The Braintree branch line is a railway branch line in the

East of England The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire ...

that diverges from the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and t ...

at and runs north-west to . The route is in length and there are five stations, including the two termini. The line is part of Network Rail Strategic Route 7, SRS 07.06, and is classified as a London and South-East commuter line. The stations and all services are currently operated by

Greater Anglia Greater Anglia (legal name Transport UK East Anglia Limited) is a British train operating company owned as a joint venture by Transport UK Group and Mitsui & Co. It operates the East Anglia franchise, providing the commuter and inter-city ser ...

. As of 2019 the typical off-peak weekday service-frequency is one train per hour in each direction. The timetabled journey time between Witham and Braintree is 16 minutes.

History

Originally constructed from Maldon to via , only the line from Braintree to Witham remains open. The line was proposed by the Maldon, Witham & Braintree Railway (MWBR) and given royal assent in June 1846. The MWBR was subsequently purchased by the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR), and the line opened in 1848. The section from Maldon to Witham was constructed as double-track, however one track was lifted during the period of the Crimean War (1854–56) and sold to the War Office. The Bishop's Stortford–Braintree branch line, built by the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

(GER), was opened in 1869. This created a route from Maldon through to the West Anglia Main Line. The line was extended from Maldon to

Woodham Ferrers Woodham Ferrers is a small village and former civil parish about southeast of Chelmsford, located between South Woodham Ferrers and Bicknacre, now in the civil parish of Woodham Ferrers and Bicknacre in the county of Essex, England. The villag ...

in 1889. In 1923, both lines became part of the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

(LNER). During the Second World War passenger services on the section between and Woodham Ferrers were withdrawn and never reinstated. The Bishop's Stortford–Braintree branch closed to passenger traffic in 1952 and then to freight in 1971. The section from Maldon East and Heybridge to Witham was closed to passengers following the Beeching cuts to the railways in 1964, although goods services on that section continued until 1966. Conversely, the Witham-Braintree section saw an upsurge in passengers after a railbus was tried in the early 1960s, which was then replaced by a

diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

. The franchise for the line is currently held by

Infrastructure

The line is single-track throughout and the route is electrified at

25 kV AC Railway electrification systems using alternating current (AC) at are used worldwide, especially for high-speed rail. It is usually supplied at the standard utility frequency (typically 50 or 60Hz), which simplifies traction substations. The d ...

. It has a

loading gauge A loading gauge is a diagram or physical structure that defines the maximum height and width dimensions in railway vehicles and their loads. Their purpose is to ensure that rail vehicles can pass safely through tunnels and under bridges, and ke ...

of W6 and a maximum line speed of . Services are usually formed of units. The first entered service on 16 December 2020. Most of the former railway alignment between just east of Bishops Stortford and Braintree has been preserved, and is managed by Essex County Council as the Flitch Way linear park. Two local groups volunteer to improve the site and campaign for improvements.

Stations

The following table summarises the line's five stations, their distance measured from , and estimated number of passenger entries/exits in 2018–19:

References

External links

Maldon, Witham & Braintree Railway Co - 1845–50: promoters', shareholders' and directors' minutes, misc accounts, contracts, plans, letters and papers
{{Railway lines in the East of England Rail transport in Essex Railway lines in the East of England EA 1070 Railway companies established in 1846 Railway lines opened in 1848 Standard gauge railways in England 1846 establishments in England