The first freight train reached Sizewell C on 8 September with 1,000 tonnes, cutting about 50 lorry trips. None run this week, and trains stop at Saxmundham.

The first commercial freight train to serve Sizewell C ran through the night on the East Suffolk line and arrived on site in the early hours of Tuesday 8 September. A single train took the equivalent of about 50 lorry journeys off local roads.

Then the line went quiet. The project’s own works tracker, in its bulletin of 11 September, says there are “no planned train movements the week commencing 14 September 2026”. So the milestone train ran, and this week nothing follows it.

What actually arrived

Sizewell C set out the detail in its own announcement on 9 September:

  • the train was around 270 metres long, box wagons hauled by a Class 66 locomotive
  • it carried more than 1,000 tonnes of construction materials
  • the load came from Tunstead Quarry near Buxton, in Derbyshire
  • it ran into the Temporary Construction Area beside the power station site
  • the final stretch is the Green Rail Route, 2.8km (1.7 miles) of new track from the Sizewell branch line

Damian Leydon, Sizewell C’s site delivery director, called it “a major milestone for Sizewell C and a significant step forward in how we build the project”. Much of the rail construction was carried out by Balfour Beatty.

The number that matters locally

The company’s case for the railway is a lorry count, and it has now put figures against it.

What Figure
HGV journeys replaced by one train about 50
Material due by rail between now and Christmas around 100,000 tonnes
HGV journeys that replaces about 5,000
Trains a day at peak up to 4
Trains a night at the moment 2, carrying aggregates
Share of materials promised by sea or rail at least 60%

Cllr Tom Daly, East Suffolk’s cabinet member for energy and climate change, said in the same announcement that bringing materials in by rail “will significantly reduce the number of lorries on the roads, and their associated carbon footprint”. The trains bypass Leiston entirely.

Sizewell C rail freight, the published figures Key figures published by Sizewell C on 9 September 2026. The first train was 270 metres long and carried more than 1,000 tonnes from Tunstead Quarry in Derbyshire. The Green Rail Route is 2.8 kilometres long. One train replaces about 50 HGV journeys. Around 100,000 tonnes is due by rail between now and Christmas, replacing about 5,000 HGV journeys. Up to four trains a day are planned at peak, with two a night at present, and at least 60 per cent of materials are promised by sea or rail. One train, about 50 lorries. By Christmas, about 5,000. Figures published by Sizewell C on 9 September 2026. The first train ran in the early hours of 8 September. 270 m length of the first train, box wagons and a Class 66 1,000 t carried on it, from Tunstead Quarry near Buxton 2.8 km of new track, branch line to the construction area 50 HGV journeys replaced by a single train 5,000 HGV journeys to go, on about 100,000 t of rail freight to Christmas 4 a day planned at peak. Two a night now, and 60% promised by sea or rail Source: Sizewell C, 9 September 2026. No trains at all are planned for the week commencing 14 September. Graphic by Suffolk Coast News.
Graphic by Suffolk Coast News, from Sizewell C's announcement of 9 September 2026.

Saxmundham is a stop, for now

One line in the announcement is the practical detail for this coast. “For the next few weeks, trains will make a brief stop at Saxmundham before continuing to site.”

That changes after Network Rail’s work on the East Suffolk line. Sizewell C says that once those upgrades are done “later this year”, trains will run straight through without stopping. The biggest piece of that work is already dated: the line closes for nine days from 24 October while the Saxmundham junction is renewed, and buses replace trains for the whole of half term. We set out what that means for Woodbridge, Melton and Wickham Market in nine days of buses on the East Suffolk line.

The branch line itself

The Sizewell branch is an old railway doing a new job. Passenger services ended in 1966 and Sizewell C says the line has seen very little traffic since.

The wider rail programme includes:

  • renewing 4.5 miles of track
  • replacing jointed rail with continuously welded rail, which the company says reduces noise
  • upgrading level crossings
  • installing a new signalling system
  • supporting improvements to the East Suffolk line between Ipswich and Lowestoft

Sizewell C says both the Green Rail Route and the line serving its Ancillary Construction Area will be returned to their original condition once construction finishes.

What it means for you

  • If you live along the East Suffolk line in Woodbridge, Melton, Wickham Market or Saxmundham, these are overnight movements. The published timetable puts the first train past Ipswich at 22:19 and the last back past Ipswich at 05:43, six nights a week with nothing on a Sunday. The full sheet is in our earlier story on the Sizewell C night trains, and the timetable PDF is still live.
  • No trains are scheduled this week at all. If you were told to expect them from 14 September, the 11 September bulletin says otherwise.
  • If you drive the B1122 or the A12 north of Saxmundham, the lorry reduction is the point of all this, but the road works are not finished. Our Suffolk roadworks page tracks what is shut this week.
  • If you want to check for yourself, the works tracker publishes a new bulletin most weeks and deletes the old one. Only the current bulletin stays live, so a link you saved a fortnight ago will already be dead.

What we could not confirm

Sizewell C does not publish a passing time for Woodbridge, Melton or Wickham Market in the timetable, only Ipswich and the site. Nor does the works tracker give a reason for the blank week. Every figure above is taken from Sizewell C’s own announcement and its own bulletin, and nothing here has been estimated.

Sources