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m r2.7.1) (Robot: Adding pt:Estação de King's Lynn
→‎Closures: the last train on this section was in 1994, see http://lewiscollard.com/lynn-railways/south-lynn-bridges/
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== Closures ==
== Closures ==
[[File:Railways in Kings Lynn.png|thumb|left|King's Lynn's freight routes and its once-extensive connections to passenger lines were cut back from the late 1950s onwards.]]
[[File:Railways in Kings Lynn.png|thumb|left|King's Lynn's freight routes and its once-extensive connections to passenger lines were cut back from the late 1950s onwards.]]
At their peak, the railways in and around King's Lynn employed hundreds of people,<ref>{{cite journal | journal = The ASLEF Journal | title = King's Lynn celebrates its century | month = March | year = 2007 | pages = p. 15}}</ref> but Britain's extensive railway cutbacks in the late 1950s and the following decades badly affected King's Lynn's railway services. The 1959 closure of the former M&amp;GN's lines resulted in the closure of [[South Lynn railway station]] on 28 February that year, depriving King's Lynn of services to [[Norwich]] and [[Spalding, Lincolnshire|Spalding]].<ref name="Oppitz 2002, pp. 26-28"/><ref name=LynnNewsAdvertiser>{{cite news | title = DETONATORS CRACKLE KNELL OF M&amp;GN | work = Lynn News & Advertiser | date = 1959-03-03 | page=1 |quote=[A] crackle of detonators greeted [the final train's] crossing of the Clenchwarton bridge&mdash;the bridge whose safety and expensive replacement has been a strong point in the British Transport Commission's unflinching determination to close the &ldquo;Joint&rdquo;. }}</ref> The dubious safety of a bridge over the [[River Great Ouse|Ouse]], a very short way north-west of South Lynn station, was allegedly a significant factor in the closure of the whole route,<ref name=LynnNewsAdvertiser /> and was demolished later that year. A section of this line about half a mile long<ref>{{cite map |publisher = Ordnance Survey | title = North West Norfolk (Sheet 132) | year = 1974 | scale = 1:50000 |page= |section = 6117 to 6218 |isbn= |id= }}</ref> was left open for freight into the 1980s, transporting materials like oil and limestone to the sugar beet factory (since closed).<ref>Adderson & Kenworthy, slide 107.</ref>
At their peak, the railways in and around King's Lynn employed hundreds of people,<ref>{{cite journal | journal = The ASLEF Journal | title = King's Lynn celebrates its century | month = March | year = 2007 | pages = p. 15}}</ref> but Britain's extensive railway cutbacks in the late 1950s and the following decades badly affected King's Lynn's railway services. The 1959 closure of the former M&amp;GN's lines resulted in the closure of [[South Lynn railway station]] on 28 February that year, depriving King's Lynn of services to [[Norwich]] and [[Spalding, Lincolnshire|Spalding]].<ref name="Oppitz 2002, pp. 26-28"/><ref name=LynnNewsAdvertiser>{{cite news | title = DETONATORS CRACKLE KNELL OF M&amp;GN | work = Lynn News & Advertiser | date = 1959-03-03 | page=1 |quote=[A] crackle of detonators greeted [the final train's] crossing of the Clenchwarton bridge&mdash;the bridge whose safety and expensive replacement has been a strong point in the British Transport Commission's unflinching determination to close the &ldquo;Joint&rdquo;. }}</ref> The dubious safety of a bridge over the [[River Great Ouse|Ouse]], a very short way north-west of South Lynn station, was allegedly a significant factor in the closure of the whole route,<ref name=LynnNewsAdvertiser /> and was demolished later that year. A section of this line about half a mile long<ref>{{cite map |publisher = Ordnance Survey | title = North West Norfolk (Sheet 132) | year = 1974 | scale = 1:50000 |page= |section = 6117 to 6218 |isbn= |id= }}</ref> was left open for freight into the 1990s, transporting materials like oil and limestone to the sugar beet factory (since closed).<ref>Adderson & Kenworthy, slide 107.</ref>


Other services suffered a similar fate in the following years. Passenger services to [[Hunstanton railway station|Hunstanton]] were discontinued in 1969,<ref>Oppitz 2002, pp. 14-15.</ref> services to Wisbech (via [[Watlington (Norfolk) railway station|Magdalen Road]]) ended in 1968,<ref>Oppitz 2002, p. 19.</ref> and the line to Dereham was closed in the same year, save for a three-mile<ref>To be precise, {{convert|2.9|mi|km}}. See {{Cite web | author = Griffiths, Tim (Office of Rail Regulation) | title = Consultation on Caps for Freight Track Access Charges December 2006 | url = http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/310-EWS-290107.pdf |format=PDF| pages = 54 }}</ref> section for [[sand]] freight from King's Lynn to Middleton.<ref>Oppitz 2002, p. 18.</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/SingleResult.aspx?uid='MNF13600' | title = Norfolk Heritage Explorer Record 13600 (Lynn and Dereham Railway) | author = Norfolk County Council | work = Norfolk Explorer | accessdate = 2007-09-04}}</ref> The closure of these services left only one passenger route in operation&mdash;services to Ely and Cambridge on the Fen Line.
Other services suffered a similar fate in the following years. Passenger services to [[Hunstanton railway station|Hunstanton]] were discontinued in 1969,<ref>Oppitz 2002, pp. 14-15.</ref> services to Wisbech (via [[Watlington (Norfolk) railway station|Magdalen Road]]) ended in 1968,<ref>Oppitz 2002, p. 19.</ref> and the line to Dereham was closed in the same year, save for a three-mile<ref>To be precise, {{convert|2.9|mi|km}}. See {{Cite web | author = Griffiths, Tim (Office of Rail Regulation) | title = Consultation on Caps for Freight Track Access Charges December 2006 | url = http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/310-EWS-290107.pdf |format=PDF| pages = 54 }}</ref> section for [[sand]] freight from King's Lynn to Middleton.<ref>Oppitz 2002, p. 18.</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/SingleResult.aspx?uid='MNF13600' | title = Norfolk Heritage Explorer Record 13600 (Lynn and Dereham Railway) | author = Norfolk County Council | work = Norfolk Explorer | accessdate = 2007-09-04}}</ref> The closure of these services left only one passenger route in operation&mdash;services to Ely and Cambridge on the Fen Line.

Revision as of 19:49, 12 December 2012

King's Lynn
General information
LocationKing's Lynn and West Norfolk
Owned byNetwork Rail
Managed byFirst Capital Connect
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeKLN
Key dates
1846Opened
1846-1848Dereham line opens
1862Hunstanton line opens
1865South Lynn station opens
1871Current station built
1959South Lynn station and M&GN closes
1968Dereham branch closes, services to Wisbech end
1969Hunstanton branch closes
1992Line electrified at 25 kV AC overhead, station refurbished
Bank Holiday excursion train in 1956

King's Lynn railway station serves the town of King's Lynn in Norfolk, England. The station is the terminus of the Fen Line from Cambridge, which is electrified at 25 kV AC overhead. It has been the only railway station in the town since the closure of South Lynn railway station in 1959.

Early growth

The railway arrived in 1846, with the Ely and Lynn branch of the Great Eastern Railway.[1][2] A spur connecting the harbour was opened in 1849, and at one point was a complicated network of lines, boasting two swing bridges, serving premises on and around the town's South Quay.[3] Another short branch, about three-quarters of a mile long, connecting the docks was opened in 1862 by the King's Lynn Docks & Railway Company.[4][5] The railway was initially not welcomed by the port authorities in King's Lynn; they predicted that sea-bound trade would decline, and were later proved correct when through-trains to London ended up carrying the majority of freight to the capital.[6]

Expansion followed with the opening of several branches. The Lynn & Dereham Railway, which weaved a 26-mile (42 km) route to East Dereham via Narborough and Swaffham, was given the Royal Assent in 1845,[7] opening in stages between 1846 and 1848;[8] this later became part of the Great Eastern Railway. A line running north to the seaside resort of Hunstanton was opened in 1862,[6][9] a journey celebrated by former Poet Laureate John Betjeman in a short BBC film about the line.[10]

The Hunstanton line included Wolferton station, which served the Royal Family's Sandringham House, and so became the route of hundreds of Royal Trains.[11] Since Royal services to London had to first pass through King's Lynn before heading south to King's Cross,[12] crowds on King's Lynn station cheering the Royal Train became one of the town's cherished and memorable traditions.[13]

King's Lynn also received services from the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway system, whose main station serving the town was in nearby South Lynn; a short shuttle service ran from King's Lynn to South Lynn as often as twenty times a day.[14] The station opened in 1886, serving Sutton Bridge and Spalding to the west.[15] Prior to the opening of South Lynn station, there had been a simple single platform station serving West Lynn, on the west bank of the River Ouse. An early constituent of the M&GN, the Lynn & Fakenham Railway, had used King's Lynn station, but ran into it from the north, via Gaywood Junction. This line was abandoned on the opening of the station at South Lynn. The "Lynn Avoiding" line was the last link in the chain which brought the eastern lines, which had reached Norwich in 1882, and Cromer in 1887, in direct contact with the lines west of Lynn.

King's Lynn's original station building was replaced by the current building in 1871, and has remained largely unchanged since; the original was a somewhat rudimentary timber building on the site of the goods yards of the time.[16]

Closures

King's Lynn's freight routes and its once-extensive connections to passenger lines were cut back from the late 1950s onwards.

At their peak, the railways in and around King's Lynn employed hundreds of people,[17] but Britain's extensive railway cutbacks in the late 1950s and the following decades badly affected King's Lynn's railway services. The 1959 closure of the former M&GN's lines resulted in the closure of South Lynn railway station on 28 February that year, depriving King's Lynn of services to Norwich and Spalding.[15][18] The dubious safety of a bridge over the Ouse, a very short way north-west of South Lynn station, was allegedly a significant factor in the closure of the whole route,[18] and was demolished later that year. A section of this line about half a mile long[19] was left open for freight into the 1990s, transporting materials like oil and limestone to the sugar beet factory (since closed).[20]

Other services suffered a similar fate in the following years. Passenger services to Hunstanton were discontinued in 1969,[21] services to Wisbech (via Magdalen Road) ended in 1968,[22] and the line to Dereham was closed in the same year, save for a three-mile[23] section for sand freight from King's Lynn to Middleton.[24][25] The closure of these services left only one passenger route in operation—services to Ely and Cambridge on the Fen Line.

Freight services to King's Lynn were less swiftly, but even more extensively, affected by cutbacks. Campbell's made heavy use of rail transport after opening its factory in Lynn in 1959, its curtain-sided wagons being one of the more distinctive sights on the Fen Line; but with the withdrawal of Speedlink services in the early 1990s, this traffic was lost to road transport.[26] The branch to the harbour was progressively shortened before its final closure at around the same time,[3] and the line to the docks closed as well (except for a short stub allowing the aforementioned freight trains from Middleton to change direction), the last train passing over the line in June 1994. The station's once-extensive goods yard suffered the same fate, the site being taken over by the station's car park and two large shops.

To the present

The branch to South Lynn, which this bridge once served, today stands abandoned and overgrown, but the trackbed here, and on other routes, has been safeguarded from development that might obstruct their use as future transport routes.[27]
First Capital Connect service at King Lynn

Before electrification in 1992, InterCity (latterly Network SouthEast) locomotives operated most services, normally pulling British Rail Mark 2b coaches. Many of these services featured full-service restaurant cars. The locomotives were usually Class 37 diesel-electrics,[28] sometimes 47s.[29] Freight services were operated by a similar array of diesel locomotives,[30] as well as Class 20s, Class 31s, and the occasional Class 08 shunter.[31] Off-peak links were often provided by Metro-Cammell diesel multiple units, such as the Class 101.[32]

For many years after electrification, and the consequent removal of diesel locomotives from passenger services, Class 317 electrical multiple units monopolised services out of King's Lynn; while they were not as comfortable as the previous fleet of locomotive-hauled coaches, they quickly developed a reputation for reliability.[33] Today's services are, for the most part, served by former-British Rail Class 365s, although Class 317s remain in use on the small number of Monday-Friday peak-hour services operated by Greater Anglia between King's Lynn and London Liverpool Street.

The few freight trains that visit King's Lynn today—sand trains from the Middleton Towers branch—are usually hauled by Class 66 locomotives, operated by DB Schenker. Occasionally, enthusiast railtours operate on this branch as well.[34]

The station is primarily served by First Capital Connect as part of their service from London King's Cross to King's Lynn. Outside peak hours services run non-stop between London and Cambridge as part of a half-hourly Cambridge service; one train per hour then continues beyond Cambridge, stopping at all stations on the Fen Line to King's Lynn. A small number of services, operated by Greater Anglia during rush hours, travel to Liverpool Street instead; in the past, through-trains from London always started from Liverpool Street, but services were shifted to King's Cross in the 1990s.

On 9 November 2010, the Railway Cafe celebrated 100 years of being open.[citation needed]

Ticket barriers were installed in February 2012.

It was originally intended that when the Thameslink Programme is completed, King's Lynn would join the Thameslink network of cross-London services. This would have meant that most trains for London from King's Lynn would have no longer terminated at King's Cross but instead they would be diverted onto the Thameslink route and on to St Pancras, Farringdon, and various destinations thereafter.[35] The Thameslink programme is now expected to be finished in 2018 but it currently seems unlikely that Thameslink trains will go beyond Cambridge.[36]

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Watlington   First Capital Connect
King's Cross-Cambridge-King's Lynn 		  Terminus
  Greater Anglia
Liverpool Street - Cambridge - King's Lynn
(peak hours only) 		 
  Historical railways  
St Germain's
Line open, station closed 		  Great Eastern Railway
Lynn and Ely Railway 		  Terminus
Disused railways
Terminus   Great Eastern Railway
Lynn and Dereham Railway 		  Middleton Towers
Line and station closed
Terminus   Midland and Great Northern
Connection to M&GN Main Line 		  South Lynn
Line and station closed
Terminus   Great Eastern Railway
Hunstanton branch 		  North Wootton
Line and station closed

See also

References

  1. ^ Oppitz, Leslie (2002). Lost Railways of East Anglia. Countryside Books. p. 15. ISBN 1-85306-595-1.
  2. ^ Adderson, Richard (2002). Ely to Kings Lynn, including the Stoke Ferry Branch. ISBN 1-901706-53-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ a b Adderson & Kenworthy, map XXVI, and preface to ch. 4.
  4. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, preface to ch. 4.
  5. ^ "William Burkitt's Life and Career". The Colonel Stephens Railway Museum. Archived from the original on 25 April 2007. Retrieved 2 September 2007.
  6. ^ a b Oppitz 2002, p. 15.
  7. ^ Tuck, Henry (1847). The Railway Shareholder's Manual; or, Practical Guide to all the Railways in the World. Effingham Wilson. p. 130.
  8. ^ Oppitz 2002, p. 17.
  9. ^ "Royal Insight Mailbox". Insight Magazine. 2005. Retrieved 2 September 2007. [Wolferton Station's] origins go back to the opening of the Kings Lynn to Hunstanton branch railway line in 1862[.] {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  10. ^ Betjeman, John (Narrator); Freegard, Malcom (Producer) (1962). John Betjeman Goes By Train. British Transport Films/BBC TV East Anglia.
  11. ^ According to Insight (2005), 645 in just 27 years.
  12. ^ Not, as was the norm for passenger services at the time, Liverpool Street; the reigning monarch is not permitted to enter the City of London, in whose boundaries Liverpool Street station lies, without the permission of the Lord Mayor.
  13. ^ Wilson, Anne (29 June 1986). "NEW TONE FOR AN OLD PORT". The New York Times.
  14. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slide 106.
  15. ^ a b Oppitz 2002, pp. 26-28.
  16. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, notes to map XXVIII and slide 114.
  17. ^ "King's Lynn celebrates its century". The ASLEF Journal: p. 15. 2007. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  18. ^ a b "DETONATORS CRACKLE KNELL OF M&GN". Lynn News & Advertiser. 3 March 1959. p. 1. [A] crackle of detonators greeted [the final train's] crossing of the Clenchwarton bridge—the bridge whose safety and expensive replacement has been a strong point in the British Transport Commission's unflinching determination to close the “Joint”.
  19. ^ North West Norfolk (Sheet 132) (Map). 1:50000. Ordnance Survey. 1974. § 6117 to 6218.
  20. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slide 107.
  21. ^ Oppitz 2002, pp. 14-15.
  22. ^ Oppitz 2002, p. 19.
  23. ^ To be precise, 2.9 miles (4.7 km). See Griffiths, Tim (Office of Rail Regulation). "Consultation on Caps for Freight Track Access Charges December 2006" (PDF). p. 54.
  24. ^ Oppitz 2002, p. 18.
  25. ^ Norfolk County Council. "Norfolk Heritage Explorer Record 13600 (Lynn and Dereham Railway)". Norfolk Explorer. Retrieved 4 September 2007.
  26. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slide 91.
  27. ^ Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk. "4. Conserving Environmental Resources". Written Statement. Retrieved 5 September 2007.
  28. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slide 90. See also:
  29. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slides 79, 107. See also:
  30. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slides 70, 80.
  31. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slides 63, 92, 107. See also:
  32. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slides 32, 80, 109. See also:
  33. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slide 119.
  34. ^ "Notable Workings - Saturday 21st October 2006". TheRailwayCentre.com. 21 October 2006. Retrieved 6 September 2007.
  35. ^ "Thameslink Programme (Thameslink 2000)". alwaystouchout.com. Retrieved 2 September 2007.
  36. ^ "Norfolk's Fen line - the next transport battle?". 4 February 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2011.
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