Station Layout
Platform 1 is rarely used except for peak hour services starting from or terminating at the station. (This platform used to be used by trains serving the now dismantled branch line to Maldon.) Platform 2 is for services to London. Platform 3 is for services to Colchester and beyond. Platform 4 is the Braintree platform, where services start from or terminate or run to and from London.
The station car park is situated next to the station. To access the car park from the station passengers used to have to exit onto the street and take a substantial walk to the road bridge across the tracks situated just past the western end of the station, over the bridge and then down a residential road the other side of the tracks. Station users have been campaigning for a remedy to this issue for many years. In November 2001 funding was announced to build a direct footbridge from the station to the car park, but this was subsequently withdrawn indefinitely in financial cutbacks following the collapse of Railtrack. Reports of a new funding package for a footbridge emerged in 2008.
Work took place between January and August 2011 which includes a new entrance at the station to provide access to and from the adjacent car park. This work is now completed and the footbridge opened on 31 August 2011. The improvements also see new disabled parking facilities, a new push button customer help and information point and new sheltered cycle storage. The station has also recently undergone fence refurbishment, with CCTV extending from the entrance as far as the bus stop. For crime reporting purposes, bicycles attached to the fence should be reported to Essex police, whereas bicycles stolen from the sheltered cycle storage should be reported to the BTP.
The 1897 survey of the station shows a small system of sidings on the down side at the London end and also a siding with a turntable at the country end off the Braintree branch. On the up side there were sidings serving an auction mart and cattle pens at the London end; and the Maltings and a coal yard at the country end accessed from both the main line and the Maldon branch. The Maldon branch had at an earlier date been served by a triangular junction which facilitated direct running from Colchester but it is shown as disconnected on the 1897 survey.
Read more about this topic: Witham Railway Station
Famous quotes containing the word station:
“How soon country people forget. When they fall in love with a city it is forever, and it is like forever. As though there never was a time when they didn’t love it. The minute they arrive at the train station or get off the ferry and glimpse the wide streets and the wasteful lamps lighting them, they know they are born for it. There, in a city, they are not so much new as themselves: their stronger, riskier selves.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)