London Banter - View Single Post

[email protected] · December 20th 15, 05:00 PM posted to uk.transport.london,cam.transport

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
16:26:18 on Sat, 19 Dec 2015, remarked:

When Ely North Junction was rationalised there was no direct Cambridge-
Norwich service (introduced in 2002) and the idea of half-hourly trains
to and from King's Lynn was in the land of the fairies. There was no
Ipswich-Peterborough service either.

I used to get that from Peterborough to Ely, to change onto a train
for Cambridge. Operated by a dogbox, but rammed full and
standing-everywhere. A lot of people got off at Whittlesea though.

Before then, was the Soham branch freight-only, or did they run
something as far north as Ely?

No. I wasn't right either it seems. Looking at the summer 1991 BR Passenger
Timetable I've just dug out of my cellar, it seems there were but 6 trains a
day each way Peterborough-Ipswich with just 4 from Cambridge to Ipswich plus
4 Cambridge Bury-St-Edmunds and back services connecting into 4 of the
Peterborough-Ipswichs. Now it's hourly from Cambridge to Ipswich and 8
two-hourly trains between Peterborough and Ipswich.

People forget how much rail traffic has grown since privatisation.

And especially in the Cambridge vicinity. When I was travelling
between Royston and London in around 2002 the 7.45 from Cambridge was
just 4 cars, coupling to an additional 4 cars at Royston.

When my daughter (now 29) was born, the progress of my wife's labour was
marked by the passing of the next Cambridge-Royston two-car class 101
shuttle DMU. They ran hourly and you can't see the railway from the Rosie
any more. They built the ATC in the way.

--
Colin Rosenstiel