The Ipswich to Ely Line is a railway line linking East Anglia

East Anglia

East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...

 to the English Midlands

English Midlands

The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...

 via Ely

Railways in Ely

The Railways in Ely are an important interchange point between several routes in England. There are junctions north and south of the town where rail routes from Suffolk and Norfolk connect with routes to London, the Midlands, the north of England, and Scotland...

. There is also a branch line to . Passenger services are operated by National Express East Anglia. It is a part of Network Rail Strategic Route 5

Network Rail Route 5 (West Anglia)

Strategic Route 5 - West Anglia is the designation given by Network Rail to a grouping of railway lines in the East of England that encompasses the West Anglia Main Line and its various branch lines...

, SRS 05.07, 05.08 and part of SRS 07.03.
The Eastern Union Railway

Eastern Union Railway

The Eastern Union Railway was an early English railway, initially sanctioned by Act of Parliament on 19 July 1844, with authorised capital of £200,000 to build from Ipswich to Colchester. Further Acts of 21 July 1845 and 26 June 1846 authorised further increases in capital of £50,000 and £20,000...

 had built a line from Colchester

Colchester

Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...

 to Ipswich and they formed a new company, Ipswich and Bury Railway Company, chaired by John Chevallier Cobbold to build an extension from Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds which was known as the "Bury extension".