Diss railway station

Diss railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the town of Diss, Norfolk. It is 94 miles 79 chains (152.9 km) down-line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Stowmarket to the south and Norwich to the north. It is approximately 20 miles (32 km) south of Norwich. Its three-letter station code is DIS.

The station is currently operated by Abellio Greater Anglia, which also runs all trains serving the station.

History

The station at Diss was proposed by the Ipswich & Bury Railway as part of their route to Norwich. Such were the changes in the railway industry that in 1847 the Ipswich & Bury Railway became part of the Eastern Union Railway, which started operating in 1849. This became part of the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) in 1854, which amalgamated with several other companies in 1862 to form the Great Eastern Railway (GER).

In 1873 there was an incident at Diss when a goods train a and passenger train collided in foggy conditions, injuring four passengers.

Train station

A train station, railway station, railroad station, or depot (see below) is a railway facility where trains regularly stop to load or unload passengers or freight.

It generally consists of at least one track-side platform and a station building (depot) providing such ancillary services as ticket sales and waiting rooms. If a station is on a single-track line, it often has a passing loop to facilitate traffic movements. The smallest stations are most often referred to as "stops" or, in some parts of the world, as "halts" (flag stops).

Stations may be at ground level, underground, or elevated. Connections may be available to intersecting rail lines or other transport modes such as buses, trams or other rapid transit systems.

Terminology

In the United States, the most common term in contemporary usage is train station. Railway station and railroad station are less frequent; also, American usage makes a distinction between the terms railroad and railway.

In Britain and other Commonwealth countries, traditional usage favours railway station or simply station, even though train station, which is often perceived as an Americanism, is now about as common as railway station in writing; railroad station is not used, railroad being obsolete there. In British usage, the word station is commonly understood to mean a railway station unless otherwise qualified.

Diss

Coordinates: 52°22′52″N 1°06′28″E / 52.3812°N 1.1079°E / 52.3812; 1.1079

Diss is a market town and electoral ward in Norfolk, England close to the border with the neighbouring East Anglian county of Suffolk, with a population of 7,572. (2011)

The town lies in the valley of the River Waveney, around a mere (lake) that covers 6 acres (2.4 ha). The mere is up to 18 feet (5.5 m) deep, although there is another 51 feet (16 m) of mud. The town takes its name from dic an Anglo-Saxon word meaning either ditch or embankment.

Diss has a number of historic buildings, including the early 14th century parish church. It is home to a museum. Diss railway station lies on the Great Eastern Main Line route from London to Norwich.

History

At the time of Edward the Confessor, Diss was part of the Hartismere hundred (a hundred was an administrative subdivision) of Suffolk, and it was recorded as such in the Domesday book. It is recorded as being in the king's possession as demesne (direct ownership) of the Crown, there being at that time a church and a glebe of 24 acres. This was considered to be worth £15 per annum, which had doubled by the time of William the Conqueror, it being then estimated at £30 with the benefit of the whole hundred and half, belonging to it. It was then found to be a league long, around 3 miles (5 km) and half this distance broad, and paid 4d. in Danegeld. From this it appears that it was still relatively small, but it grew shortly afterwards when it subsumed Watlingsete Manor, a neighbouring area, which was as large as Diss, and seemingly fuller of inhabitants, according to the geld or tax that it paid. This was afterwards called Walcote, and includes part of Heywode, as appears from its joining to Burston, into which town this manor extended.

DISS

DISS (Disability Information Services) is part of the Queen Elizabeth's Foundation for Disabled People (QEF), a charitable organisation based in Leatherhead, Surrey, England. The organisation has experience in producing databases of information relevant to the needs of disabled people, their families and carers, and has been successful in this field since the late 1980s.

Founded by QEF in 1989 as Disability Information Services Surrey, DISS was at first a telephone-based information resource for people living in Surrey to contact on an as-needed basis. Soon after its establishment, it became apparent that the vast amount of paper-based information needed to respond to telephone enquiries should ideally be computerised. Moreover, ever increasing Personal Computer power coupled with reducing PC costs enabled this computerisation to take place.

With these two factors in mind, DISS developed its own database of disability information for in-house use, which was subsequently named DissBASE. Using DissBASE, DISS workers could respond more quickly, and with a greater degree of accuracy, to inbound telephone enquiries. In these early days however, the majority of enquiries came from within the Surrey county border.