Waterbeach railway station is on the Fen line in the

east of England East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact ...

, serving the village of

Waterbeach Waterbeach is a village north of Cambridge on the edge of The Fens, in the South Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. It was designated a "new town" in 2018. History Early periods Waterbeach is on the Car Dyke, a Roman waterway ...

, Cambridgeshire. It is measured from

London Liverpool Street Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a major central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is ...

and from ; it is situated between and 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 Greater Anglia (legal name Transport UK East Anglia Limited) is a British train operating company owned as a joint venture by Transport UK Group and Mitsui & Co. It operates the East Anglia franchise, providing the commuter and inter-city se ...

. 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 A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, o ...

. 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.

History

Before electrification,

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

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 Downham Market, sometimes simply referred to as Downham, is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Norfolk, England. It lies on the edge of the Fens, on the River Great Ouse, approximately 11 miles south of King's Lynn, 39 ...

, and the station sees a lot of parking problems.

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. The new station will be closer to the planned housing development, which is expected to include 8,000 to 9,000 homes. 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 Homes England is the non-departmental public body that funds new affordable housing in England. It was founded on 1 January 2018 to replace the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). HCA in turn was established by the Housing and Regeneration Act ...

and a £20 million contribution from the GCP. Planning permission for the station was granted in 2020, with construction scheduled to start in 2026 and completion expected by 2027.

Services

Great Northern operate all off-peak services at Waterbeach 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 (non-stop from ) * 2 tph to of which 1 continues to During the peak hours, the services to London King's Cross call additionally at and and all northbound services are extended to King's Lynn. The station is also served by a number of peak-hour services operated by

. The station is served by two daily services from and one to as well as two daily services to and one from

References

External links

Fen Line Users Association (FLUA)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waterbeach Railway Station Railway stations in Cambridgeshire DfT Category F2 stations Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway Railway stations served by Greater Anglia Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1845

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

Fen line