Eccles Road railway station

Eccles Road railway station is on the Breckland line in the east of England, serving the villages of Eccles, Quidenham and Wilby in Norfolk. The line runs between Cambridge in the west and Norwich in the east.

Eccles Road
LocationQuidenham, Breckland
England
Grid referenceTM018900
Managed byGreater Anglia
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeECS
ClassificationDfT category F2
Key dates
30 July 1845Opened
18 April 1966Closed to freight
Passengers
2015/16 824
2016/17 1,294
2017/18 2,700
2018/19 2,952
2019/20 2,390
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Eccles Road is situated between Harling Road and Attleborough, 104 miles 36 chains (168.1 km) from London Liverpool Street via Ely. The station is managed by Greater Anglia, which also operates most of the services calling at the station. Some East Midlands Railway also stop at Eccles Road.

The station takes its name from the road that runs through the dispersed village of Eccles. The church Eccles St. Mary still stands and is one of 124 original round-tower churches in Norfolk. The station is situated in the civil parish of Quidenham, about 2 miles (3 km) north of that village, and 1 mile (1.5 km) north-east of Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit.[1]

The station is unstaffed and has two platforms, adjacent to a level crossing. Wooden level crossing gates used to be opened and closed manually by a signaller in the local signal box, which is dated 1883. However, in 2012 the signal box was closed and the crossing was renewed with automatic barriers controlled from Cambridge. The redundant signal box stands across the road from the westbound (Cambridge) platform, and was expected to be demolished when the barriers were replaced in 2017.

History

The Bill for the Norwich & Brandon Railway (N&BR) received Royal Assent on 10 May 1844. Work started on the line in 1844 and the line and its stations were opened on 30 July 1845. , The line ran from Ely to Trowse, in Norwich. The link into Norwich was delayed due to the need to build a bridge over the River Wensum that kept the river navigable. One month before the N&BR opened a Bill authorising the amalgamation of the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway with the N&BR came into effect and so Eccles Road station became a Norfolk Railway asset.[2]

Services

As of December 2019, from Monday to Saturday there are two trains per day eastbound to Norwich, both timed to arrive in Norwich before 09:00 and operated by Greater Anglia.

Westbound, there are two trains per day on weekday afternoons, one operated by East Midlands Railway which calls at Harling Road, Thetford, and Ely, before reversing and continuing to Liverpool Lime Street; and the other to Cambridge, operated by Greater Anglia. On Saturday afternoons there are two westbound services to Stansted Airport via Cambridge, both operated by Greater Anglia.[3]

There is no Sunday service.

References
Eccles St Mary church
  1. Ordnance Survey (1999). OS Explorer Map 230 - Diss & Harleston. ISBN 978-0-319-21862-4.
  2. C.J. Allen
  3. "Timetable 10 Cambridge to Ely, Peterborough and Norwich" (PDF). Greater Anglia. 15 December 2019.
Preceding station   National Rail   Following station
Greater Anglia
East Midlands Railway
Liverpool-Norwich
Limited services

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