56-697: The Sunshine Coast Line is the current marketing name of what originally was the Tendring Hundred Railway Line , a branch off the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England . It links Colchester to the seaside resorts of Clacton-on-Sea and, via a branch, Walton-on-the-Naze . The line is part of the Network Rail Strategic Route 7 , SRS 07.08, and is classified as a London & South East commuter line. Passenger services on
112-405: A city or town not located on a main line. Branch lines may also connect two or more main lines. An industrial spur is a type of secondary track used by railroads to allow customers at a location to load and unload railcars without interfering with other railroad operations. Industrial spurs can vary greatly in length and railcar capacity depending on the requirements of the customer the spur
168-510: A common sight along railroads in industrial and rural cities alike. As automobile and roadway technology improved throughout the early and mid-20th century, most low volume industry spurs were abandoned in favor of the greater flexibility and economic savings of trucking. Today, railroads remain the most economical way to ship large quantities of material, a fact that is reflected in industrial spurs. Most modern day spurs serve very large industries that require hundreds, if not thousands, of carloads
224-464: A mainline, they tend to have lower maintenance and signaling (train control) standards. Before the rise of the long-distance trucking in the early 1930s, railroads were the primary means of transportation around the world. Industries of the era were commonly built along railroad lines specifically to allow for easy access to shipping. Short (under a mile, oftentimes only several hundred yards) industrial spurs with very small (under ten car) capacities were
280-535: A minimum weekday fare of £13). Holders of annual season tickets for journeys within the Network area, including on London Underground, are issued with a "Gold Card" which gives them similar privileges to the Network Railcard. NSE was broken down into various sub-divisions. London Victoria-East Grinstead/Uckfield/Sutton/Epsom Downs/Dorking/Horsham Soon after conception, Network SouthEast started to modernise parts of
336-786: A section of the West Rail line . Discontinued services include the Sha Tau Kok Railway and the Wo Hop Shek Branch . A spur line to Siu Sai Wan has been proposed. Delhi On the Delhi Metro , the Blue Line has a Branch Line with 8 Stations, linking Yamuna Bank to Ghaziabad via Anand Vihar ISBT and terminating at Vaishali. The first section of the Branch opened on 8 January 2010 with Anand Vihar as its terminal with six stations. It
392-554: A self-contained franchise, it was not incorporated with the rest of NSE services from Waterloo into the South West Trains operation, and was instead transferred to London Underground . Although NSE ceased to exist in 1994, its logos, livery and signage would linger well into the following decades. Southeastern , Southern and First Capital Connect trains continued to run in NSE livery until as late as 2007. Underground stations on
448-523: A subsidy for grain transport, and instead allowed railways to absorb branch line subsidies freely without making effort to improve the profitability of the lines. The term "grain-dependent branch lines" began being used as early as 1978 to refer to the special case of these branch lines in agricultural areas whose viability depended on the economics of grain transport. The Western Grain Transportation Act of 1983 addressed this case specifically, but
504-461: A year. There is an international branch line between Italy and Vatican: the 300-metre Vatican Railway , connecting from the Pisa-Rome railway mainline at Roma San Pietro railway station , to Vatican City station . Many British railway branch lines were closed as a result of the " Beeching cuts " in the 1960s, although some have been re-opened as heritage railways . The smallest branch line that
560-697: Is single track . It is electrified at 25 kV AC , has a loading gauge of W6 and a line speed limit of between 30 and 75 mph (48–121 km/h). The branch to Colchester Town has a maximum speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h). The Engineer's Line Reference for the line from Colchester Junction to Clacton is COC, and from Thorpe-le-Soken Junction to Walton-on-the-Naze is TWN. Passenger train services are operated by Class 720 electric multiple units . The Walton-on-the-Naze to Colchester local services are typically formed of five carriages. The Clacton-on-Sea to London Liverpool Street services are typically formed of ten carriages. The following table summarises
616-465: Is serving. In heavily industrialized areas, it is not uncommon for one industrial spur to have multiple sidings to several different customers. Typically, spurs are serviced by local trains responsible for collecting small numbers of railcars and delivering them to a larger yard, where these railcars are sorted and dispatched in larger trains with other cars destined to similar locations. Because industrial spurs generally have less capacity and traffic than
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#1732851915648672-552: Is still in operation in the UK is the Stourbridge Town Branch Line from Stourbridge Junction going to Stourbridge Town . Operating on a single track, the journey is 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometres) long and the train takes around two and a half minutes to complete its journey. In North America, little-used branch lines are often sold by large railroads to become new common carrier short-line railroads of their own. Throughout
728-529: The Bay of Plenty Region , lines were built inland to provide rail access to large logging operations. Today, many of the branch lines have been closed, including almost all of the general-purpose country lines. Those that remain serve ports or industries far from main lines such as coal mines, logging operations, large dairying factories, and steelworks . In Auckland and Wellington , two branch lines in each city exist solely for commuter passenger trains. For more, see
784-717: The Gladstone Branch in New Jersey; as well as the New Canaan Branch , Danbury Branch , and Waterbury Branch in Connecticut . The Long Island Rail Road also refers to its services as "branches". In Chile, there are a lot of branch lines on its main line, of only a few remain operational. Most only operating in turistic services (like the Antilhue-Valdivia branch line), others have been taken over by other railways (like
840-1013: The Grand Trunk , Canadian National , or Canadian Pacific ) which would acquire formerly independent short line railways for use as branch lines, with the short line often continuing to exist as a subsidiary. For example, when the Canadian Pacific acquired the Algoma Eastern Railway (a short line) in 1930, it soon after abandoned much of the Algoma Eastern mainline, but retained sections close to Algoma Eastern–Canadian Pacific junctions as short branch lines or spurs. The National Transportation Act of 1967 provided government subsidies for branch lines. Western railway development in Canada worked in concert with land settlement and cultivation, as pioneers were settled near railway lines, often on land
896-761: The North South Line between Jurong East and Choa Chu Kang stations was operated as a separate line, known as the Branch line . It was merged into the North–South Line with the opening of the Woodlands Extension in 1996. The future Jurong Region Line and Cross Island Line will also have branch lines. New Zealand once had a very extensive network of branch lines, especially in the South Island regions of Canterbury , Otago , and Southland . Many were built in
952-672: The South Tseung Kwan O Spur Line to LOHAS Park station , opened in 2009. Earlier, a spur line was built in 1985 on the East Rail line to serve Racecourse station , bypassing Fo Tan station . Also, the Tsim Sha Tsui Extension [ yue ] was built in 2004 on the East Rail line to serve East Tsim Sha Tsui station . However, after the Kowloon Southern Link was completed in 2009, this spur line turns into
1008-469: The list of New Zealand railway lines . Network SouthEast Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England , although the network went as far west as Exeter and also covered the inner East of England . Before 1986,
1064-399: The 1960s, these lines became seriously run down with a lack of investment and a reduction of services. By the late 1980s, the 25-year-old Class 115s needed replacement; the lines had low speed limits and were still controlled by semaphore signalling from the early 1900s; and Marylebone was served only by infrequent local trains to and from High Wycombe and Aylesbury. Numerous plans for
1120-736: The GER. The GER negotiated to buy both the Tendring Hundred Railway and the Clacton-on-Sea Railway, and they became part of the GER on 1 July 1883. The Wivenhoe & Brightlingsea company was absorbed by the GER on 9 June 1893. In 1923 the line (along with the rest of the GER) became part of the London and North Eastern Railway . A section of the line between Frinton and Walton-on-Naze had to be re-sited in 1929 due to fears of coastal erosion on
1176-514: The London & South Eastern sector took over responsibility for passenger services in the south-east of England, working with the existing BR business units of Regions and Functions to deliver the overall service. Day-to-day operation, staffing and timetabling continued to be delivered by the Regions – and the sector came into existence with barely thirty staff based at Waterloo. On 10 June 1986, L&SE
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#17328519156481232-567: The Moorgate branch of the Great Northern route ( Highbury & Islington , Essex Road , Old Street and Moorgate ) used to have the NSE era colour schemes after going through 3 privatised operators ( WAGN , First Capital Connect and Great Northern ) until late-2018. NSE signage and logos can be found across the Island Line, Isle of Wight , with particularly well-maintained examples existing at
1288-468: The Ryde Pier Head and Shanklin ticket offices. Kew Gardens station in London still has the NSE logo on a plaque in the booking hall marking the station's reopening by Michael Portillo in 1989. Marylebone station , also in London, was refurbished by NSE in the 1980s and still has the company's logo in the form of three parallelograms in relief over the main entrance. The last train still in NSE livery
1344-666: The San Rosendo-Talcahuano branch line, which has been taken over by Biotrén and the Laja-Talcahuano train service) however, there is one branch line that still remains as fully operative. The Talca-Constitución branch line, which uses trains with bus motors. Two extensions to the MTR rapid transit network were built as branches of existing lines: the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line to Lok Ma Chau station , which opened in 2007; and
1400-599: The U.S. state of New Jersey . The line is a short branch of the Northeast Corridor Line , running from Princeton Junction northwest to Princeton with no intermediate stops. Also known as the "Dinky Line", at 2.9 mi (4.7 km) it is the shortest scheduled commuter rail line in the United States. The run takes 4 minutes, 47 seconds. Other than the Princeton Line, other surviving branch lines include
1456-469: The United States and Canada, branch lines link smaller towns too distant from the main line to be served efficiently, or to serve a certain industrial site such as a power station either because of a location away from the main line or to reduce congestion. They were typically built to lower standards, using lighter rail and shallow roadbeds when compared to main lines. Much of Canada's branch line history relates to large rail transport conglomerates (such as
1512-601: The company branded as One until February 2008, at which time it was rebranded as National Express East Anglia . It is currently operated by Abellio Greater Anglia . A £104 million engineering project known as the Colchester to Clacton Resignalling Project took place on the line between December 2006 and July 2009. Life-expired signalling equipment was renewed and a new control system was fitted; 170 modern LED signals were erected and eight manual level crossings were replaced by full barrier crossings with security cameras. The line
1568-510: The extra trains and passengers. What did happen was total route modernisation . This was an ambitious plan to bring the lines into the modern era of rail travel. Class 115s were replaced by new Class 165s . Semaphore signals were replaced by standard colour light signals and ATP was fitted on the line and trains. Speed limits were increased to 75 mph (only 75 due to running on London Underground track between Harrow and Amersham ), all remaining fast loops at stations were removed and
1624-552: The first president of the Canadian National Railway , said that although most branch lines cannot pay for themselves, they are even essential to make main lines pay. In the United States, abandonment of unproductive branch lines was a byproduct of deregulation of the rail industry through the Staggers Act . The Princeton Branch is a commuter rail line and service owned and operated by New Jersey Transit (NJT) in
1680-420: The individual sectors becoming directly responsible for all operations other than a few core long-term planning and standards functions. Network SouthEast thus went from a business unit of around 300 staff to a major business operation with 38,000 staff and a £4.7 billion asset value – large enough to be ranked as the 15th-biggest business in the UK. Network SouthEast, like each other sector,
1736-534: The late 19th century to open up inland regions for farming and other economic activities. The branches in the South Island regions were often general-purpose lines that carried predominantly agricultural traffic, but lines elsewhere were often built to serve a specific resource: on the West Coast , an extensive network of branch lines was built in rugged terrain to serve coal mines, while in the central North Island and
Sunshine Coast Line - Misplaced Pages Continue
1792-504: The line are currently operated by Greater Anglia . Trains for Clacton-on-Sea usually originate at London Liverpool Street , while those for Walton-on-the-Naze typically start at Colchester (or Thorpe-le-Soken on Sundays). There are, however, limited morning and evening peak-time services in each direction between Walton-on-the-Naze and Liverpool Street. The Great Eastern Main Line out of Shoreditch in London reached Colchester by 1843 and
1848-422: The line between Bicester North and Aynho Junction was singled. Stations were refurbished and even reconstructed (£10 million spent on stations alone), and signal boxes and the freight depots/sidings were demolished. Regular services to Banbury , and a few specials to Birmingham were introduced and a new maintenance depot was built at Aylesbury. This was a massive undertaking and work began in 1988 and by 1992,
1904-516: The line were largely operated by a fleet of Class 309 electric multiple units which were specially designed and constructed for the route. The 309s were replaced on the route by newer rolling stock between 1992 and 1994 during the Network SouthEast era. Passenger services have been operated by two different franchises since privatisation of British Rail in 1997: First Great Eastern until 31 March 2004, when National Express took over with
1960-451: The line's 12 stations, their distance measured from London Liverpool Street , and estimated number of passenger entries/exits in 2018–19: The typical Monday to Saturday off-peak service on the line is: Branch line A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line . A very short branch line may be called a spur line . Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or
2016-561: The line, returning the line to the state it was before the Beeching Axe. Network SouthEast started a programme of replacing old rolling stock up to privatisation. On 1 April 1994, as part of the privatisation of British Rail, Network SouthEast was divided up into train operating units which would later become passenger franchises: One element of NSE that remained in public ownership was the Waterloo & City Line; too small to be operated as
2072-483: The lines were proposed. One serious plan was to close the line between Marylebone and South Ruislip / Harrow-on-the-Hill , and convert Marylebone into a coach station. Metropolitan line trains would be extended to Aylesbury and BR services from Aylesbury would be routed to London Paddington via High Wycombe . Also the line north of Princes Risborough would close. However, this did not happen as Baker Street and London Paddington would not have been able to cope with
2128-520: The network, which had become run down after years of under-investment. The most extreme example was the Chiltern Lines. The Chiltern Line ran on two railway lines ( Chiltern Main Line and London to Aylesbury Line ) from London Marylebone to Aylesbury and Banbury . These lines were former GWR and GCR intercity lines to Wolverhampton and Nottingham respectively. After the Beeching Axe in
2184-605: The original alignment. Following nationalisation on 1 January 1948, the line became part of the Eastern Region of British Railways . Electrification of the line commenced in the 1950s and by January 1959 the line was electrified as far as Great Bentley . The first trial train to run on the newly electrified section departed Colchester on 18 January 1959. The line was the first in the country to be electrified at 25 kV AC , using overhead wires, with electrified services inaugurated on 13 April 1959. Between 1962 and 1992, services on
2240-556: The railways had owned. However, by the mid-20th century, railways began neglecting lines in western agricultural regions. This was historically driven by factors such as the Crow Rate , which regulated the price railways could charge for shipping grain. Railways had little incentive to invest in rural Prairie branch lines, but were legally unable to abandon them under the National Transportation Act , which also did not provide
2296-456: The route had been completely modernised, demand for the service had grown considerably and the route had become profitable. Since modernisation the route has seen further improvements (see Chiltern Main Line ). Electrification was considered but was deemed to be too expensive as the Thames Line sector would then have to be electrified as well. Another reason electrification did not take place
Sunshine Coast Line - Misplaced Pages Continue
2352-530: The sector was originally known as London & South Eastern . During the privatisation of British Rail , it was gradually divided into a number of franchises. Before the sectorisation of British Rail (BR) in 1982 the system was split into largely autonomous regional operations: those operating around London were the London Midland Region , Southern Region , Western Region , and Eastern Region. Sectorisation of BR changed this setup by organising by
2408-576: The time the Wivenhoe extension opened the line had been taken over by the Great Eastern Railway (GER) who provided the rolling-stock in return for 50% of takings. The route was extended to Weeley on 8 January 1866, to Kirby Cross on 28 July 1866, and on to the terminus at Walton-on-Naze on 17 May 1867. In the meantime, a short branch to a new station called St. Botolph's , located more centrally in Colchester, opened on 1 March 1866. This station
2464-592: The trademark of Network SouthEast's brandname, logo and typeface. The group wanted to obtain the trademark to help Network SouthEast's name and legacy live on following its demise and educate about NSE. In 2017, the Railway Heritage Trust collaborated with train operator Govia Thameslink Railway to recreate the Network SouthEast image at Downham Market station as a commemorative measure. The station has been equipped with paintwork and signage that mimic
2520-519: The traffic type: commuter services in the south-east of England, long-distance intercity services, local services in the UK regions, parcels and freight. The aim was to introduce greater budgetary efficiency and managerial accountability by building a more market-focused and responsive business, rather than privatising BR completely. It was expected that the London and South East sector would cover most of its operating costs from revenues, in contrast to heavily subsidised rural services. Upon sectorisation,
2576-420: Was closed every weekend and on public holidays, with bus replacement services provided. There was opposition from the town of Frinton to keep the manual gates, which were reportedly removed "under cover of darkness". Folklore has it that townspeople used to lock the gates to keep out coach-loads of tourists. The line is double track except for the branch between Thorpe-le-Soken and Walton-on-the-Naze which
2632-414: Was disbanded with its operations transferred to train operating units ready for privatisation . Although NSE ceased to exist in 1994, the grouping of services that it defined before privatisation remain grouped by the Network Railcard, which can be bought for £30 and which offers a 34% discount for adults and 60% discount for accompanying children after 10:00 on weekdays and all day at weekends (subject to
2688-491: Was extended to Ipswich in 1846. The first short section of this branch line was built by the Colchester, Stour Valley, Sudbury & Halstead Railway to the port of Hythe , and opened for freight traffic on 31 March 1847. In 1859 the Tendring Hundred Railway Company was formed to extend the line from Hythe to Wivenhoe , which opened on 8 May 1863 for both passenger and goods services from Colchester. By
2744-496: Was further extended to Vaishali in 2011. The line is planned to be extended from Vaishali to Mohan Nagar via Sahibabad Station to link with the main line. The East West Line of the MRT system in Singapore has a two-station branch to Changi Airport . The first station, Expo , opened in 2001. It was extended to Changi Airport station the next year. From 1990 to 1996, the section of
2800-598: Was given primary responsibility for various assets (rolling stock, tracks, stations), and control resided with the primary user. Other sectors could negotiate access rights and rent facilities, using their own resources. NSE was able to exert much greater control and accountability over both its operating budget and service quality than BR could under its Regions. Relations were generally good between NSE and other sectors, although operating pressures sometimes forced staff to use equipment and assets belonging to other sectors to meet immediate needs. On 1 April 1994, Network SouthEast
2856-897: Was marked by the first 'Network Day', on 21 June 1986. For £3 passengers could travel anywhere within the Network. 200 extra services were provided and over 200,000 passengers took advantage of the offer. There was a second Network Day on 13 September, and others in subsequent years, though passengers for these required a Network Card to qualify. Although NSE did not originally own or maintain infrastructure, it exercised control over almost all carrier core functions. NSE set its own goals and service standards in consultation with BR, and created its own management structure and oversight. BR allowed NSE to decide about scheduling, marketing, infrastructure enhancements, and rolling stock specifications on NSE-assigned lines and services. In April 1990, British Rail Chairman Bob Reid announced that sectorisation would be made complete, with regions disbanded by 1991–92 and
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#17328519156482912-456: Was relaunched as Network SouthEast, along with a new red, white and blue livery. The relaunch was intended to be more than a superficial rebranding and was underpinned by considerable investment in the presentation of stations and trains, as well as efforts to improve service standards. This approach was largely brought about by a new director, Chris Green , who had presided over similar transformation and rebranding of ScotRail . The relaunch
2968-483: Was renamed Colchester Town on 8 July 1991 by British Rail . A second company, the Wivenhoe & Brightlingsea Railway, had been incorporated in 1861 to build a line from Wivenhoe to Brightlingsea , which opened on 17 April 1866. There were also proposals to build a line to Clacton as early as 1866, but nothing came of them until 1877, when the Clacton-on-Sea Railway was incorporated. The connection from Thorpe-le-Soken to Clacton opened on 4 July 1882, also operated by
3024-488: Was repealed in 1994 in the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement and budget-balancing initiatives in favour of a one-time payout by the federal government directly to farmers, to arrange transport of grain themselves. From the mid-1970s to the late 2010s, more than 9,300 kilometres (5,800 mi) of Prairie branch lines were abandoned or had a discontinuance of service. David Blyth Hanna ,
3080-555: Was that some part of the line ran on London Underground tracks, which were electrified as 4-rail 660 V DC, while British Rail preferred 25 kV AC overhead traction for lines north of London. Success of the modernisation implemented by NSE has made it possible for the Chiltern Main Line to compete with the West Coast Main Line between London and Birmingham, and there are now plans to increase speeds and quadruple sections of
3136-508: Was withdrawn on 15 September 2007 when 465193 , was sent for revinyling. In 2002, the Network SouthEast Railway Society was formed to keep the memories of NSE alive by re-promoting through merchandise that they make to raise money for their 4-CIG EMU No.1753 which was named 'Chris Green' at the NSE 30 event at Finmere, Oxfordshire by the ex-NSE boss himself. On 28 August 2015, the Network SouthEast Railway Society obtained
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