Buckenham railway station

Buckenham National Rail
Location
Place Buckenham
Local authority Broadland
Grid reference TG350056
Operations
Station code BUC
Managed by Abellio Greater Anglia
Number of platforms 2
DfT category F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11 Decrease 106
2011/12 Decrease 100
2012/13 Decrease 72
2013/14 Increase 80
2014/15 Increase 88
History
Original company Yarmouth and Norwich Railway[1]
Pre-grouping Great Eastern Railway[1]
Post-grouping LNER
1 May 1844 Opened[1]
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Buckenham from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal
The station in 1963

Buckenham railway station is on the Wherry Lines in the east of England, serving the village of Buckenham, Norfolk. It is 7 miles 62 chains (12.5 km) down-line from Norwich on the route to Lowestoft and is situated between Brundall and Cantley. Its three-letter station code is BUC.[2]

The station was opened in 1844. Today it is managed by Abellio Greater Anglia. According to usage estimates, Buckenham is one of the least-used stations in the country, registering just 88 passenger entries/exits in 2014/15.[3] A limited number of services stop at the station on weekends, with no services on weekdays.

RSPB Buckenham Marshes is located next to the station, with RSPB Strumpshaw Fen a short walk away. Strumpshaw Hall Steam Museum is also located in the area.

History

The Bill for the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway (Y&NR) received Royal Assent on 18 June 1842. Work started on the line in April 1843 and it and its stations opened on 1 May 1844. Buckenham is situated east of Brundall and west of Cantley. The Y&NR was the first public railway line in Norfolk. On 30 June 1845 a Bill authorising the amalgamation of the Y&NR with the Norwich & Brandon Railway came into effect and Buckenham station became a Norfolk Railway asset.[1][4]

Two years after the Norfolk Railway took over, Cantley station was closed, meaning Reedham was now the next station after Buckenham.

The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) and its rival the Eastern Union Railway (EUR) were both sizing up the Norfolk Railway to acquire and expand their networks. The ECR trumped the EUR by taking over the Norfolk Railway, including Buckenham station, on 8 May 1848. Three years later, during January 1851, the ECR reopened Cantley station.

By the 1860s the railways in East Anglia were in financial trouble, and most were leased to the ECR, which wished to amalgamate formally but could not obtain government agreement for this until an Act of Parliament passed on 7 August 1862, when the Great Eastern Railway (GER) was formed by the consolidation. Actually, Buckenham had become a GER station on 1 July 1862 when the GER took over the ECR and the EUR before the Bill received its Royal Assent.[5]

The system settled down for 60 years, apart from the disruption of the First World War. The difficult economic circumstances that existed after the war led the government to pass the Railways Act 1921 which led to the creation of the "Big Four" companies. The GER was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). Buckenham became an LNER station on 1 January 1923.

A generation later, in 1947, the government of the day passed the Transport Act which nationalised the Big Four and created British Railways (BR). On 1 January 1948 Buckenham became a BR station.

Following privatisation of the railways, Railtrack became responsible for infrastructure maintenance in 1994. Following Railtrack's financial problems Network Rail took over operation of the infrastructure in 2002.

The operation of the line was privatised in 1997 when the franchise was awarded to Anglia Railways, which operated it until 2004 when National Express East Anglia won the replacement franchise, operating under the brand name 'one' until 2008. In 2012 Abellio Greater Anglia won the franchise.

Services

As of December 2015 services only stop at the station at weekends. On Saturdays there is one train to Norwich and two to Lowestoft. On Sundays three trains to Norwich call at the station, with three trains to Great Yarmouth on the Berney Arms branch of the line via Reedham.[6] During the summer service frequency is increased, to at least five trains in each direction.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 47. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199.
  2. ↑ OS Explorer Map OL40 - The Broads (Map). Ordnance Survey. 2005. ISBN 0-319-23769-9.
  3. ↑ 'Estimates of station usage 2011-12', Office of rail regulation (available online). Retrieved 2013-05-30.
  4. ↑ C.J. Allen
  5. ↑ CJ Allen - Great Eastern - page46
  6. 1 2 'Norwich to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft', Greater Anglia, December 2013.
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Brundall   Abellio Greater Anglia
Wherry Lines
Weekends only		   Cantley

Coordinates: 52°35′50″N 1°28′07″E / 52.59734°N 1.46852°E / 52.59734; 1.46852

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