A £30 million shopping outlet will be the First in the country to have its own railway station.

The Braintree Freeport station will serve the Chapel Hill Factory Village which, it was revealed yesterday, could create up to 1,000 jobs - 400 more than first expected.

The development work on the station, carried out by First Great Eastern, will start on Sunday. Buses will replace train services for the day while construction is carried out.

First Great Eastern public relations manager Peter Northfield said: "The station will be a simple one platform construction with a waiting shelter, ticket machine and information monitors.

"The station is being built on the existing line so there are no new tracks being laid.

"It is essentially for the shoppers and workers at the shopping village, and will mean it can be reached by a much wider area.

"It will make it very convenient to get to the village." Up to 8,000 shoppers per day are expected to visit the 26-acre complex. As well as the railway station it will have parking for 900 cars and a free shuttle bus service.

Work on Sunday will include realigning the existing track to accommodate the new platform. More information on the development is expected to be released next month after a meeting between Freeport and First Great Eastern.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.