*Christmas Special Countdown Day 2* - Trains at Colchester, 27/10/25

Colchester railway station (also known as Colchester North) is on the Great Eastern Main Line (GEML) in the East of England, and is the primary station serving the city of Colchester, Essex. Its three-letter station code is COL.

It is 51 miles 52 chains (83.1 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and on the GEML is situated between Marks Tey to the west and Manningtree to the east.

Colchester is also the location of a major junction where the GEML links to the Sunshine Coast Line, which runs south to Clacton-on-Sea and, via a short branch, to Walton-on-the-Naze; services to and from Colchester Town also join the GEML at the Colchester junction.

The junction is grade-separated so trains branching to and from Colchester Town or the Sunshine Coast Line do not cross the main line.

Colchester station was opened in 1843 by the Eastern Counties Railway. It is currently managed by Greater Anglia, which also operates all trains serving the station.

The station was opened on 29 March 1843 by the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) and was named simply as Colchester.

Locally, however, it is also known as Colchester North to distinguish it from Colchester Town station.

Buses also use this unofficial name. Colchester station is not particularly conveniently sited for the city, but buses connect to the city centre. Colchester Town station is closer to the city centre (hence its name).

The ECR had planned to build a line from London to Norwich using a very similar route to that on which the Great Eastern Main Line operates today, but funding became a problem and apart from surveying a section onwards to Ardleigh, they were forced to abandon any further line construction.

It was three years later when the onward link to Ipswich was eventually opened by the Eastern Union Railway following intervention by business interests in Ipswich, the city having felt isolated by development of the railway to Norwich via Cambridge by the ECR.

As passenger numbers passing through the station increased, particularly with growth on the Sunshine Coast Line, the layout of the station became inadequate.

This problem was heightened on summer weekends when large numbers of holiday trains destined for Clacton-on-Sea were added to the schedules. The station had also been built on a relatively sharp curve.

Prior to electrification of the lines, Colchester was modernised in 1962, with a new station building on the north side of the tracks. Following the reconstruction, the station has two main platforms.

The "up" (London-bound) side comprises two platforms, numbers 3 and 4, which have an unusual layout: 3 is on the up main line and is served by intercity trains from Norwich, while 4 is on the up branch line which merges with the up main line where the two platforms join end-to-end.

However, with the unusual layout of platforms, Colchester station gains the longest physical platform in the UK as the entire length (from platform 3 to 4) measures at 620 metres (2,030 ft); Gloucester station has the longest unbroken platform at 1,977 feet (603 m).

The junction is protected by a trap leading to friction buffer stops. There are also bay platforms at both ends of the up main platform. The London-end bay (platform 6) is used for peak trains to and from London. Previously this platform was used for frequent services for the Sudbury Branch Line.

However, most of these services were truncated to terminate at Marks Tey from the mid-1990s.

The other bay platform (platform 5) is used for services to Colchester Town and Walton-on-the-Naze.

The "down" side platform is an island platform with two faces, one on the down main, and one on the down branch line.

Platform 1 is mainly used for Clacton-on-Sea trains and occasionally for Norwich trains.

Duration of the video: 14:06 - 15:17

We’ll be seeing services by Greater Anglia and possibly freight as well.

I hope you enjoyed this video if you did smash that like button and don’t forget to subscribe for more upcoming videos and feel free to leave any comments or recommendations of stations that you would like for me to do in the comments below as I’ll try get back to them as soon as possible.

It’s been quite some time ago since I last visited Colchester but is always a nice station to do any train spotting at however this time I would’ve spent longer at Colchester however the services to Norwich from London are every half an hour so I had to get a certain train at a certain time and it was bit disappointing that there was barely any freight in the time I was there for but seeing 1 is better than nothing though.

My next station is Norwich which is situated on the Great Eastern Mainline haven’t been there for quite some time now but hopefully it’ll be good to come back to so until then thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next video.