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The Breckland line is a secondary railway line in the east of England that links in the west to in the east. The line runs through three counties:
Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to th ...
, Suffolk and Norfolk. It takes its name from the
Breckland Breckland in Norfolk and Suffolk is a 39,433 hectare Special Protection Area (SPA) under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. The SPA partly overlaps the 7,544 hectare Breckland Special Area of Conservation. As a la ...
region of Norfolk, and passes through
Thetford Forest Thetford Forest is the largest lowland pine forest in Britain and is located in a region straddling the north of Suffolk and the south of Norfolk in England. It covers over in the form of a Site of Special Scientific Interest. History Thetf ...
. The line is in length from where it branches off the Fen line north of to where it joins 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 the ...
south of Norwich. There are 12 stations on the line including the termini. The line is part of the Network Rail Strategic Route 5, SRS 05.09 and part of SRS 05.05. It is classified as a secondary line, except between Cambridge and , which is classified as a London and South East commuter line. Passenger services on the Breckland line are operated by Greater Anglia (which manages all of the stations),
CrossCountry CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the Cross Country franchise. The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) i ...
, East Midlands Railway, and Great Northern.


History

Following the successful opening of the
Yarmouth and Norwich Railway The Yarmouth & Norwich Railway (Y&NR) was the earliest railway in Norfolk, England. It was formed after it became apparent that it would be a number of years before the Eastern Counties Railway would extend their railway into Norfolk. Its Act ...
, the
Norwich & Brandon Railway The Norwich & Brandon Railway (N&BR) was the second railway in Norfolk, England, after the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway (Y&NR). Its Act of Parliament on 10 May 1844 authorised it to build a line between Norwich and the small town of Brandon, actua ...
was incorporated in 1844 to build a line between those two places. The Eastern Counties Railway was at the same time building a route from Newport in Essex through Cambridge via Ely to . This route would be the first route between Norwich and London. A month before opening the
Yarmouth and Norwich Railway The Yarmouth & Norwich Railway (Y&NR) was the earliest railway in Norfolk, England. It was formed after it became apparent that it would be a number of years before the Eastern Counties Railway would extend their railway into Norfolk. Its Act ...
and the
Norwich & Brandon Railway The Norwich & Brandon Railway (N&BR) was the second railway in Norfolk, England, after the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway (Y&NR). Its Act of Parliament on 10 May 1844 authorised it to build a line between Norwich and the small town of Brandon, actua ...
merged to become the
Norfolk Railway The Norfolk Railway was an early railway company that controlled a network of 94 miles around Norwich, England. It was formed in 1845 by the amalgamation of the Yarmouth and Norwich Railway opened in 1844, and the Norwich and Brandon Railway, n ...
. The two lines opened on the same day, 30 July 1845, although the line only opened to a temporary station at Wensum, pending the completion of the Trowse swing bridge which was achieved in December 1845. Through services from Shoreditch (later known as ) to Norwich Thorpe station started on 15 December 1845. Although it was expected that locomotive changes would take place between the two companies at Brandon where an engine house had been built, the Norfolk Railway in fact operated trains to Ely. The ECR and its rival the Eastern Union Railway (EUR) were both sizing up the NR to acquire and expand their railway empire. The ECR trumped the EUR by taking over the NR, and became responsible for operating the services from 8 May 1848. By the 1860s the railways in East Anglia were in financial trouble, and most were leased to the Eastern Counties Railway, which wished to amalgamate formally but could not obtain government agreement for this until an Act of Parliament on 7 August 1862, when the Great Eastern Railway (GER) was formed by the amalgamation. The system settled down for the next six decades, apart from the disruption of the First World War. The difficult economic circumstances after the war led the Government to pass the Railways Act 1921 which led to the creation of the Big Four railway companies. The GER amalgamated with other railways to create the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) on 1 January 1923. In 1948 the line came under the British Railways Eastern Region.


Accidents and incidents

::''Accidents at and , and those at , , and are not covered in this section.'' *On 9 January 1847, two ballastmen were killed when the wagon they were travelling on broke up near . *On 5 January 1854, two trains were in collision near . *On 1 July 1865, a passenger train was derailed as it passed under the viaduct carrying 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 the ...
at Lakenham, Norfolk. Three people sustained minor injuries. *On 12 October 1870, a mail train collided with a freight train at . *On 9 January 1875, a mail train ran into the rear of a freight train at . At least five people were injured. *On 1 June 1875, a cattle train derailed at . *On 13 January 1879, a freight train ran into the rear of a passenger train at . Several passengers were injured. *On 19 January 1880, a freight train ran into the rear of another at Brandon. *On 6 July 1881, a light engine was in collision with a passenger train at Wymondham North Junction. Thirteen people were injured. *On 7 April 1906, a passenger train was derailed at due to excessive speed. Eight passengers were injured, two seriously. *On 4 June 1926, a motor bus crashed through the parapet of an overbridge at Thetford and landed on top of a stationary train. *On 27 October 1926, a freight train was in collision with a lorry at Roudham Heath, Norfolk due to errors by the crossing keeper. The lorry driver was killed. *On 3 December 1976, a passenger train collided with a lorry on an unmanned level crossing at Shippea Hill. The train driver was killed and eight of his passengers were injured. *On 12 September 2006, Class 170 diesel multiple unit 170 206 was derailed as it crossed the level crossing at
Croxton, Norfolk Croxton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, within the district of Breckland. Croxton is located 2.2 miles north of Thetford and 26 miles south-east of Norwich. History Croxton's name is of mixed Anglo-Saxon and Viki ...
. A panel that formed part of the level crossing had become dislodged and fouled both railway and road. *On 10 April 2016, Class 170 unit 170 204 collided with an agricultural tractor on a private level crossing at Roudham, Norfolk. The tractor driver was seriously injured, the train driver and six passengers sustained minor injuries. A preliminary investigation revealed that the tractor driver had obtained permission to cross the line.


Infrastructure

The line is
double-track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most lin ...
throughout but is only
electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...
between Cambridge and Ely, and also between Norwich and Trowse Junction, 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 dev ...
. It has a loading gauge of W8, except for the section connecting the
Ipswich–Ely line The Ipswich–Ely line is a railway line linking East Anglia to the English Midlands via Ely. There is also a branch line to . Passenger services are operated by Abellio Greater Anglia. It is a part of Network Rail Strategic Route 5, SRS 05.07, ...
to the Ely–Peterborough line, which is W10. The line speed ranges between . Until 2012 the line retained its historic characteristics, with well preserved stations, semaphore signalling and, until spring 2009, lineside telegraph poles, along with sections of jointed rail on wooden sleepers. However, the two-stage Ely–Norwich re-signalling programme in August and December 2012 involved the closure of the nine local mechanical signal boxes and removal of the seven sets of manually-operated wooden gates at
level crossings A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term also ...
. The Cambridge signal box now controls the modern electronic interlockings which operate the lightweight LED signals, while the level crossings have been fully automated with barriers and warning lights.


Route

The places served by the route are listed below, with Ordnance Survey grid references for the stations: Trains pass through Waterbeach station between Ely and Cambridge North without stopping. Prickwillow station, between Ely and Shippea Hill stations, closed in 1850.


Services

Some of the stations on the Breckland line see just one stopping train in each direction per day, mostly in the Norwich direction in the morning and in the Cambridge direction in the afternoon or evening. Three stations on the line are request stops only: , , and . Harling Road and Eccles Road have '
peak hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: on ...
' only services – two in each direction each day, Monday to Saturday (two in the morning to Norwich, two westbound in the evening, one of which is operated by East Midlands Railway on weekdays only). Passenger services are operated by several companies: *
Abellio Greater Anglia Greater Anglia (legal name Abellio East Anglia Limited) is a train operating company in Great Britain owned as a joint venture by Abellio, the international arm of the state-owned Dutch national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen, and the J ...
operates a typically hourly service between Stansted Airport and Norwich, using Class 755
bi-mode multiple unit An electro-diesel multiple unit (EDMU) or bi-mode multiple unit (BMU) is a form of a multiple unit that can be powered either by electric power picked up from the overhead lines or third rail (like an electric multiple unit – EMU) or by using ...
s which replaced the Class 170s in 2019. * East Midlands Railway operates various services between Ely and Norwich, as part of its Liverpool–Norwich route, usually using Class 158 diesel units, although Class 156 units may sometimes be used. *
CrossCountry CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the Cross Country franchise. The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) i ...
operates various services between Cambridge and Ely as part of its Birmingham–Stansted Airport route, usually using Class 170 diesel units. * Thameslink and Great Northern operates various services between Cambridge and Ely as part of the Fen line route to King's Lynn, usually using Class 365, Class 387 and Class 700 trains.


References

{{Railway lines in the East of England Rail transport in Cambridgeshire Rail transport in Suffolk Rail transport in Norfolk Railway lines in the East of England Railway lines opened in 1845 Standard gauge railways in England