Trains at Cambridge North, WAML & Fen Line, 13/06/26

Cambridge North railway station is a railway station located in the Cambridge suburb of Chesterton, close to Cambridge Science Park. The station is on the Fen Line, which runs from Cambridge to King's Lynn.

It connects to the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, and provides an interchange with Park & Ride and local bus services.

The station was approved in December 2013; construction commenced in July 2014; and it opened on 21 May 2017, delayed from December 2015.

It has three platforms: platform 1 on the eastern side of the station serves southbound fast services to Cambridge, Stansted Airport, and London King's Cross as well as some morning peak-time services to London Liverpool Street; platform 2 serves northbound services to Ely, King’s Lynn and Norwich; platform 3 is a south-facing bay serving semi-fast and slow services to London Liverpool Street via Cambridge and Bishop's Stortford.

A few services King’s Lynn to or from London King’s Cross pass through without stopping.

All Cross Country services to or from Birmingham New Street and Stansted Airport also pass through without stopping. The line speed through Cambridge North is 75mph (120km/h).

The station would provide an interchange facility with the local transport network including the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway and would offer a public transport alternative for trips to the Cambridge Science Park and new development in the Cambridge Northern Fringe. The business case put forward four options for the facility of which its preferred one was a three-platform station comprising a bay platform on the alignment of the former St Ives line and an island platform on the main line. This option was costed at £15 million and showed a benefit-cost ratio of 3.09.

Progress was slow due to a number of issues including the need to retain Chesterton Junction yard as an aggregate handling sidings and difficulties in relocating rail freight operations elsewhere, as well as funding difficulties resulting from the loss of the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) support mechanism and regional planning and associated instruments such as the East of England Regional Funding Assessment.

Following the demise of the TIF, which led to plans for a congestion charge in Cambridge to be put on hold, Conservative party literature indicated that the station would not go ahead, which prompted local transport group CAST.IRON to propose a cheaper single-platform station in Milton Road as an interim solution.

By this time, the cost of a new station had risen to £24m, of which £21m had been expected to be provided through government funding, and Cambridgeshire County Council began seeking alternative options.

The Council eventually settled on an approach whereby it would provide the initial capital funding and recoup the cost over a period of time from access charges paid by train operating companies.

It was intended that the interior fit-out of the station take place between October 2016 and February 2017. 

On New Year's Eve 2016, new signalling and a crossover for the bay platform was installed.

The infrastructure was authorised for passenger use by April 2017 and the station's opening and first timetabled passenger services went ahead on 21 May 2017.

Approximately 320,000 passengers used the station in its first 12 months of operation.

The original design for the station was submitted by Atkins; this was revised by Network Rail when it became the principal contractor.

Network Rail updated the car park's design to maximise its potential as a park and ride facility.

Duration of the video: 10:23 - 13:24

We’ll be seeing services by Great Northern, Cross Country and Greater Anglia as well.

I hope you enjoyed this video if you did smash that like button and don’t forget to subscribe for more upcoming videos and feel free to leave any comments or suggestions of stations that you would like for me to do in the comments below as I’ll try get back to them as soon as possible.

It’s been a very long time since I last did any train spotting at Cambridge North but it’s always an enjoyable station to come and revisit each time I’m there plus I managed to see the Great Northern 379’s alongside the pride Cross Country units in the old and new livery and alongside a steam train railtour coming through which is always nice to see as a bonus.

My next station will be Cambridge which is situated on the West Anglian Mainline & Fen Line it’s been a very long time since I last did any train spotting there but I’m sure it’ll be worth revisiting so until then thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next video.