Berney Arms railway station is a stop on the Wherry Lines in the East of England, serving the settlement of Berney Arms, on the Halvergate Marshes in Norfolk. It is located east of , and is the only station on a short stretch of single line between and . The station is managed by Greater Anglia, which also operates all trains serving it. It is situated in a remote area of the Norfolk Boards, resulting in it becoming one of the least used stations in Britain.
History
The Yarmouth and Norwich Railway Act 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. lxxxii) authorising the Yarmouth and Norwich Railway (Y&NR) received royal assent on 18 June 1842. Work started on the line in April 1843, and the station was opened on 1 May 1844. A local landowner, Thomas Trench Berney, sold the land on the marshes to the railway company on the condition that Berney Arms station be built.
A few years later, the railway stopped serving it, saying that there had been no agreement for trains to actually call at the station that they agreed to build; however, after lengthy legal proceedings, it was agreed to serve the station in perpetuity.
On 30 June 1845, the Norfolk Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. xli) was passed, authorising the amalgamation of the Y&NR with the Norwich and Brandon Railway, and Berney Arms station became a Norfolk Railway asset. It passed to the Great Eastern Railway (GER) on 1 July 1862, when the GER took over two other railways before the bill received its royal assent.
The former signal box, which closed in the 1960s and replaced an earlier box, is located at Mangapps Railway Museum as of 2026. There was also once a post office at the station, which was delivered from Great Yarmouth by train twice per week.
Between October 2018 and February 2020, the line between Great Yarmouth and Reedham was closed for a major upgrade of the signalling system, as part of works on all the Wherry Lines. The station remained open, although no replacement service was available due to its remote location.
Location The surrounding marshland is managed as the RSPB Berney Marshes reserve and is adjacent to Breydon Water, a major site for wildfowl. It lies three miles from the nearest road, and thus is accessible only by train, on foot or by boat (on the river Yare).
Berney Arms Windmill, owned by English Heritage, is located on the Yare near to the station; the Berney Arms public house, also nearby, closed in 2015, although a "Save the Berney Arms" campaign was started the year after. The Weavers' Way and Wherryman's Way long-distance footpaths both pass near to the station, and the station is popular with walkers.
Facilities Several waiting shelters were erected at the station in the past, but were damaged or destroyed by the strong marshland winds common to the area. The only extant facilities at the station are some bicycle racks and a help point. As there are no facilities to purchase tickets, passengers must buy one in advance or from the guard on the train.
Passenger volume
On 1 December 2020, Berney Arms was announced as the least-used station in Great Britain for the 2019/20 period, with only 42 passengers using the station. The low numbers were largely due to the station being closed for major signalling works along the line for much of the 2019/20 period, but also as a result of the local pub closing; this is also one of the main reasons that passenger numbers had been falling since 2016/17.
However, the station was used by 348 passengers in the year to March 2021, the greatest annual percentage increase for any station in Great Britain. Some of this increase was attributed to rail enthusiasts, and the publicity surrounding the station's least used status.
+Passenger volume at Berney Arms2004–052005–062006–072007–082008–092009–102010–112011–122012–132013–142014–152015–162016–172017–182018–192019–202020–212021–222022–232023–242024–25Entries and exits8068967221,0141,0381,6281,6861,4361,0541,5101,3961,0161,12696644242348868950800802
Services Two trains per day in each direction stop here between Norwich and Great Yarmouth on Mondays-Saturdays; the service is increased on Sundays to four trains in each direction. Service frequencies generally increase slightly during the summer period, to three trains in each direction per day and five in each direction on Sundays.
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