Southend Pier Railway

The Southend Pier Railway is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railway in the English city of Southend-on-Sea, Essex. It runs for 1.25 miles (2.0 km) along the 1.34-mile (2.16 km) length of Southend Pier, providing public passenger transport from the shore to the pier head. A wooden pier opened in 1830, and a primitive tramway began operating along it in 1846. The pier was replaced by an iron structure around 1889, and a 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge electric tramway was laid along it. This proved popular, and the number of trains gradually increased from one to four, while the number of carriages in each train also increased in stages from one to seven. In 1949, four electric trains of seven carriages each were obtained from AC Cars of Thames Ditton, and the old trains were largely scrapped, although some were sold on. These trains continued to work until the 1970s, by which time only two were in service, and the railway closed in 1978, due to its poor state and the cost of repairs. Eight years later, the railway was relaid to 3 ft (914 mm) gauge, and two diesel trains were purchased to operate the service. The railway was opened by Princess Anne on 2 May 1986. In 2020, Southend Council decided to upgrade the rolling stock again, and two battery-electric trains were purchased from Severn Lamb. These were expected to begin operating in mid-2021, but teething problems resulted in them not being fully operational until late 2022.