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, in Norfolk. The other terminus at the eastern end of the lines is and the western terminus, to which all trains run, is .

Trains from Great Yarmouth run to Norwich via one of two routes: either via , the more regularly used line, or via . Great Yarmouth is down the line from Norwich via Acle and it is via Reedham.

The station is managed currently by Greater Anglia, which also operates all of the trains that call.

History

Yarmouth Vauxhall

The Yarmouth and Norwich Railway Act 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. lxxxii) authorising the Yarmouth and Norwich Railway (Y&NR) received royal assent on 18 June 1842. Work started on the line in April 1843; the line and its stations were opened on 1 May 1844. Great Yarmouth station was originally named Yarmouth Vauxhall. The Y&NR line to Norwich through Reedham was the first railway in the county to open.

On 30 June 1845, the Norfolk Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. xli) authorising the amalgamation of the Yarmouth and Norwich Railway with the Norwich and Brandon Railway came into effect and Yarmouth Vauxhall station became a Norfolk Railway (NR) asset. The remainder of the original station building was demolished and rebuilt in 1960.

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

Before rail closures of the 1950s and the later Beeching Axe, it was the largest of the three railway stations in the town. The three stations had been linked together since 1882 by the Yarmouth Union Railway. The station is now the sole surviving station in the town.

The station was renamed Great Yarmouth on 16 May 1989. There were large sidings and an engine shed, before they were demolished to make way for an Asda superstore and bypass.

Historical services

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

A typical summer Saturday in 1959 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. Some local services were cancelled to cope with this influx of trains, but it indicates the significant numbers of British holidaymakers still travelling by train and holidaying in Great Yarmouth at this time.

Privatisation

On privatisation, ownership of the station passed to Railtrack; management of the station and its services were transferred to Anglia Railways. In April 2004, 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.

Other stations in Yarmouth

The town was also formerly served by the following stations:

Yarmouth Beach

Yarmouth Beach was located on Nelson Road and owned by the M&GN, which ran services along the Norfolk coast to and . The station closed in 1959 and the site is now a coach station, although plans exist to turn the area into offices.

Yarmouth South Town

Yarmouth South Town was owned by the Great Eastern Railway, but also served as the terminus for the Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway; this ran services through and to join with the current East Suffolk Line for a main line service to London. It closed in 1970.

Newtown Halt

Newtown Halt was located on Salisbury Road and was owned by the M&GN. It opened in 1933 and closed in 1959.

Services

Greater Anglia operates one train each hour between Yarmouth and Norwich, with additional services during the morning and evening peaks. Most services run via Acle, although there are still a number that run via Reedham.

Sunday services tend to be hourly and, up to 16:00, trains alternate between the two routes.

There are proposals to run a wider variety of direct services to London Liverpool Street, Stansted Airport and Peterborough from 2025.

Carriage sidings

thumb|left|The carriage sidings at Great Yarmouth

New sidings were provided at the western end of the station to cope with the additional services operating into the station, following the closure of the M&GN system. It is a crescent-shaped site between the A47 road and Wherryman's Way at the northernmost point of the River Yare, about north-west of the station. It had fallen out of use in the 1980s when Norwich Crown Point depot was built.

In 2010, the unused sidings were purchased by Great Yarmouth Borough Council; they were intended for use as a freight terminal, despite the lack of rail connection to the town's port. It was hoped that 10,000 tonnes of sugar cane per week would be carried from Yarmouth to Cantley. The need to use a lorry shuttle between the docks and the rail yard, along with a £3.2 million quote for replacing the sidings at Cantley, saw the plan dropped.

In May 2020, Eastern Rail Services commenced a lease with Norfolk County Council and Network Rail for Yarmouth Vauxhall sidings. Managing director James Steward said the siding "matched ERS's requirement for an East Anglian site to base its rolling stock." On 6 July 2020, ERS was authorised a licence exemption permitting them to operate trains within the site.

no. 08762, owned by Eastern Rail Services' sister company RMS Locotec, was delivered by road from Heaton TMD on 16 June 2020 to take up shunting duties on site.

Recent developments

A campaign was launched in 2010 to bring the station up-to-date, called the Fix Great Yarmouth Station campaign. The project attracted around 3,000 pledges of support on-line.

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. This service was operated as Welcome Host and continued in 2013; it was run on a voluntary basis.

In 2017, signalling and track layout changes saw the lifting of the tracks leading into platform 1, reducing the number of operational platforms at the station to three.

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. The project was completed in November 2018.

Gallery

Image:Greatyarmouth34.jpg|Platforms 3 and 4 at Great Yarmouth

Image:Yarmouthstation1.jpg|Looking across to Asda where the old rail yards were.

Image:Yarmouthstationinterior.jpg|Interior of the station showing the shop and entrance.