The Braintree branch line is a railway
branch line
A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.
Industrial spur
An industr ...
in the
East of England that diverges from the
Great Eastern Main Line 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. 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
Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea Salt which is produced ...
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
Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...
in June 1846. The MWBR was subsequently purchased by the
Eastern Counties Railway
The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) was an English railway company incorporated in 1836 intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then extend to Norwich and Yarmouth.
Construction began in 1837 on the first nine miles at the Lond ...
(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
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...
(1854–56) and sold to the
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
.
[
The ]Bishop's Stortford–Braintree branch line
The Bishop's Stortford–Braintree branch line was an railway line connecting existing railways at Bishop's Stortford, Great Dunmow, Dunmow and Braintree, Essex, Braintree. It was promoted independently by the Bishop’s Stortford, Dunmow and Bra ...
, built by the Great Eastern Railway (GER), was opened in 1869. This created a route from Maldon through to the West Anglia Main Line
The West Anglia Main Line is one of the two main lines that operate out of , the other being the Great Eastern Main Line, which operates services to Ipswich and Norwich via Colchester. It runs generally north through Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Har ...
.
The line was extended from Maldon to Woodham Ferrers in 1889.[
In 1923, both lines became part of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER).][
During the ]Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
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
The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the M ...
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
A railbus is a lightweight passenger railcar that shares many aspects of its construction with a bus, typically having a bus (original or modified) body and four wheels on a fixed base, instead of on bogies. Originally designed and developed d ...
was tried in the early 1960s, which was then replaced by a diesel multiple unit.
The franchise for the line is currently held by Greater Anglia.
Infrastructure
The line is single-track throughout and the route is 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 ...
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 W6 and a maximum line speed of .
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