History
The Eastern Counties Railway opened to Cambridge in 1845. The station building, with its long classical façade and porte-cochère (infilled during the 20th century), has been attributed to both Sancton Wood and Francis Thompson and is listed Grade II. The long platform (platforms 1 and 4) is typical of its period but was unusual in that (apart from a brief period in the mid-19th century) it was not supplemented by another through platform until platforms 7 and 8 were added in 2011. There were major platform lengthenings and remodellings of the main building in 1863 and 1908. The station layout was altered in 1896 by deviating the Newmarket line approaches.
The University of Cambridge helped block later 19th-century attempts to create a central station. It also took powers to prevent undergraduates travelling by train.
Historically, services from the station included:
- Great Eastern Railway
- Main line from London Liverpool Street to Norwich and King’s Lynn
- Cross-country services to Bury St Edmunds via Newmarket and to Colchester
- Cross-country services via Ely, March and the Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Line to northern England
- Branch line to St Ives and beyond
- Branch line to Mildenhall
- Great Northern Railway
- Services to London King's Cross via Hitchin, including the Cambridge Buffet Car Expresses
- London and North Western Railway
- Cross-country "Varsity Line" to Oxford
- Midland Railway
- Services via St Ives to Kettering
Each of the four companies also had its own goods facilities in the station area, and, except for the M.R., its own motive power depot. The G.E.R. maintained a special locomotive for the Royal Train here. Under the London and North Eastern Railway in the 1920s signal boxes in the station area were converted to electric operation.
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.
When the link to Stansted Airport from London Liverpool Street opened in 1991 the Hitchin-Cambridge Line became more important; all non-stop trains now take this route to London Kings Cross, reducing congestion on the very busy stretch of the West Anglia Main Line between London Liverpool Street and Bishop's Stortford.
The "CB1" area in front of the station buildings had been due for redevelopment by Ashwell Property Group. In December 2009 the developers went bankrupt and reformed under the name Brookgate. Part of the redevelopment scheme had included a £1 million contribution towards the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway scheme passing through the area.
In 2012 the station infrastructure was under scrutiny as it emerged passengers were forced to queue for over 40 minutes to purchase tickets.
Read more about this topic: Cambridge Railway Station
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