Needham Market railway station

Needham Market
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
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

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.

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.

History

The 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. 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 (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.

Services

The 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
Ipswich		Greater Anglia Ipswich to Ely Line		Stowmarket
Historical railways
Claydon		Great Eastern Railway Eastern Union Railway		Stowmarket