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Stansted Airport railway station

Railway station in Essex, England

Field	Value
name	Stansted Airport
symbol_location	gb
symbol	rail
image	Bahnhof Stansted Airport.JPG
borough	London Stansted Airport, District of Uttlesford,
country	England
grid_name	Grid reference
grid_position
manager	Greater Anglia
platforms	3
structure	At-grade
code	SSD
classification	DfT category B
original	British Rail
opened	1991
mpassengers
{{Rail pass box	pass_year	2018/19	passengers= 9.774 million	interchange= 26,348}}
{{Rail pass box	pass_year	2019/20	passengers= 8.475 million	interchange= 2,938}} --
{{Rail pass box	pass_year	2020/21	passengers= 0.795 million	interchange= 445}}
{{Rail pass box	pass_year	2021/22	passengers= 3.369 million	interchange= 1,479}}
{{Rail pass box	pass_year	2022/23	passengers= 7.906 million	interchange= 2,583}}
{{Rail pass box	pass_year	2023/24	passengers= 9.281 million	interchange= 2,109}}
{{Rail pass box	pass_year	2024/25	passengers= 10.091 million	interchange= 2,276}}
footnotes	Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

-- Stansted Airport railway station serves London Stansted Airport, in Essex, England. It is the northern terminus of a branch line off the West Anglia Main Line, to which the dedicated Stansted Express service operates. The station lies 36 mi down the line from .

The station and branch line were opened in 1991 by British Rail to coincide with the completion of the airport's new terminal building. With over 9 million passengers in 2023-24 it is the busiest station in Essex, the second busiest in the East of England and the sixteenth busiest in the country outside of London.

History

The construction of the station and its branch line was part of the development of Stansted into London's third airport. In June 1985, the UK Parliament approved the expansion of the airport. In November 1985, British Rail submitted a proposal for a rail link to the airport, which included a new double-track branch line connecting to the West Anglia Main Line, north of (which was Stansted railway station at the time). The line included a bored tunnel under the airport's runway, designed by Sir William Halcrow & Partners, and built by John Murphy Ltd.

Construction began in 1988 and the branch was completed in 1991, at a cost of £44 million. The station opened on 19 March 1991, alongside the new terminal building. It became fully operational following its inauguration by Queen Elizabeth II, who travelled on the first Stansted Express service from London Liverpool Street.

Layout

Stansted Airport station is situated in a concrete box structure at ground level, directly beneath the terminal building, with the western end of the platforms which left open. It was designed with three platforms, located at ground level beneath the terminal. Platforms 1 and 3 run the full length of the station; they are used for the Stansted Express and services to . The shorter platform 2 is used for the CrossCountry-operated services to . In 2011, platform 1 was extended to accommodate two trains simultaneously, in combinations of up to 16 coaches, and platform 2 was extended to accommodate four-coach trains.

With the planned introduction of the contactless travel payment option pending, gated ticket barriers were installed in 2025.

Future plans

The eastern platform, with provision for through tracks in the future

It was designed with passive provision to become through station, to allow for a possible future extension of the railway line towards Braintree. Proposals for this extension have periodically resurfaced, including a 2020 review by Essex County Council exploring the feasibility of reintroducing the Bishop's Stortford–Braintree branch line in Essex.

Services

Services at Stansted Airport are operated by two train operating companies; the typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:

Greater Anglia, including services under the Stansted Express brand:

4 tph to , via ; of which:
- 2 tph call at
- 2 tph call at , of which 1 tph also calls at
1 tph to , via and .

CrossCountry:

1 tph to , via Cambridge, Ely, , and . Passengers for Stratford (London) must change at Tottenham Hale.

References

(2005). "Transport Terminals and Modal Interchanges". Architectural Press.
"Estimates of station usage {{!}} ORR Data Portal".
"British Railways (Stansted) Bill - Hansard - UK Parliament".
"stanstedmountfitchethistory".
Wood, A.M.J.. (June 1990). "British Tunnelling Society: Stansted Rail Link". Tunnels & Tunnelling International.
"Stansted Airport".
(12 September 2022). "Queen's visit was day to remember for Stansted Airport".
"Stansted Airport {{!}} Architecture Projects".
"New £155m train order will boost capacity on commuter routes".
Meyler, Piers. (18 February 2020). "Major rail link between Essex and Stansted Airport could reopen".
(28 February 2020). "Plans for new railway line between Braintree and Stansted to be explored".
(18 May 2025). "Timetables". Greater Anglia.
"All-day, 15-minute frequency for Stansted Express services reintroduced".
(18 May 2025). "Train timetables". CrossCountry.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

railway-stations-in-essex dft-category-b-stations railway-stations-opened-by-british-rail railway-stations-in-great-britain-opened-in-1991 railway-stations-served-by-crosscountry london-stansted-airport railway-stations-served-by-greater-anglia airport-railway-stations-in-the-united-kingdom 1991-establishments-in-england buildings-and-structures-in-uttlesford transport-in-uttlesford

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