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National Express East Anglia (NXEA) has completed a major £1.5m investment to refurbish the former Clacton Train Maintenance Depot which has been totally upgraded as part of the company’s Service Improvement Plan. The Depot was officially re-opened on Friday 2 July by the Chairman of Tendring District Council, Councillor Alan Goggin.

The Train Maintenance Depot is situated adjacent to Clacton-on-Sea rail station and was closed in the 1990s by a previous operator. The Depot had remained dormant for several years other than for some external contracting work and required extensive refurbishment to restore it to full use and modern day standards.

NXEA’s Service Improvement Plan includes improvements to train service capacity on the Great Eastern mainline route and the re-opening of the maintenance facility at Clacton will complement NXEA’s main Depot based at Ilford in Essex and enable Class 321 electric trains to be maintained at Clacton. The total refurbishment has included work to rebuild the administration block, renew all lighting and facilities in the Train Shed including the roof, install 16 new lift jacks to provide for 4-carriage lifting and fit a new jib crane.

The main works have been carried out by the principal contractor C Spencer Ltd.

John Ratcliffe, Engineering Director, National Express East Anglia commented: “We’re very pleased to re-open the Train Maintenance Depot at Clacton as part of our Service Improvement Plan. The addition of a dedicated team providing maintenance and train presentation facilities at Clacton will complement our existing Maintenance Depot at Ilford and further improve the reliability of our train fleet.”