Private company

Eastern Union Railway

Former English railway company

The Eastern Union Railway (EUR) was an English railway company, at first built from Colchester to Ipswich; it opened in 1846. It was proposed when the earlier Eastern Counties Railway failed to make its promised line from Colchester to Norwich. The businessman John Chevallier Cobbold and the engineer Peter Bruff were prominent in launching the company.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

Opening Ceremony of Ipswich Croft Street Railway Station (1846) by Frederick Russel
Photo: Frederick Brett Russell, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons4

The Eastern Union Railway (EUR) was an English railway company, at first built from Colchester to Ipswich; it opened in 1846. It was proposed when the earlier Eastern Counties Railway failed to make its promised line from Colchester to Norwich. The businessman John Chevallier Cobbold and the engineer Peter Bruff were prominent in launching the company. The allied but nominally independent Ipswich and Bury Railway built a line onwards to Bury St Edmunds, also opening in 1846, and soon amalgamated with the EUR.2

Products and brands

Weekday Down direction

In the down (from London) direction there were services from Colchester at 7:30 a.m. (all stations except Ardleigh and Claydon) to Norwich Victoria. The 10:50 a.m. departure to Norwich Victoria called all stations whilst the 1:10 p.m. omitted Ardleigh, Bramford, Claydon, Finningham, Burston and Flordon. The 3:30 p.m. was the last train from Colchester to Norwich and called all stations although Colchester departures at 8:05 p.m. called all stations to Ipswich whilst the following 10:49pm omitted to call at Bentley Junction on its way to Ipswich. This service also carried mail.

At Bentley Junction a connection from all the Norwich trains was available for the Hadleigh branch and connections to Bury St Edmunds were available from all the Colchester services at Haughley Junction although it is not clear whether these were through carriages or passengers had to change.

Weekday Up direction

In the up direction services departed Norwich Victoria at 7:20 and 11:10 in the morning and 4:15 and 5:30 in the afternoon. All of these services had connections from Bury St Edmunds although only three of them had connections at Bentley Junction. In the up direction there were also two early morning services from Ipswich to Colchester with the 1:20 a.m. mail train and the 7:00 a.m. giving a connection via the ECR to Liverpool Street arriving at 10:05 a.m.

Sunday services

There was one daily train between Colchester and Norwich (both directions) and three between Colchester and Ipswich. Hadleigh had no services on Sunday but it is not clear what the service to Bury St Edmunds was as it shows three services in the up direction and none in the down. This might be a printing error and the Ipswich starting trains may have started from Bury St Edmunds.

From Wikipedia’s article on Eastern Union Railway, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Acquisitions

  1. Succeeded by Eastern Counties Railway1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4