There’s a reason that we’re asking this question and here it is: Council puts transport interchange plan for Stanford rail station on hold and is attempting to get green light for station rebuild on its own. But will it bust its own budget?

The original plan for the redevelopment of the railway station was to move the footprint of the station to allow for a bus interchange at the front. Due to a botched development process, it transpired that this plan was not workable. Even though this plan was never fully worked out and costed, the ticket office, coffee kiosk and the down ticket gateline were demolished regardless, way back in February 2019!

When it became apparent that the original plan could not be fulfilled, an alternative plan was hatched which would see a re-built station pretty much on the footprint of what was there before the demolition, with the bus interchange and some parking provision on the site of Daybreak Windows.

Councillors on the planning committee were asked back in February to approve plans for the re-build of the station with the plans for the bus interchange to follow. The councillors refused, saying they wanted to review and discuss the plans for the station in their totality. As you can gather from the Thurrock Nub News piece linked to above, the council want to try again at getting the station re-build underway with the bus interchange following on at some point in the future. You can read the full report on the station redevelopment here.

So, the question remains unanswered – why, when Thurrock Council knew they didn’t have a fully worked out and costed plan, did they give permission for a perfectly serviceable station building to be demolished? Here’s a supplementary question – do they think it’s acceptable for staff and passengers to have to use a temporary cabin located on the other side of a busy main road as a ticket office? Let’s throw in another question – did they undertake a risk assessment for an arrangement that forces passengers to have to cross a busy main road to get from the ticket office to the station? Lastly, are staff and passengers ever going to get a full apology from Thurrock Council for this f**king debacle?