NEW JANUARY 2021, AMENDED MARCH 2021. There are two aspects to the co-operation mentioned in the heading. One is the interavailability of road and rail tickets. This relates to straightforward day returns between specified locations, and to travellers on longer rail journeys who might find that there is no convenient rail connection and so choose to do the next stage by bus. These arrangements are described by showing the relevant pages from the Eastern Counties (Eastern Area) timetable for 1956 and from the Western Area book for 1965.

The main part of this file concerns new bus services needed in order for branch lines to be allowed to close - before this could happen, the government had to be satisfied that reasonable provision for travel was there for individuals on the route. A new bus service was not always needed: when the line from Dereham to King's Lynn was closed, for example, existing bus services on the A47 corridor were deemed adequate. For the line from Dereham to Wells, however, Eastern Counties had to provide a completely new service - not merely to link the two towns but, as far as the road system would permit, to serve all the intermediate stations as well. To see which lines are included, click HERE.

In this respect you may find files RC040, RC041 and RC042 of interest: each is an official document from the 1960's considering road provision with a view to the closure of the East Suffolk line, small stations between Cambridge and Haughley Junction, and the Mildenhall branch respectively.

Here we show timetables for each rail service in steam days, and if the line survived beyond the end of steam what sort of a DMU service BR provided. We then consider any replacement bus service that was required on closure and give its timetable so you can see how it compared with what the raiilway used to offer.

In some cases recollections of journeys on the train or on the replacement buses have been added.

For more information concerning ealier co-operation between the LNER and the Eastern Counties Bus Company back in 1936, see file RR068 which shows the instructions given to their drivers and conductors. There are entries explaining arrangements for conveying rail passengers in the event of a train failure, for sending bus passengers by rail if their bus breaks down, and special terms negotiated for parking buses on railway property. That file is HERE.

The file has bookmarks to its main sections. It will be available to download as soon as payment has been made. You go to your account and click on ‘Downloads’. New customers create an account as they place their order.