Ipswich to Ely Line

The Ipswich to Ely Line is an important railway line linking East Anglia to the Midlands. There is also a branch line to Cambridge.

The towns served by the route are:
*Ipswich
**connections with Great Eastern Main Line to Colchester and London, and Ipswich-Lowestoft and Ipswich-Felixstowe lines.
*Needham Market
*Stowmarket
**connection with Great Eastern Main Line to Diss and Norwich
*Elmswell
*Thurston
*Bury St Edmunds
*KennettThe line then divides to serve either
*Ely
**connections with Ely-King's Lynn, Ely-Norwich and Ely-Peterborough linesor
*Newmarket
*Dullingham
*Cambridge
**connections with Cambridge-London King's Cross, Cambridge-London Liverpool St and Cambridge-King's Lynn lines

The line shares the route between Ipswich and Stowmarket with the Great Eastern Main Line, which is electrified at 25 kV AC, using overhead wires. The rest of the route is not electrified.

On 22 June 2007, a freight train derailed on the bridge over the River Great Ouse between Ely and Soham leaving the bridge severely damaged and closed to all traffic [cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/6232982.stm|author=BBC News|title=Derailed train moved from track|date=23 June 2007|accessdate=2007-07-10] . The bridge and Ely to Bury St Edmunds section of line opened on 21 December 2007 after 6 months of rail replacement buses operating between Bury St Edmunds, Ely, March, Whittlesea and Peterborough.

Passenger services are operated by National Express East Anglia.

References