Waterbeach railway station
Waterbeach  | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 The northbound platform at Waterbeach in March 2014 | |||||
| General information | |||||
| Location | Waterbeach, South Cambridgeshire England | ||||
| Grid reference | TL500650 | ||||
| Owner | Network Rail | ||||
| Manager | Great Northern | ||||
| Platforms | 2 | ||||
| Other information | |||||
| Station code | WBC | ||||
| Classification | DfT category F2 | ||||
| History | |||||
Original company | Eastern Counties Railway | ||||
| Pre-grouping | Great Eastern Railway | ||||
| Post-grouping | London and North Eastern Railway | ||||
| Key dates | |||||
| 30 July 1845 | Opened[1] | ||||
| Passengers | |||||
| 2020–21 |  0.100 million | ||||
| 2021–22 |  0.265 million | ||||
| 2022–23 | 0.309 million | ||||
| 2023–24 | 0.332 million | ||||
| 2024–25 | 0.372 million | ||||
| |||||
| |||||
Waterbeach railway station is on the Fen line in the east of England, serving the village of Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire. It is 61 miles 1 chain (98.2 km) measured from London Liverpool Street and 63 miles 29 chains (102 km) from London King's Cross; it is situated between Cambridge North and Ely stations. Its three-letter station code is WBC.
The station and most trains calling are operated by Great Northern, with limited peak services being operated by Greater Anglia.
Waterbeach station is unstaffed, and has only basic waiting shelters on each of the two platforms. All the station buildings have been demolished. The platforms are staggered on each side of a half barrier level crossing. Until electrification and the automation of the crossing, the platforms were located opposite each other.
Waterbeach railway station is planned to be relocated north to support the development of the Waterbeach New Town, with completion expected by 2027.[2]
History
Before electrification, British Rail services often did not stop at Waterbeach; or if they did, stops would be unofficial. However, since electrification, virtually all King's Lynn/Ely - Cambridge/London services have stopped there (the present timetable shows only three Monday - Friday in both directions not stopping there) passenger numbers surged, with people all across the area north of Cambridge in South Cambridgeshire using it as their primary station. As a result, passenger numbers are nearly as high as Downham Market, and the station sees a lot of parking problems.[3]
Future relocation
Waterbeach railway station is planned to be relocated approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometres) north of its current location to support the development of a new town on the former Waterbeach Barracks site.[4] The new station will be closer to the planned housing development, which is expected to include 8,000 to 9,000 homes.[5]
The relocation was originally to be managed by the developer, but the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) assumed responsibility for the project in 2022 after the developer was unable to secure commercial funding. Funding includes a £23 million repayable grant from Homes England and a £20 million contribution from the GCP.[6] Planning permission for the station was granted in 2020, with construction scheduled to start in 2026 and completion expected by 2027.[2]
Services
Great Northern operate all off-peak services at Waterbeach using a mix of Class 387 and Class 379 EMUs .[7][8] Greater Anglia operate select peak time services to London Liverpool St, using Class 720 EMUs.[9]
Great Northern's typical off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) is:[10]
- 2 tph to London King's Cross (non-stop from Cambridge South). During peak times, these services call additionally at Royston and Letchworth Garden City.
- 2 tph to Ely of which 1 continues to King's Lynn. During Peak times both trains continue to King's Lynn.
6 Greater Anglia services extend from Cambridge north to Ely each day. [9]
| Preceding station | National Rail |
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Northern | ||||
References
- ↑ Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 242. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
- 1 2 "Waterbeach railway station relocation delayed to 2027". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
- ↑ Brown, Raymond (20 February 2017). "New tactics to tackle bad parking as police flooded with complaints". cambridgenews. Archived from the original on 4 March 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 April 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ↑ May 2019, Mark Wilding 14. "Green light for 6,500-home Cambridgeshire new town". www.planningresource.co.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ↑ "Funding of £23m approved to relocate Waterbeach train station". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
- ↑ "New trains on London to King's Lynn route". 23 May 2017. Archived from the original on 10 December 2018. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
- ↑ "Class 379s enter traffic with GTR". www.modernrailways.com. 11 February 2025. Retrieved 16 July 2026.
- 1 2 "Timetables". Greater Anglia. Retrieved 16 July 2026.
- ↑ Table 17, 25 National Rail timetable, May 2022
External links
- Train times and station information for Waterbeach railway station from National Rail