Halesworth railway station

Halesworth railway station is on the East Suffolk Line in the east of England, serving the small town of Halesworth, Suffolk. It is also the nearest station to the seaside town of Southwold. It is 31 miles 74 chains (51.4 km) down the line from Ipswich and 100 miles 53 chains (162.0 km) measured from London Liverpool Street; it is situated between Darsham and Brampton. Its three-letter station code is HAS.

Halesworth
Location
PlaceHalesworth
Local authorityEast Suffolk
Grid referenceTM388778
Operations
Station codeHAS
Managed byGreater Anglia
Number of platforms2
DfT categoryF1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 94,702
2015/16 95,968
2016/17 100,186
2017/18 97,870
2018/19 102,016
History
Original companyEast Suffolk Railway
Pre-groupingGreat Eastern Railway
Post-groupingLondon and North Eastern Railway
4 December 1854Opened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Halesworth from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

It is managed by Greater Anglia, which also operates all trains that call.

History

Halesworth station was formerly situated on a level crossing. However, it was unusual in that the platforms swung across the road rather than having typical crossing gates.[1] The crossing is now permanently closed.

The cabin from the mechanical signal box at Halesworth has been preserved at the County School railway station on the Mid-Norfolk Railway.

On the afternoon of 18 December 1941 a German Dornier bombed the station-house,[2] killing the stationmaster, his wife and their young maid. The station-house was rebuilt but with a reduced size.

The Halesworth and District Museum[3] and the offices of Halesworth Area Community Transport[4] now occupy the station building.

The station has been "adopted" by volunteers from the East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership[5] who maintain the planting and remove litter. (The station is unstaffed by Greater Anglia.)

Services

As of December 2016 the typical Monday-Saturday off-peak service at Halesworth is as follows:

Operator Route Rolling stock Typical frequency
Abellio Greater Anglia Lowestoft - Oulton Broad South - Beccles - Brampton (on request) - Halesworth - Darsham - Saxmundham - Wickham Market - Melton - Woodbridge - Ipswich Class 755 1x per hour in each direction

On Sundays frequency reduces to one train every two hours in each direction. Trains direct to and from London Liverpool Street were withdrawn in 2010.

One weekday early-morning train is extended through to Harwich International and there is a return from there in the evening.[6]

Southwold Railway

From 1879 to 1929 Halesworth was also the western terminus of the 3 ft (914 mm) gauge Southwold Railway which ran to Southwold.[7]

The terminus was located alongside the main railway station, allowing cross-platform interchange of passengers and having transfer sheds for the exchange of goods between the narrow gauge wagons of the Southwold Railway and the standard gauge wagons used on the main line.[7]

Disused terminal platforms of the former Southwold Railway at Halesworth, 1940

References
  1. http://www.dudleymall.co.uk/loclrail/lowipswich.htm#stat5
  2. "Roll of Honour - Suffolk - Halesworth". www.roll-of-honour.com. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  3. "Halesworth Museum, Suffolk. Index Page". halesworthmuseum.org.uk. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  4. "Halesworth Area Community Transport and bus hire, the 511 Community Bus serving Haleworth, Holton and district". www.hactbus.co.uk. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  5. "East Suffolk Line - Community Rail Partnership". www.eastsuffolkline.com. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  6. Table 13 National Rail timetable, May 2016
  7. Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (1984). Branch Line to Southwold. Middleton Press. ISBN 978-0-906520-15-4.
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Brampton
Greater Anglia
East Suffolk Line
Disused railways
Interchange for the Southwold Railway


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