Great Yarmouth - Reedham to close for six months

[HORNIMANS]

Frankly social services should be called to take Great away from Yarmouth, its abusive to keep using it

Frankly social services should be called to take Great away from Yarmouth, its abusive to keep using it

This past week BERNEY Arms line has had 12 to 20 trains a day this last week according RTT.
When the line is closed after 20//10/18 is going to be used for engineering trains and rolling stock and infastructure trains.[as one long siding] .

 

[GB]

When the line is closed after 20//10/18 is going to be used for engineering trains and rolling stock and infastructure trains.[as one long siding] .

Who told you that?

 

[Tio Terry]

Perhaps they could bring back the old Berney Arms signal box that is now at Mangapps Farm museum.
It was only used in the summer, to increase capacity for the many special trains taking holidaymakers to Great Yarmouth.

No chance of that. It used the Tablet system that was replaced years ago with a tokenless block system when the telegraph pole route between Reedham and Breydon Junction was in need of renewal. The circuits are routed from Reedham to Brundall, then to Great Yarmouth via Acle. There's no through cabling between Reedham and Breydon - and even the junction has gone so two bi-directional lines between what was Breydon Junction and Great Yarmouth.

In my (much) younger days one of the things I had to do was remove tablets from the machine at Reedham and take them to Breydon and put them in to the machine there because there was an imbalance of trains working up when compared to down so more tablets ended up at Reedham and Breydon Junction could have run out so would not be able to run trains to Reedham.

 

[HLE]

Who told you that?

This past week BERNEY Arms line has had 12 to 20 trains a day this last week according RTT.
When the line is closed after 20//10/18 is going to be used for engineering trains and rolling stock and infastructure trains.[as one long siding] .

Either way it’s an interesting idea

 

[LAX54]

Either way it’s an interesting idea

Not sure it was right tho ! 20 ?? half a dozen maybe

 

[sprunt]

If you visit, you'll understand

Frankly social services should be called to take Great away from Yarmouth, its abusive to keep using it

I'd expect more respect for Great Yarmouth on here. Did you not know that it's home to a piece of rail infrastructure that's unique in the UK?

 

[Class 170101]

When the line is closed after 20//10/18 is going to be used for engineering trains and rolling stock and infastructure trains.[as one long siding] .

Who told you that?

Wouldn't surprise me to see Engineering and Infrastructure trains stored there between possessions.

 

[Bedpan]

Slightly off topic here:

Could somebody in Norfolk or Suffolk tell me how Great Yarmouth sometimes has the "Great" dropped off? Also, is this just a local thing, or is this more widespread?

I am aware that there is a Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight.

No different to Great Dunmow or Great Torrington really. In fact you very seldom hear of Torrington being referred to as "Great" nowadays.

 

[VagueShot]

I normally like what you say, but this is utter rubbish.

It was 12 bottles of wine, not 20 pints

I did a few calculations on the Reedham Chord and I seem to remember that,

1. if you ran a Norwich-Yarmouth-Lowestoft-Ipswich service by the new chord, it had a very convenient time for creating train diagrams.

2. One train could shuttle between Lowestoft and Yarmouth all day providing a clockface hourly service.

3. It might provide a viable alternative route, whilst the Trowse bridge is being rebuilt.

 

[LAX54]

I did a few calculations on the Reedham Chord and I seem to remember that,

1. if you ran a Norwich-Yarmouth-Lowestoft-Ipswich service by the new chord, it had a very convenient time for creating train diagrams.

2. One train could shuttle between Lowestoft and Yarmouth all day providing a clockface hourly service.

3. It might provide a viable alternative route, whilst the Trowse bridge is being rebuilt.

Reverse at Reedham, or rebuild the chord from Berney to the Bridge ?

 

[Meerkat]

Why is the Berney Arms Route still open - isn’t it embarrassing to the industry if it’s just because it’s too much hassle to close?
In terms of leisure/tourism I reckon you could make a decent business case that converting it to a cycle route to Yarmouth avoiding the A47 would be far more beneficial.

 

[berneyarms]

Why is the Berney Arms Route still open - isn’t it embarrassing to the industry if it’s just because it’s too much hassle to close?
In terms of leisure/tourism I reckon you could make a decent business case that converting it to a cycle route to Yarmouth avoiding the A47 would be far more beneficial.

I shall respectfully disagree!!

 

[2HAP]

Having Brundall - Yarmouth and Reedham - Yarmouth lines open means that if something drastic happened to one of the lines, Yarmouth can still be served by the other line. Otherwise you end up with a similar situation to Dawlish Warren, which has no alternative when closed, such as it is today.

 

[TheEdge]

Why is the Berney Arms Route still open - isn’t it embarrassing to the industry if it’s just because it’s too much hassle to close?
In terms of leisure/tourism I reckon you could make a decent business case that converting it to a cycle route to Yarmouth avoiding the A47 would be far more beneficial.

Its open because it provides a nice alternate route for services in times of disruption. Only last week did we have problems at Acle which, had the Reedham line still been open several trains could have been diverted rather than being cancelled. It also provides a route for people in and around Reedham, Freethorpe, Cantley and surrounding hamlets a route to Yarmouth, which would otherwise be a car only thing.

I reckon a cycle path would be an appalling idea, if only for the fact its not really close to being an alternate route to the A47.

 

[TurbostarFan]

Greater Anglia aren't serving Berney Arms during the closure, an employee I spoke to recommended a private helicopter if you absolutely must go there. I mentioned the joke about the rail replacement hovercraft to him whilst I was at it.

 

[yorksrob]

Why is the Berney Arms Route still open - isn’t it embarrassing to the industry if it’s just because it’s too much hassle to close?
In terms of leisure/tourism I reckon you could make a decent business case that converting it to a cycle route to Yarmouth avoiding the A47 would be far more beneficial.

It prevents Great Yarmouth from being stuck at the end of a single track bottleneck.

 

[dk1]

Looks like being a whole year that the Berney line is shut unless some sort of shuttle from the Yarmouth end can be initiated.

 

[TurbostarFan]

Looks like being a whole year that the Berney line is shut unless some sort of shuttle from the Yarmouth end can be initiated.

True, maybe a taxi could run there if the landowner will give Greater Anglia permission to run it there?

 

[brick60000]

Looks like being a whole year that the Berney line is shut unless some sort of shuttle from the Yarmouth end can be initiated.

Has there been confirmation that the upgrades are delayed, then?

 

[dk1]

Has there been confirmation that the upgrades are delayed, then?

Nothing official announced yet just lots & lots of internal rumours.

 

[yorksrob]

Ironically, had the rather more useful line from Lowestoft to Yarmouth South Town survived, you could maybe make a case for closing the Berney Arms link by sending additional trains that way, however it didn't and you can't.

 

[dk1]

Ironically, had the rather more useful line from Lowestoft to Yarmouth South Town survived, you could maybe make a case for closing the Berney Arms link by sending additional trains that way, however it didn't and you can't.

Trouble is the South Town route never assisted with the procession of holiday trains from the Midlands & the North on Summer Saturdays. The single track via Acle with a passing loop could never cope. Doubling it would've cost more than closing the Reedham line & at the time you had quite a community living at Berney Arms.

 

[Meerkat]

Has the Acle line always been single track then?
I lazily assumed it was a BR rationalisation!

 

[yorksrob]

Trouble is the South Town route never assisted with the procession of holiday trains from the Midlands & the North on Summer Saturdays. The single track via Acle with a passing loop could never cope. Doubling it would've cost more than closing the Reedham line & at the time you had quite a community living at Berney Arms.

True, there would have needed to be a reversal at Lowestoft - more awkward in locomotive days (not that I would have been advocating closure of the route myself - I can just see how others might have looked at it).

I must admit, I wasn't aware that there was once a noteable population at Berney !

 

[NSEFAN]

Why is the Berney Arms Route still open - isn’t it embarrassing to the industry if it’s just because it’s too much hassle to close?
In terms of leisure/tourism I reckon you could make a decent business case that converting it to a cycle route to Yarmouth avoiding the A47 would be far more beneficial.

During the summer, it is necessary to increase capacity between Norwich and Yarmouth. Trains run fast via Berney Arms, relieving the stoppers via Acle. Closing the line would present a real problem for capacity.

 

[dk1]

Has the Acle line always been single track then?
I lazily assumed it was a BR rationalisation!

Wasn't built until the late 1880s & although built for it it was never double track. There where once signal boxes at Lingwood (no loop) & Breydon Junction and to cope with holiday traffic after the closure of the M&GN a couple of IBH signals where installed at Stracey Arms around half way between Acle & Vauxhall.

 

[Meerkat]

Cheers.
Would extending the Acle loop be better value than upgrading the Berney Arms route?

 

[dk1]

Cheers.
Would extending the Acle loop be better value than upgrading the Berney Arms route?

I have often thought extending it to just short of Lingwood so trains pass on the move would give an even half-hourly service. You would still however have to go through the expensive & complicated closure process for the Berney route & would come up with massive opposition. The new points are all ready for it to reopen at Reedham anyway.

 

[Bald Rick]

Cheers.
Would extending the Acle loop be better value than upgrading the Berney Arms route?

The ‘upgrade’ of the Berney route is limited to replacing a handful of signals with modern equivalents.

 

[TurbostarFan]

Has there been confirmation that the upgrades are delayed, then?

I don't think they are delayed, from what I've been told they will only take 6 months.