Watlington railway station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Watlington

Location

Place

Watlington

Local authority

King's Lynn and West Norfolk

Operations

Station code

WTG

Managed by

First Capital Connect

Platforms in use

Live departures and station information from National Rail

Annual Passenger Usage

2004/05 **

0.085 million

History

Key dates

Opened 1862

National Rail - UK railway stations

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T
U V W X Y Z

Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Watlington (source)

* 2002/03 Disclaimer
** 2004/05 Disclaimer

UK Rail Portal

For the closed railway station of the same name in Oxfordshire, see Watlington railway station, Oxfordshire

Watlington railway station serves the village of Watlington in Norfolk, England. Watlington station lies on the Fen Line from Cambridge to King's Lynn, which is electrified at 25 kV AC overhead.

The station is mentioned by author Lisa St Aubin de Teran in her autobiography as being the station closest to her Norfolk home - she reminisced about conversations with the train guard who was checking tickets, where she requested that the train stop at the station (for many years, most trains only called at the station if a passenger requested it, rather than it being a regular timetabled stop).

1 History
2 Current services
3 Note
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Watlington station, originally part of the East Anglian Railway, became part of the Great Eastern Railway in 1862, and was renamed Magdalen Road in 1875 (a name which, perhaps, better reflects its lonely rural location in the middle of the flatlands of the East Anglian Fens). From 1848 onwards, Watlington was a junction, as the line once branched off from there to Wisbech. The branch, along with Magdalen Road station, was closed in 1969 in the "Beeching cuts" (perhaps falsely so-called, for Beeching's report never recommended its closure).

Due to local efforts, however, Magdalen Road station was re-opened in 1975, and in 1989 returned to its original title of Watlington. The signal box at the station, in active use today, still bears a Network SouthEast sign with its post-1875 name. The station buildings on the southbound side were not returned to their former use (now converted into housing), and a new southbound platform was built on the opposite side of Station Road, behind the signal box. The waiting room on the northbound platform has been demolished, though the original platform still survives as part of an extended platform.

[edit] Current services

The station is served by First Capital Connect as part of their service from London King's Cross to King's Lynn. The services run non-stop between London and Cambridge as part of the half-hourly "Cambridge Cruiser" service. One train per hour then continues beyond Cambridge, stopping at all stations on the Fen Line to King's Lynn. These services now normally use former-British Rail Class 365 electrical multiple units, although for some years less-comfortable Class 317 units were used (these units are still used on services operated by One to London Liverpool Street).

Before electrification, services were normally operated by InterCity (latterly Network SouthEast) locomotive-hauled trains, normally pulling British Rail Mark 2b coaches (many services featured restaurant cars). The locomotives were usually Class 37 diesel-electrics, sometimes Class 31s or 47s. Off-peak links were often provided by Metro-Cammell diesel multiple units.