Spooner Row railway station

Spooner Row
Location
Place	Spooner Row
Local authority	South Norfolk
Coordinates	52°32′06″N 1°05′10″E / 52.5351°N 1.0860°ECoordinates: 52°32′06″N 1°05′10″E / 52.5351°N 1.0860°E
Grid reference	TM094975
Operations
Station code	SPN
Managed by	Abellio Greater Anglia
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11	640
2011/12	338
2012/13	264
2013/14	388
2014/15	490
History
30 July 1845	Opened
13 July 1964	Closed to freight
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Spooner Row from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Spooner Row railway station is on the Breckland Line in the east of England, serving the small village of Spooner Row, Norfolk. The line runs between Cambridge in the west and Norwich in the east.

Spooner Row is situated between Attleborough and Wymondham, 111 miles 27 chains (179.2 km) down-line from London Liverpool Street via Ely. The station is managed by Abellio Greater Anglia, which also operates all of the services calling at the station.

History

The Bill for the Norwich & Brandon Railway (N&BR) received Royal Assent on 10 May 1844. The line was to link with an Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) project of a line from Newport in Essex to Brandon in Norfolk. Once complete the line would enable trains to travel from Norwich to London. Work started on the line in 1844. The line was to link with an Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) project of a line from Newport in Essex to Brandon in Norfolk. Once complete the line would enable trains to travel from Norwich to London. The line and its stations were opened on 30 July 1845. Spooner Row station opened with the line and was, as now, situated east of Attleborough station and west of Wymondham station. The line ran from Ely to Trowse, in Norwich. The link into Norwich was delayed due to the need to build a bridge over the River Wensum that kept the river navigable.

One month before the N&BR opened a Bill authorising the amalgamation of the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway with the N&BR came into effect and so Spooner Row station became a Norfolk Railway asset.^[1]

The NR closed Spooner Row station in September 1847.

In 1848 the NR was absorbed by the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR). The ECR reopened Spooner Row station on 1 December 1855.

Results of the reopening must have been disappointing because the ECR decided to close Spooner Row again on 1 August 1860.

The station remained closed for more than 2 decades. In that time the ECR was gone and replace by the Great Eastern Railway (GER). The GER decided to reopen Spooner Row so, on 1 March 1882 services resumed once again and the station has not seen any periods of closure since, despite its low patronage.

The system settled down for the next 4 decades, apart from the disruption of First World War. The difficult economic circumstances that existed after World War 1 led the Government to pass the Railways Act 1921 which led to the creation of the Big Four. The GER was absorbed into the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER). Spooner Row became a LNER station on 1 January 1923.

A generation later, in 1947, the Government of the day passed the Transport Act which nationalised the Big Four and created British Railways (BR). On 1 January 1948 Spooner Row became a BR station.

2 decades after BR was created steam had gone and Spooner Row Station was now served by Diesel trains.

The original station buildings were destroyed by fire in the 1970s.

2 decades after the fire the Government of the day passed the Railways Act 1993 which privatised the ownership and management of the track on 1 April 1994.

Three years after Railtrack took over the track, in 5 January 1997 train services serving Spooner Row were privatised with most services passing to Anglia Railways and services towards the West Midlands were taken over by Central Trains on 2 March 1997.

5 years after the train operating companies took over (2002) the infrastructure company got into serious problems following serious train accidents where poor track maintenance was to blame, Hatfield was the most notorious. So, the Government of the day restructured Railtrack and formed a new company called Network Rail.

Two years after Railtrack disappeared, on 1 April 2004 Anglia trains handed over their franchise to National Express-East Anglia (NE-EA). NE-EA trains were branded as One. Three years later, on 11 Nov 2007 the Central Trains franchise was broken up and services to Norwich were taken over by East Midland Trains who still run that franchise today (Feb-2016).

Four years (2008) after NE-EA took over train services the "One" brand was dropped and the National Express name predominated. One year later (2009) deep into the financial recession, NX walked away from the East Coast franchise and so the Government announced that the NX-EA franchise would not be extended for three years in 2011.

The Coalition Government did give short extensions to NX-EA until Feb 2012. By then the Government granted the franchise to Abellio-Greater Anglia (AGA). AGA took over on 5 Feb 2012 and was extended to October this year (2016).

Original wooden level crossing gates adjacent to the station used to be operated manually by a signaller based in the local signal box. However, in 2012 the signal box was closed and the crossing gates were renewed with automatic barriers and warning lights. The signal box is due to be relocated to Wymondham Abbey railway station on the heritage Mid-Norfolk Railway.

Last year (2015) the Government nationalised Network Rail so only the Train Operating Companies remained private.

Today the station is unstaffed and has only a small shelter on each platform. The eastbound (Norwich) platform is considerably lower in height than is usual on the British railway network.

Services

Spooner Row is a request stop, so passengers must signal to the conductor or driver if they wish to alight or board.

As of December 2015, on weekdays there are two trains each morning to Norwich, also calling at Wymondham. There is one train each afternoon to Cambridge, also calling at Attleborough, Thetford, Brandon, and Ely.

On Saturdays the station is served by one train in each direction, with the same calling patterns. There is no Sunday service.

References

1. C.J. Allen

External links

• Map sources for Spooner Row railway station

• Train times and station information for Spooner Row railway station from National Rail

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Attleborough		Abellio Greater Anglia Breckland Line Monday-Saturday only		Wymondham