King's Lynn railway station

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King's Lynn
The station building from the outside
Location
Place King's Lynn
Local authority King's Lynn and West Norfolk
Coordinates 52°45′14″N 0°24′12″E / 52.75385, 0.403251Coordinates: 52°45′14″N 0°24′12″E / 52.75385, 0.403251
Operations
Station code KLN
Managed by First Capital Connect
Platforms in use 2
Live departures and station information from National Rail
Annual Rail Passenger Usage
2004/05 * 0.642 million
2005/06 * 0.622 million
History
1846 Opened
1846-1848 Dereham line opens
1862 Hunstanton line opens
1865 South Lynn station opens
1871 Current station built
1959 South Lynn station and M&GN closes
1968 Dereham branch closes, services to Wisbech end
1969 Hunstanton branch closes
National Rail - UK railway stations

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z  
* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at King's Lynn from Office of Rail Regulation statistics.
Portal:King's Lynn railway station
 UK Railways Portal

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

Contents

[edit] 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,[9][10] a journey celebrated by former Poet Laureate John Betjeman in a short BBC film about the line.[11]

The Hunstanton line included Wolferton station, which served the Royal Family's Sandringham House, and so became the route of hundreds of Royal Trains.[12] Since Royal services to London had to first pass through King's Lynn before heading south to King's Cross,[13] crowds on King's Lynn station cheering the Royal Train became one of the town's cherished and memorable traditions.[14]

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.[15] The station opened in 1865, serving Sutton Bridge and Spalding to the west. The line later expanded eastwards, reaching Norwich in 1882.[16]

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.[17]

[edit] Closures

King's Lynn's freight routes and its once-extensive connections to passenger lines were cut back from the late 1950s onwards.
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,[18] 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 in February 28th of that year, depriving King's Lynn of services to Norwich and Spalding.[19][20] 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,[21] and was demolished later that year. A section of this line about a mile and a half long[22] was left open for freight into the 1980s, transporting materials like oil and limestone to the sugar beet factory (since closed).[23]

Former Services
Preceding station Disused railways Following station
Clenchwarton   Midland and Great Northern   Gayton Road


Other services suffered a similar fate in the following years. Passenger services to Hunstanton were discontinued in 1969,[24] services to Wisbech (via Magdalen Road) ended in 1968,[25] and the line to Dereham was closed in the same year, save for a three-mile[26] section for sand freight from King's Lynn to Middleton.[27][28] 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.[29] The branch to the harbour was progressively shortened before its final closure at around the same time,[30] and the branch to the docks closed as well (except for a short stub allowing the aforementioned freight trains from Middleton to change direction). 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.

[edit] 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.
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.[31]
A Railways Clearing House map of the junctions, lines and ownership around Kings Lynn from 1915.
A Railways Clearing House map of the junctions, lines and ownership around Kings Lynn from 1915.

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,[32] sometimes 47s.[33] Freight services were operated by a similar array of diesel locomotives,[34] as well as Class 20s, Class 31s, and the occasional Class 08 shunter.[35] Off-peak links were often provided by Metro-Cammell diesel multiple units, such as the Class 101.[36]

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.[37] 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 National Express East 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 EWS. Occasionally, enthusiast railtours operate on this branch as well.[38]

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 National Express East 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.

When the Thameslink Programme is completed, King's Lynn will join the Thameslink network of cross-London services. This will mean that most trains for London from King's Lynn will no longer stop at King's Cross; instead, they will be diverted onto the Thameslink route and on to St Pancras, Farringdon, and various destinations thereafter.[39] The Thameslink programme is expected to reach King's Lynn in 2015.[40]

  Preceding station     National Rail     Following station  
Watlington   First Capital Connect
King's Cross-Cambridge-King's Lynn		   Terminus
Watlington   National Express East Anglia
Liverpool Street - Cambridge - King's Lynn
(peak hours only)		   Terminus
Disused Railways
Terminus   British Rail
Eastern Region
King's Lynn to East Dereham, via Swaffham		   Middleton Towers

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Oppitz, Leslie (2002). Lost Railways of East Anglia. Countryside Books, p. 15. ISBN 1-85306-595-1. 
  2. ^ Adderson, Richard; Kenworthy, Graham (2002). Ely to Kings Lynn, including the Stoke Ferry Branch. ISBN 1-901706-532. 
  3. ^ 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. Retrieved on 2007-09-02.
  6. ^ 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 (January 2005). Retrieved on 2007-09-02. “[Wolferton Station's] origins go back to the opening of the Kings Lynn to Hunstanton branch railway line in 1862[.]”
  10. ^ Oppitz 2002, p. 15.
  11. ^ Betjeman, John (Narrator); Freegard, Malcom (Producer). (1962). John Betjeman Goes By Train. British Transport Films/BBC TV East Anglia.
  12. ^ According to Insight (2005), 645 in just 27 years.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ Wilson, Anne. "NEW TONE FOR AN OLD PORT", The New York Times, 1986-06-29. 
  15. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slide 106.
  16. ^ Oppitz 2002, pp. 26-28.
  17. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, notes to map XXVIII and slide 114.
  18. ^ "King's Lynn celebrates its century" (March 2007). The ASLEF Journal: p. 15. 
  19. ^ Oppitz 2002, pp. 26-28.
  20. ^ "DETONATORS CRACKLE KNELL OF M&GN", Lynn News & Advertiser, 1959-03-03, pp. 1. 
  21. ^ Ibid. "[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”."
  22. ^ Ordnance Survey. North West Norfolk (Sheet 132) [map], 1:50000. (1974) Section 6117 to 6218.
  23. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slide 107.
  24. ^ Oppitz 2002, pp. 14-15.
  25. ^ Oppitz 2002, p. 19.
  26. ^ 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, p. 54, <http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/310-EWS-290107.pdf> 
  27. ^ Oppitz 2002, p. 18.
  28. ^ Norfolk County Council. Norfolk Heritage Explorer Record 13600 (Lynn and Dereham Railway). Norfolk Explorer. Retrieved on 2007-09-04.
  29. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slide 91.
  30. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, map XXVI, and preface to ch. 4.
  31. ^ Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk. 4. Conserving Environmental Resources. Written Statement. Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
  32. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slide 90. See also:
  33. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slides 79, 107. See also:
  34. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slides 70, 80.
  35. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slides 63, 92, 107. See also:
  36. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slides 32, 80, 109. See also:
  37. ^ Adderson & Kenworthy, slide 119.
  38. ^ Notable Workings - Saturday 21st October 2006. TheRailwayCentre.com (2006-10-21). Retrieved on 2007-09-06.
  39. ^ Thameslink Programme (Thameslink 2000). alwaystouchout.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-02.
  40. ^ East is at the heart of strategy for rail growth. Government News Network (2007-07-24). Retrieved on 2007-09-02.

[edit] External links