Stansted Eastern Link

[CMS1]

Going south from Chelmsford the first place that could realistically be used to build a junction is between Hylands Park and Margaretting, which is about halfway to Ingatestone. There is no spare capacity on this section of the GEML. This will never be more than a line drawn on a map.

Others would know but I thought the GEML was full LST-Shenfield and poss Ipswich-Haughley jcn, neither of which are affected by this.

 

[William3000]

Are there any figures for how many trips are made by car between the two cities? I suspect it'll be 100k+. Cambridge-Chelmsford is an excellent example of where using existing rail usage figures is a useless measure for seeing how busy the flow actually is, as currently there is effectively zero rail connection - no person with a viable alternative will go via London or Ipswich, especially given the prices.


Large numbers of people who work at Stansted live around Chelmsford, and with the new Beaulieu Park station, even those not immediately near a train station have the option of feasibly using the train.

I agree - Chelmsford has overall passenger numbers about 80% of those of Cambridge. If there was a rail option it would be hugely popular.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 Feb 2026 ==

Platform capacity at Stansted Airport is an existing constraint. In particular it makes it very difficult to run longer trains on the routes via Cambridge. The Stansted Express occupying each of the two long platforms for two 20 minute periods every hour isn't something that's going to change, which leaves very limited capacity for other services.

Any proposal for new lines has to start with how to add platform capacity for more trains.


Going south from Chelmsford the first place that could realistically be used to build a junction is between Hylands Park and Margaretting, which is about halfway to Ingatestone. There is no spare capacity on this section of the GEML. This will never be more than a line drawn on a map.

You’re right - I’ve always wondered whether a fourth platform could be added next to platform 2 but there are significant cylindrical barriers holding up the roof rendering that impossible.

 

[cle]

No capacity through Cambridge and to Shepreth Branch Junction for that, at least not without major investment.

Fair point about the Stortford terminator, although that would need an additional platform at the airport.

I am, I suppose, thinking of a future with P9 at Cambridge and the EWR quadding at Shepreth - as that seems far more likely. Hence the Cherry Hinton

 

[Bald Rick]

Others would know but I thought the GEML was full LST-Shenfield and poss Ipswich-Haughley jcn, neither of which are affected by this.

It’s more or less full Stratford - Haughley Jn.

 

[Magdalia]

Others would know but I thought the GEML was full LST-Shenfield and poss Ipswich-Haughley jcn, neither of which are affected by this.

North of Shenfield is a 2 track railway with 6tph off peak passenger, including the 2tph Norwich fasts, and lots of freight to/from Felixstowe. It operates at full capacity.

Chelmsford has overall passenger numbers about 80% of those of Cambridge. If there was a rail option it would be hugely popular.

Proportionally Chelmsford is much more dominated by London commuting than Cambridge, with 1.5 million one way journeys to Liverpool Street and another 0.6 million to Stratford. About 60% of all Chelmsford journeys are to/from Liverpool Street or Stratford.

Cambridge-Chelmsford would not be hugely popular. Cambridge-Ipswich and Chelmsford-Ipswich are both about 30-35k one way journeys, I doubt that Cambridge-Chelmsford would be much bigger than that.

I suppose, thinking of a future with P9 at Cambridge and the EWR quadding at Shepreth - as that seems far more likely. Hence the Cherry Hinton

Care needs to be taken not to allocate the EWR additional capacity at Cambridge multiple times. Cambridge doesn't need more than 2tph to/from Stansted, with 1tph each to Peterborough and Norwich, though it would be nice if the trains could be longer. Platform capacity at Stansted Airport is the key to that, not what happens at Cambridge.