In message
, at
12:41:36 on Mon, 8 Dec 2008, MIG remarked:

Brentwood is the first station in Essex on that line, as I recall.

Correct. And as the only station in Essex which wouldn't have fast
trains to Stratford [1], they would be particularly hard done by.

That's the current situation I think.

*[1] This is probably not true.

Wildly untrue. None of the stations between Shenfield and Southend have
fast trains to London, for example.

It's true if "fast" means "non-stop from Shenfield".

That isn't a useful definition of "fast" in this context.

They all have trains that go non-stop from Shenfield, and some
non-stop from Billericay.

Some trains, perhaps. I think one an hour misses Romford.

Brentwood is currently only served by trains that do all stations off-
peak and substantial number of stations in the peak. It wouldn't be a
change to get a similar service under Crossrail.

But I remember it when most of the Brentwood trains were semi-fast.

It's the only station in Essex (current boundary ...) not to have
non-stop trains even to Stratford,

Only if non-stop means "stops every station as far as Shenfield, then
has one or two stops". (Which is true of many stations on the Colchester
line as well as the Southend line).

but then it's the sort of station that non-stop
trains don't stop at, so not really surprising.

Semi-fasts worked well in the past - when Gidea Park was the "edge of
London" as far as stoppers was concerned.
--
Roland Perry