Brundall railway station is on the

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

in the

east of England East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact ...

, serving the village of

Brundall Brundall is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. Brundall is located west of Acle and east of Norwich. History Brundall's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and likely derives from the Old English for a small area of dry ...

, Norfolk. It is down the line from on the route to and . Its three-letter station code is BDA. The station was opened in 1844. Today it is managed by

Greater Anglia Greater Anglia (legal name Transport UK East Anglia Limited) is a British train operating company owned as a joint venture by Transport UK Group and Mitsui & Co. It operates the East Anglia franchise, providing the commuter and inter-city se ...

History

Brundall railway station - signal box - geograph

The bill for the

Yarmouth & Norwich Railway The Yarmouth and 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 a ...

(Y&NR) received Royal Assent on 18 June 1842. Work started on the line in April 1843 and the line and its stations were opened on 1 May 1844. Brundall station opened with the line and was situated east of Norwich Thorpe and west of . The Y&NR was the first public railway line in Norfolk. On 30 June 1845 a Bill authorising the amalgamation of the Y&NR with the

Norwich & Brandon Railway The Norwich and Brandon Railway (N&BR) was the second railway in Norfolk, England, after the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway (Y&NR). Its act of Parliament, the , on 10 May 1844 authorised it to build a line between Norwich and the small town of Bra ...

came into effect and Brundall station became a Norfolk Railway asset. On 15 December 1845 a swing bridge over the River Wensum opened and this allowed freight trains going to and from Yarmouth via Brundall to bypass Norwich. 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 at the London end. Co ...

(ECR) and its rival 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 ...

(EUR) were both sizing up the Norfolk Railway to acquire and expand their railway empire. The ECR trumped the EUR by taking over the Norfolk Railway, including Brundall 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. Brundall 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. In the 1870s the GER started to expand its network east of Norwich. The GER obtained powers to build a line to Cromer leaving the Yarmouth to Norwich line at Whitlingham. The opening of Whitlingham station and the new line on 20 October 1874 meant that Brundall was now separated from Norwich Thorpe by the new station. The next development occurred in the 1880s. The GER obtained powers to build a new line from Great Yarmouth to Brundall via Acle. The new line joined the old Yarmouth & Norwich route at Brundall which was now a junction station. Brundall achieved its junction status on 1 June 1883. With the passing of the

Railways Act 1921 The Railways Act 1921 ( 11 & 12 Geo. 5. c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an act of Parliament enacted by the British government, and was intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grou ...

, the GER amalgamated with other railways to form the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS) of the "Big Four (British railway companies), Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It ope ...

(LNER) on 1 January 1923, and so Brundall became a LNER station. A new station, Brundall Gardens Halt, was opened to the west of Brundall on 1 August 1924. 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 contrasts with priv ...

on 1 January 1948 the station and its operations came under the management 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 (w ...

. Following

privatisation Privatization (rendered 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 w ...

of the railways,

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the railroad, track, railway signalling, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the railway station, stations of the Transport in England#Rail, British railway syste ...

became responsible for infrastructure maintenance in 1994. Following Railtrack's financial problems

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

took over operation of the infrastructure in 2002. At the same time, the station's services were transferred 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 Anglia franchise was awarded by the Director of Passenger Ra ...

in 1997, which was succeeded by

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 Expres ...

in 2004, then known as ''One''. In February 2012 the station and its operations were transferred to

Abellio Greater Anglia Greater Anglia (legal name Transport UK East Anglia Limited) is a British train operating company owned as a joint venture by Transport UK Group and Mitsui & Co. It operates the East Anglia franchise, providing the commuter and inter-city se ...

Services

Unit 156 402 leaving Brundall station - geograph

The typical Monday-Saturday off-peak service at Brundall is as follows:

References

* Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer Map OL40 - The Broads''. .

External links

{{Railway stations served by Abellio Greater Anglia Railway stations in Norfolk DfT Category F2 stations Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations served by Greater Anglia Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1844