Supporting Local Railways

The Axe Falls

The first casualty in the 1960s was the passenger service between Long Melford and Bury St Edmunds, after becoming much reduced in frequency, it was finally closed to passengers on the 10th April 1961.
The Colne Valley Line was the next to be hit, the passenger was withdrawn on the entire length of this line from the 1st January 1962. Freight continued to run along these two lines during this period. Freight facilities were withdrawn from Sturmer station on 25th June 1962.

Railways in the Area (Click for bigger version)

28th January 1963 saw another major change for passengers, all stations on the line apart from Sudbury and Haverhill North became unstaffed halts, with the guard on the train collecting the fares from passengers

March 1963 and British Railways' chairman Dr Beeching who believed that the railway should be run like a business and not a public service, published his report, The Re-Shaping of British Railways. This was a controversial report which suggested a massive closure programme of branch lines and cross country routes, with a total of 6,000 miles of railway to be closed. The government accepted this report and claimed that running buses in place of trains would be more cost effective, however in reality these were unpopular as they took a lot longer than the rail service did.

It had been two years since any closure but on the 13th July 1964 freight facilities were withdrawn from Chappel and Wakes Colne and Welnetham stations.
The final freight service on what is now the Gainsborough line ceased on the 28th December 1964, this was a daily freight service which ran between Sudbury and Bures when needed. Also at this point Cavendish, Bartlow, White Colne, and Yeldham lost their freight facilities.

19th April 1965 saw two line close completely, the freight services were withdrawn from the Colne Valley and Bury Lines, Stoke, Pampisford and Shelford also lost their freight facilities on this day. Bures signal box closely followed and was closed in September of the same year. 1 freight service now existed on the Stour Valley line, calling at all stations which had freight facilities.

Also in this month the inevitable happened, the British Railways Board applied to withdraw the passenger service on the entire line between Marks Tey and Cambridge. After a struggle and over 1000 objections from local residents permission was given to close the section between Sudbury and Shelford, but refused permission to close the original part of the line between Sudbury and Marks Tey on the account of its commuters and the future growth of Sudbury.

Closing North of Sudbury ---->

History

In this section you can find out about the Stour Valley Line, from its opening in 1849 right through the years of its expansion, then decline, then stability under BR which led the way for the investment from the privatised railway in the late 90s and now.

Whatever your interest in Railways, this section should have something for you. If you feel that anything has been missed please get in touch