According to Office of Rail Regulation usage figures for 2010/11, Lowestoft was the fourth-busiest station in Suffolk, after Ipswich, Stowmarket and Bury St Edmunds.

[3] Until the late 1960s, the station was served more frequently, with regular express trains for holidaymakers in the summer to and from London Liverpool Street and local services to Great Yarmouth.

[5][6] The scheme, which was promoted by Samuel Morton Peto, included a 11-mile-30-chain (18.3-kilometre) line from Lowestoft to the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway with which it formed a junction near Reedham.

[29][30][31][32][33] The traditional access to London was however by shuttle train connection out of the Yarmouth services at Beccles or by portions split and worked forward from there.

[39][17] The Great Eastern sought to foster the holiday traffic by providing a bus service to Southwold from 18 July 1904 to January 1913 and also one to Oulton Broad.

[40][41][42][33] The increased naval activity brought on by the First World War saw the number of passengers using Lowestoft Central via the Norfolk & Suffolk double from a pre-war average of 25,000 per year to a near-record of 54,506 in 1918.

[48] Following the closure of Melton Constable Works in 1936, the depot became a centre for the construction of many items such as fenceposts and building parts, which were sent all over the LNER and Eastern Region.

[58] Reliance on summer traffic was not enough and when British Railways started making losses from 1952 onwards, attention was turned to pruning the network by closing unremunerative lines.

[59] Thus in 1953 when major repairs to Breydon Viaduct were required, it was decided that Lowestoft could be adequately served during the summer season by diverted trains via Norwich Thorpe, and so the ordinary passenger and freight services were withdrawn as from 20 September.

[68] At this time, there was a daily pick-up goods service between Yarmouth South Town and Lowestoft but this ceased on 4 November 1967 and the same weekend the line was singled.

[77][78] It began in 1954 when many steam engines were withdrawn from the Lowestoft area, followed in 1955 by the introduction of the two and four car diesel railcar units for the short services.

[80][82][83] Long distance through services were also cut down with the loss of the through trains to Birmingham and York in late 1964 on the basis that Lowestoft did not have sufficient facilities for the storage and cleaning of coaches.

[citation needed] This section of the trackbed, as well as the siding which ran alongside, now forms part of the station car park.

[85] The station continued to receive excursion traffic, mainly private charters by the Railway Development Society, as well as special services for football matches and Christmas shoppers.

[90] Up until 1992 Lowestoft station retained many of its original features, including the wooden trussed ceiling, LNER clock and traditional departure boards.

[93][94][95] In addition, a new toilet was provided for all passengers, trees were planted and interior alterations were carried out to the booking hall and office.

[54] Goods consisted of domestic coal which was brought by train to a concentration depot at the end of Rotterdam Road, imported steel ingots which were sent on by rail, scrap metal exported to Spain by A.

[34] Lowestoft remains a destination for specialised freight services which carry materials used in the offshore North Sea gas production industry.

[110] The first engine shed at Lowestoft was a two-road brick structure on the north side of the station with a turntable on a separate spur.

[49] In 1866, the line was replaced by conventional rails and over the next 60 years was extended to 0.75 miles (1.21 kilometres) to reach the end of the North Pier which had been constructed in response to the expansion of the fishing trade at Lowestoft.

[40] Herring catches from the North Sea contributed to the 50,000-60,000 tons of fish landed annually in the early part of the twentieth century, the bulk of which were sent by rail to London.

[118] A spacious covered market was opened by the Great Eastern in 1865 by the North Pier, lit by gas lamps and with landing stages 580 feet (180 m) long.

[37] Outward traffic included joinery from Boulton & Paul's and cannery products, as well as confectionery and preserves mostly from Mortons and the Co-op.

[49] Inward traffic comprised oil for the Co-op's factory boilers, timber for Boulton & Paul and steel for the Brooke Marine shipyard.

[126] The Kirkley branch was closed in 1966 and the South Side line beyond Durban Road followed on 6 November 1967 with tracklifting a year or so later.

[128][54] Extensive redevelopment of the area in the early 21st century obliterated most of the remains of the South Side lines and the industrial businesses which they served.

[138] Waveney District Council had previously indicated in April 2010 that the station should be relocated 40m to the west and 80m to the south in order to "strike the optimum balance between commercial viability, technical feasibility and acceptability in the eyes of key stakeholders and landowners".

"[139] Network Rail has objected to this policy on the basis that this would reduce the patronage of the station as was the case with Cromer, Felixstowe and Sheringham and would incur substantial financial cost.

[141][142] In January 2015, a Network Rail study proposed the reintroduction of direct services between Lowestoft and Yarmouth by reinstating a spur at Reedham.

[143][144] Services could once again travel between two East Coast towns, with an estimated journey time of 33 minutes, via a reconstructed 34-chain (680 m) north-to-south arm of the former triangular junction at Reedham, which had been removed in c. 1880.