I live in Ely and work near Cambridge North, so this bit helps me.
As do I, if you count the west side of the Science Park as 'near' - actually just over a mile away. As such Cambridge North should be great for me. However, it isn't. See below.
The first off peak train in the morning is now 9:17 instead of 8:58, but that stops at Cambridge North, so I'll arrive earlier than getting the 8.58 into Cambridge and coming back out again.
What is currently the 0928 is pretty busy now though, without gaining a lot of off-peak passengers such as yourself. I think it may end up very unpleasantly overcrowded.
Not least because the onwards travel options from Cambridge North are so poor. Unless you cycle, the only real option to access much of the Science Park, Cambridge Regional College etc. - most of the target commuting audience for the station - is a very uninspiring and dull walk of over a mile. (Or a whole one bus an hour on busway route 'N' - which Stagecoach in their infinite wisdom cut back from once every 20 minutes, just as usage was picking up). As such, most people currently either don't use the station, or cycle. And the last thing these overcrowded trains need is more people trying to bring bicycles onto them. Hence, presumably, why GN decided it wasn't possible to call these trains at Cambridge North when it opened last year. Nothing has changed since, except the lack of any progress on longer trains.
(Anecdote time : I tried using Cambridge North for my morning commute last year. I don't cycle. After a few months I found the bleakness of the whole area was really getting me down, and since about September I've once again been going into Cambridge main and getting the guided bus back to the Science Park. This lengthens my commute but on the whole it works better for my sanity... In a few years when there are shops etc. in the area, and hopefully a decent bus service to the Science Park/CRC, it may seem rather more appealing)
In the evening rush hour, at the moment there are some big gaps in the departures from Cambridge North to Ely (eg nothing between 17:26 and 18:06, or between 18:26 and 19:26). That is improved in the new timetable.
Agreed, but with the same caveats as above. Without capacity improvements I'm not sure this is as helpful as it would otherwise be.
Hopefully I'm wrong and things will work out nicely with the extra stops at Cambridge North, but I'm not yet convinced.
It is a pain that that last train to Ely from Cambridge has got earlier.
Yes, I continue to be irritated by this, especially given that the consultation timetable had a later train...