ECR(1851) p45b - (Norwich) Bridge and Station

Norwich Thorpe station geograph-2835036-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Norwich railway station (formerly Norwich Thorpe) is the northern terminus of the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and the ...

in the

East of England The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, ...

, serving the city of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...

, Norfolk. It is down the main line (measured via Ipswich) 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 ...

, the western terminus. It is also the terminus of numerous secondary lines: 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, ...

to ; the

Bittern Line The Bittern Line is a railway branch line in Norfolk, England, that links to . It passes through the Broads on its route to an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the north Norfolk coast. It is named after the bittern, a rare bird found ...

to ; and the

Wherry Lines The Wherry Lines are railway branch lines in the East of England, linking to and . There are 14 stations including the three termini. They form part of Network Rail Strategic Route 7, SRS 07.11 and are classified as a rural line. The lines ...

to and . The station is currently managed by Greater Anglia, which also operates the majority of the trains that serve the station.

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 ...

operates the services to via , and .

History

At one time, there were three railway stations in Norwich. Norwich Thorpe is the current and only remaining station and still known locally as "Thorpe station". was the terminus for some passenger services from London until 1916, as well as being a goods station until its demolition in the 1970s. was the terminus of the

Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway The Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (M&GNJR) was a railway network in England, in the area connecting southern Lincolnshire, the Isle of Ely and north Norfolk. It developed from several local independent concerns and was incorporated ...

line from until it was closed to passengers in 1959.

Early history

The original station was opened by the

Yarmouth & Norwich Railway The Yarmouth & Norwich Railway (Y&NR) was the earliest railway in Norfolk, England. It was formed after it became apparent that it would be a number of years before the Eastern Counties Railway would extend their railway into Norfolk. Its Act ...

(Y&NR), which was the earliest railway in Norfolk. The YNR's

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliame ...

of 18 June 1842 authorised the issue of £200,000 worth of shares to build a line between the two towns, via Reedham and the

Yare valley The River Yare is a river in the English county of Norfolk. In its lower reaches it is one of the principal navigable waterways of The Broads and connects with the rest of the network. The river rises south of Dereham to the west to the vil ...

. The chairman was

George Stephenson George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was a British civil engineer and mechanical engineer. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victorians In the history of the United Kingdom and the ...

and the chief engineer was his son,

Robert Stephenson Robert Stephenson FRS HFRSE FRSA DCL (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railways", he built on the achievements of his father ...

. Construction started in April 1843 and the line was completed within a year. There was an inspection and inaugural run on 12 April 1844 and a ceremonial opening on 30 April 1844, followed the next day by the beginning of regular passenger services. On 18 May 1844, 17 days after the Y&NR started running train services, Parliament gave the Royal Assent to the Norwich & Brandon Railway (N&BR). This was part of a plan to link the Y&NR with London, by linking up with 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 ...

(ECR) being built from

Newport, Essex Newport is a large village in Essex near Saffron Walden. The village has a population of over 2,000, measured at 2,352 at the 2011 census. Located approximately 41 miles (66 kilometres) north of London, the village is situated amongst the a ...

, to

Brandon, Suffolk Brandon is a town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. Brandon is located in the Breckland area of Suffolk, close to the adjoining county of Norfolk. It lies between the towns of Bury St Edmunds, Thetford, Mildenhall, Downha ...

. Work started quickly during 1844 and went on into 1845. On 30 June 1845, a Bill authorising the amalgamation of the Y&NR with the N&BR came into effect and Norwich station became a Norfolk Railway asset. The N&BR line arrived at the station on 15 December 1845, which offered a route to

Shoreditch Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area. In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an imp ...

in London via and . The Eastern Union Railway (EUR) was building a line towards Norwich and that led to great rivalry between the EUR and the ECR. The ECR trumped the EUR by taking over the Norfolk Railway, including Norwich Station, on 8 May 1848. The following year, the EUR started services to Norwich Victoria. The opening of Norwich Victoria on 12 December 1849 led to the ECR naming its station Norwich Thorpe. On 27 August 1851, EUR services from started serving the better-placed Thorpe station. By the 1860s, the railways in East Anglia were in financial trouble and most were leased to the

. They wanted to amalgamate them formally, but government agreement could not be obtained 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 Ra ...

(GER) was formed by the amalgamation. Actually, Norwich Thorpe and Norwich Victoria became GER stations on 1 July 1862, when the GER took over the ECR and the EUR before the Bill had received the Royal Assent.

Great Eastern Railway (1862-1922)

A decade after the GER was formed, the latter promoted a new line from Norwich to

Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. It is north of Norwich, north-northeast of London and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local government authorities are Nor ...

. That line was opened on 20 October 1874 and a new station was constructed at the junction of the Cromer line and Yarmouth & Norwich line. The new station, Whitlingham, stood between Norwich Thorpe and Brundall on the Yarmouth line. With traffic growing, it was apparent a new station was required in Norwich. It was built to the north of the original station, opening on 3 May 1886 and is the structure surviving today. The old terminus became part of the expanded goods facilities. The new station was built, at the cost of £60,000, by Messrs Youngs and Son, of Norwich, from designs by Messrs J Wilson and W. N. Ashbee, the company's engineer and architect respectively. The attractive station building was constructed around a central clock tower (the clock was supplied by Dixons and Co of London Street, Norwich) with two-storey matching wings either side. A portico was built onto the clock-tower section. There was a circulating area with a high ceiling and the roof was supported by ironwork supplied by contractor Barnard Bishop and Barnard. The roof extended partly down the platforms, which were then covered by canopies for part of their length. There were initially five platforms, with engine-release roads between platforms 2 and 3, and 4 and 5, which allowed locomotives to be detached from trains without the need to shunt the carriages out of the station. The GER and Norwich Thorpe changed little for the next 30 years. On 22 May 1916, the GER closed Trowse station as a wartime economy measure. That meant the first station south of Thorpe on the Ipswich line was Swainsthorpe and the next station west of Thorpe on the Ely line was Hethersett. On 1 April 1919, five months after the end of the war, the GER reopened Trowse station. The GER went out of existence following the creation of the "Big Four" railway companies in 1923.

London and North Eastern Railway (1923-1947)

On 1 January 1923, the GER amalgamated with several other railways to form the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

(LNER). This was as a result of 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 saw most of the 120 railway companies grouped into four main companies, in an effort to stem their losses. Norwich Thorpe became an LNER asset. During

World War II 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the station was bombed in June 1940 and April 1942. Following the

Transport Act 1947 The Transport Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. 6 c. 49) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Under the terms of the Act, the railway network, long-distance road haulage and various other types of transport were nationalised and came under ...

the Big Four railway companies, including the LNER, were amalgamated into the nationalised

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

ways (BR).

British Railways (1948-1994)

On 1 January 1948, the nationalisation of Britain's railways saw the operation of Norwich Thorpe station pass to British Railways (Eastern Region). Platform 6 was added in 1954 and a modern booking hall was built in 1955. During the late 1950s,

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...

s were phased out across the East Anglian network and replaced by diesel-powered trains. After Norwich City station was closed as part of 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 ...

, British Rail decided to revert the name of the station to Norwich, which took effect on 5 May 1969. When the station closed briefly for electrification works in 1986, , a disused suburban station, was put back into service as the temporary terminus of the line. It closed again when Norwich re-opened. The signalling was also modernised at that time and the track layout simplified. On completion of the electrification project, Norwich-

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

InterCity trains switched from being hauled by Class 47 diesel locomotives to Class 86 electric locomotives.

The privatisation era (1994-present)

On 1 April 1994, under the Railways Act 1993, ownership of the station passed to a new private company,

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 ...

, which was restructured into

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 len ...

in 2004. Train services to Norwich were later privatised, with most services passing 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 Pa ...

in January 1997. Services towards the West Midlands were taken over by

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 ...

in March 1997. Anglia trains handed over their franchise 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 ...

in 2004. Three years later, on 11 November 2007, the Central Trains franchise was broken up and West Midlands services to Norwich 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 of ...

. The National Express East Anglia franchise passed 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 ...

on 5 February 2012. All services operated by East Midlands Trains were transferred to

in August 2019, after EMT's franchise expired.

Layout

2018 at Norwich station - on the concourse

*Platform 1: Greater Anglia inter-city services to

and used occasionally for Breckland Line services to and

Stansted Airport London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London. London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acro ...

;

services to via . *Platform 2: Greater Anglia inter-city services to London Liverpool Street. *Platform 3: Greater Anglia inter-city services to London Liverpool Street and services to Cambridge and Stansted Airport; East Midlands Railway services to Liverpool Lime Street via Nottingham. *Platforms 4-6: Greater Anglia rural services to , and Sheringham. Platform 4 is also used occasionally at peak times for inter-city services to London Liverpool Street.

Services

The station is served by Greater Anglia and

. The typical off-peak service frequency (Monday to Saturday) is: *1tph (train per hour) to *2tph to , of which 1tph makes additional calls at , , and *1tph to *1tph to *1tph to , of which 1tp2h (1 train every 2 hours) is non-stop only calling at , and 1tpd serves *1tph to , of which: **2tpd (trains per day) run via , , and **The remaining trains run via and

Accidents and incidents

* On 10 September 1874, the

Thorpe rail accident The Thorpe rail accident occurred on 10 September 1874, when two trains were involved in a head-on collision at Thorpe St Andrew in the English county of Norfolk. The accident occurred on what was then a single-track rail line between Norwich r ...

, East Anglia's worst train crash, occurred at Thorpe St Andrew between Norwich Thorpe and , killing 25 people and injuring 75. * On 21 January 1881, two passenger trains collided at Norwich Thorpe junction just beyond Carrow Road Bridge. Both trains had their locomotive and leading carriage derailed. There were, however, no casualties. * On 21 July 2013, in the early hours, a passenger train ran into another which was stabled in Norwich's platform 6, injuring eight people. An investigation blamed driver fatigue.

Engine sheds

Norwich engine shed Norwich engine shed was located in Norwich, England and was opened in 1843. It closed in 1982 and was replaced by a new modern facility at Crown Point. Early history Norwich engine shed was adjacent to the station on the south side of the line ...

was located to the south west of the station. This depot closed in 1982 and was replaced by a new facility at Crown Point which, in 2015, is responsible for the maintenance of the main line electric fleet and local diesel multiple units.

Miscellaneous

Before carriages were lit by electric lighting they were lit by gas. Norwich had an oil gas works and carriages north of a line from Harwich to Cambridge were supplied with oil gas. The gas was distributed to other stations in a dedicated fleet of ten tank wagons. Use of the facility declined in the 1930s although up until the 1950s catering vehicles were still supplied. Children's author

Arthur Ransome Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of childre ...

set the opening paragraph of '' Coot Club'' (1934) at Norwich Thorpe station. It also appears in the 1971 film ''

The Go-Between ''The Go-Between'' is a novel by L. P. Hartley published in 1953. His best-known work, it has been adapted several times for stage and screen. The book gives a critical view of society at the end of the Victorian era through the eyes of a naï ...

''.

References

External links

{{Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway Railway stations in Norfolk Buildings and structures in Norwich Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway Greater Anglia franchise railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1844 Transport in Norwich William Neville Ashbee railway stations DfT Category B stations