Station Road
Bishops Stortford
CM23 3BL

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Operator: National Express East Anglia

Bishops Stortford Railway Station

Bishop's Stortford railway station serves the town of Bishop's Stortford in Hertfordshire, England. The station, and all trains serving it, are operated by National Express East Anglia; this includes the 2 or 3tph Stansted Express service. Out of the 17 stations on the West Anglia Main Line Bishop's Stortford is the third busiest just after London Liverpool Street and Tottenham Hale and is the busiest station on the entire line without a London Underground interchange.

History

The station was opened by the Northern and Eastern railway as a temporary terminus on May 16, 1842, and became a through station on July 30 1845 when the line was extended through to Norwich.

Bishop's Stortford was also a junction station for the cross-country route to Dunmow and Braintree, which opened to passengers on February 22, 1869 and closed on March 3, 1952. The line continued in use for freight trains and occasional excursions, closing in stages with the final section to Easton Lodge closing on February 17, 1972.<ref;Body, Geoffrey, Railways of the Eastern Region Volume 1: Southern Operating area, page 27, Guild Publishing, 1986</ref>

Services

The typical off-peak service is:

  • 5 trains per hour (tph) to London Liverpool Street, of which:
    • 2 call at Tottenham Hale to set down only
    • 2 calls at Sawbridgeworth, Harlow Town, Broxbourne, Cheshunt and Tottenham Hale
    • 1 calls at Sawbridgeworth, Harlow Mill, Harlow Town, Roydon, Broxbourne, Cheshunt and Tottenham Hale
  • 1 tph to Stratford, calling at Sawbridgeworth, Harlow Mill, Harlow Town, Roydon, Broxbourne, Cheshunt, Enfield Lock, Northumberland Park and Tottenham Hale
  • 3 tph to Stansted Airport, of which:
    • 2 run non stop
    • 1 calls at Stansted Mountfitchet
  • 2 tph to Cambridge, of which:
    • 1 calls at Audley End, Whittlesford and Shelford
    • 1 calls at Stansted Mountfitchet, Elsenham, Newport (Essex), Audley End, Great Chesterford and Whittlesford

On Sundays this is reduced to:

  • 4 tph to London, of which:
    • 2 call at Tottenham Hale only
    • 2 call at Sawbridgeworth, Harlow Town, Broxbourne, Cheshunt and Tottenham Hale
  • 1 tph to Stratford, calling at stations as above until Cheshunt, then at Waltham Cross, Enfield Lock, Brimsdown, Ponders End and Tottenham Hale
  • 2 tph to Stansted Airport, of which:
    • 1 runs non stop
    • 1 calls at Stansted Mountfitchet
  • 2 tph to Cambridge, of which:
    • 1 calls at Audley End and Whittlesford
    • 1 calls at Stansted Mountfitchet, Elsenham, Newport (Essex), Audley End, Great Chesterford, Whittlesford and Shelford

The station today

The station has 3 platforms. Platform 1 is for services towards Stansted Airport and Cambridge. Platform 2 is used for services to London Liverpool Street and London Stratford. Platform 3 is not used as much as the other two, it is normally used for some trains that terminate at Bishops Stortford rather than going on to Stansted Airport. However before it was used for Slow trains to London Liverpool Street and therefore platform 2 was used for fast trains (Stansted Express). The station has two entrances. One from Station Road where there is ticket hall, waiting room and Real Time information. The other entrance is for direct access to Platforms 2 and 3.

Long Term Future

Chelsea-Hackney Underground line

The safeguarded Chelsea-Hackney Underground line (Which is planned to start construction in 2017) may reach Bishop's Stortford station in the future. A proposed extension from Epping (Currently part of the Central line, but will become part of the Chelsea-Hackney line in 2025) to Stansted Airport is underway, being that Bishop's Stortford would be one of the intermediate stations along with stations in London, Essex and Hertfordshire. This would solve the bad train connections between East Hertfordshire and West Essex and connect another Airport to a Underground line. However it would be along time before services (if they do) to begin.

If both the London Underground go ahead it is likely the Station would have to be completely re-built.

This content is taken from Wikipedia and is re-used according to the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.