East Suffolk Line - History

History

In about 1847 the Ipswich & Bury Railway had secured the rights to build the line from Ipswich to Woodbridge but works were delayed for financial reasons. The Ipswich & Bury Railway was absorbed by then Eastern Union Railway in 1847.

The Halesworth, Beccles & Haddiscoe Railway was incorporated in 1851 and the first section of the East Suffolk line from Beccles to Halesworth was constructed by Peto Brassey & Betts. The East Suffolk railway, which had been incorporated on 3 July 1854, took over the powers of the Halesworth, Beccles & Haddiscoe Railway and the route opened on the 4 December 1854. It continued north to Haddiscoe on what is now part of the Wherry Lines.

On the 1 June 1859 the line was opened as far south as Ipswich and north to Great Yarmouth. The Beccles to Lowestoft branch line was opened in the same year.

The Eastern Union Railway was amagamated with other companies into the Great Eastern Railway in 1862.

The Beccles to Great Yarmouth section was closed in 1959, exactly one hundred years after it had been opened. The rest of the line was then threatened with complete closure as part of the Beeching Axe in the early 1960s however economies in the operation of the line ensured its future. The first economy was that all stations were destaffed in the late 1960s. The line was resignalled in 1984 using the Radio Electronic Token Block resulting in the closure of all signal boxes except the RETB controlling signalbox at Saxmumdham. Also, to ensure the line's survival, parts of the remaining line were reduced to single track to minimize maintenance costs.

Railtrack, Now known as Network Rail, became responsible for the infrastructure maintenance in 1994.

The operation of the line was privatised in 1997 when the franchise was awarded to Anglia Railways who operated it until April 2004 when National Express East Anglia won the replacement franchise operating under the brand name 'One' until February 2008.

"The government is set to tell the new franchise-holder that the hourly services on the Ipswich to Cambridge and Ipswich to Felixstowe lines will have to be retained - and there will have to be an hourly service on the East Suffolk line to Lowestoft once the Beccles loop is installed within the next few years."

As of December 2010, through services from Lowestoft to London Liverpool Street were no longer operated, mainly to free up capacity on the main line south of Ipswich.

In January 2010 it was announced that an hourly service would be introduced following the completion of the passing loop at Beccles (see below)