Latest Rail News

Andrew Gwilt   02/08/2016 at 02:04

Cambridge North railway station is looking good. But when is Cambridge South (Addenbrookes) railway station going to be built as Cambridge will have 2 brand new railway stations to the north and south of Cambridge City Centre with the main Cambridge railway station could be renamed as Cambridge Central railway station if Cambridge North is completed on time and Cambridge South is to be built and to be completed on time as Cambridge North was going to be named as Cambridge Business Park or Chesterton to the north of the city centre and Cambridge South once opened will serve Addenbrooks Hospital.

John Grant   02/08/2016 at 12:21

Not sure how an extra 450 vehicles are going to get through A14 J33 in the morning peak. Maybe people from the north of Cambridgeshire will take the train instead of driving, freeing up space on the road. But it's a 10-15 minute walk to the Innovation Centre, 15-20 to the Science Park. And southbound Fen Line trains are already full.

David   02/08/2016 at 15:59

Andrew. There aren't any concrete proposals to build a rail station at Addenbrookes, the campus is connected already to the station by a busway. And the existing station is not 'central', if you've ever been to Cambridge you'll see what I mean.

DH   02/08/2016 at 16:03

Will this help services from Ely into Kings Cross? I travel in peak and the trains are incredibly overcrowded. Will it decrease journey times too as this service is frequently late, slow and far from desirable. At a cost of £4,884 per year this is not idea.

Sparky   02/08/2016 at 16:06

Do we know if the station will have escalators? Also any information on the train destinations from the station?

John Grant   02/08/2016 at 18:22

@DH: Stopping at the new station will add a couple of minutes to the journey time. If lots of people get off there, you might get a seat, but if lots get on your chance of getting a seat at the main station will be reduced. @Sparky: I don't think the service patterns have been decided yet; at one time it was thought it wouldn't open until the Thameslink services started. There was talk of most of the KGX services that currently terminate at Cambridge being extended there but I don't see how that'll work without cutting the dwell time to the point that once a train gets late it'll never catch up. I think it's planned that the ones that currently stop at Waterbeach will stop there as well, and no doubt also the 8-coach electrics. Stopping the diesels (to Norwich and Birmingham) seems unlikely as they accelerate more slowly than the electrics; currently non-stop diesels between Cambridge and Ely take the same time as the electrics that stop at Waterbeach.

Colin R   03/08/2016 at 00:42

Informed sources working on the timetable tell me that no trains will call at both Waterbeach and Cambridge North so the latter can handle the longer trains

John Grant   03/08/2016 at 10:29

Oh, great. So much for the new station providing access from the north. Will they upgrade the cycle route down the A10 to compensate?

Andrew Gwilt   07/08/2016 at 11:16

@David-Fair enough. I have heard that Cambridge South (or Addenbrookes) isn't planned to be built until 2019 or 2020.

Andrew Gwilt   07/08/2016 at 11:21

Which I found a few links about Cambridge South station. http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/addenbrooke-8217-s-station-moves-closer/story-28453047-detail/story http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/new-8216-cambridge-south-8217-railway-station-moves-closer-than-ever-after-major-study-says-it-can-be-built/story-29410511-detail/story

Jerry Alderson   07/08/2016 at 16:41

For £50m ths is going to be a VERY POOR station for passengers. The platforms will be 12-cars long but the canopies will only cover *two* of the 12 carriages. This will cause enormous bunching in wet weather and increase dwell times. Imagine people walking through 10 carriages in order to stay dry. We don't all carry umbrellas with us all the time. If you want a taxi then expect to get wet whilst waiting. Likewise for a bus. In the station building there will be toilets. The floorplan shows that the gents will have two urinals and one cubicle. The ladies get two cubicles, there will be one disabeld toilet. The 450 car park spaces is very pessimistic on patronage, but will be full from day one, in my opinion. It is being built based on the 800,000 travellers per year estimated in 2009 when the business case was made. When it opens eight years later that figure becomes ridiculous, especially as Cambridge station now has footfall over 10 million per annum. To believe it wil only get 8% of the patronage is absurd. Naturally there is no resilience in the station - this is Britain after all - so there is only one lift. If any of the two lifts necesary to use the train is out of order then a wheelchair user canot enter/exit the station. Based on the above you can probably guess the answer to "will there be escalators?"