Beaulieu Park railway station
Beaulieu Park railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England. It serves the new Beaulieu Park housing development in Boreham, approximately to the north-east of Chelmsford, Essex. The station is between to the west and to the east.
The station was suggested as early as the 1980s, but construction work did not start until 2023. It opened on 26 October 2025, the first new station on the GEML in 100 years. It is managed by Greater Anglia, which also operates all trains serving the station.
History
Plans for Chelmsford's second station were rumoured in the 1990s, although passengers have been waiting for it since the 1980s. The new station was part of Chelmsford's Local Plan in 2003; however, the Local Plan was withdrawn that year and the station re-entered the planning stage five years later. The planning application was then submitted in 2010.In September 2013, it was reported that the station would cost £53million. In March 2014, Countryside, a UK housebuilding company, agreed to fund the railway station and 3,600 new homes north-east of Chelmsford.
In October 2013, the leader of Braintree Council believed that the station "could open by 2019", though this never came to fruition.
In 2015, an agreement was signed between Essex County Council, Chelmsford City Council, Network Rail and Countryside to work on the delivery of the new station. In August 2019, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, agreed to allocate £218million from the Housing Infrastructure Fund for the new station and associated road improvements, with the aim of building up to 14,000 new homes. Originally planned for 2026, the station opened on 26 October 2025. It is the first new station on the Great Eastern Main Line in over 100years.
This station was built as part of Chelmsford's housing development. It also serves Springfield and Boreham, easing pressure at Chelmsford's main station.
As part of Project Oval, contactless payments to and from the station was originally planned to be launched from 14 December 2025. However, this has been delayed to 2026, alongside 19 other Greater Anglia stations, due to issues found during testing.
Construction
Essex County Council agreed on the next stage of the planning of Beaulieu Park station in December 2021. Plans were approved in June 2022 after Essex County Council agreed on the design and layout of the station. After J. Murphy & Sons was awarded the first contract in January 2023, construction began in March. In September 2023, Murphy was awarded the second of two construction contracts from Network Rail.It opened ahead of schedule on 26 October 2025, at a cost of £175 million. The station was originally planned to open at the end of 2025 or 2026. Several bus routes were extended to serve the new station. As part of constructing the new station, Murphy has laid of new rail, reused of rail, 14 new railway signals and of new overhead line equipment.
On 27 October 2025, Sir James Cleverly, MP, and Lord Peter Hendy, the Minister of State for Rail, officially opened the station.
Design
The station has accessible toilets, waiting rooms and two footbridges connecting three platforms. The layout allows fast trains to use the central loop to overtake the stopping service. There is room for around 800 cars in two separate car parks, with 500 spaces for bicycles and a bus interchange.The main station building has a brick-clad structure, underneath a larch glulam canopy supported on independent pillars. The National Rail logo hangs from the canopy and the station's name is in large metal lettering. The ticket hall has free-standing retail units, a ticket gate line and a row of ticket machines, but does not have a ticket office.
Services
All services at Beaulieu Park are operated by Greater Anglia, using electric multiple units.The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:
- 2 tph to
- 1 tph to
- 1 tph to.