Braintree railway station is owned by Network Rail

Network Rail

Network Rail is the government-created owner and operator of most of the rail infrastructure in Great Britain .; it is not responsible for railway infrastructure in Northern Ireland...

 and managed by train operating company National Express East Anglia. Most trains run direct to London Liverpool Street, joining the Great Eastern Main Line

Great Eastern Main Line

The Great Eastern Main Line is a 212 Kilometre major railway line of the British railway system, which connects Liverpool Street in the City of London with destinations in east London and the East of England, including Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Norwich and several coastal resorts such as...

 at Witham

Witham railway station

Witham railway station is a railway station serving the town of Witham in Essex. The station is located on the Great Eastern Main Line and is also the junction of the Witham-Braintree line...

. They are all scheduled to be operated by Class 321

British Rail Class 321

The British Rail Class 321 alternating current electric multiple units were built by BREL York in three batches from 1988-91. The design was successful and led to the development of the similar Class 320 and Class 322 units for use by Strathclyde PTE and Stansted Express respectively...

 electric multiple unit

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 of the carriages...

s, but occasionally Class 360

British Rail Class 360

The British Rail Class 360 electric multiple units were built by Siemens in two sub-types from 2002-2003 and 2004-2005. These units are part of the Siemens Desiro family.The Siemens "Desiro UK" family also includes units of Classes 185, 350, 380, 444 and 450....

 or Class 315

British Rail Class 315

British Rail Class 315 alternating current electric multiple units were built by BREL at York works from 1980 to 1981. They were the fifth and final variety of British Rail's then-standard 1972 design for suburban EMUs, which eventually encompassed 755 vehicles and five Classes...

 EMUs replace them.

History

There have been two stations at Braintree. The first, which was the northern terminus of the Maldon, Witham and Braintree Railway, opened on 2 October 1848. This station was closed with the opening of the Bishop's Stortford, Dunmow and Braintree Railway on 22 February 1869, when the old terminus was replaced by a through station on the new line. This station was renamed Braintree and Bocking on 19 October 1910, but reverted to its original name at some point between 1948 and 1953. Passenger services on the route between Braintree and Bishop's Stortford ceased on 3 March 1952.

The staffed single platform station, centrally located in the town of Braintree, Essex, is the outer terminal of the Witham/Braintree Branch Line.

A self-service ticket machine has been provided immediately outside the station.

Services

The typical weekday service is of hourly trains to and from London Liverpool Street, taking 63 minutes to complete the journey. On Sundays there is an hourly shuttle to and from Witham.

External links

• Historical Pictures of Braintree Station