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Ely railway station is on the Fen
line in the east of England, serving the city of Ely,
Cambridgeshire. It is 70 miles 30 chains (113.3 km) from London
Liverpool Street and is situated between Waterbeach and
Littleport stations on the Fen line to King's Lynn. It is an
important junction for three other lines; the Ely to
Peterborough Line, the Ipswich to Ely Line and the Norwich to
Ely line.
Ely is a busy station with trains running to a variety of
destinations including London, Cambridge, King's Lynn,
Birmingham, Nottingham, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool. It
is managed by Greater Anglia which is also one of four train
operators that serve the station, the others being Great
Northern, CrossCountry and East Midlands Railway.
The station was opened 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 by British
Rail in the early 1990s, at the time that electrification of the
line was taking place.
The station building was designed by Francis Thompson
(architect) although Sancton Wood as chief architect is often
given credit. On opening the station building had two Italianate
towers – one at the north end and the another above the booking
office. There were two cubed pavilions either side of an arcade.
When the station opened it had three platforms and these were
linked by a footbridge to the south of the station buildings.
This footbridge was later replaced (sometime before 1902) by a
substantial brick footbridge located at the north end of the
station but by 1925 a subway had been constructed and this is in
use today (2020).
In the 1920s there were carriage sidings to the east of the
station which were used by stock for local all stations trains
towards Newmarket, Peterborough, King's Lynn and Norwich. The
engine shed and goods yard were located south of the station and
a level crossing was located immediately north of the station.
The level crossing existed because the underbridge had limited
clearance so taller lorries had to travel this way sometimes
causing delays to the railway services.
The station was rebuilt in the 1929/1930 by the LNER in a
similar style and it is suspected that the towers were removed
at that time. While the rest of the structures remained intact,
during the remodelling in the 1990s the space for three tracks
between the platforms (the third track had been removed some
years earlier) was reduced to two and the lines through the
station were electrified. On 1 November 2018 following the
opening of the Ely bypass, the level crossing immediately north
of the station was closed to road traffic.
One and a half miles north of the station the line splits three
ways with the lines towards March and Peterborough, King's Lynn
and Norwich. There is also a loop that allows for traffic from
the King's Lynn and Norwich lines a direct route to March and
Peterborough that diverges here and joins the Peterborough line
at Ely West Junction.
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