Waterbeach railway station

Notes
	Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Waterbeach
Waterbeach
	The northbound platform at Waterbeach in March 2014
General information
Location	Waterbeach, South Cambridgeshire; England
Grid reference	TL500650
Owned by	Network Rail
Managed by	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
Passengers
2018/19	0.408 million
2019/20	0.378 million
2020/21	0.100 million
2021/22	0.265 million
2022/23	0.309 million
Notes
Notes
	Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

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.

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.^[2]

Future plans

Plans to develop a New Town of 8,000 to 9,000 homes on the former Waterbeach Barracks site have been outlined by South Cambridgeshire District Council. As part of the proposal, there are plans to close the existing station and build a new station closer to the New Town.^[3]

Services

Great Northern operate all off-peak services at Waterbeach using Class 387 EMUs.^[4]

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:^[5]

2 tph to London King's Cross (non-stop from Cambridge)
2 tph to Ely of which 1 continues to King's Lynn

During the peak hours, the services to London King's Cross call additionally at Royston and Letchworth Garden City and all northbound services are extended to King's Lynn.

The station is also served by a number of peak-hour services operated by Greater Anglia. The station is served by two daily services from and one to Norwich as well as two daily services to and one from London Liverpool Street.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Cambridge North		Great Northern Fen Line		Ely
Cambridge North		Greater Anglia Fen Line Peak Hours Only		Ely

References

^ Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 242. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
^ 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)
^ "New trains on London to King's Lynn route". 23 May 2017. Archived from the original on 10 December 2018. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
^ Table 17, 25 National Rail timetable, May 2022