Thetford railway station is on the
Breckland line
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, Suffolk and Norfolk. It takes its name from the Breckland region of Norfolk, ...
in the east of England, serving the town of
Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24,340 ...
,
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 ...
. The line runs between in the west and in the east.
Thetford is situated between and , from
London Liverpool Street
Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...
via . The station is managed by
Greater Anglia, which operates most of the services, typically one to two trains per hour in either direction.
East Midlands Railway
Abellio East Midlands Limited, trading as East Midlands Railway (EMR), is a train operating company in England, owned by Abellio, and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise.
History
In March 2017, the Department for Transport a ...
operates a regular service between Norwich and via and .
It is the nearest station to the
Center Parcs Center Parcs may refer to:
* Center Parcs UK and Ireland
Center Parcs UK and Ireland (formerly Center Parcs UK) is a short-break holiday company that operates six holiday villages in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, with each cover ...
holiday village at
Elveden Forest, approximately five miles to the west.
History
The Bill for the Norwich & Brandon Railway (N&BR) received Royal Assent on 10 May 1844. The line was to link with an Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) project of a line from
Newport in
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
to
Brandon
Brandon may refer to:
Names and people
*Brandon (given name), a male given name
*Brandon (surname), a surname with several different origins
Places
Australia
*Brandon, a farm and 19th century homestead in Seaham, New South Wales
*Brandon, Q ...
in
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
. Once complete the line would enable trains to travel from Norwich to London. Work started on the line in 1844.
One month before the N&BR opened, a Bill authorising the amalgamation of the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway with the N&BR came into effect, and so Thetford station became a Norfolk Railway asset.
The line opened on 30 July 1845, including the
Eastern Counties Railway
The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) was an English Rail transport, railway company incorporated in 1836 intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then extend to Norwich and Great Yarmouth, Yarmouth.
Construction began in 1837 on t ...
Brandon to Newport line. However, the line only went as far as
Trowse
Trowse (pronounced by those from Norwich and by elderly residents of the village), also called Trowse with Newton, is a village in South Norfolk which lies about south-east of Norwich city centre on the banks of the River Yare. It covers an ...
, in the suburbs of Norwich, as the contractors were having to build a swing bridge to cross the
River Wensum
The River Wensum is a chalk river in Norfolk, England and a tributary of the River Yare, despite being the larger of the two rivers. The river is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation.
The Wensum is ...
. Thetford station was, when opened, located between
Brandon
Brandon may refer to:
Names and people
*Brandon (given name), a male given name
*Brandon (surname), a surname with several different origins
Places
Australia
*Brandon, a farm and 19th century homestead in Seaham, New South Wales
*Brandon, Q ...
and
Roudham Junction.
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, including Thetford station, on 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
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 formed by the amalgamation. Actually, Thetford became a GER station on 1 July 1862 when the GER took over the ECR and the EUR before the Bill received the Royal Assent. Also in the 1860s the GER opened a line from Roudham towards Swaffham. Roudham was renamed Roudham Junction.
A decade later the Bill received Royal Assent, promoting a line linking (on the
Ipswich to Cambridge line) and Thetford. The Act was passed on 5 July 1873 and work was started by the Thetford & Watton Railway (T&WR) in 1874. The T&WR opened the first part of the line on 15 November 1875. The line went south and terminated at Thetford Bridge, the first station after Thetford going towards Bury St. Edmunds. The opening made Thetford a joint GER and T&WR station. Four months later the rest of the line opened to Bury St. Edmund's. Two years later the GER took over the T&WR and joint working at Thetford ended.
The system remained in place for the next four decades, apart from the disruption of First World War. The difficult economic circumstances that existed after the war led the Government to pass the
Railways Act 1921
The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...
, which led to the creation of the "
Big Four". The GER amalgamated with several other companies to form the
London & North Eastern Railway
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...
(LNER). Thetford became an LNER station on 1 January 1923.
On
nationalisation
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
in 1948, Thetford came under the auspices of the
Eastern Region of British Railways
The Eastern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948, whose operating area could be identified from the dark blue signs and colour schemes that adorned its station and other railway buildings. Together with the North Eastern Region ( ...
.
Five years after nationalisation, British Railways decided to close the
Thetford to Bury St Edmunds line
The Thetford to Bury St Edmunds line is a closed railway between Thetford in Norfolk and Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England. It was a single line railway of .
History
Opening
The line was built and opened by the Bury St Edmunds and Thetford R ...
. Thetford lost its junction status on 8 June 1953.
As part of the
Beeching rationalisation plan, British Railways closed the
Roudham Junction and Swaffham line, including station, on 15 June 1964. With the closure of Roudham Junction, Harling Road became the next station after Thetford going towards Norwich. The 1960s also saw steam locomotives withdrawn and replaced by diesel multiple units.
Upon sectorisation in the 1980s the station and its services came under the
Regional Railways
Regional Railways was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982 that existed until 1997, two years after privatisation. The sector was originally called ''Provincial''.
Regional Railways was the most subsidised (per pas ...
brand.
On
privatisation
Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
of British Rail, most services and management of the station passed to
Anglia Railways
Anglia Railways was a train operating company in England, owned by GB Railways and later FirstGroup, that operated the Anglia franchise from January 1997 until March 2004.
History
The InterCity Anglia franchise was awarded by the Director of P ...
on 5 January 1997, with services towards the Midlands transferring to
Central Trains
Central Trains was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by National Express that operated a variety of local and inter-regional trains from 2 March 1997 until 11 November 2007.
Overview
Created out of the Central division o ...
on 2 March 1997.
On 1 April 2004, the station and its operations were transferred to
National Express East Anglia
National Express East Anglia (NXEA) was a train operating company in England owned by National Express that operated the Greater Anglia franchise from April 2004 until February 2012. Originally trading as ''One'', it was rebranded National Exp ...
(NXEA). NXEA trains were initially branded as One. Three years later, on 11 November 2007, the Central Trains franchise was broken up and the Liverpool-Norwich services were taken over by
East Midlands Trains
East Midlands Trains (EMT) was a British train operating company owned by the transport group Stagecoach, which operated the East Midlands franchise between November 2007 and August 2019.
Following the Department for Transport (DfT) award ...
.
In February 2012, the station and its other services were transferred to
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 ...
. In August 2019, all East Midlands Trains services were transferred to
East Midlands Railway
Abellio East Midlands Limited, trading as East Midlands Railway (EMR), is a train operating company in England, owned by Abellio, and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise.
History
In March 2017, the Department for Transport a ...
, upon the expiry of EMT's franchise.
![Thetford Signal Box - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Thetford_Signal_Box_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1929580.jpg)
The original station building of knapped flint was constructed by 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, actual ...
in 1845. The brickwork extension dates from 1889 and the year is engraved on its façade. The station complex is a Grade II
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
Services
The station is served by
Greater Anglia and
East Midlands Railway
Abellio East Midlands Limited, trading as East Midlands Railway (EMR), is a train operating company in England, owned by Abellio, and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise.
History
In March 2017, the Department for Transport a ...
.
The typical off-peak service frequency (Monday to Saturday) is:
Eastbound
*2tph (trains per hour) to , of which 1tph is non-stop and 1tph calls at and (other intermediate stations have a very limited service frequency).
Westbound
*2tph to , of which:
**1tph continues to , with nine trains per day now extended to .
This service also calls at and .
**1tph reverses at Ely and continues to , via , , and
Manchester Piccadilly
Manchester Piccadilly is the principal railway station in Manchester, England. Opened as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchester Piccadilly in 1960. Located to the south-east of Manchester city ...
. Early evening trains on this route terminate at Nottingham and there are no westbound departures after 19:30.
References
External links
{{coord, 52.4190, N, 0.7455, E, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title
Railway stations in Norfolk
DfT Category E stations
Former Great Eastern Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1845
Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway
Greater Anglia franchise railway stations
Thetford