Station to station, Colchester, 2016

The cry went up, come to Colchester, which has two stations. Colchester is the through route, from London out to Ipswich and Norwich. Colchester Town is a terminus, and trains from there over the hour either shuttle to Colchester or go onto the main line, up or down.

So you get to hear the list of stops, all Essex except for the final one, Liverpool Street in Middlesex. It misses out metropolitan/urban Essex of Brentwood, Harold Wood, Gidea Park, Chadwell Heath, Goodmayes, Seven Kings, Ilford, Manor Park, Forest Gate and Maryland. It used to serve these or have them as intermediate stops, but they’re now TfL [Transport for London], and you have to change at Shenfield if you want to go there or hear these stops broadcast.

The journey up to the main line is over a triangle of tracks, quite a tight curve so no great speed. They seem to announce the stop way before arrival on Abellio Greater Anglia, so the fade arrives before Colchester itself.

Photograph shows a train arriving at Colchester Town Station. Taken by Geof Sheppard, used under Creative Commons (Attribution-ShareAlike) licence.