Cambridge railway station

Up to 1923

Although the first main line inter-city railway was the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which opened in 1830,^[2] surveys for a railway through Cambridge had been conducted as early as 1822.^[3] After many failed attempts for a railway, the Eastern Counties Railway (Ely, Brandon and Peterborough Extension) Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. lxii) was passed in 1844, which allowed the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) to extend their line as far as Ely via Cambridge^[4] from its terminus at Bishop's Stortford, which had been reached in May 1842.^[3]

The 1844 Act also included an extension of the line north of Cambridge to Brandon, which ended the concept of a connection through to Norwich. Robert Stephenson was appointed engineer and, on 29 July 1845, the station opened with services operating from Bishopsgate station in London, via Stratford and Bishop's Stortford.^[5]

In the years following the opening of the main line from Cambridge through to Norwich in 1845, other railways were built to the city. Initially, some of these planned to have separate stations but opposition from the university saw them all eventually using the same station. The first line to arrive was the St Ives to Huntingdon line, which opened in 1847 and was built by the East Anglian Railway. Services to Peterborough also commenced that year, with the opening of the line from Ely via March to Peterborough, which also became the main route for coal traffic into East Anglia which was built by the ECR.^[6]

The following year, the ECR opened a line between St Ives and March, which saw some passenger services, although the coal traffic was then diverted on to this route.

In 1851, a branch line from Newmarket to Cambridge (Coldham Lane Junction) was opened which partly used the alignment of the Newmarket and Chesterford Railway which subsequently closed. In 1854, the Newmarket line was extended eastwards to meet the Eastern Union Railway line at Bury St Edmunds, allowing through running to Ipswich.^[6]

An act of Parliament, the Royston and Hitchin Railway Amendment (Shepreth Extension) Act 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. cxix) was granted to the Royston and Hitchin Railway to extend its line from Royston. Although Cambridge was its goal, Parliament sanctioned only an extension as far as Shepreth, as the ECR had opposed the extension to Cambridge. The line was completed in 1851 and initially the Great Northern Railway (GNR), which had leased the Royston and Hitchin Railway in the interim, ran a connecting horse-drawn omnibus service. This proved unsuccessful so, in April 1852, the line was extended to join the ECR main line south of Cambridge and was leased to the ECR for 14 years, with a connection to enable it to run trains from Cambridge to Hitchin.^[7]

In 1862, the Bedford and Cambridge Railway opened. Originally a local undertaking, it was soon acquired by the London & North Western Railway (LNWR), extended to Bletchley, and saw services between Oxford and Cambridge introduced on what became known as the Varsity Line.

By the 1860s, the railways in East Anglia were in financial trouble and most were leased to the ECR; they wished to amalgamate formally, but could not obtain government agreement for this until 1862, when the Great Eastern Railway (GER) was formed by amalgamation. Thus Cambridge became a GER station in 1862.^[8]

The University of Cambridge helped block later 19th-century attempts to create a central station.^[9]

The GER opened the cross-country line from Marks Tey via Sudbury and Haverhill to Shelford in 1865, which enabled the introduction of direct services to Colchester.^[6]

The Midland Railway built a line from Kettering to Huntingdon which opened in 1866 and services ran to Cambridge using running powers over the Huntingdon to St Ives line. In 1866, the GNR reapplied to run services from King's Cross, as the lease on the line to Hitchin was ending. Initially the GER opposed this but eventually agreement was reached and, from 1 April 1866, services started operating between Cambridge and King's Cross from a dedicated platform at Cambridge station.

In 1882, the Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway was opened. As well as becoming the major route for coal traffic from the North East to East Anglia, it saw the introduction of direct services between London, Cambridge and York. Goods trains generally passed Cambridge on dedicated goods lines to the east of the station. Between these and the station, a number of carriage sidings existed.

The next line to open was in 1884, when the Fordham line opened, joining the main line towards Ely at Barnwell Junction. The following year the branch to Mildenhall opened and services operated direct from there to Cambridge.^[6]

Each of the four companies also had its own goods facilities in the station area and, except for the MR, its own motive power depot. The GER maintained a special locomotive for the Royal Train here for workings between London and Sandringham.

LNER (1923–1947)

In the 1923 Grouping, the GER amalgamated with other railways to form the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and Cambridge became a LNER station. The Midland and LNWR similarly amalgamated with other railways to form the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS).

In around 1928, the LNER resignalled the station replacing its five signal boxes with two electrically controlled boxes, with the work carried out by the British Power Railway Signal Company.^[10]

British Railways (1948–1996)

Following nationalisation of the British railway network, Cambridge station was operated by the Eastern Region of British Railways.

East Anglia was one of the first areas in the country where British Railways wanted to phase out steam operation in favour of diesel traction. From 1959, diesels started to take over operation of services with Cambridge engine shed closing to steam in 1962. Diesel shunters and multiple units were allocated to another shed on the opposite side of the line, known as Coldham Lane.

The 1960s saw the closure of number of the lines serving Cambridge at this time. First to go was the lightly used line to Mildenhall, closed to passengers on 18 June 1962. The Stour Valley Railway route to Colchester, via Haverhill and Sudbury, closed on 6 March 1967 although the Sudbury-Marks Tey section remains operational as a branch line today. The Varsity Line to Oxford also saw passenger services to Bedford withdrawn during this year, on 30 December 1967, as did the line between March and St Ives.

Passenger services along the Cambridge & St. Ives Branch managed to survive the Beeching Axe but, with British Rail citing heavy losses, the final passenger service ran between St Ives and Cambridge on 5 October 1970. Despite campaigns to reopen the service during the 1970s, the only subsequent rail traffic on the line was a freight service to Chivers in Histon, which ran until 1983 and a contract to ferry sand from ARC at Fen Drayton which continued until May 1992.^[11]

The line from Bishop's Stortford to Cambridge was electrified by British Rail in 1987, enabling electric trains to operate between Liverpool Street and Cambridge.^[12] The station also underwent a £650,000 refurbishment in 1987, funded jointly by Network SouthEast, the Railway Heritage Trust and Cambridge City Council.^[13]

When the link to Stansted Airport from Liverpool Street opened in 1991, the Cambridge line became more important; all non-stop trains now take this route to London King's Cross, reducing congestion on the very busy stretch of the West Anglia Main Line between Liverpool Street and Bishop's Stortford.

Privatisation era (1994–present)

Accidents

On 30 May 2015, the 09:14 Great Northern service from London King's Cross failed to stop when entering a platform; it collided at low speed with the stationary train it was due to couple with shortly after 10:00 BST. No damage was caused, but three passengers were slightly injured.^[19]

Motive power depots

Main shed

The Eastern Counties Railway opened a small motive power depot at the station in 1845. This was replaced by a larger depot on the west side of the line at the north end of the station in 1847; this became a Great Eastern Railway shed in 1862 and it was enlarged in 1913.

Cambridge was the principal shed of a main Great Eastern district and, during World War 1, was recorded as having 101 drivers and 89 firemen, under an inspector named G. Dorrington. Repairs fell under a foreman fitter who had a staff of 70 men, although responsibility for boiler repairs fell to the foreman boilermaker. There was also a wagon repair facility at the depot at this time, led by a leading carpenter. Finally, another foreman was charged with the day-to-day running of the depot, as well as being responsible for the outstations such as King's Lynn, Ely and Mildenhall. A number of clerks would also have been employed at the depot.^[20]

At the end of 1922, the Great Eastern shed at Cambridge had an allocation of 178 locomotives; it was the second biggest shed on the Great Eastern after Stratford. The allocation consisted of:^{[21][page needed]}

More information Class (LNER classification), Wheel Arrangement ...

Class (LNER classification)	Wheel Arrangement	Number allocated
B12	4-6-0	12
D13	4-4-0	13
D14	4-4-0	3
D15	4-4-0	16
E4	2-4-0	18
F3	2-4-2T	3
F4	2-4-2T	1
F7	2-4-2T	4
J15	0-6-0	48
J16	0-6-0	14
J17	0-6-0	6
J18	0-6-0	2
J19	0-6-0	7
J20	0-6-0	11
J65	0-6-0T	2
J66	0-6-0T	4
J67	0-6-0T	8
J68	0-6-0T	1
J69	0-6-0T	4
J70	0-6-0T Tram	1

Close

Further enlargement and improvement of facilities took place in 1932. Most significantly, a mechanical coaling plant was brought into use, as well as the construction of a new lifting shop and modern sand dispensers.^[22]

Cambridge shed had two locomotives allocated for royal train workings at this time; Class D15 4-4-0s numbers 8783 and 8787, known as the Royal Clauds, were kept in pristine condition.^[23]

Following nationalisation in 1948, the shed was operated by the Eastern Region of British Railways; it was allocated shed code 31A

In the 1950s, there was a dedicated pool of four drivers (known as the Royal Link) based at Cambridge who operated the two royal engines, which were cleaned regularly. The locomotives were Class B2 4-6-0s nos. 61671 Royal Sovereign and 61617 Ford Castle. The link system, which was operated throughout British Railways, was a career progression and, at Cambridge, these included Pilot Links (shunting), Branch Goods, Main line Goods, Branch Passenger and Express links; there were also route specific links to Bletchley, the Great Northern (Hitchin) and Kettering routes.^[24]

Cambridge shed received its first allocation of diesels in 1958.^[25] The following year, the last 2-4-0 locomotive in traffic on British Railways (Class E4 2-4-0 number 62785) was withdrawn from traffic and has been preserved in its GER guise of no. 490, as part of the National Collection. In 2018, it was on loan to Bressingham steam museum near Diss.

The shed closed on 18 June 1962, and the demolition of Cambridge's loco shed building, repair shops, and loco hoists, leaving the shed offices and stores buildings, took place in 1965. Some of the tracks in the former locomotive yard, next to platform 6, were kept as engine sidings,^[26] while the rest were made into a car park.^[27]

Future services

A new East West Rail route is being developed, allowing travel between Oxford and Cambridge without needing to go via London, which has not been possible since the Varsity Line was closed in the 1960s. The section between Oxford and Bletchley is complete; the first test train ran on 22 October 2024 and scheduled passenger services were expected to start in 2025.^[38][a]

The section from Bedford to Cambridge is more difficult, as parts of the Varsity Line route have been built on and thus an entirely new alignment is needed. The preferred route runs from a new Cambridge South, via new stations at Cambourne and Tempsford, and thence on to Bedford.^[39] The government has committed £10 million of funding as part of the 2016 Autumn Statement to continue to develop the route.^[40]

In November 2025, East West Rail proposed that a new station at Cambridge East should be built on the line to serve the Cambridge Airport site, which has been identified as a location for redevelopment as a new suburb of the city.^[41]