New Trains Arrive and Sunday Services are Threatened

Network SouthEast announced in 1993 that they had come to a deal with Regional Railways, and part of that deal would see Norwich based Class 156 units operating the Sudbury line to allow the ageing Class 101s to be stepped down.

On 14th May 1993 unit 156405 became the 1st Class 156 unit to operate the on the Sudbury Line, also at this time the name of the line became "The Lovejoy Line" after the BBC TV programme which was filmed in the Long Melford area, with some scenes being filed at Chappel and Wakes Colne Station or on the Sudbury Train.
Pictured right is a Class 156 passing Chappel in 1993.

The 156s lasted around a year before being swapped for Class 153 single car units (pictured left), this was mainly down to stock re-allocations in the run up to privatisation of the railways, with the entire Norwich 156 fleet being moved to Tysley.

At this point the Sudbury Rail Alliance was formed by local councils and other interested parties in order to help protect the line as they saw the downgrading from two to one car trains as the first nail in the coffin for the line.

Government imposed budget cuts in 1994 led to Network SouthEast announcing that the Summer only Sunday service would not continue in 1995 - unless the local councils were prepared to support the service - fortunately this money was made available.
More about the Sudbury Rail Alliance and the Sunday Service campaign can be found in our Information Archive.

The Great Eastern Train Operating Unit

The Railways Act of 1993 allowed for the privatisation of British Rail, this set the way for BR to be split up into over 100 different companies. The Great Eastern services were formed of the commuter services from Liverpool Street to Colchester/Ipswich and Clacton as well as associated branches (Inc. the Sudbury Branch). Anglia took the InterCity services and local lines in East Anglia.

Another piece of luck hit the Sudbury Line just before the private operator commenced running the line, Network SouthEast reinstated the permanent summer-only Sunday service.
The Passenger Service Requirements for the new operator were based on the final timetable of Network SouthEast, Great Eastern Railway were therefore obliged to run the summer Sunday trains as part of their franchise commitments.

More details about the Passenger Service Requirements can be found in the Information Archive.

The Franchise for the Great Eastern services was awarded to FirstBus who were to commence running the franchise for 7 years and 3 months from the 1st January 1997, initially under the name Great Eastern Railway, whilst it was meant as a new beginning for the railways, some tough times were still to come.

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