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(All 28.4.1986 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)
Another place I've only visited once (so far), Ely in Cambridgeshire. The date is 28.4.1986 and the station is busy with a variety of diesel traction including classic DMUs. Sadly Eastern Region units were not numbered, so identification isn't easy. It's probably safe to say that all the units here are now scrapped. I particularly like the one that appears to be in GWR livery - it's actually a South Yorkshire Transport vehicle, so still quite a way from home.
You'll also notice a lot of steam age infrastructure still around, including semaphore signals.
Ely railway station serves the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. The station lies on the Fen Line from Cambridge to King's Lynn, which is electrified at 25 kV AC overhead. It is a busy station served by trains running to a variety of destinations including Cambridge, Stansted Airport, London (King's Cross and Liverpool Street), Ipswich, Norwich, King's Lynn, Peterborough, Leicester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool. Ely station was built in 1845 by the Eastern Counties Railway at a cost of £81,500, the land on which it was built being a marshy swamp.[2] The station was modified substantially in the early 1990s, at the time that electrification was taking place.
Three other non-electrified lines meet at Ely:
- The Breckland Line to Thetford and Norwich diverges from the Fen Line to the north of Ely.
- The line to March and Peterborough also diverges to the north.
- The line from Ipswich joins to the south of Ely station.
Ely station won first prize in the station of the year competition 1987 (medium-sized category).
Services
The station is served by four operators:
- CrossCountry trains provides an hourly service from Stansted Airport to Birmingham New Street. This service is routed via Cambridge, Peterborough andLeicester, and uses Class 170 Turbostar diesel multiple units.
- East Midlands Trains provides an (approximately) hourly service from Norwich to Liverpool via Peterborough, Nottingham, Sheffield, and Manchester. Services are operated using Class 158 diesel multiple units (or, occasionally, Class 156 diesel multiple units) which reverse at Ely.
- Great Northern serve the station as part of their service from London King's Cross to King's Lynn. Outside peak hours the services run non-stop between London and Cambridge as part of the half-hourly "Cambridge Cruiser" service. One train per hour then continues beyond Cambridge, stopping at all stations on the Fen Line to King's Lynn. The journey from King's Cross to Ely is timetabled to take just over an hour on the fastest services. Services are more frequent (up to every half an hour) during peak hours when demand is highest. During peak hours most trains divide (northbound) or couple (southbound) at Cambridge which adds some minutes to the journey time. In addition, during peak hours most services make additional stops between London Kings Cross and Cambridge which contributes further to an extended journey time. During recent years the number of direct services has increased; from the timetable change of December 2013 there are direct services from London every half hour from 16:44 to 23:14. Some off-peak services can take as little as 1 hour and 5 minutes between London and Ely. During peak hours they can take up to 1 hour and 21 minutes. Most services are operated by Class 365 electrical multiple unit. Additional peak services to/from London start or terminate at Ely.
- Abellio Greater Anglia serves the station with three routes:
- An hourly service between Cambridge and Norwich via the Breckland Line. These services use three coach Class 170 Turbostar units. Four units are diagrammed to work the hourly service.
- A two hourly service between Ipswich and Peterborough via Bury St Edmunds. These services also use three coach Class 170 Turbostar diesel multiple units. Two units are diagrammed to work the two hourly service.
- On weekdays there are four services that operate to London Liverpool Street in the morning peak, three of which originate at King's Lynn while one commences at Ely. There are four return journeys in the evening; one terminating at Ely while the other three continue to King's Lynn. There is no service on Saturday or Sunday. These services normally use Class 379 or Class 317electrical multiple units.
| Preceding station |  National Rail | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cambridge | CrossCountry | March | ||
|
Limited Service
| ||||
| Thetford | East Midlands Trains
Norwich-Liverpool
| Peterborough | ||
|
Limited Service
|
Limited Service
| |||
| Waterbeach | Great Northern
Fen Line
| Littleport | ||
| Cambridge | Abellio Greater Anglia | Brandon | ||
|
Limited Services
| ||||
| Bury St Edmunds | Abellio Greater Anglia
Ipswich-Peterborough
| Manea | ||
| Waterbeach | Abellio Greater Anglia
Liverpool Street-King's Lynn/Ely
Peak only
| Littleport | ||
| Historical railways | ||||
|
Line open, station closed
| Great Eastern Railway | Terminus | ||
|
Line open, station closed
| Great Eastern Railway | Terminus | ||
| Disused railways | ||||
|
Line and station closed
| Great Eastern Railway | Terminus | ||
Retail
There are two branches of Locoespresso on the station, one on platform 1 and the other on platform 2/3. These serve hot and cold drinks as well as snacks, magazines and newspapers. Platform 1 also includes an L.A. Golden Bean kiosk which sells hot and cold drinks and snacks.
Derailment
On Friday 22 June 2007 a goods train derailed at Hawk Bridge which carries the Ipswich line over the River Great Ouse a mile south of Ely. Photographs showed derailed wagons on their side, only prevented from plunging off the embankment by subsidiary structures and their attachment to the rest of the train. As a consequence of the derailment the bridge had to be rebuilt and there were no train services between Ely and Bury St. Edmunds until the works were completed on 21 December 2007.
Low bridge
Immediately north-east of Ely station, the railway lines pass on a bridge over the A142. The height available for road traffic passing beneath the bridge is only 9.0 feet (2.7 m) which is unusually low for a bridge over an A-road. Despite the various warnings, the limited headroom is a frequent cause of accidents. High vehicles must use a level crossing next to the bridge.
| Annual rail passenger usage* | |
|---|---|
| 2004/05 |  1.255 million |
| 2005/06 | 1.279 million |
| 2006/07 | 1.421 million |
| 2007/08 | 1.506 million |
| 2008/09 | 1.583 million |
| 2009/10 |  1.580 million |
| 2010/11 | 1.732 million |
| 2011/12 | 1.824 million |
| 2012/13 | 1.878 million |
| 2013/14 | 1.976 million |
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