Felixstowe Branch Line

The Felixstowe Branch Line is a railway line from Ipswich to Felixstowe in Suffolk.

The towns and villages on the line are listed below.
*Ipswich
*Westerfield
**Line diverges to Lowestoft
*Derby Road (Ipswich)
*Trimley
**Freight-only line diverges to Port of Felixstowe
*Felixstowe

The line follows the East Suffolk Line from Ipswich to Westerfield, and then diverges to the south.

Passenger services are operated by National Express East Anglia, who replaced the previous franchise Anglia Railways on April 1st 2004. The line is extensively used by freight trains to the Port of Felixstowe, operated by EWS, Freightliner and FirstGBRf.

From when the railway line diverges at Westerfield, the line is single track to Felixstowe. However, there is a double track section at Derby Road, long enough to allow two freight trains to pass each other. There are two junctions: one at Trimley station, where the diverging route to Felixstowe Docks parallels the line through a disused platform at Trimley before a sharp turn to the right towards the docks; the other at Felixstowe just under the Maidstone Road bridge, where the line diverges: the left line going a short distance to Felixstowe Station and the right line going along the old Felixstowe Beach Station branch to Felixstowe docks.

The line has two disused stations, Orwell railway station and Felixstowe Beach railway station.

The line is not electrified.

The line is due to be upgraded as part of the Port of Felixstowe reconfiguration of Landguard terminal, with the line due to be dualled for a further 8km to a point just south of the Suffolk Showground [cite web|url=http://www.portoffelixstowe.co.uk/publications/documents/RailAccess.pdf|title=Felixstowe South Reconfiguration|accessdate=2007-05-21]

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The railway is completely track circuited with colour-light signals and is controlled from Colchester PSB. Multiple traffic can use the same section at the same time and freight trains regularly follow behind passenger services.

References