Sunshine Coast Line
A Greater AngliaClass 360 departs Clacton-on-Sea in June 2013
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	Network Rail
Locale	East of England
Termini	Colchester Clacton-on-Sea Walton-on-the-Naze
Stations	12
Service
Type	Commuter rail
System	National Rail
Operator(s)	Greater Anglia
Depot(s)	Colchester Clacton-on-Sea
Rolling stock	Class 720
Technical
Line length	18 miles 4 chains (29.05 km) to Clacton-on-Sea 18 miles 43 chains (29.83 km) to Walton-on-the-Naze
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge
Electrification	25 kV 50 Hz AC OHLE
Route map (Click to expand)

v t e Sunshine Coast Line
Legend
mi-ch fromLiverpool Street Great Eastern Main Line ← toLondon │ toNorwich → 51-52 Colchester East Gate Junction 53-78 Colchester Town 53-49 Hythe Colne Causeway 56-00 Wivenhoe Alresford Creek Brightlingsea 57-63 Alresford Thorington Great Bentley Brook 60-66 Great Bentley A133 road 62-78 Weeley 65-07 Thorpe-le-Soken 67-55 Kirby Cross 68-66 Frinton-on-Sea 69-56 Clacton-on-Sea 70-15 Walton-on-the-Naze
station closed on Sundays

TheSunshine Coast Line is the current marketing name of what originally was theTendring Hundred Railway, abranch off theGreat Eastern Main Line in theEast of England. It linksColchester to the seaside resorts ofClacton-on-Sea and, via a branch,Walton-on-the-Naze. The line is part of theNetwork Rail Strategic Route 7, SRS 07.08, and is classified as a London & South East commuter line.^[1] Passenger services on the line are currently operated byGreater Anglia.

Trains for Clacton-on-Sea usually originate atLondon Liverpool Street, while those for Walton-on-the-Naze typically start at Colchester (orThorpe-le-Soken on Sundays). There are, however, limited morning and evening peak-time services in each direction between Walton-on-the-Naze and Liverpool Street.

TheGreat Eastern Main Line out ofShoreditch in London reachedColchester by 1843 and was extended toIpswich in 1846.

Tendring Hundred Railway Act 1859
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to authorize the Construction of a Railway from the Hythe in the Neighbourhood of Colchester to Wivenhoe in Essex, to be called "The Tendring Hundred Railway."
Citation	22 & 23 Vict. c. cxix
Dates
Royal assent	13 August 1859

Tendring Hundred Railway Act 1867
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to grant further Powers to the Tendring Hundred Railway Company.
Citation	30 & 31 Vict. c. xliii
Dates
Royal assent	31 May 1867
Text of statute as originally enacted

The first short section of thisbranch line was built by theColchester, Stour Valley, Sudbury and Halstead Railway to the port ofHythe, and opened for freight traffic on 31 March 1847. In 1859 the Tendring Hundred Railway Company was formed by theTendring Hundred Railway Act 1859 (22 & 23 Vict. c. cxix) to extend the line from Hythe toWivenhoe, which opened on 8 May 1863 for both passenger and goods services from Colchester. By the time the Wivenhoe extension opened the line had been taken over by theGreat Eastern Railway (GER) who provided the rolling-stock in return for 50% of takings.

The route was extended toWeeley on 8 January 1866, toKirby Cross on 28 July 1866, and on to the terminus atWalton-on-Naze on 17 May 1867. In the meantime, a short branch to a new station calledSt. Botolph's, located more centrally in Colchester, opened on 1 March 1866. This station was renamed Colchester Town on 8 July 1991 byBritish Rail.^[2]

A second company, theWivenhoe and Brightlingsea Railway, had been incorporated in 1861 to build a line from Wivenhoe toBrightlingsea, which opened on 17 April 1866. There were also proposals to build a line toClacton as early as 1866, but nothing came of them until 1877, when the Clacton-on-Sea Railway was incorporated. The connection fromThorpe-le-Soken to Clacton opened on 4 July 1882, also operated by theGER.

TheGER negotiated to buy both the Tendring Hundred Railway and the Clacton-on-Sea Railway, and they became part of theGER on 1 July 1883. The Wivenhoe and Brightlingsea Railway Company was absorbed by theGER on 9 June 1893.[3]

In 1923 the line (along with the rest of theGERR) became part of theLondon and North Eastern Railway.

A section of the line betweenFrinton and Walton-on-Naze had to be re-sited in 1929 due to fears ofcoastal erosion on the original alignment.^[4]

Following nationalisation on 1 January 1948, the line became part of theEastern Region of British Railways.

Electrification of the line commenced in the 1950s and by January 1959 the line was electrified as far asGreat Bentley. The first trial train to run on the newly electrified section departed Colchester on 18 January 1959. The line was the first in the country to beelectrified at25 kV AC, using overhead wires,^[5] with electrified services inaugurated on 13 April 1959.^[6] Between 1962 and 1992, services on the line were largely operated by a fleet ofClass 309electric multiple units which were specially designed and constructed for the route. The 309s were replaced on the route by newer rolling stock between 1992 and 1994 during theNetwork SouthEast era.

Passenger services have been operated by two different franchises sinceprivatisation of British Rail in 1997:First Great Eastern until 31 March 2004, whenNational Express took over with the company branded asOne until February 2008, at which time it was rebranded asNational Express East Anglia. It is currently operated byAbellio Greater Anglia.

A £104 million engineering project known as the Colchester to Clacton Resignalling Project took place on the line between December 2006 and July 2009.^[7] Life-expired signalling equipment was renewed and a new control system was fitted; 170 modern LED signals were erected and eight manuallevel crossings were replaced by full barrier crossings with security cameras. The line was closed every weekend and on public holidays, with bus replacement services provided.^[8]

There was opposition from the town of Frinton to keep the manual gates. Folklore has it that townspeople used to lock the gates to keep out coach-loads of tourists.^[9]

The line isdouble track except for the branch betweenThorpe-le-Soken andWalton-on-the-Naze which issingle track. It iselectrified at25 kV AC, has aloading gauge of W6 and a line speed limit of between 30 and 75 mph (48–121 km/h). The branch toColchester Town has a maximum speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h).^[1] TheEngineer's Line Reference for the line from Colchester Junction to Clacton is COC, and from Thorpe-le-Soken Junction to Walton-on-the-Naze is TWN.^[10]

Passenger train services are operated byClass 720electric multiple units. The Walton-on-the-Naze to Colchester local services are typically formed of five carriages. The Clacton-on-Sea to London Liverpool Street services are typically formed of ten carriages.

The following table summarises the line's 12 stations, their distance measured fromLondon Liverpool Street, and estimated number of passenger entries/exits in 2018–19:

The typical Monday to Saturday off-peak service on the line is:

• 1 train per hour (tph) between Clacton-on-Sea and London Liverpool Street, calling at Thorpe-le-Soken, Wivenhoe, Hythe, Colchester, Witham, Chelmsford, Ingatestone, Shenfield, Stratford and London Liverpool Street
• 1 tph between Walton-on-the-Naze and Colchester, calling at Frinton-on-Sea, Kirby Cross, Thorpe-le-Soken, Weeley, Great Bentley, Alresford, Wivenhoe, Hythe, Colchester Town and Colchester. This service waits for the Clacton-on-Sea service to pass at Thorpe-le-Soken.
• 1 tph between Colchester and Colchester Town

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• Railway lines in the East of England
• Standard gauge railways in England

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