Southend Pier Trains: Still No Return Date, Two Years On

Southend Pier’s electric trains will stay out of passenger service until an investigation into a buffer stop crash is finished, the council says. It has given no date for their return. Tuesday 6 October is two years since the incident.

The council set out the position in an update on Thursday 1 October (Southend-on-Sea City Council). “As matters stand, no electric train will return to passenger service,” it said, until the engineering, operational and safety work is done and the council has met the return arrangements it proposed to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), the rail safety regulator.

Cllr Matt Dent, the cabinet member responsible for the pier, said: “It is enormously frustrating that we are coming up to two years and the electric trains are still not working.”

What has happened since October 2024

The council’s own timeline:

• 6 October 2024: a train hit the buffer stop on the Pier Railway.
• 8 October 2024: the council formally notified the ORR.
• From November 2024: the council has said the electric trains would stay out of service “until it is safe to do so”.
• An independent forensic engineering investigation was commissioned. The ORR has carried out its own enquiries and site visits.

There is a second strand. The council has been inspecting and recommissioning the other electric train, the one not involved in the crash, which is named Sir David Amess. Detailed electrical inspections are complete. The council says “further information is being finalised” on mechanical works and the programme for them.

So even the train that was not in the incident has no date yet.

The row over who is holding things up

Cllr O’Rourke has challenged the council over the delay in a written question for full council (councillor questions and answers). His question puts the cost of the trains at £3.25 million.

He says a Freedom of Information response from the ORR shows its inspectors visited in November 2024 and November 2025. Both times, he says, the regulator said the investigation was with the council to progress.

Cllr Dent’s written answer says:

• the investigation “was and remains ongoing”, and is being done “by independent experts”, not by the ORR
• the ORR will get a final report, with evidence of all the fixes made by the council or the train supplier
• the ORR has warned that if the council put the trains back into service before the investigation and fixes were complete, “it would consider whether formal enforcement action was appropriate”
• on 5 August, the ORR said the council must show it understood the cause of the incident and acted on what it found, “so far as is reasonably practicable”

The council’s 1 October update goes further. “Suggestions that the Council misled members about ORR involvement are simply incorrect,” Cllr Dent said.

The answers were published with the papers for the reconvened full council meeting on Wednesday 7 October at 6.30pm (agenda).

What it means for you

• No electric train date has been given. The council’s position is that they run only “once the necessary work has been completed and it is safe to do so”.
• The pier itself is open. It is open daily from 10.15am to 6pm at the moment (Southend Pier). Our Southend Pier opening times guide has prices and last winter’s shorter hours.
• Ask before you go. If the train matters to your visit, for example for someone who cannot walk the length of the pier, ring the pier on 01702 212534 first.
• Your councillor can ask too. The reconvened council meeting on 7 October is open to the public.