Media Centre

New car park extension to boost capacity at Harlow town station

8 Dec 2009

Start of work ceremony on Thursday 10 December

Work to increase car parking capacity at National Express East Anglia’s (NXEA) Harlow Town station will officially commence on Thursday 10 December as part of a £3m investment to construct a new car park at the station. This project is part of the company’s Service Improvement Plan to improve capacity on the East Anglia network through the introduction of 188 additional train carriages and extra car parking at key locations. The work at Harlow Town will provide sufficient future capacity in-line with the expected further growth in passengers consistent with the introduction of new trains on the West Anglia route in 2011.

The construction of the new car park is being carried out by Bourne Parking and will provide on completion an additional 300 car parking spaces increasing the total capacity at Harlow Town to approximately 700 spaces. The project is scheduled for completion later in 2010 and is being managed in two phases to help provide continuing parking facilities for existing car park season-ticket holders.                                 

Mark Phillips, Deputy Managing Director of National Express East Anglia will formally commence the start of the project at Harlow Town station on Thursday 10 December at 10.30 and will be joined by representatives of Essex County Council, Passenger Focus and Bourne Parking.

Mark Phillips commented: “I am pleased that work is commencing on the new and improved car park at Harlow Town which will provide a better facility for our customers and an extra 300 car parking spaces, making it easier to park at this busy station. The work at Harlow Town is another project in the National Express East Anglia Service Improvement Plan, with more improvements taking place over the coming months.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

Photo call: A start of work ceremony and photocall is being held at Harlow Town station on Thursday 10 December at 10.30am. Reporters and photographers are welcome to attend.

The Department for Transport announced in April 2009 a major boost to rail capacity on National Express East Anglia services to and from London Liverpool Street. This will be achieved through the construction of 120 new rail carriages and the transfer of 68 additional modern refurbished carriages to provide a total of 188 extra carriages to be added to East Anglia services. The 120 new carriages will be introduced on Stansted Airport and Cambridge – Liverpool Street services from later in 2011. The 68 refurbished carriages will be introduced on the Great Eastern mainline route through North Essex into Liverpool Street with most improvements expected to be introduced from December 2010. The capacity enhancement project also includes work to improve car parking capacity at key locations, including Harlow Town.

For further information about this press release, please ring the National Express East Anglia Press Office on 0207 549 5966.