c2c has announced that they will be introducing nearly 50 fast trains each weekend, which will take people between London and Southend in as little as 44 minutes and to Shoeburyness in 55 minutes.
The hourly weekend trains will run from June, and call at all stations between Shoeburyness and Benfleet, before running fast to West Ham and Fenchurch Street only.
The trains will be on top of c2c's existing services, providing a 50% increase in direct c2c trains between London and Southend each hour on Sundays, and a 25% increase to service levels on Saturdays.
Additionally, c2c will also be extending its weekend trains via Ockendon to and from Shoeburyness, instead of Southend Central.
This will increase the number of trains into Southend town centre for residents using Southend East, Thorpe Bay and Shoeburyness stations from four to seven trains an hour.
What did the officials say?
c2c Managing Director Julian Drury said:
“We know how important it is to provide fast trains between London and Southend, helping people to get out and about at weekends. These new extra fast trains will slash the journey time between London and Southend, while our extra trains from Shoeburyness will help local residents get into the town centre by public transport. This is good news for our customers, and good news for Southend's economy. ”
Rochford and Southend East MP James Duddridge said:
“It is fantastic news that c2c are putting on an extra fast train from Shoebury to London every hour at weekends from June. The journey time will be 55 minutes, much faster than normal. I have been working with c2c to make more trains
“Shoebury to London in 59 minutes”.
c2c is a pipeline of money, jobs and prosperity linking Southend with central London.”
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That’s actually really good. But also c2c have ordered the new Class 711 Aventra 10-Car trains that will be built by Bombardier and will replace the Class 387/3 hired for c2c. Which means that the 10-Car Class 711 trains will be used on LondonFenchurch St-Southend Central, Shoeburyness, Laindon, Basildon and Leigh-on-Sea and will also be avoiding stations such as Pitsea, Benfleet and West Horndon as the Class 711 will be used as a direct only non-stop & semi-fast services that Class 387/3s are being used on at the moment.
And 4-Car Class 357s also built by Bombardier in the 2000s will also be retained as c2c are still using the Class 357 aswell some of them converted as 357/3 used on “Metro” routes between Fenchurch St-Grays via Rainham & via Ockendon (aswell Grays-Upminster shuttle) and Fenchurch St-Southend Central, Shoeburyness, Pitsea and Stanford-le-Hope metro services.
Which the Class 387/3 would end up being cascaded to either Heathrow Express, GWR, Gatwick Express or Great Northern. Once the Class 711 trains have been built and are in service which they will be in service from next year.