Essex area that’s a 30-minute drive from Chelmsford – but triple by train
Essex is full of wonderful things whether it be the incredible history, gorgeous country parks and walks, or the amazing people. One of the most attractive things about living in Essex to outsiders is the close proximity and excellent transport links to London.
But when it comes to transport within the county, things can be a different story. Colchester has two train stations and Southend has an impressive four railway stations within an hour’s walk of each other. Chelmsford will also soon have a second railway station when the new site at Beaulieu eventually opens up.
Yet for those who want to travel from Essex’s first city to Harlow, transport is a more difficult job. The two areas of Chelmsford are connected brilliantly by road.
Motorists can simply jump on the A414 from Chelmsford to Harlow or you could use the A1060 to travel via Leaden Roding and approach Harlow from the north. It’s a straight-forward route which could take drivers between 30 minutes and an hour dependent on traffic.
But if you don’t have access to a car, then a train journey from Chelmsford to Harlow Town railway station would take on average an hour and a half. That’s because you would have to travel from Chelmsford to Liverpool Street, change in London, and jump back on a Greater Anglia service towards Harlow Town.
People have to travel into London to access Harlow by train from Chelmsford (Image: Google Maps)
Chelmsford has the busiest railway station in Essex with a whopping 4.5m travellers going through its doors between April 2021 and March 2022. This was an increase of 168 per cent from last year, and makes it the 62nd busiest station in the country.
According to figures from Trainline.com, it would cost £47 for an anytime day return ticket from Chelmsford to Harlow. An off-peak day return would be £29.40.
A total of 1,313,356 people used Harlow Town station in April 2021 to March 2022, making it the 285th busiest station in the country. Harlow Mill had 165,246 passengers in that timeframe, it was the 1,239th busiest station.
In 2021, we took a look at how an underground travel network might look in Essex. In that alternative form of reality[2], Harlow and Chelmsford would be separated by just a handful of stops on the make-belief ‘Loughchester’ line.
References
- ^ The busiest train station in Essex which sees 12,300 passengers a day (www.essexlive.news)
- ^ In that alternative form of reality (www.essexlive.news)