The Cromer line was a railway branch in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

that connected the railway junction of Melton Constable with Cromer on the sea.

Opening

It was first opened in 1887, as part of the rapidly expanding Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway.

Closure

It closed to passengers in April 1964, and to goods trains later that year. Following closure of the line between Melton Constable and Sheringham, the station buildings at Holt were demolished and part of the trackbed subsequently reused to construct part of the A148 Holt bypass. In 1965, a company known as Central Norfolk Enterprises (which changed its name to the North Norfolk Railway (NNR)) had attempted to purchase the trackbed, but were rebuffed by

Norfolk County Council Norfolk County Council is the top-tier local government authority for Norfolk, England. Its headquarters are based in the city of Norwich. Below it there are 7 second-tier local government district councils: Breckland District, Broadland Distr ...

who wished to proceed with the road scheme. The NNR did manage to restore the line between

Sheringham Sheringham (; population 7,367) is an English seaside town within the county of Norfolk, United Kingdom.Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Explorer Map 252 - Norfolk Coast East''. . The motto of the town, granted in 1953 to the Sheringham Urban Distr ...

and Weybourne.

The route today

Part of the route now forms part of the preserved North Norfolk Railway.

Potential Future use

The proposed

Norfolk Orbital Railway The Norfolk Orbital Railway — as the Holt, Melton Constable and Fakenham Railway Company — is a proposed rail project in Norfolk, England, which is proposed to look at bringing a new rail connection to North and Mid Norfolk. The proposed l ...

could see Holt with a regular railway service again. It would link together

and Wymondham using the existing lines of the NNR and the

Mid Norfolk Railway The Mid-Norfolk Railway (MNR) is a preserved standard gauge heritage railway, one of the longest in Great Britain. Preservation efforts began in 1974, but the line re-opened to passengers only in the mid-1990s as part of the "new generation" ...

and laying some fresh connecting track on old track-beds. The project is facilitated by the fact that reinstatement through Holt remains technically possible as the A148 bypass was built so as to leave sufficient width to enable a single-track railway line to be constructed alongside it. The scheme therefore proposes a new route running from the NNR's Holt station, crossing the A148 on the level before running alongside the road to the site of the original Holt station where a very basic station would be provided. From there it would continue in a cutting running beneath Station Road and Norwich Road before rejoining the line's original alignment to reach Melton Constable.

References

{{reflist Rail transport in Norfolk Closed railway lines in the East of England Railway lines opened in 1887