Diss railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the town of Diss, Norfolk. It is down the line 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 ...

and is situated between to the south and to the north. It is approximately south of Norwich. Its three-letter station code is DIS. The station is currently operated by Greater Anglia, who also operate all trains serving it, as part of the

East Anglia franchise The East Anglia franchise is a railway franchise for passenger trains on the Great Eastern Main Line and West Anglia Main Lines in England. It commenced operating in April 2004 when the Anglia and Great Eastern franchises, together with the ...

. Due to its location, Diss is the only station on the Greater Anglia network (and, by extension, one of the only stations in the UK) to be served exclusively by inter-city trains.

History

The station at Diss was proposed by the Ipswich & Bury Railway, as part of their route to Norwich. Such were the changes in the railway industry that, in 1847, the Ipswich & Bury Railway became part of the

Eastern Union Railway The Eastern Union Railway (EUR) was an English railway company, at first built from Colchester to Ipswich; it opened in 1846. It was proposed when the earlier Eastern Counties Railway failed to make its promised line from Colchester to Norwich. T ...

, which started operating in 1849. This became part of 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) in 1854, which amalgamated with several other companies in 1862 to form the Great Eastern Railway (GER). In 1873, there was an incident at Diss when a goods train a and passenger train collided in foggy conditions, injuring four passengers. In 1883, a signal box was opened, possibly replacing an earlier structure. From July 1898 to December 1915 the station master was Robert Gillingwater (1854-1923). He became a well respected figure in the town and had a staff consisting of: * 7 x clerks * 2 x signalman * 2 x motor drivers * 2 x horse shunters * 2 x station foreman * An unknown number of passenger and goods porters During the early part of the century the goods yard was extended twice and during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

an Army Service Corps depot was established adjacent to the station. Following the 1921 grouping, the GER amalgamated with other railways to form the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). On nationalisation in 1948, the station and its services came under the management of the Eastern Region of British Railways. Some goods shunting at Diss was carried out by horses as late as 1959. In 1985, the line through Diss was electrified by British Rail to the 25 kV overhead system and, the following year, electrically hauled

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

services commenced. At the same time, the signal box was closed as power-signalling was introduced to the area. Following the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the indust ...

, the ownership of the tracks and station passed to

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...

until 2002 and then to its successor

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

. During this period, the operation of the station and train services has been franchised to Anglia Railways (1997-2004), then 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 ...

(2004-2012) and currently

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 ...

(since 2012).

Description

A goods yard was located on the 'up' (eastern) side of the line equipped with a shed for the loading and unloading of goods, as well as cattle pens. Until the 1880s, the Scole Estate Railway (an agricultural railway for William Betts' family at Frenze Hall, which extended for seven miles and had two engines) had a connection into the station yard. As of 2013, the station has a waiting room on each platform and toilets on the up side (platform 1). It has a ticket office and ticket machines, one located on each platform. The old station master's house, which is part of the station and mostly the station's upstairs accommodation, is currently being used by one of the town's taxi companies.

Services

Services at Diss are operated by Abellio Greater Anglia between

and every 30 minutes in each direction. As well as the express services between London and Norwich, a local all-stations service also called at Diss serving other stations such as , and . This local service was withdrawn in 1966 when the smaller stations were closed.

References

{{coord, 52.374, N, 1.124, E, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Railway stations in Norfolk DfT Category C2 stations Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1849 Greater Anglia franchise railway stations 1849 establishments in England Diss, Norfolk