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Roland Perry · December 20th 15, 05:15 PM posted to uk.transport.london,cam.transport

In message , at 12:00:05
on Sun, 20 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.

Go sit on the naughty step!!

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.

I've looked at my 1975 timetable (the first Big Red one) Table 18 and
there are 4 trains a day on the Ipswich-Peterborough route. One is in
the small hours so is presumably primarily a mail-train, and another is
a boat-train from Harwich to Manchester.

--
Roland Perry