Great Yarmouth railway station

Great Yarmouth railway station (originally Yarmouth Vauxhall) is one of two eastern termini of the Wherry Lines in the East of England, serving the seaside town of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. The other terminus at the eastern end of the lines is Lowestoft, and the western terminus to which all trains run is Norwich.

Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth railway station in 1993
Location
PlaceGreat Yarmouth
Local authorityGreat Yarmouth
Coordinates52.6118°N 1.7207°E / 52.6118; 1.7207
Grid referenceTG519080
Operations
Station codeGYM
Managed byGreater Anglia
Number of platforms3
DfT categoryC2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 0.437 million
2015/16 0.409 million
2016/17 0.399 million
2017/18 0.385 million
2018/19 0.381 million
History
Original companyYarmouth and Norwich Railway
Pre-groupingGreat Eastern Railway
Post-groupingLondon and North Eastern Railway
1 May 1844 (1844-05-01)Opened as Yarmouth Vauxhall
?Renamed Yarmouth
16 May 1989Renamed Great Yarmouth
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Great Yarmouth from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

Trains from Great Yarmouth run to Norwich via one of two routes: either via Acle, the more regularly used line, or via Reedham. Via Acle, Great Yarmouth is 18 miles 29 chains (29.6 km) down the line from Norwich, and via Reedham it is 20 miles 45 chains (33.1 km).

The station is currently managed by Greater Anglia, which also operates all of the trains that call. Off-peak there is one train per hour to Norwich, with the service increasing in frequency during peak times.

History

Yarmouth Vauxhall

The Bill for the Yarmouth and Norwich Railway (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. Great Yarmouth station was originally named Yarmouth Vauxhall.[1] The Y&NR line to Norwich through Reedham was the first railway in the county to open.[2]

On 30 June 1845 a Bill authorising the amalgamation of the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway with the Norwich & Brandon Railway came into effect and Yarmouth Vauxhall station became a Norfolk Railway asset.[1][3]

The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) and its rival the Eastern Union Railway (EUR) were both sizing up the NR to acquire and expand their railway empire. The ECR trumped the EUR by taking over the NR, including Yarmouth-Vauxhall 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 (GER) was formed by the amalgamation. Actually, Yarmouth-Vauxhall 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.[4][4]

Two decades into GER ownership the latter decided to build a shorter route between Yarmouth Vauxhall to Norwich Thorpe. Work started in the early-1880s. The GER started the new line about 1 mile west of Yarmouth Vauxhall and the junction was named Breydon. The 1st part of the new line opened on 1 March 1883 as far as the 1st station west of Yarmouth Vauxhall called Acle.

The system settled down for the next 4 decades, apart from the disruption of First World War. The difficult economic circumstances that existed after World War 1 led the Government to pass the Railways Act 1921 which led to the creation of the Big Four. The GER amalgamated with several other companies to form the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). Yarmouth Vauxhall became a LNER station on 1 January 1923.

In May 1943, the station was badly damaged during an air raid, resulting in the upper floor of the passenger station needing to be demolished. Train services, however, operated throughout this period.[5] The remains of the original station building were removed, and the station rebuilt, in 1960.[6]

On nationalisation in 1948 the station and its services became part of the Eastern Region of British Railways.

The station name was simplified to Yarmouth by BR at some point between 1953 and 1962.[1] The station was extensively damaged in World War II and was rebuilt in 1960.

Before rail closures of the 1950s and the later Beeching Axe the station was the largest of three major railway stations in the town.[7] The three stations had been linked together since 1882 by the Yarmouth Union Railway.[8]

Yarmouth Beach
Main article: Yarmouth Beach railway station

Yarmouth Beach was located on Nelson Road and was owned by M&GN who ran services up the Norfolk coast to Melton Constable and Peterborough. It was closed in 1959 and is now a coach station although plans exist to turn the area into offices.

Yarmouth South Town
Main article: Yarmouth South Town railway station

Yarmouth South Town was owned by the Great Eastern Railway but also served as the terminus for the Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway which ran services through Gorleston-on-Sea and Lowestoft to join with the current East Suffolk Line for a mainline service to London. It was closed in 1970.

Great Yarmouth

Yarmouth Vauxhall, named Great Yarmouth since 16 May 1989, is the only station to remain open.[9] There used to be large sidings and an engine shed before they were demolished to make way for the new Asda superstore and bypass.

On privatisation the station and its services were transferred to Anglia Railways, which operated it until April 2004 when National Express East Anglia won the replacement franchise, operating under the brand name 'one' until February 2008. From February 2012 Abellio Greater Anglia took over operating the franchise.

Services

Summer 1959

With the closure of Yarmouth Beach station in early 1959, Vauxhall became the focus of the summer Saturday traffic for Great Yarmouth. The station had always had a number of summer Saturday trains up to this point but this hike in numbers had led to some re-modelling of the station layout - platform lengthening and changes to carriage stabling - in order to cope with the additional traffic.

A typical summer Saturday saw an additional 24 timetabled passenger trains from locations including York, Derby, Sheffield, Manchester, Leicester and Sunderland. In addition on 25 July 1959 there were an extra eight holiday relief workings that ran. Some local workings were cancelled to cope with this influx of trains, but it indicates the significant numbers of UK holiday makers still travelling by train and still holidaying in Great Yarmouth at this time. [10]

May 2013

Generally there is one train each hour between Great Yarmouth and Norwich, with additional services during the morning and evening peaks. Most trains run via Acle although there are still a number that run via Berney Arms.

Sunday services tend to be hourly and up to 1600 every other service runs via Berney Arms.

All services are operated by Greater Anglia.

From 2025, there are proposals to run a wider variety of direct services from Yarmouth to London Liverpool Street, Stansted Airport and Peterborough.[11]

Recent developments

A campaign was launched in 2010 to bring Great Yarmouth Station up-to-date, called the "Fix Great Yarmouth Station" campaign.[12][13] The project attracted more than 3,000 pledges of support.[14]

During 2012 Great Yarmouth Community Trust, in partnership with Greater Anglia, provided a welcoming and information service at the station for incoming holidaymakers and tourists.[15] This service was operated as 'Welcome Host' and continued in 2013. The service was run on a voluntary basis.

In 2017, signalling and track changes saw Platform 1 closed and lifted, reducing the number of operational platforms at the station to three.[16]

In 2018 it was announced that the station would benefit from £710,000 of investment, redeveloping the entrance and surrounding areas, with the work being funded by the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership's Growth Deal.[17] The project completed in November 2018.[18]

  • Platforms 3 and 4 at Great Yarmouth
  • Looking across to Asda where the old rail yards were.
  • Interior of the station showing the shop and entrance.
  • Platforms 1 and 2 facing towards Norwich.
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gollark: Poland removal is the process of removing Poland from a location.
gollark: No. Avoid thought at all costs. Emergency counter-brain systems are standing by.

References
  1. Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 256. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Body, Geoffrey (1986). Railways of the Eastern Region. Vol. 1, Southern operating area. Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens. p. 124. ISBN 9780850597127.
  3. Allen 1956, p. .
  4. Allen 1956, p. 46.
  5. Dow, George (1947). The First Railway in Norfolk (Second Edition). LNER. p. 29.
  6. "Yarmouth Vauxhall Railway Station". www.berneyarms.co.uk.
  7. Great Yarmouth's Rail Connections Archived May 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  8. "Great Yarmouth's Rail Connections". www.berneyarms.co.uk.
  9. Butt 1995, pp. 256, 109
  10. Kenworthy, Graham (January 2009). "Summer Saturday services at Yarmouth Vauxhall in 1959". Great Eastern Railway Society Journal. 137: 24–27.
  11. Hickey, Daniel. "Great Yarmouth to Stansted rail link "unlikely" until at least 2025". Great Yarmouth Mercury.
  12. http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/eveningnews24/norwich-news/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=ENOnline&tCategory=xNews&itemid=NOED19%20Apr%202010%2020%3A15%3A08%3A080
  13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 January 2010. Retrieved 29 April 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. "Log into Facebook | Facebook".
  15. Clapham, Lucy. "Friendly faces all aboard to greet visitors". Great Yarmouth Mercury.
  16. Ryan, George. "Platform to be removed from Great Yarmouth train station as part of signals upgrade". Great Yarmouth Mercury.
  17. Norton, Joseph. "First look at Great Yarmouth train station's new £710,000 entrance". Eastern Daily Press.
  18. "Great Yarmouth station forecourt transformation complete". 21 November 2018.
  • Allen, Cecil J. (1956) [1955]. The Great Eastern Railway (2nd ed.). Hampton Court: Ian Allan.
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Acle   Greater Anglia
Wherry Lines
(via Acle)		   Terminus
Berney Arms   Greater Anglia
Wherry Lines
(via Reedham)		  
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