The
Great Eastern Main Line ("GE",
sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major
railway line of the British railway
system, which connects Liverpool Street station
in the City of London
with destinations in east
London
and the East of
England, including Ipswich
, Norwich
and several
coastal resorts such as Clacton-on-Sea
and Walton-on-the-Naze
. It is primarily a commuter railway that
also attracts business and leisure passengers, and a freight route.
Network Rail - Route 7 - Great Eastern
(PDF)
History
The
earliest section of the line operated between Devonshire
Street railway station
(Mile
End
) and Romford
from 1839
and was built by the Eastern
Counties Railway (ECR). The London terminus was then moved to
Bishopsgate
railway station
(initially known as Shoreditch) on 1 July 1840 and
the line was extended out to Brentwood in
the same year. A further 51 miles of route was added to link
London with Colchester by 1843. The original gauge for the line was
5 feet, but this was converted to
Standard gauge (4′8½″) in 1844.
The
section of line between Colchester and Ipswich was built by the
Eastern Union Railway to
Standard gauge and opened for
passenger traffic on 15 June 1846 and the route to Norwich
(Norwich
Victoria railway station
) opened in 1849.
Eastern Counties Railway and Eastern Union Railways and others were
amalgamated to form the
Great
Eastern Railway in 1862.
The London terminus was again moved, this time to Liverpool Street
in 2 February 1874.
The ECR was amalgamated with other railways to form the
Great Eastern Railway in 1862. The
line was 'grouped' into the
London and North Eastern
Railway in 1923 and from 1948 formed part of the
Eastern Region of British
Railways.
In the
1930s a flyover was constructed just west of Ilford
to switch the main and electric lines over, to
enable main line trains to utilise Liverpool St's longer west side
platforms without having to cross east side suburban traffic in the
station throat. The new arrangement also facilitated
cross-platform interchange with the Central
line at Stratford
, services commencing in 1946. Either side of Ilford
Flyover, there are single-track connections between the slow and
fast pairs of lines, with the westbound track extending to Manor Park
railway station
and just beyond. A short fifth platform face
serves the track at Manor Park, but it sees no normal use. The
eastbound track extends as far as Ilford, connecting with that
station's fifth (bay) platform, which does see limited passenger
operations. It was also envisaged that a flyover would be built at
the country end of Gidea Park Carriage Sidings to switch Southend
Victoria trains from the mains to the electrics, instead of at
Shenfield London end junction as they do now.
Plans were draw up in the 1930s to electrify the suburban lines
from Liverpool Street to Shenfield at 1500 V DC and work was
started on implementing this. However, the outbreak of the Second
World War brought the project to a temporary halt and it was not
until 1949 that the scheme was completed with electrification being
extended to Chelmsford in 1956.
The British Railways 1955 Modernisation Plan called for overhead
line systems in Great Britain to be standardised at 25 kV AC.
However, due to low clearances under bridges the route was
electrified at 6.25 kV AC. The section between Liverpool
Street and Southend Victoria was completed in November 1960.
Extensive testing showed that smaller electrical clearances could
be tolerated for the 25 kV system than originally thought
necessary. As a result it was now possible to increase the voltage
without having to either raise bridges or lower the tracks along
the route to obtain larger clearances. The route between Liverpool
Street and Southend Victoria was converted to 25 kV AC between
1976 and 1980 Electrification was extended to Norwich by
1986.
In 1986 it became part of
Network
SouthEast. Between 5 January 1997 and 31 March 2004, suburban
and medium distance services were operated by
First Great Eastern, while fast mainline
services were operated by
Anglia
Railways. All services are now operated by
National Express East
Anglia.
Liverpool Street IECC replaced signal boxes at Bethnal Green
(closed 1997), Bow (closed 1996), Stratford (GE panel closed 1997),
Ilford (closed 1996), Romford (closed 1998), Gidea Park (closed
1998), Shenfield (closed 1992) and Chelmsford (closed 1994). The
system uses BR Mark 3 solid state interlockings, predominantly
four-aspect signals and a combination of GEC-Alsthom HW2000 and
Smiths clamp-lock point machines.
The first signalbox to be closed and transferred to Liverpool
Street IECC was Shenfield, which had only opened in 1982. The last
boxes to be transferred were at Romford and Gidea Park, and were
the oldest of those being transferred, having been opened under the
GER/LNER 1924 resignalling scheme.
Infrastructure
The line is owned and maintained by
Network
Rail. It is part of the
Network Rail Strategic
Route 7, is comprised of SRS's 07.01, 07.02 and 07.03, and is
classified as a primary line.
The line has a loading gauge of W10 between
Liverpool
Street and Haughley junction and from there is W9 to
Norwich
. It has a line speed of between
80-105 mph.
The main line is
electrified at 25
kV AC using overhead wires and comes under the control of Romford
Electrical Control Room. The branches to Upminster, Southend
Victoria, Southminster, Braintree, Clacton-on-Sea,
Walton-on-the-Naze and Harwich Town are also electrified.
In between Romford and Chadwell Heath there is a small Network Rail
OLE depot adjacent to the Jutsums Lane overbridge. In addition at
the London end of the depot is Network Rail's Electrical Control
Room that controls the supply and switching of the OHL system for
the whole of the former Anglia Region.
Signalling is controlled by two main signalling centres, Liverpool
Street IECC (opened in 1992) and Colchester PSB (opened in December
1983). Liverpool Street IECC controls signalling up to Marks Tey,
where it fringes with Colchester PSB, which has control to Norwich.
There are
also several small signal boxes that control local infrastructure,
such as Ingatestone
box, which that has jurisdiction over several local
level crossings.
Track layout
On leaving Liverpool Street, the route comprises two pairs of
tracks, known as the Mains and the Electrics, with a further pair
of tracks, the 'Suburbans', which carry the West Anglia Main Line
alongside the GE to Bethnal Green Junction. It is possible for GE
trains to use the 'Suburbans', but this is extremely rare because
of the platform allocations at Liverpool Street.
From Bethnal Green the GE has four lines to Bow Junction, where
there is a complex set of switches and crossings. A line from the
LTS route joins the up electric and there are a further two lines,
the up and down Temple Mills, giving access to the North London
line and Temple Mills . The GE is six tracks up to the London end
of Stratford and the junction to Temple Mills, and there are five
lines through the station dropping to four at the country
end.
At Shenfield the line to Southend Victoria diverges and the main
line route drops from four lines to two; this arrangement continues
for the vast majority of the way to Norwich. There are several
locations where the route has more than two lines, predominantly
through stations such as Colchester and Ipswich, along with goods
loops, such as at the London end of Ingatestone.
A flyover
just west of Ilford enables main line trains to utilise Liverpool St's
longer west side platforms without having to cross east side
suburban traffic in the station throat. This arrangement also
facilitated cross-platform interchange with the Central line at Stratford. Either side of Ilford Flyover, there are
single-track connections between the slow and fast pairs of lines,
with the westbound track extending to Manor Park
railway station and just beyond. A short fifth platform face
serves the track at Manor Park, but it sees no normal use. The
eastbound track extends as far as Ilford, connecting with that
station's fifth (bay) platform, which does see limited passenger
operations.
Rolling Stock
Electric locomotive-hauled inter-city trains on Norwich to London
serivce.
electric multiple
units for inner and outer suburban passenger trains. Electric
and diesel hauled freight services.
- Class 315 - 320 seats
across 4 cars. Maximum speed 75 mph (121 km/h)
- Class 321 - 4 cars per
trainset, 100 mph(161 km/h)
- Class 360 (Desiro) - 4
cars per trainset, 100 mph(161 km/h)
- Class 90
Proposed developments
The
Greater
Anglia RUS, published in December 2007 outlines a number of
developments intended for the Great Eastern route. Other proposals
have been announced separately.
- 68 additional carriages to provide longer trains will be
introduced between December 2009 and December 2011.
- Extension of the platform at Stratford
to increase peak flow and capacity during the
period 2009-14..
- Additional path on the Colchester
, Chelmsford
and Southend
routes during the period 2009-14.
- A
turn back facility at Chadwell Heath
during the period 2009-14..
- A new
station at Great
Blakenham
as part of
the SnOasis
development
near Ipswich, which received its final go-ahead on
6 November 2008.
- Oyster cards to
be available between Liverpool Street Station and Harold Wood
by 2009 (currently only accepted as far as
Stratford)
- In 2017 the 'Shenfield Metro' service will be absorbed into
Crossrail.
Services
Nearly all trains are operated by the
National Express Group, using the
National Express East
Anglia brand name. The franchise began under the 'one' railway
brand on 1 April 2004.
As of May 2007 two c2c
services operate during the late evening to Barking
. This is a throwback to BR days when London
Fenchurch Street
closed early in the evening as a cost saving
exercise and all services operated from Liverpool
Street.
Liverpool
Street is the principal passenger destination, although Stratford,
with connections to Canary
Wharf
, has grown in significance.
Main line
Outer suburban and inter-city services utilise the main lines
between Liverpool Street and Shenfield. Branch lines diverge at
Romford, Shenfield, Witham, Marks Tey, Colchester, Ipswich,
Stowmarket and Norwich, with through services operating to some
destinations. All services share the same tracks from Shenfield to
Colchester. Bold text in the station name represents stations where
the mainline services stop.
Shenfield Metro
A high-frequency service operates on the slow lines between
Liverpool Street and Shenfield serving suburban stations. The
off-peak service consists of six trains an hour. Some peak trains
are scheduled to terminate at Ilford or Gidea Park. The line is
mostly within Greater London, with two stations in the Brentwood
borough of Essex.
References
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