Copied from the April 29 2023 British Isles thread..
It is indeed easy to get to Tilbury by train, and cheap too. But if you decide to go by train, get off at Grays (the station before Tilbury). If you look at the map you'll see it looks about a mile further away, but four good reasons to get off at Grays
(1) there will be taxis waiting at Grays station (unlike Tilbury)
(2) because of the road layout at Tilbury, any taxi would have to backtrack about half the distance towards Grays to get over the railway tracks
(3) more trains call at Grays than Tilbury
(4) you can use oyster/contactless card/phone to cover the fare so you don't have to bother about buying a traditional paper ticket - which you do need if you go one stop further to Tilbury