in 1969 which was more than nine times the traffic of ten years earlier. On 13 May 1970 a new direct line to Felixstowe Docks was opened. This used the same alignment as in 1877 to 1898 and removed the need of trains to reverse at Felixstowe Town. At the same time the station was reduced to just a single platform and the 1898 line from there towards the docks was closed. In February 1975 there were three freightliner trains running to the docks on weekdays and two on Saturdays. Two of these went to Parkeston which also had a freightliner terminal, to be formed into longer trains whilst the other train went direct to Stratford and Willesden in North London. Steel coil traffic was also operating over the branch at this date as one of these trains was recorded hitting the level crossing gates at Trimley on 7 February 1975. Freight traffic to Derby Road continued into the 1980s serving a domestic coal depot and a scrap yard. Rail traffic to Cranes finished in mid-1970s and to Ransome, Sims and Jefferies in 1980. The station buildings at Felixstowe were converted to shops after the railway stopped using them. They were listed Grade II on 23 December 1980. In 1981 the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company obtained an Act of Parliament to allow it to construct of new railways. The first part to come into use was an extension of the existing dock lines to a new Northern Freightliner Terminal. Work on the remainder started in March 1986. This saw the line extended to Trimley station. When it opened on 16 February 1987 it allowed trains to reach the new terminal without crossing a series of level crossings in the dock area and also the public level crossing at Felixstowe Beach. The line to Trimley involved heavy earthworks and cost £2,000,000 but the company received a 40% grant under Section 8 of the Railways Act 1974 as it would reduce road traffic. Post-privatisation In the 1990s British Rail was privatised and the ownership of the line passed to Railtrack. When that company was wound up it was transferred to Network Rail. Passenger services were franchised, first to Anglia Railways on 5 January 1997, then to One on 1 April 2004 (which was rebranded National Express East Anglia on 22 February 2008), and then to Abellio Greater Anglia on 5 February