Clacton-on-Sea railway station is one of the two eastern termini of the

Sunshine Coast Line The Sunshine Coast Line is the current marketing name of what originally was the Tendring Hundred Railway, a branch off the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England. It links to the seaside resorts of and, via a branch, . The line is par ...

in the

East of England East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact ...

, serving the town of

Clacton-on-Sea Clacton-on-Sea, often simply called Clacton, is a seaside town and seaside resort, resort in the county of Essex, on the east coast of England. It is located on the Tendring Peninsula and is the largest settlement in the Tendring District, wi ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. The line is a branch that diverges from the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and t ...

at , from where trains also run to and . It is down the line from

London Liverpool Street Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a major central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is ...

. Its three-letter station code is CLT and it is managed by

Greater Anglia Greater Anglia (legal name Transport UK East Anglia Limited) is a British train operating company owned as a joint venture by Transport UK Group and Mitsui & Co. It operates the East Anglia franchise, providing the commuter and inter-city se ...

, which also operates all trains serving the station.

History

The station was opened in 1882 with the name Clacton. Clacton is on a spur from which was built by the Clacton-on-Sea Railway and originally operated by the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

; it opened some 15 years after the branch to Walton was opened. On 1 January 1923, the station passed to the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS) of the "Big Four (British railway companies), Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It ope ...

following the

Railways Act 1921 The Railways Act 1921 ( 11 & 12 Geo. 5. c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an act of Parliament enacted by the British government, and was intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grou ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and following nationalisation, it fell under the auspices of British Railways (Eastern Region). Services were steam-operated until the line was electrified, with Clacton first seeing electric trains on 16 March 1959. Initially, the line was only electrified as far as Colchester, as part of

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

ways' experiments with 25 kV AC electrification, rather than the previously preferred 1500 V DC system. Through electrified services to Liverpool Street were introduced on 7 January 1963. Clacton station has a sizeable concourse sheltered by a glazed roof. Platforms 1 and 3 have an operational length for ten-coach trains, platforms 2 and 4 have an operational length for twelve-coach trains.

Clacton Servicing Depot Clacton Carriage Servicing Depot is a stabling point located in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, England. The depot is situated on the western side of the Great Eastern Main Line and is adjacent to Clacton-on-Sea station. The depot code is CC. Histor ...

lies just beyond the platform ends, with some stabling sidings alongside the station itself. Its name was changed to Clacton-on-Sea in May 2007.

Service

Clacton-on-Sea - Greater Anglia 321335 and 321443

The typical service is one train per hour to London Liverpool Street, calling at Thorpe-le-Soken, , Colchester, , , , and . During peak hours, the service level is increased to approximately four trains per hour. The first and last trains of the day start and terminate at Colchester. Trains are usually formed of Class 720

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number o ...

s. The Class 321 electric multiple units that used to form the services at this station were withdrawn at the end of April 2023.

References

External links

{{Railway stations served by Abellio Greater Anglia

Railway Station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

Railway stations in Essex Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations served by Greater Anglia Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1882 DfT Category C1 stations