Sandy railway station serves the town of
Sandy
Sandy may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Sandy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname
* Sandy (surname), a list of people
* Sandy (Iranian music band), Iranian singer, comp ...
in
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. It is on the
East Coast Main Line
The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its northern terminus at and southern terminus at . The key towns and cities of , , , , and are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Grea ...
, about 44 miles (71 km) from . Sandy is managed by
Great Northern but all train services are operated by
Thameslink
Thameslink is a mainline route on the British railway network, running from , , , , , and via central London to , , , Rainham, , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying more than ...
.
Sandy station was originally built in 1850 for the Great Northern Railway; the London and North Western Railway opened an adjacent station in 1862. The stations were later merged into one, which has since undergone many changes.
The present station has two large platforms and 4 main rail lines, a pair of "up and down" slow lines used by stopping services and a pair of "up and down" fast lines used by high speed services passing through. A fifth line extends off the "up" slow line which links into the remaining sidings and original bay platforms. There is also a sixth line off the "down" slow line that links to a siding beside Platform1.
History

The first section of the
Great Northern Railway (GNR) - that from to a junction with the
Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway
The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grims ...
at
Grimsby
Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town in Lincolnshire, England with a population of 86,138 (as of 2021). It is located near the mouth on the south bank of the Humber that flows to the North Sea. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes dir ...
- opened on 1 March 1848, but the southern section of the main line, between and , was not opened until August 1850. Sandy was one of the original stations, opening with the line on 7 August 1850.

The
Sandy and Potton Railway
Potton was a railway station on the Varsity Line which served the small town of the same name in Bedfordshire. Opened in 1857 as part of Sir William Peel's Sandy and Potton Railway, the station was initially situated further south near the Bi ...
was opened for goods traffic on 23 June 1857, and to passengers on 9 November 1857. It was later purchased by the Bedford and Cambridge Railway (B&CR), which closed the line in January 1862 for reconstruction. The line reopened on 7 July 1862, including a new station at Sandy separate from, but adjacent to, the GNR station. The B&CR was absorbed by the
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world.
Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...
(LNWR) in 1865. The eastern section of the Bedford-Cambridge route (sometimes known as the
Varsity Line
The Varsity Line was the main railway line that linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated by the London and North Western Railway.
In World War II, the line became a strategic route for freight avoiding London, a ...
) closed on 1 January 1968, and with it, the ex-LNWR platforms at Sandy.
The two stations were physically adjacent, and shared an island platform. In 1917 the LNWR station was placed under the management of the GNR, and then shared the booking facilities. After the closure of the Varsity Line, the station was considerably rebuilt in the early 1970s to give a 4-track layout throughout, and platforms on the slow lines only, thus removing a 2-track bottleneck on the East Coast Main Line.
Sandy railway station was the site of the English
unjust enrichment
Restitution and unjust enrichment is the field of law relating to gains-based recovery. In contrast with damages (the law of compensation), restitution is a claim or remedy requiring a defendant to give up benefits wrongfully obtained. Liability ...
case ''Great Northern Railway Co. v Swaffield'' (1874) LR 9 Exch 132, in which the defendant sent a horse to this railway station, to be collected. His employee arrived the next day, but the station master demanded that he pay livery stable costs for the night; the employee refused to pay, and did not collect the horse. The defendant arrived later, and demanded payment to compensate him for duress of goods (after the station master offered to pay livery stable costs out of pocket); after the station master refused to pay such compensation, the defendant left the horse in the possession of the station for four months during litigation. The Court of the Exchequer held the defendant liable for four months' stable costs, as the plaintiff in the case 'had not choice, unless they would leave the horse at the station or in the high road to his own danger and the danger of other people' (per Kelly CB). In this way the court recognised a limited exception to the rule that no claim for salvage be recognised by the courts outside the context of salvage in tidal waters. The stable costs were paid to the use of the defendant by way of necessity, and therefore constituted unjust enrichment.
Facilities

Sandy station has a small café inside the booking office on Platform 2. There is a large sheltered area with seating on Platform 1, and a smaller one on Platform 2. Both platforms have step-free access via the external road bridge. However the slope to the bridge is relatively steep on both sides of the railway and the footpath on the bridge is quite narrow.
In the later half of 2016, modern ticket barriers were installed at the entrance to both platforms along with a covered area to protect them from wind and rain damage. When in use, there are staff on hand if any issues arise.
The station has two modern touch screen ticket machines located in front of the booking office, and there are cycle storage facilities to the south of it. The station also has help points throughout, which were installed by former franchise holder
First Capital Connect
First Capital Connect (FCC) was a British train operating company, owned by FirstGroup, that operated the Thameslink and Great Northern route, Great Northern sectors from April 2006 to September 2014 which later became the Thameslink, Southern ...
.
Services
All services at Sandy are operated by
Thameslink
Thameslink is a mainline route on the British railway network, running from , , , , , and via central London to , , , Rainham, , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying more than ...
using
EMUs
Emus may refer to:
* Emu
The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the ...
.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:
* 2 tph to via , and
* 2 tph to (all stations)
On Sundays, the service is reduced to hourly and southbound services run to instead of Horsham.
Future
In 2017, there was speculation that the station might be relocated from its current position in the town centre to a new site just to the north of the town. In late January 2020, East West Rail Ltd announced that the route of EWR between and would be 'in the
Tempsford
Tempsford is a village and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of the county of Bedfordshire, England, about east north-east of the county town of Bedford.
The village is split by the A1 Great North Road and is located just bef ...
area', mid way between Sandy and St Neots.
Concern has been expressed locally that a new EWR/ECML interchange hub at
Tempsford railway station
Tempsford railway station was a railway station built by the Great Northern Railway to serve the village of Tempsford in Bedfordshire, England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. I ...
may lead to the closure of Sandy station.
Location
In the
chainage
The chain (abbreviated ch) is a Units of measurement, unit of length equal to 66 foot (unit), feet (22 yard (unit of length), yards), used in both the United States customary units, US customary and Imperial units, Imperial unit systems. It is su ...
notation traditionally used on the railways, it is from .
References
External links
* http://www.bedfordshire.gov.uk/CommunityAndLiving/ArchivesAndRecordOffice/CommunityArchives/Sandy/TheDeathOfASandyStationMaster.aspx (with photographs of both old stations)
{{TSGN and SE Stations, Peterborough=y, SN None=y, SE None=y
Railway stations in Bedfordshire
DfT Category E stations
Former Great Northern Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1850
Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway
Sandy, Bedfordshire
Former London and North Western Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1862
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1968
1862 establishments in England