Network Rail works at Shenfield and Brentwood stations, planned as part of the Crossrail developments, will be will be carried out six months earlier than planned.

New signs, help points, customer information boards and CCTV will be installed at both stations. Brentwood will also receive new lifts, thanks to money from the government’s £100 million Access for All fund.

Railway land around Shenfield at Friar’s avenue will be cleared of vegetation, before extra sections of track and platform are constructed. At Brentwood, platforms will be lengthened to accommodate the new Crossrail trains.

While the planned works will restrict the number of parking spaces available at both stations, Crossrail’s Surface Director Matthew White claimed the improvements had been “designed to keep any disruption to local people to an absolute minimum”.

The developments are now set to begin at both stations in January 2015, with those at Brentwood due to be completed in February 2016 and those at Shenfield in March 2017.