Ely railway station

Ely
Location
Place	Ely
Local authority	East Cambridgeshire
Grid reference	TL542793
Operations
Station code	ELY
Managed by	Greater Anglia
Number of platforms	3
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
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
History
Opened 1845. (1845.)
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Ely from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.

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 London King's Cross, London Liverpool Street, Liverpool Lime Street, King's Lynn, Stansted Airport, Ipswich, Norwich, Cambridge, Nottingham, Sheffield, Manchester Piccadilly and Birmingham New Street. 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. 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 Birmingham New Street to Stansted Airport. This service is routed via Leicester, Peterborough and Cambridge 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 change direction at Ely.

• First Capital Connect 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. Some off-peak services can take as little as 1 hour and 3 minutes between London and Ely while during peak hours they can take up to 1 hour and 21 minutes. Most services are operated by Class 365 electrical multiple unit.

• 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.
  • The Ipswich-Ely-Peterborough service which operates at two-hourly intervals using Class 170 Turbostar diesel multiple units. Two units are diagrammed to work the two hourly service.
  • On weekdays there are four services that operate between Ely and London Liverpool Street in the morning peak, two of which originate at Kings Lynn while the other two commence at Ely. There are four return journeys in the evening; one terminates at Ely while the other three continue to Kings Lynn. There is no service on Saturday or Sunday. These services normally use Class 379 or Class 317 electrical multiple units.

The Hunstanton portion of the 10.39 service from Liverpool Street at Ely in 1958

A busy scene at Ely railway station

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
March		CrossCountry Birmingham-Stansted Airport		Cambridge
Manea Limited Service
Peterborough		East Midlands Trains Liverpool-Norwich		Thetford
March Limited Service				Brandon Limited Service
Waterbeach		First Capital Connect London-King's Lynn		Littleport
Cambridge		Greater Anglia Breckland Line		Brandon
				Shippea Hill Limited Service
Bury St Edmunds		Greater Anglia Ipswich-Peterborough		March
Kennett Limited Service
Waterbeach		Greater Anglia Liverpool Street-Cambridge-King's Lynn Peak only		Littleport
Historical railways
Soham Line open, station closed		Great Eastern Railway Ely and Newmarket Railway		Terminus
Chettisham Line open, station closed		Great Eastern Railway Ely to Peterborough Line		Terminus
Disused railways
Stretham Line and station closed		Great Eastern Railway Ely and St Ives 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.

See also

• Railways in Ely

External links

Media related to Ely railway station at Wikimedia Commons

• Photographs of Derailment on Newmarket Bridge
• Train times and station information for Ely railway station from National Rail