| King's Lynn | |
|---|---|
| The station building from the outside | |
| Location | |
| Place | King's Lynn |
| Local authority | King's Lynn and West Norfolk |
| Grid reference | TF623200 |
| Operations | |
| Station code | KLN |
| Managed by | First Capital Connect |
| Owned by | Network Rail |
| Number of platforms | 2 |
| Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries |
|
| Annual rail passenger usage | |
| 2004/05 * | 0.642 million |
| 2005/06 * | 0.622 million |
| 2006/07 * | 0.657 million |
| 2007/08 * | 0.680 million |
| 2008/09 * | 0.747 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 |
| 1992 | Line electrified at 25 kV AC overhead, station refurbished |
| 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 estimated 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. Please note: methodology may vary year on year. | |
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 |
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,[6][9] a journey celebrated by former Poet Laureate John Betjeman in a short BBC film about the line.[10]
The Hunstanton line included Wolferton station, which served the Royal Family's Sandringham House, and so became the route of hundreds of Royal Trains.[11] Since Royal services to London had to first pass through King's Lynn before heading south to King's Cross,[12] crowds on King's Lynn station cheering the Royal Train became one of the town's cherished and memorable traditions.[13]
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.[14] The station opened in 1865, serving Sutton Bridge and Spalding to the west. The line later expanded eastwards, reaching Norwich in 1882.[15]
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.[16]
At their peak, the railways in and around King's Lynn employed hundreds of people,[17] 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 on 28 February that year, depriving King's Lynn of services to Norwich and Spalding.[15][18] 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,[18] and was demolished later that year. A section of this line about a mile and a half long[19] was left open for freight into the 1980s, transporting materials like oil and limestone to the sugar beet factory (since closed).[20]
Other services suffered a similar fate in the following years. Passenger services to Hunstanton were discontinued in 1969,[21] services to Wisbech (via Magdalen Road) ended in 1968,[22] and the line to Dereham was closed in the same year, save for a three-mile[23] section for sand freight from King's Lynn to Middleton.[24][25] 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.[26] The branch to the harbour was progressively shortened before its final closure at around the same time,[3] and the line to the docks closed as well (except for a short stub allowing the aforementioned freight trains from Middleton to change direction), the last train passing over the line in June 1994. 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.
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,[28] sometimes 47s.[29] Freight services were operated by a similar array of diesel locomotives,[30] as well as Class 20s, Class 31s, and the occasional Class 08 shunter.[31] Off-peak links were often provided by Metro-Cammell diesel multiple units, such as the Class 101.[32]
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.[33] 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 DB Schenker. Occasionally, enthusiast railtours operate on this branch as well.[34]
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.
On 8 November 2010, the Railway Cafe celebrated 100 years of being open.
It was originally intended that when the Thameslink Programme is completed, King's Lynn would join the Thameslink network of cross-London services. This would have meant that most trains for London from King's Lynn would have no longer terminated at King's Cross but instead they would be diverted onto the Thameslink route and on to St Pancras, Farringdon, and various destinations thereafter.[35] The Thameslink programme is now expected to be finished in 2018 but it currently seems unlikely that Thameslink trains will go beyond Cambridge.[36]
| 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 | ||
| Historical railways | ||||
| St Germain's Line open, station closed |
Great Eastern Railway Lynn and Ely Railway |
Terminus | ||
| Disused railways | ||||
| Terminus | Great Eastern Railway Lynn and Dereham Railway |
Middleton Towers Line and station closed |
||
| Terminus | Midland and Great Northern Connection to M&GN Main Line |
South Lynn Line and station closed |
||
| Terminus | Great Eastern Railway Hunstanton branch |
North Wootton Line and station closed |
||
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Railways_in_King%27s_Lynn Railways in King's Lynn] at Wikimedia Commons
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