The Stour Valley Railway opened on 9 August 1865, linking Shelford near Cambridge with Marks Tey in Essex, with 13 intermediate stations along the line.
The section between Shelford and Sudbury was closed on 6 March 1967 following the Beeching cuts, leaving Bures and Chappel & Wakes Colne as the only stops between the termini.
In 2005 the line received around £3 million of investment, which saw around 5 miles (8 km) of old jointed track replaced with new continuous welded rail. Further investment was made in 2006 to replace around 6 miles (10 km) of track, leaving just the Chappel viaduct and Lamarsh to Sudbury sections in need of modernisation. This work was completed in 2007.
In 2006 the line was designated as a community railway[3] by the transport minister and is part of the Essex and South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership.[4]
The current name of the line commemorates the painter Thomas Gainsborough, who was born in Sudbury; the previous name was the Lovejoy line, after the television series Lovejoy, which was filmed in the Sudbury area.
All passenger services on the line are currently operated by Greater Anglia, which runs an hourly service with frequency increasing slightly during peak hours. The last departure from Sudbury at the end of each day is extended to Colchester. There are plans to expand more services from Sudbury through to Colchester and Colchester Town using new bi-mode trains.[5]
The line is single track throughout, has a loading gauge of W6, and a maximum speed of 50 miles per hour (80 km/h).[2]
Unlike other branches in the area, such as the Braintree branch line and Mayflower line to Harwich Town, the Gainsborough line is not electrified. New Class 755 bi-mode trains started operating on the line in January 2020.
Stations
The following table summarises the line's four stations, their distance measured from London Liverpool Street, and estimated number of passenger entries/exits in 2018–19:
More information Station, Location ...
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- On 12 July 1887 one person was killed at Bures when part of a runaway train collided with a crossing gate.[7]
- On 27 January 2006 at least four passengers were slightly injured when a Class 156 train ran into the buffer stop at Sudbury. The 6:05 pm service from Marks Tey was travelling at a speed at the time of the collision of approximately six miles per hour. An investigation determined that the driver failed to apply the brakes in a "timely and appropriate manner".[8]
- On 17 August 2010 the Little Cornard derailment occurred when the 5:31 pm service from Sudbury collided with a lorry that had entered a level crossing without permission. The train driver and four passengers were seriously injured in the accident.
"Home". Essex and South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership.