped calling at Brentwood in 1998, many locals protested these changes and demanded, albeit unsuccessfully, for fast trains to return. Today, Brentwood (and all stations up to Maryland excluding Romford) are only served by metro-style trains.

However, the service pattern I would propose involves adding to the service level on the Shenfield-Southend line rather than changing it. In other words, the proposal would mean stations between Shenfield and Southend will essentially be served by two operators rather than one. The stations can continue to be served by Greater Anglia's fast trains in addition to a number of extended Crossrail services, that will call at every station up to Stratford. There may be a case for some changes to existing services, such as making Prittlewell station Crossrail-only due to its proximity to Southend Victoria, or making Crossrail trains from Southend fast-running between Ilford and Stratford (providing a slightly faster service from Ilford which was discontinued a few years ago). Some of the Crossrail trains could act as an 'airport express' and skip stations between Rochford and Billericay. While this may sound like a confusing service pattern, successful railways such as Thameslink have complex stopping patterns and most regular commuters will still know the correct train they need to get.

In fact, for passengers looking for the fastest route, adding slow Crossrail trains to the Southend branch could actually make journeys faster. Some passengers may choose to hop on a Crossrail train at, say, Rayleigh, travel to Shenfield, change onto a fast train from the main line, jump off at Stratford or Liverpool Street and then re-join a Crossrail train. Increased service frequency will allow passengers to arrive at Shenfield in time to catch a fast train where they previously would not have been able to do so. While this sounds unreasonable on the face of it, many passengers on the District Line do exactly this - many will change off the district at Barking/West Ham on to a c2c train, travel to Fenchurch Street and then re-join a district/h&c train further ahead. Since one c2c train will often overtake about two or three tube trains between West Ham and Fenchurch Street/Tower Hill, this does allow commuters to travel faster despite the extended walking time. Of course, not everyone will do this; some would rather add a couple minutes to their journey at the comfort of not having to change trains and walk. However it is not unreasonable to suggest that some passengers will take this option. And for passengers that would rather remain on a direct but slower train, the option is there. 

Promoting local areas and incentivising travel

The Crossrail route in the east serves a number of locations typically described as 'up-and-coming'. Historically this was the case for Stratford, which was heavily redeveloped for the Olympics. In 2021, redevelopment is proposed for the Ilford and Romford areas. Crossrail will already connect these areas to the West End, but how about better connections to parts of South Essex? An extension to Southend would incentivise passengers from east London and beyond to travel to Southend, and vice-versa. By providing a new direct train service from inner London, demand for businesses across east London and Essex would increase. The creation of new and improved transport links along the line would further benefit from better services across South Essex. In addition, Southend will be, for the first time, directly connected to the West End.

For an example of prospective regeneration plans, click here.

It would also incentivise living along the Shenfield-Southend line, further increasing passenger numbers. I know personally of people who have moved nearer to c2c station due to dissatisfaction with services on the Shenfield-Southend line. Providing direct services to the West End and central London would give the line a cutting edge over the main competitor, c2c, which terminates at Fenchurch Street in the east.

Southend Airport will benefit significantly too

An extension would also incentivise passengers across east London and Essex to use Southend Airport. Connecting Crossrail to Southend Airport will incentivise many passengers across the east to use the airport. Southend Airport is notorious for its lack of rail connections when compared to Heathrow and Gatwick. The last Greater Anglia train to London leaves Southend Airport at 23:59 every weekday, with the next train not until around 04:00. Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted on the other hand (although they are much bigger than Southend Airport) have sufficient transport available throughout the night via buses such as the X26, night tube services such as the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow, night Thameslink services and night GWR services.

Crossrail trains are already designed to be optimal for airport travellers (due to serving Heathrow). The trains have large amounts of space for luggage and appropriate air conditioning and lighting levels. Proposals to make Crossrail 24-hours (this is topic for another article), if night service is extended to Southend, will provide late night travellers from Southend with feasible transport to London where this has not existed previously.

Another bit of personal backstory here: The last c2c trains into London are often very busy. I regularly go out in Southend during the night hours and there are currently no buses or trains travelling into London during night hours, with the last train from Southend to London departing at around 23:50 on both routes. Consequently, I've often ended up staying at a friends house, or waiting out in a local casino (or a bench, sometimes, no joke) until I can catch the first train at around 04:00. The provision of a later service would significantly boost the night-time economy in Southend as travellers will be willing to stay later on the basis that they can catch a train without having to wait three to four hours.

The cost of extending the service should be minimal and will pay for itself in time

Service extension will require minimal construction costs. The platforms along the Shenfield-Southend line are longer than Crossrail trains are, and therefore will not need extending. The highest costs will likely be paperwork rather than infrastructure. The Shenfield-Southend line stations would remain under the main control of Greater Anglia, and whilst some rebranding could be considered, rebranding costs overall will be negligible.

 It would allow Greater Anglia to axe the Romford stop on Southend trains

Only 6 of 10 carriages on a Greater Anglia Class 720 train fit on Romford's platforms. The other 4 trail off the end.

Existing trains between London and Southend Victoria stop at Romford once per hour outside of peak times. Romford is a difficult stop to make as only six of the ten carriages fit on the platform. Capacity does not exist currently to make more main-line calls at Romford as this will cause bottlenecking further down the line. The installation of safety fences in 2015 mean staff need to unlock platform gates on the outbound side every time a main line train makes a passenger call at the station.

Despite its low frequency, a large quantity of passengers use the main-line stop at Romford. This is a clear example into how railways and travel demand go hand-in-hand. The stop is kept as it is used by passengers aware of its existence and is popular among local residents.

Signs at Shenfield remind drivers and guards of Class 720 trains to check whether they are making a call at Romford.

By extending Crossrail to Southend, Greater Anglia trains no longer need to make this stop, which will improve capacity on the main lines. Trains between London and Colchester Town can continue to make the stop, and the removal of the Southend stopper could open up capacity for another GA mainline service (such as the Ipswich service) to stop at Romford without starting to bottleneck the existing timetable.

Possible further extension to Southminster

Southminster in Essex is notorious for inadequate rail connections. The line currently receives one train every forty minutes from Southminster to Wickford, with the journey taking around thirty minutes. The line is single track (hence the poor service frequency) and only provides one train a day to London Liverpool Street at the time of writing (the last one of the evening). I would not propose an extension of Crossrail to Southminster until the effect of Crossrail in Southend is shown first. However, should this extension be considered in the future, the service frequency needs to be considered as it may cause congestion between Shenfield and Wickford, not to mention the fact that it means less Crossrail services would be terminating at Shenfield. Before a Crossrail extension here is considered, the line should, in my opinion, be double-tracked, which is an expensive task and requires remodelling of stations, which is a topic for another article.

Downsides of extending - and compromises that could be made to mitigate these effects

From what I have written above, it is quite clear that I am in favour of an extension. However, it would be foolish to assume that there would be no downsides. Here are some potential downsides to the extension and ways to mitigate these effects.

Remodelling Shenfield would be expensive - but we don't have to remodel it!

Shenfield is designed as a terminating station for Crossrail services. Significant work has already been undertaken at Shenfield to create a new bay platform for Crossrail services (Platform 6) along with the additional through-platform (Platform 5). However, as discussed above, the proposals I give are not suggesting that all Crossrail services will extend to Southend - only that a select few will. Just as some Crossrail trains terminate at Maidenhead, or some at Gidea Park, not all Crossrail trains will be serving the Southend branch. Out of 10 trains per hour off-peak, it may be that only 3 of those extend to Southend. This will still double the current frequency between Shenfield and Southend.

In the event of breakdowns

Longer distance services can cause substantial problems with delays in the event of breakdowns, as is often seen on Thameslink, and the tube where delays can cause significant ripple effects further down the line. This is the same reason that most services terminating or starting at Shenfield during the peak will start/terminate at Paddington rather than travelling to/from the west, when the full route opens. For this reason, perhaps it is not a bad idea to terminate services from Southend Victoria at Paddington rather than running these all the way to Reading/Heathrow. However, through-trains could still be considered as occasional extras to ease congestion, or for early-morning/late-night services.

Crossing the junction at Shenfield

The final problem is the most difficult to overcome. It may be difficult for trains to cross the junction at Shenfield. Unfortunately, there is no way around this one unless some reconstruction is done beyond Shenfield. The junctions and general area around Shenfield station is a victim to high levels of congestion. Trains will often be at reduced speed around this area and will often be held at red signals. New additional connections between the electric lines and the Southend branch could be considered, although this will likely be the most tricky/expensive part of the project, and for the many positives, will likely be worth the investment in the long run. Reconstruction could be considered after trialling the service, especially if passenger numbers and profit prove to be high but performance proves to suffer.

To conclude, it seems clear to me that a Crossrail extension to Southend Victoria would have significantly more benefits than downsides, boost local areas and increase service frequency and convenience whilst incurring comparatively minimal monetary costs.

In case you're wondering, yes, that is a purple train at Southend Victoria. Trains have to have cleared a certain amount of mileage before being deemed safe for passenger operation. To try and achieve this mileage, Crossrail ran their trains back and forth on the line.