page_title: Fenchurch Street railway station
section_title: Nationalisation and beyond
hierarchical_section_title: Fenchurch Street railway station / History / Nationalisation and beyond
caption_attribution_description: English: Fenchurch Street Station. View westward, to the buffer-stops; ex-Great Eastern terminus, used mainly and latterly by Tilbury Line (former London Tilbury &amp; Southend Railway) trains. This is in the evening rush-hour, with three steam trains (locomotives were two Stanier 3-cylinder Class 4 2-6-4Ts and a BR Standard 2-6-4T) waiting to leave. Electrification of the Tilbury Lines was not for another year - the catenary seen was left over from the electrification of the rarely used ex-GE line from Stratford in 1949.
context_page_description: Fenchurch Street railway station, also known as London Fenchurch Street, is a central London railway terminus in the southeastern corner of the City of London. It takes its name from its proximity to Fenchurch Street, a key thoroughfare in the City. The station and all trains are operated by c2c. Services run on lines built by the London and Blackwall Railway and the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway to destinations in east London and south Essex, including Upminster, Grays, Basildon, Southend and Shoeburyness.
  The station opened in 1841 to serve the L&BR and was rebuilt in 1854 when the LTSR, a joint venture between the L&BR and the Eastern Counties Railway, began operating. The ECR also operated trains out of Fenchurch Street to relieve congestion at its other London terminus at Bishopsgate. In 1862 the Great Eastern Railway was created by amalgamating various East Anglian railway companies and it shared the station with the LTSR until 1912, when the latter was bought by the Midland Railway.
context_section_description: Following nationalisation of Britain's railways in 1948, the station transferred under British Railways to the Eastern Region although the old LTSR network west of Gasworks Junction was controlled by the London Midland Region. On 20 February 1949 the whole LTS line was transferred to the Eastern Region, yet despite the organisational changes, the old LTSR still was a distinctive system operated by former LTS and LMS locomotives until electrification.
  British Railways electrified the former LTSR line in 1959. Electric services began on 6 November 1961 and a full electric timetable was introduced on 18 June the following year. In the 1980s, the station roof was dismantled and high-rise office blocks were built above the station leaving the 1854 facade intact.
  Fenchurch Street station suffered a negative reputation under public ownership. By the end of the 1980s, the former LTSR line was carrying over 50,000 passengers a day on a 50-year old infrastructure. The persistent overcrowding and uncleanliness on trains led to it being dubbed "the misery line". In 1989 Sir Robert Reid called the service from Fenchurch Street "wholly unacceptable", while Teresa Gorman, Member of Parliament for Billericay, subsequently called it "one of the disgraces of our public railway service for many years". Between 1982 and 1992 the station was operated by Network SouthEast, one of British Rail's three passenger business sectors, before being handed over to a business unit in preparation for privatisation.
  In July 1994, shortly before privatisation, the station closed for seven weeks for an £83 million project to replace signals, track and electrification works. It was the first significant closure of a London terminal station.
  The development of Lakeside Shopping Centre, near Chafford Hundred and Thurrock, increased demand for services from the station. In 2013 Network Rail announced a £3.4m upgrade creating a third exit on Cooper's Row to make connections with Tower Hill easier.
  In 2019 a planning application  was submitted to the City of London (planning authority) for permission to revamp the station building.
caption: Fenchurch Street station in 1961, immediately before electrification
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