King's Lynn railway station
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King's Lynn railway station is a railway station serving the town of King's Lynn in Norfolk. The station is the terminus of the Fen Line from Cambridge, which is electrified at 25 kV AC overhead.
The railway arrived in 1847, with the Ely and Lynn branch of the Great Eastern Railway, and a spur connecting to the harbour was opened in 1849. Expansion followed with branches connecting east and west, and with a line running north to the seaside resort of Hunstanton (the latter journey celebrated by former Poet Laureate John Betjeman in a short BBC film about the line). The station also received services from the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway system, whose main station serving the town was in nearby South Lynn (station now dismantled).
The station is primarily served by First Capital Connect as part of their service from London King's Cross to King's Lynn, and will join the Thameslink network of cross-London services in the near future. The services run non-stop between London and Cambridge as part of a half-hourly Cambridge service; one train per hour then continues beyond Cambridge, stopping at all stations on the Fen Line to King's Lynn. These services now normally use former-British Rail Class 365 electrical multiple units, although for some years less-comfortable Class 317 units were used (these units are still used on services operated by One to London Liverpool Street).
There is also a small number of services operated by one between King's Lynn and London's Liverpool Street station.
Before electrification in 1992, services were normally operated by InterCity (latterly Network SouthEast) locomotive-halued trains, normally pulling British Rail Mark 2b coaches. Many of these services featured full-service restaurant cars. The locomotives were usually Class 37 diesel-electrics, sometimes Class 31s or 47s. Off-peak links were often provided by Metro-Cammell diesel multiple units. Through-trains from London always started from London's Liverpool Street station, but services were shifted to King's Cross in the 1990s. Royal trains from Sandringham House (formerly served by Wolferton station, which is north of King's Lynn on the now-extinct railway line to Hunstanton) to the capital were always diverted to King's Cross (the reigning monarch is not permitted to enter the City of London, in whose boundaries Liverpool Street station lies, without the permission of the Lord Mayor).
External links
- [Train times] and [station information] for King's Lynn railway station from National Rail
- [Street map] and [aerial photo] of King's Lynn railway station from Multimap.com
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