Needham Market railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line (GEML) in the East of England, serving the town of Needham Market, Suffolk. It is 77 miles 7 chains (124.1 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Ipswich to the south and Stowmarket to the north. Its three-letter station code is NMT.
Needham Market  | |||||
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 | |||||
| General information | |||||
| Location | Needham Market, Mid Suffolk England | ||||
| Grid reference | TM091548 | ||||
| Managed by | Abellio Greater Anglia | ||||
| Platforms | 2 | ||||
| Other information | |||||
| Station code | NMT | ||||
| Classification | DfT category F2 | ||||
| Key dates | |||||
| 1846 | Opened as Needham | ||||
| 2 January 1967 | Closed | ||||
| 6 December 1971 | Reopened as Needham Market | ||||
| Passengers | |||||
| 2018/19 |  102,320 | ||||
| 2019/20 |  100,754 | ||||
| 2020/21 | 33,484 | ||||
| 2021/22 | 79,196 | ||||
| 2022/23 | 94,148 | ||||
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The station is currently operated by Greater Anglia, which also runs all passenger trains serving the station. It sees one train per hour to Ipswich and Cambridge, whereafter trains branch off to the Ipswich to Ely Line. It is the only railway station on the GEML where there are no direct trains to London. Therefore, passengers for London have to change at Ipswich.
The station appears in Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations by Sir Simon Jenkins.[1]
History
editThe station was originally opened with the name Needham by the Ipswich & Bury Railway in 1846. The main building, described as "one of the best in East Anglia" by Biddle, was designed in a grand Jacobean style with decorative brickwork by Frederick Barnes and was completed by the contractor, Daniel Revitt, in 1849. It was later slightly simplified, and the platforms rebuilt, by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER).
It was closed to passengers by the Eastern Region of British Railways in 1967 but reopened as Needham Market in 1971. The main building, now in alternative use, is a Grade II listed building.[2] It was restored in 2000 by Spacia Ltd, and won an award in the 2002 National Railway Heritage Awards. In April 2015 work commenced to improve the station, including the installation of an anti-slip composite fibreglass platform[3] (Dura Platform) which features a patented design with in-built water management and snow-melting capabilities. However, this did not include making the London-bound platform wheelchair accessible.[4][5][6]
Services
editThe following services typically call at Needham Market:
| Operator | Route | Rolling stock | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abellio Greater Anglia | Cambridge - Dullingham - Newmarket - Kennett - Bury St. Edmunds - Thurston - Elmswell - Stowmarket - Needham Market - Ipswich | Class 755 | 1x per hour |
| Preceding station |  National Rail
|
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greater Anglia | ||||
| Historical railways | ||||
| Great Eastern Railway | ||||
References
edit
- ^ Simon Jenkins (2017) Britain's Hundred Best Railway Stations Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0-241978-98-6
- ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1253684)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 5 April 2007.
- ^ "Needham Market is first train station in the world to install ground breaking award winning composite platform | netMAGmedia Ltd". www.architectsdatafile.co.uk. 2 August 2015. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ^ "National Rail Enquiries - Station facilities for Needham Market".
- ^ Biddle, Gordon (2003). Britain's Historic Railway Buildings. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866247-5.
- ^ Sore, Ray (January 1999). "The railway at Needham (Market)". Great Eastern Journal (97): 3–13.