Work to increase car parking capacity at National Express East Anglia’s (NXEA) Audley End station has just commenced in a £690k investment to construct a new and additional 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 Audley End fulfils a long-held aspiration to improve parking facilities, and 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 Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd and will provide on completion an additional 150 car parking spaces increasing the total capacity at Audley End to approximately 700 spaces. The project is scheduled for completion early in 2010 and is being managed to minimise any inconvenience to the existing car parking arrangements at the station while the work continues.

Mark Phillips, Deputy Managing Director of National Express East Anglia formally commenced the project at Audley End station on Thursday 12 November and said:

“I am pleased that work has begun to extend the car park at Audley End station. These improvements will be welcomed by our customers with the extra 150 car parking spaces making it easier to park at this busy station. The work at Audley End is one of the first projects in the National Express East Anglia Service Improvement Plan to take shape, with more improvements to commence on our network over the coming months.”

Guy Dangerfield, Passenger Link Manager for Passenger Focus said:

“Getting to the station is an integral part of making a journey by train and passengers will applaud this increase in car parking spaces at Audley End station. There is nothing more frustrating than finding the station car park full when you have a train to catch.”