Once construction of the Crossrail high speed rail network has been completed, Shenfield station in Essex will become a major transport interchange for mainline rail services and Crossrail. Passengers and commuters currently use Shenfield to take them into London and down to Southend on the coast, but once Crossrail is up and running, the service will also connect to Heathrow airport.

As things currently stand, Shenfield station is extremely busy during peak travel times and according to passenger figures, the number of travellers passing through Shenfield continues to rise each year. In light of the every increasing demand on rail services at Shenfield station, many regular passengers and commuters have expressed concern about the congestion and whether the station will be able to cope with a huge influx of passengers once Crossrail services go live at Shenfield station.

In order to accommodate Crossrail services at Shenfield station, Crossrail are planning to construct a new platform, upgrade the ticket gates and add a new bicycle rack for commuters. Planning is still very much in the early stages, but Crossrail have ruled out the possibility of adding any further subways to improve passenger flow. However, local commuters feel that these improvements will not be enough to address concerns about passenger congestion during rush hour travel times.

One suggestion has been to extend the existing subway beneath the station and add a second entrance and exit at the opposite side of the station as this would improve the flow of traffic. This would help to alleviate congestion on escalators and areas where large numbers of people get on and off the trains. Many commuters feel that adding these improvements in the early planning stages of Crossrail construction work would be less disruptive than making further improvements at a much later stage in the process.