GREAT EASTERN MAIN LINE

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The 'Great Eastern Main Line', or the "G.E.", is a major railway line of the British railway system, which connects Liverpool Street station in the City of London with destinations in east London and the East of England; including Ipswich, Norwich and several coastal resorts.National Rail, ''Rail Services Around London & the South East'', (2006) The line is primarily a commuter railway which also attracts business and leisure passengers; it is also used as a freight route.Network Rail - Route 7 - Great Eastern (PDF)

Contents

History

Infrastructure

Electrification

Signalling

Track layout

Rolling Stock

Services

Main line

Metro

References

History

The earliest section of the line was built by the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) and operated between Mile End and Romford from 1839. Bishopsgate railway station (initially known as Shoreditch) was used as the London terminus until Liverpool Street was opened in 1874. The ECR was amalgamated with other railways to form the Great Eastern Railway in 1862.
The line was 'grouped' into the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923 and from 1948 formed part of the Eastern Region of British Railways.
In 1986 it became part of Network SouthEast. Between 5 January 1997 and 31 March 2004, suburban and medium distance services were operated by First Great Eastern; while fast mainline services were operated by Anglia Railways.

Infrastructure

The line is owned and maintained by Network Rail.

Electrification

The main line is electrified at 25 kV AC, using overhead wires and come under the control of Romford Electrical Control Room. The branches to Upminster, Southend Victoria / Southminster, Sudbury, Clacton / Frinton and Harwich Town are also electrified.
In the 1930s plans were made by the LNER to electrify the suburban lines from Liverpool Street to Shenfield at 1500v DC and work was started on implementing this. However, the outbreak of the Second World War brought the project to a temporary halt and it was not until 1949 that the scheme was completed with electrification later being extended to Chelmsford in 1956 and finally to Norwich by 1986.
The British Railways 1955 Modernisation Plan called for overhead line systems in Great Britain to be standardised at 25kv AC and the GE was duly switched over between the 4th and 6th November 1960.

Signalling

Signalling for the GE is controlled by two main sinalling centres, Liverpool Street IECC (opened in 1992) and Colchester PSB (opened in December 1983). Liverpool Street IECC controls signalling upto Marks Tey, where it fringes with Colchester PSB who have control to Norwich. There is also several small signal boxes that control local infrastructure such as Ingatestone 'box that has juristriction over several local level crossings.
Liverpool Street IECC replaced signal boxes at Bethnal Green (closed 1997), Bow (closed 1996), Stratford (GE panel closed 1997), Ilford (closed 1996), Romford (closed 1998), Gidea Park (closed 1998), Shenfield (closed 1992) and Chelmsford (closed 1994). The system uses BR Mark 3 solid state interlockings, predominantly four aspect signals and a combination of GEC-Alsthom HW2000 and Smiths clamp-lock point machines.
It is interesting to note that the first signalbox to be closed and transferred to Liverpool Street IECC was Shenfield which had only opened in 1982. The last 'boxes to be transferred were at Romford & Gidea Park and were the oldest of those being transferred having been opened under the GER/LNER 1924 resignalling scheme.

Track layout

On leaving Liverpool Street, the GE route is comprised of four sets of running lines (known as the 'Mains' and the 'Electrics', there is also a further two sets of lines, the 'Suburbans' that carry the West Anglia Main Line alsongside the GE up to Bethnal Green Junction. It is possible for GE trains to use the 'Suburbans' however this is extremely rare because of the platform allocations at Liverpool Street.
As mentioned the West Anglia Main Line diverges at Bethnal Green, leaving the GE with four running lines up to Bow Junction where there is a complex set of switches and crossings. At Bow a line to the LTS route joins the up electric and there are a further two lines called the up and down 'Temple Mills' giving access to the North London line, Temple Mills and Thornton Fields Carriage Sidings. The GE is six tracks upto the London end of Stratford and the junction to Temple Mills, there are five lines through the station dropping to four at the country end.
At Shenfield the line to Southend Victoria diverges and the main line route drops from four lines to two; this arrangement continues for the vast majority of the way to Norwich. There are several occasions where the route is more that two lines predominantly through several stations such as Colchester and Ipswich along with several sections where there are goods loops such as between Ilford & Manor Park and London end of Ingatestone.
In the 1930s a flyover was constructed at Ilford to switch the main and electric lines over, this was to enable main line trains to utilise the longer west side platforms without having to cross east side suburban traffic in the throat area of the station. It was also envisaged to provide another flyover at the country end of Gidea Park C/S to switch the Southend Victoria trains over from the mains to the electrics instead of at Shenfield London end Junction as they do now.

Rolling Stock

:''For details of the passenger fleet used by the train operating company, see One Railway#Rolling stock''
Electric locomotive-hauled inter city trains operate between Norwich and London. Inner and outer suburban passenger trains are operated by electric multiple units. Services operate at up to 100 mph. Electric and diesel hauled freight services operate on the line.

Services

Longer distance 'inter-city' and inner suburban 'metro' services are operated under a single franchise by National Express Group, using the 'one' brand name. The franchise began on 1 April 2004.'one' - Welcome to 'one' As of May 2007 two c2c services operate on the line during the late evening to Barking. This is a throwback to BR days when London Fenchurch Street closed early in the evening as a cost saving exercise and all services operated from Liverpool Street.
Liverpool Street is the principal passenger destination on the line; although Stratford, with connections to Canary Wharf, has grown in significance.

Main line

Outer suburban and inter-city services utilise a set of fast lines between Liverpool Street and Shenfield. Branch lines diverge from the main tracks at Romford, Shenfield, Witham, Marks Tey, Colchester, Ipswich, Stowmarket and Norwich; with through services operating to some destinations. Fast and stopping services share the same tracks from Shenfield to Colchester.

Station	District	Branches
London Liverpool Street	City of London
Stratford	Newham
Romford	Havering	Romford to Upminster Line: Upminster
Shenfield	Brentwood	Shenfield to Southend Line: Southend Victoria / Southminster
Ingatestone	Brentwood
Chelmsford	Chelmsford
Hatfield Peverel	Braintree
Witham	Braintree	Braintree Branch Line: Braintree
Kelvedon	Braintree
Marks Tey	Colchester	Gainsborough Line: Sudbury
Colchester	Colchester	Sunshine Coast Line: Clacton-on-Sea / Walton on Naze
Manningtree	Tendring	Mayflower Line: Harwich Town
Ipswich	Ipswich	Felixstowe Branch Line: Felixstowe East Suffolk Line: Lowestoft
Needham Market	Mid Suffolk
Stowmarket	Mid Suffolk	Ipswich to Ely Line: Ely / Cambridge
Diss	South Norfolk
Norwich	Norwich	Wherry Lines: Great Yarmouth / Lowestoft Bittern Line: Sheringham Breckland Line: Cambridge

Metro

A high-frequency metro service operates between Liverpool Street and Shenfield serving suburban stations and utilising the slow lines. The off-peak service consists of six trains an hour. Some trains are scheduled to terminate at Ilford or Gidea Park.

Station	Zone	District
London Liverpool Street	1	City of London
Stratford	3	Newham
Maryland	3	Newham
Forest Gate	3	Newham
Manor Park	3/4	Newham
Ilford	4	Redbridge
Seven Kings	4	Redbridge
Goodmayes	4	Redbridge
Chadwell Heath	5	Barking & Dagenham
Romford	6	Havering
Gidea Park	6	Havering
Harold Wood	6	Havering
Brentwood	n/a	Brentwood
Shenfield	n/a	Brentwood

It is planned that Oyster card pay as you go will be accepted on the route from Stratford to Harold Wood by 2009.'one' - ''‘one’ Railway to extend availability of Oyster Pay As You Go'' It is currently accepted between Stratford and Liverpool Street.National Rail - Oyster Pay As You Go (PAYG) on National Rail (PDF) It is proposed that the metro service and the slow line infrastructure between Stratford and Shenfield will be absorbed into Crossrail.

References