The first railway proposed for the small coastal town of
Felixstowe was the
Ipswich and Felixstowe Railway in 1865, to run from the GER
station at Westerfield to Hog Lane in Felixstowe. Tramways were authorised by the '
, and the '. Together, they were proposed from Ipswich station to Landguard Common (near the mouth of the
River Orwell) and Fagborough Cliff where it would connect with the ferry to
Harwich. One of the tramways' promoters,
Colonel George Tomline, suggested instead that a proper railway should be built instead, running from Westerfield to a pier to be constructed at Landguard Common that had been authorised by the
Felixstowe Pier Order 1873. The '
(38 & 39 Vict. c. cxlv) was granted for this scheme on 19 July 1875 under the name of the Felixstowe Railway and Pier Company. Two years later the name was changed to the Felixstowe Railway and Dock Company when the ' (
42 & 43 Vict. c. clxxvii) authorised the construction of a dock at Languard Common close to the pier with an access channel and railway lines. The railway was opened on 1 May 1877. Starting from
Westerfield railway station, it served stations at
Derby Road (Ipswich), (built primarily to serve the home of Colonel Tomline near
Nacton),
Felixstowe (not today's station, but one near the pier at Landguard Common). Tomline was criticised in the
Suffolk Chronicle for building the stations where he "thinks people ought to be, rather than where people actually live".
Great Eastern Railway (1879–1922) On 1 September 1879 the
Great Eastern Railway (GER) took over operation of the line, although the Felixstowe company retained ownership until 5 July 1887 when under the '''''' (
50 & 51 Vict. c. lxvii) it sold the railway to the GER while retaining the dock (which had opened for traffic in April 1886) and associated railway lines, changing its name by the act to the
Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company to reflect its main interests. In May 1887 another act of Parliament, the
Felixstowe and Bawdsey Ferry Railway Act 1887 (
50 & 51 Vict. c. xxvi), was granted for a line from Felixstowe to Felixstowe Ferry but this was never built and the scheme was abandoned in 1892 due to lack of capital. On 13 July 1891 Empress
Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, wife of
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and a relative of
Queen Victoria, arrived on a train at Felixstowe Beach station. She and five of her children stayed in the town on holiday until 6 August. This gave the town a boost as a holiday resort. Although the population of the town in 1891 was only 3,507 Traffic increased to such a degree that in August 1912 powers were obtained by the railway company to double the line from Westerfield to Felixstowe Town. The railway had been built wide enough for this back in 1877 except for the Spring Road Viaduct in Ipswich which would need to be rebuilt. This work did not happen as
World War I broke out. Felixstowe was a prohibited area and the local population was encouraged to leave the area, hotels were converted into military hospitals, and additional sidings were laid in the docks to handle the increased freight traffic.
London and North Eastern Railway (1923–1947) In 1923 the Great Eastern Railway became a part of the new
London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). Passenger traffic regained its pre-war volumes; Derby Road station being especially popular as it connected with the Ipswich tram system and many extra trains started there. The LNER received new powers in the
London and North Eastern Railway Act 1938 (
1 & 2 Geo. 6. liii) to double the line from Westerfield to Felixstowe Town and enlarge the station there. While an additional platform was provided at Felixstowe in 1939, the second track along the branch again failed to materialise due to the outbreak of
World War II. Fewer through trains were run from London than before World War I, but from 1929 until 1939 there was a regular 'Eastern Belle'
Pullman service. This train had been operating as the 'Clacton Pullman' but in 1929 was rescheduled to run from London to different LNER resorts in
East Anglia resorts each weekday, which resulted in it coming to Felixstowe once a fortnight. It left Liverpool Street at 11:00, took less than two hours to reach Felixstowe, and returned at 19:35. The fare was 5 shillings. Some of the crew was at one point billeted in the waiting room at Orwell, as well as various converted rail vehicles. A gun shed was built in 1941 and still exists at Levington and the top part of the building used to slide back to allow the gun to fire. Passenger trains were withdrawn from Felixstowe Pier; it was reopened on 3 June 1946.
British Railways (1948–1997) In 1948 the LNER became the
Eastern Region of British Railways. The docks were badly silted after the war and were damaged further by the
North Sea flood on 1 February 1953. Passenger trains to Felixstowe Pier had been withdrawn completely from 2 July 1951. Public freight facilities had been withdrawn from Westerfield and Trimley on 13 July 1964, and from both stations at Felixstowe on 5 December 1966. Freight traffic to Derby Road continued into the 1980s serving a domestic coal depot and a scrap yard. Rail traffic to Cranes finished in mid-1970s and to Ransome, Sims and Jefferies in 1980. The station buildings at Felixstowe were converted to shops after the railway stopped using them. They were
listed Grade II on 23 December 1980. In 1981 the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company obtained the '''''' (c. vi) to allow it to construct of new railways. The first part to come into use was an extension of the existing dock lines to a new Northern Freightliner Terminal. Work on the remainder started in March 1986. This saw the line extended to Trimley station. When it opened on 16 February 1987 it allowed trains to reach the new terminal without crossing a series of
level crossings in the dock area and also the public level crossing at Felixstowe Beach. The line to Trimley involved heavy earthworks and cost £2,000,000 but the company received a 40% grant under section 8 of the
Railways Act 1974 as it would reduce road traffic.
Post-privatisation In the 1990s British Rail was privatised and the ownership of the line passed to
Railtrack. When that company was wound up it was transferred to
Network Rail. Passenger services were franchised, first to
Anglia Railways on 5 January 1997, then to One on 1 April 2004 (which was rebranded
National Express East Anglia on 22 February 2008), and then to
Abellio Greater Anglia on 5 February 2012. Railtrack initiated an upgrading of the Felixstowe branch line in 1997, the first time that it had done this speculatively in anticipation of it receiving increased revenue from freight train operators. The passing loop at Derby Road was extended so that two container trains could pass, the signalling replaced and transferred to the control of Power Signalling Box, and the line speed was increased. The aim was to allow an hourly passenger train service to operate while accommodating more freight trains. The line as far as Felixstowe Beach was maintained to passenger standard in case a service to there is resumed in the future. Electrification was again considered as most Freightliner trains were by then being worked by electric locomotives to Ipswich where they had to be changed to diesel for the short trip to Felixstowe, but the cost of this could not be justified. The work cost £8 million and was completed by June 1999. In 2008 the Secretary of State for Transport approved the '''''' (
SI 2008/2512). This empowered the rebuilding of Ipswich Yard and the laying of a second track for from Trimley westwards to Levington. During the
2012 Summer Olympics Freightliner diverted ten Felixstowe trains each day through either Cambridge or Ely to free up capacity at
Stratford which was next to the main venue for the games. In 2011
Network Rail submitted plans for a new double track curve at Ipswich to be known as the Bacon Factory Curve. This avoided the necessity of any train running between Felixstowe and
the Ely Line having to reverse in Upper Yard. Work started early in 2013 and was completed in March 2014 with the first train running on 24 March 2014 This is one of a number of
enhancements between Felixstowe and Nuneaton which are designed to allow trains to reach the
West Coast Main Line without travelling over congested lines in the London area. In October 2017 final approval was given for a £60.4m project which includes doubling between Trimley station and Grimston Lane foot crossing. Work started on 7 April 2018 and was predicted to end in Autumn 2019. However, the work was completed by May 2019 and saw changes to the infrastructure at Trimley station where trains from the Felixstowe direction could now access the disused platform road and the establishment of a double track as far as a new junction called Gun Lane Junction just over a mile west of Trimley station. Both lines can be worked bi-directionally and with the increase in freight traffic that resulted from the additional capacity a number of level crossings were either abolished or upgraded to improve safety. New
Class 755 trains from Swiss manufacturer
Stadler Rail were introduced to the line on 19 November 2019.
Accidents On 1 September 1900, there was a collision at Felixstowe station. An up passenger train started off for Ipswich despite the signal not being set to permit this move. There was a freight train arriving at the time and the two trains collided at relatively low speed resulting in 12 injuries. The investigation was undertaken by Lt Colonel
P. G. von Donop for the
Board of Trade. After interviewing all the staff involved (train crew, signalman and station master) concluded that the fault lay with the driver (which he readily admitted) who had passed the signal at danger. The locomotives involved were GER 474 (a
GER Class T19) on the goods train and 791 (a
GER Class M15) on the passenger train. A postcard showing the post-accident scene was produced. On 25 September 1900, at 08:45,
GER Class Y14 0-6-0 locomotive 522, which was then just a year old, stopped at a signal on the Ipswich side of the
level crossing at Westerfield awaiting a route to the Felixstowe branch. Shortly afterwards the boiler exploded killing driver John Barnard and his fireman William Macdonald, both of whom were based at
Ipswich engine shed. The boiler was thrown over the level crossing and ended up on the down
platform. The locomotive was reported to have had a history of boiler problems although in the official report the Boiler Foreman at Ipswich was blamed. The victims were buried in Ipswich cemetery and both their gravestones have a likeness of a Y14 locomotive carved onto them. On 19 July 1933, a signalling error caused a locomotive to run back into a rake of carriages after it had uncoupled from them. 13 people were injured. ==Signalling==