Greater Anglia's rollout of Alstom commuter trains has taken a move forward following platform lengthening work a Wickford Railway Station.
Wickford's platform 1 has been extended in order to fit the new longer trains in a project led by Greater Anglia and supported by Network Rail.
The platform is currently being tested and will be open for customers on Saturday, the 26th of June 2021.
During the final testing stages, all trains for the Southminster line will depart from platform 4, which can be accessed via the footbridge. Anyone with accessibility needs can use the south exit at the station, which leads directly to platforms 3/4. Extra staff will be available to help customers during this time.
Wickford is undergoing a £4m project which will see the station receive a new ticket office with two ticket office windows, a new upgraded accessible waiting hall including charging points and seating, new toilets including accessible toilets, new customer information screens, CCTV and a new shop where passengers can buy food and hot drinks.
The project has seen that the old station building demolished in order to move forward with the project, and a temporary ticket office has been put in place to keep disruption of service to a minimum.
Greater Anglia is also replacing every existing train with brand new greener, cleaner and more environmentally friendly trains which are longer and hold more seating. The first of which is the new Alstom commuter trains which only came into service in November 2020. All of the new trains will have USB, plug points, WiFi, air conditioning, passenger information systems, accessible seating and toilets.
Greater Anglia has ordered 133 trains from Alstom, and these will run between London Liverpool Street and Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. The Alstom trains will also feature underfloor heating, which is a first for UK trains which works alongside an overhead heating and ventilation system, which will improve passenger comforted and provide more foot room for passengers in window seats.
Ian McConnell, Greater Anglia franchise and programmes director, said: “We would like to thank customers for their patience while this work takes place. The platform has been extended, and customers will be able to use it soon.
“We are investing in Wickford to make it better for our customers. The proposed work will transform the station, bringing in new facilities for the 2.2 million people who use the station each year.
“This work is essential to allow us to run our new, longer trains to and from Wickford and it is a good opportunity to also upgrade customer facilities at the station.
“We are transforming the railway in East Anglia, with a complete fleet of new trains and £60 million worth of improvements to stations.”
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Finally platform 1 has been extended. And apparently the Class 720s were built by Bombardier but Alstom who took over from Bombardier are continuing on manufacturing the Class 720 Aventras. And the Class 720/6 for c2c.
Also forgot to ask is that Wickford station could do with new footbridge & lifts being installed as well at Rayleigh, Hockley and Rochford stations. And a new footbridge with/without lifts at Prittlewell on the Southend Victoria Line. And also a new footbridge+lifts at other stations including Marks Tey.