Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a British railway company that existed from 1862 to 1922. Its main line, the Great Eastern Main Line, connected London with Norwich. The GER owned other lines throughout East Anglia. The length of the GER network was 1917 km and the company had an almost complete monopoly in East Anglia for a long time, until the formation of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway in 1893.
GER was formed as an amalgamation of the Eastern Counties Railway with numerous smaller companies, including Norfolk Railway, Eastern Union Railway, Newmarket Railway, Harwich Railway, East Anglian Light Railway and East Suffolk Railway. In 1902, the Northern and Eastern Railway also joined the GER.
The main towns served from the London terminus at Liverpool Street included Southend-on-Sea, Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth, Norwich, Cambridge and King's Lynn. In addition, trains ran to seaside resorts such as Hunstanton and Cromer. The GER also operated suburban services in north-east London, with routes to Enfield, Chingford, Loughton and Ilford. The company's main workshops were in Stratford, on the site of the present Stratford International station.
GER also owned and operated a number of ferries operating between England and the Continent. In total, this amounted to 42 ships during the course of the company's existence. As late as 1923 a subsidiary was formed, Great Eastern Train Ferries Ltd, which in 1924 began operating a rail ferry service for freight between Harwich and Zeebrugge using three railway ferries decommissioned by the War Office - Train Ferry No. 1, Train Ferry No. 2 and Ferry No. 3. This company went into liquidation in 1932 and its vessels were transferred to the LNER.
When the Railways Act 1921 came into force on 1 January 1923, GER was amalgamated with six other companies to form the London and North Eastern Railway.
See also
- List of former railway companies in the United Kingdom
Questions and Answers
Q: What was the Great Eastern Railway?
A: The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a railway company in Britain that existed before the grouping of railway companies in 1923.
Q: Which areas did the Great Eastern Railway connect to?
A: The Great Eastern Railway connected London Liverpool Street to Norwich and had other lines running through East Anglia.
Q: When was the Great Eastern Railway grouped into another railway company?
A: The Great Eastern Railway was grouped into the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923.
Q: What is the significance of the grouping of railway companies in 1923?
A: The grouping of railway companies in 1923 was a significant event in British railway history as it saw several independent railway companies merged into four big companies.
Q: What impact did the Great Eastern Railway have on East Anglia?
A: The Great Eastern Railway played a crucial role in the development of East Anglia's transportation infrastructure.
Q: Is the Great Eastern Railway still operational?
A: No, the Great Eastern Railway ceased to exist as an independent railway company in 1923 when it was merged with other companies to form the London and North Eastern Railway.
Q: What would the Great Eastern Railway have been classified as?
A: The Great Eastern Railway would have been classified as a pre-grouping railway company.
