Great Eastern Main Line
| Great Eastern Main Line |
| Principal stations (from south to north) London Liverpool Street
Gidea Park
Ingatestone
Colchester
|
The Great Eastern Main Line is the British railway line from London Liverpool Street to Ipswich and Norwich. The route also diverges in several places to serve Harwich, Clacton and Southend.
The line is electrified at 25 kV AC, using overhead wires.
The towns served by the route, starting from London, are listed below. Towns in bold are served by fast InterCity services.
- London Liverpool Street
- Stratford
- Maryland
- Forest Gate
- Manor Park
- Ilford
- Seven Kings
- Goodmayes
- Chadwell Heath
- Romford
- change on to the Upminster Branch Line to Upminster
- Gidea Park
- Harold Wood
- Brentwood
- Shenfield
- Line diverges to serve Billericay and Wickford, where the line diverges to serve either Southend-on-Sea, or Southminster via the Crouch Valley Line.
- Ingatestone
- Chelmsford
- Hatfield Peverel
- Witham
- Braintree Branch Line diverges to Braintree
- Kelvedon
- Marks Tey
- Change onto the Sudbury Branch Line to Sudbury
- Colchester
- Line diverges to serve Walton-on-the-Naze and Clacton-on-Sea
- Manningtree
- Mayflower Line diverges to serve Harwich
- Ipswich
- Line diverges to serve Felixstowe Branch Line to Felixstowe, or the East Suffolk Line to Lowestoft
- Needham Market
- Stowmarket
- Line diverges to serve Bury St. Edmunds then Newmarket and Cambridge, or Ely, March and Peterborough
- Diss
- Norwich
- Line diverges to serve either Lowestoft or Great Yarmouth (via the Wherry Line), or Wroxham, Cromer and Sheringham (via the Bittern Line), or Wymondham, Thetford and Ely (via the Breckland Line)
Passenger services on the route were previously operated by First Great Eastern for commuter services south of Ipswich, and Anglia Railways for fast InterCity services beyond Ipswich. On 1 April 2004, these franchises were merged to form the new 'one' franchise. Since January 2005, the line uses 16-year old Class 90 electric locomotives, capable of 110mph, although trains can only go 100 mph due to the outdated infrastructure. This "new" rolling stock was cascaded from the West Coast Main Line after the introduction of the new Pendolino units by Virgin Trains. Before the Great Eastern used 40 year old Class 86 locomotives, which had a top speed of 100 mph.
According to the Managing Director of 'one' (in December 2006), some of the overhead line equipment out as far as Shenfield is of 1940s vintage and needs proper tensioning.
| Main line railways in Great Britain: | |
|---|---|
| High-speed main lines: | Channel Tunnel Rail Link |
| 'Classic' main lines: | Cross-Country Route East Coast Main Line Great Eastern Main Line Great Western Main Line Midland Main Line West Coast Main Line |
