Wymondham  | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) | |||||
| General information | |||||
| Location | Wymondham,South Norfolk England | ||||
| Grid reference | TG114009 | ||||
| Managed by | Greater Anglia | ||||
| Platforms | 2 | ||||
| Other information | |||||
| Station code | WMD | ||||
| Classification | DfT category F1 | ||||
| History | |||||
| Opened | 30 July 1845 | ||||
| Passengers | |||||
| 2019/20 |  0.196 million | ||||
| 2020/21 | 56,424 | ||||
| 2021/22 |  0.150 million | ||||
| 2022/23 | 0.196 million | ||||
| 2023/24 | 0.186 million | ||||
| |||||
Wymondham railway station is a stop on theBreckland Line in theEast of England, serving the market town ofWymondham,Norfolk. The line runs betweenCambridge in the west andNorwich in the east. It is situated betweenSpooner Row and Norwich, 113 miles 72 chains (183.3 km) fromLondon Liverpool Street viaEly.
The station is managed byGreater Anglia, which also operates most of the services calling at the station; someEast Midlands Railway services also stop here.
Wymondham is also at a junction with theMid-Norfolk Railway, a heritage route toDereham; those services operate from a separate station,Wymondham Abbey, which is approximately one mile away. Wymondham was also once the junction of abranch line toForncett, viaAshwellthorpe.
In 2017, the station's bistro was described in a BBC article.[1]
The Bill for theNorwich & Brandon Railway (N&BR) receivedRoyal Assent on 10 May 1844. Work started on the line in 1844 and the line and its stations were opened on 30 July 1845. Wymondham station opened with the line and was, when it opened, situated east ofSpooner Row and west ofSpinks Lane. The line ran from Ely toTrowse, in Norwich. The link into Norwich was delayed due to the need to build a bridge over theRiver Wensum that kept the river navigable.
One month before the N&BR opened a Bill authorising the amalgamation of theYarmouth & Norwich Railway with the N&BR came into effect and so Wymondham station became aNorfolk Railway asset.
In November 1845 Spinks Lane station was permanently closed as the NR determined that having two stations in the village was excessive. With the closure of Spinks Lane the next station east of Wymondham becameHethersett.[2]
On 15 February 1847 Wymondham became a junction station with the opening of theWymondham to Wells Branch toDereham andWells-next-the-Sea. The first station on the branch after Wymondham wasKimberley Park, then known simply asKimberley.[disputed –discuss]
AnAct of Parliament on 7 August 1862 authorised the amalgamation of theEastern Counties Railway, theEastern Union Railway and others, which formed theGreat Eastern Railway, which had taken place on 1 July 1862.[3]
19 years after the GER was formed the GER promoted a Bill to build a cut-off line fromForncett viaAshwellthorpe on theGreat Eastern Main Line to the Norwich-Ely line at Wymondham. Work started in 1880 and the line opened on 2 May 1881.[4]
The difficult economic circumstances afterWorld War I led the Government to pass theRailways Act 1921 which led to the creation of theBig Four. The GER amalgamated with several other companies to create theLondon and North Eastern Railway (LNER).[5] Wymondham became an LNER station on 1 January 1923. The line to Forncett closed in 1939.[6]
Onnationalisation in 1948 the station and its services were transferred to theEastern Region of British Railways.[7]
The Wells branch closed to passengers on 6 October 1969,[8] with freight services continuing until 1989; the section of that line between Wymondham and Dereham forms theMid-Norfolk Railway.
Uponprivatisation the station and most of its services were transferred toAnglia Railways on 5 January 1997, with services towards the Midlands were transferred toCentral Trains on 2 March 1997.
On 1 April 2004 the station and its services were transferred toNational Express East Anglia, then known asone. Three years later, on 11 November 2007, theCentral Trains franchise was broken up and services betweenLiverpool andNorwich were transferred toEast Midlands Trains. The station's ticket office reopened in 2005. On 5 February 2012 the station and its services were transferred toAbellio Greater Anglia. On 18 August 2019, all services operated by East Midlands Trains were transferred toEast Midlands Railway, upon the expiry of EMT's franchise.
Until 2009 there was a telegraphpole route still in operation between Wymondham andBrandon. This was removed gradually during the early part of 2009 and was the last section remaining in England and one of the last remaining in the United Kingdom. In 2012 the localsignal box was decommissioned (as indeed were all the boxes on the Breckland Line) and thesemaphore signalling was replaced by lightweight LED signals controlled from Cambridge.
Wymondham is situated betweenSpooner Row and Norwich, 113 miles 72 chains (183.3 km) down-line fromLondon Liverpool Street viaEly. The station is managed by Abellio Greater Anglia, which also operates most of the services calling at the station. SomeEast Midlands Railway services also stop at Wymondham.
Wymondham is also the junction of the Mid-Norfolk Railway, a heritage railway route toDereham, although those services operate from a separate station namedWymondham Abbey which is approximately one mile from Wymondham.Wymondham Junction is the name of a possible additional new station to be built closer to the mainline station.
Services at Wymondham are operated byGreater Anglia andEast Midlands Railway.
The typical service is one train per hour in each direction betweenNorwich andCambridge, operated by Greater Anglia. Most westbound services are extended beyond Cambridge to and fromStansted Airport.[9][10]
The station is also served by a limited East Midlands Railway service of three trains per day in each direction between Norwich andLiverpool Lime Street viaNottingham. On Sundays, East Midlands Railway operate four trains per day towards Norwich only.[9]
| Preceding station |  National Rail | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greater Anglia | ||||
Limited Service | ||||
| Attleborough | East Midlands Railway
| |||
| Historical railways | ||||
| Kimberley Park Line and station closed | British Rail Eastern Region | Terminus | ||
Line and station open | Norfolk Railway | Line open, station closed | ||
| Disused railways | ||||
| Terminus | London and North Eastern Railway | |||
Until 2010 three items ofrolling stock were displayed on a short section of isolated line laid close to the station, originally intended to house acamping coach. These were Drewry 0-4-0 diesel shunter VF D297 DC 2583 of 1956, disguised as aClass 04 tram locomotive, a British Railways tube wagon,[11] and aSECR 25 tonbrake van, formerly used as Stratford crane mess van.[12] The wagons have since been relocated toWhitwell & Reepham railway station, with the locomotive moving to theBressingham Steam Museum.[13]
TheMid-Norfolk Railway has proposed extending that line to an adjacent interchange station.[14] The proposedNorfolk Orbital Railway would see services restored between Wymondham and the Norfolk coast, involving use of the track owned by the Mid-Norfolk Railway.[15]
52°33′53″N1°07′04″E / 52.56484°N 1.11765°E /52.56484; 1.11765