The update due to arrive at Stanford rail station has been derailed again

THURROCK Council's commitment to restart work at Stanford-le-Hope's rail station appears to have fallen behind schedule again.

The saga of the 'regeneration of the station' which began more than ten years ago, in March 2016, is another long-running sore in a litany of badly-managed Thurrock infrastructure projects.

After initial plans were announced under the Labour council leadership of Oliver Gerrish, the project was continued by the following Conservative administration and parts of the station were demolished in 2020.

The council splashed out more than £4million to buy the adjacent Daybreak Windows site which would host the new transport interchange.

But after that, when unanticipated engineering problems began to unfold and the council's finances collapsed, very little in real terms has happened other than demolition of the buildings on the Daybreak site, which is now an overgrown derelict piece of land. Occasionally the council has forked out thousands to keep Japanese Knotweed from running rampant!

Various portfolio holders and council officers have discussed the site, but deadlines and delivery dates have come and gone without any real action.

Thurrock Nub News last sought an update of what was happening in July and the council said: "Henderson & Taylor are appointed to carry out the infrastructure phase of the project. This phase began in November 2025, which included site clearance.

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"The design for the infrastructure phase is complete and Henderson & Taylor will commence those works in September to replace the hoarding, carry out works to prepare platform one for the new station building and complete works to platform two to include the installation of a gateline."

None of that has happened. The hoardings remain in place and nothing has been added to Platform Two.

On Thursday, 1 October, Nub News visited the station to see what had happened.

In a video report editor Neil Speight was able to say: "Nothing!" - though he did spot some Network Rail engineers on site. He asked if it was the start of a rebuilt but was told the team were just sorting a blocked culvert up the track.

Nub News went back to Thurrock Council for an update and we were told: "Works are continuing and a full report updating on progress will be given to Cabinet in November."

Given nothing has happened on the site for months, we asked for a definition of 'works are continuing' – but we are still waiting for the answer to the question to pull into our station.