Presumably to stop season ticket holders requesting ticket changes. Also, some online sellers don't have the station available yet.
-
Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Cambridge North: Cambridge's new station
- Thread starter Johnuk123
- Start date
- Status
Presumably to stop season ticket holders requesting ticket changes. Also, some online sellers don't have the station available yet.
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
TheDavibob
Member
- Joined
- 10 Oct 2016
- Messages
- 407
Not purely, the stations are close enough that somebody might leave from North and come back to Central if, for example, they happen to be at the wrong part of the hour for North. If they live somewhere in between the two, so North is more convenient but Central isn't awful, then a "stations group" isn't too bad a thing.
Won't be as much of an issue when most of the trains run to North, however, so I imagine it will eventually be dropped.
I noticed a section of Milton Road (north of the science park entrance) was being resurfaced overnight this week. Apparently there are some new layouts/markings related to accessing the new station by road from the north. This work should be completed tonight.
This is from a letter from the county council a few weeks ago:
I'm away at the moment, so I don't know if they will finish early.
methethpropbut
Member
Not sure if anyone has uploaded the Great Northern timetables, but I picked up a bunch from Cambridge and scanned them in...
higher quality:
http://i.imgur.com/xi3bpV2.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/GpKk0Fy.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/fuTeNoa.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/gIQco0N.jpg
higher quality:
http://i.imgur.com/xi3bpV2.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/GpKk0Fy.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/fuTeNoa.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/gIQco0N.jpg
Attachments
Last edited:
All are available here if anyone wants to download them:
https://www.greatnorthernrail.com/travel-information/plan-your-journey/timetables
No major changes other than the addition of Cambridge North.
Last edited:
Cambridge North station is open.
On platform 1, and platforms 2-3, there is a waiting room with 6 mains and USB power sockets. There are also a few bus shelter-style waiting rooms.
Trains in the bay platform (3), stop at the far end of the platform, 100m from the steps up to the bridge. This means they have plenty of space in the platform, in case they need to park additional trains in case of disruption. The downside is that there are going to be people who arrive late, see the train at the far end of the, and find that it has set off before they run to get there.
The stair cases are a bit narrower than the ones at Cambridge. There is a gulley channel down one side for bicycle wheels, but you need to tilt the bike over a bit, or the pedal catches on the fence bars, and also hope that you don't meet another cyclist coming in the other direction. The staircases down to the platforms are straight, so you could see if someone else is coming and wait for them. The one into the ticket hall has a dog leg, so you just have to hope it is clear, or take the lift instead.
At the moment half of the ticket hall is open. It has the barriers, 3 ticket machines, and a small side hall which leads to a staff room. There is a bigger room which will take the shops, but that is not open. There are toilets on the other side from the barriers.
The 3 ticket machines all take cash and cards, but the front screen hasn't been programmed with the common tickets yet, and so you can't get things like an Anglia Day Ranger ticket.
The Milton Road has been resurfaced between the A14 and the junction with Cowley Road. There is now a dedicated lane to turn into Cowley Road, one to go into Cambridge and 1 for the Science Park, which splits into 2 near the traffic lights. Speaking as someone who works off Cowley Road, "... and about time too".
The first arrival at platform 1, Cambridge North, the 10.15 from Norwich
The stairs from platform 1
From the bridge
The Milton Road/Cowley Road junction
Video of a Guided Bus passing outside Cambridge North
Video of a 317 waiting at the far end of the bay platform 3 of Cambridge North
On platform 1, and platforms 2-3, there is a waiting room with 6 mains and USB power sockets. There are also a few bus shelter-style waiting rooms.
Trains in the bay platform (3), stop at the far end of the platform, 100m from the steps up to the bridge. This means they have plenty of space in the platform, in case they need to park additional trains in case of disruption. The downside is that there are going to be people who arrive late, see the train at the far end of the, and find that it has set off before they run to get there.
The stair cases are a bit narrower than the ones at Cambridge. There is a gulley channel down one side for bicycle wheels, but you need to tilt the bike over a bit, or the pedal catches on the fence bars, and also hope that you don't meet another cyclist coming in the other direction. The staircases down to the platforms are straight, so you could see if someone else is coming and wait for them. The one into the ticket hall has a dog leg, so you just have to hope it is clear, or take the lift instead.
At the moment half of the ticket hall is open. It has the barriers, 3 ticket machines, and a small side hall which leads to a staff room. There is a bigger room which will take the shops, but that is not open. There are toilets on the other side from the barriers.
The 3 ticket machines all take cash and cards, but the front screen hasn't been programmed with the common tickets yet, and so you can't get things like an Anglia Day Ranger ticket.
The Milton Road has been resurfaced between the A14 and the junction with Cowley Road. There is now a dedicated lane to turn into Cowley Road, one to go into Cambridge and 1 for the Science Park, which splits into 2 near the traffic lights. Speaking as someone who works off Cowley Road, "... and about time too".
The first arrival at platform 1, Cambridge North, the 10.15 from Norwich
The stairs from platform 1
From the bridge
The Milton Road/Cowley Road junction
Video of a Guided Bus passing outside Cambridge North
Video of a 317 waiting at the far end of the bay platform 3 of Cambridge North
Last edited:
Re: Stopping at the far end of Platform 3.
Presumably, future longer rolling stock is likely to be of fixed/longer formation anyway (e.g Class 700, new Greater Anglia fleet, etc.), so won't be quite as extreme (in general) as how far away the end of a 4-car Class 317 will stop at the moment.
Presumably, future longer rolling stock is likely to be of fixed/longer formation anyway (e.g Class 700, new Greater Anglia fleet, etc.), so won't be quite as extreme (in general) as how far away the end of a 4-car Class 317 will stop at the moment.
There is only one station down that way. The road signs near Cambridge station just have the BR logo and "station".
If you're driving in the North of Cambridge and you want to pick someone up who has arrived by train, then its probably quickest for them to get on a train to Cambridge North and pick them up from there. A ticket to "Cambridge" would also be valid to "Cambridge North".
dk1
Veteran Member
Few issues today with passengers unable to board already full to capacity Norwich services. The GEML is as usual blocked again meaning the Breckland route is taking the strain.
southern442
Established Member
Not for Advance tickets.
I attempted to buy a Waterbeach to London Terminals ticket at Cambridge North today. The ticket machines don't offer a "tickets from another station" option.
The lady at the gateline, as helpful as she tried to be, didn't quite understand why I wanted to do this (needed to return somewhere different). A guy she was talking to (he was either former staff or off duty, nevertheless, very helpful) took me over the footbridge and onto Platform 1 where a number of Great Northern RPIs who live locally were travelling to Cambridge on a Greater Anglia service. Once on-board, they sold me the correct ticket along with a comment about how odd it was to sell a ticket on a different TOC train.
As an aside, I saw a completely new (to me anyway) ticket issuing system in use by the GN RPIs. It consisted of a tablet computer, very small Chip and PIN device and separate printer. The printer used standard cardboard credit card sized stock, so this is not the new system that prints onto a roll of paper.
The lady at the gateline, as helpful as she tried to be, didn't quite understand why I wanted to do this (needed to return somewhere different). A guy she was talking to (he was either former staff or off duty, nevertheless, very helpful) took me over the footbridge and onto Platform 1 where a number of Great Northern RPIs who live locally were travelling to Cambridge on a Greater Anglia service. Once on-board, they sold me the correct ticket along with a comment about how odd it was to sell a ticket on a different TOC train.
As an aside, I saw a completely new (to me anyway) ticket issuing system in use by the GN RPIs. It consisted of a tablet computer, very small Chip and PIN device and separate printer. The printer used standard cardboard credit card sized stock, so this is not the new system that prints onto a roll of paper.
dk1
Veteran Member
Is it not the standard machines used by GA conductors? Although they print most on toilet paper (the card ones are awfully unreliable) tickets such as PlusBus have to be done on card.
Just done a bit of reading on this. That certainly seems to be the case. New system supports any Android phone or tablet, plus a variety of different bluetooth credit card readers and printers. It can print onto credit card sized or till receipt stock, as required by the TOC.
Actually seems like quite a versatile system.
gingerheid
Established Member
- Joined
- 2 Apr 2006
- Messages
- 1,498
The station seems like a bit of a missed opportunity, which is a shame.
It could have served as a park and ride for London site for quite a wide area to the North of Cambridge... but not on the service levels it's seeing
Also, it seems to me that a lot of the published timetables are a bit unusable, whether online journey planners, the NR pocket timetable or printed
The only timetable that shows all the services between Cambridge and Cambridge North is in the Cambridge to Ely, Peterborough & Norwich section of the AGA regional timetable. This shows connections to Liverpool Street and Stansted Airport, so is useful and usable to that extent.
I started trying to put my own together for Kings Cross, because I couldn't find one anywhere (it's sad that the National Rail Timetable doesn't show connections )
Apart form the lack of services to Waterbeach and the dodgy connections to Peterborough the particularly sad thing I found is that the connections from the KX fasts that don't go to it aren't very good at all. In particular, the only time there is a one hour gap the service from KX to CMB is... 1614 to 1714!!!
This happens because the 1644 arrives in Cambridge at 1730, which doesn't allow enough time to connect onto the 1732. It's a shame they haven't been able to hold the 1732 back three mins to make this a viable connection, as the 1732 is a GN service that terminates at CMB and doesn't need to leave again until 1747.
It's a similar story throughout the day; the xx44s from London arrive at xx30, just missing the xx28s to CMB. However at other times of day it's generally possible to use xx52 services from CBG to CMB that have come in from Liverpool Street, which only make the journey around 19mins longer than a direct service would have been.
The overall effect of this is unfortunate. Unless you know which train you'll be getting back from London the average journey time from CBG to CMB (including connection times) is something like 15 mins (or longer if your potential departure times include 1615-1715). This means that unless CMB is more than 15 mins closer to you than CBG you may be better off going to CBG. If you have a bike that almost certainly means you're better off going to CBG...
One of the other great prospects for this station would be connections from the Guided Busway. It offers an entirely off road connection to St Ives in just 22mins, via the villages along the way and the Northstowe new town that just just started to see its first residents. There's therefore potential for a bus link to serve thousands of non rail connected residents and be super reliable.
Unfortunately the "N" service introduced to serve the station generally starts short of St Ives at Longstanton P&R, and is timetabled to continue to do a loop in the city center and return to Cambridge North in a highly ambitious 26 mins (even at rush hour). Further; it looks like the service only has 6 mins recovery time for each full return journey. Obviously serving the city centre gives the service a higher chance of commercial success, but I fear that the lack of reliability this will introduce will mean that rail passengers would be better off taking the longer and more frequent journey to Cambridge Station, from where they can take their chances at a far better choice of trains and selection of return buses.
Finally, bus links from within Cambridge itself are really very limited. The main service is this one: https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/Timetables/East/HYBRIDS/CA - CITI 2 - HYBRID.pdf (second half of the document). There's nothing from the remainder of the north of Cambridge at all (and the location of the station means that it would be hard to modify any other routes to go there). There's really only a few hundred yards of that route that aren't either places from where you'd be better going to Cambridge station or places from where you could walk to Cambridge North! Also, I suspect they will quickly realise that diverting the service away from the Science Park has been a bad idea as far more people would have wanted to take the bus there!
It could have served as a park and ride for London site for quite a wide area to the North of Cambridge... but not on the service levels it's seeing
Also, it seems to me that a lot of the published timetables are a bit unusable, whether online journey planners, the NR pocket timetable or printed
The only timetable that shows all the services between Cambridge and Cambridge North is in the Cambridge to Ely, Peterborough & Norwich section of the AGA regional timetable. This shows connections to Liverpool Street and Stansted Airport, so is useful and usable to that extent.
I started trying to put my own together for Kings Cross, because I couldn't find one anywhere (it's sad that the National Rail Timetable doesn't show connections
)Apart form the lack of services to Waterbeach and the dodgy connections to Peterborough the particularly sad thing I found is that the connections from the KX fasts that don't go to it aren't very good at all. In particular, the only time there is a one hour gap the service from KX to CMB is... 1614 to 1714!!!
This happens because the 1644 arrives in Cambridge at 1730, which doesn't allow enough time to connect onto the 1732. It's a shame they haven't been able to hold the 1732 back three mins to make this a viable connection, as the 1732 is a GN service that terminates at CMB and doesn't need to leave again until 1747.
It's a similar story throughout the day; the xx44s from London arrive at xx30, just missing the xx28s to CMB. However at other times of day it's generally possible to use xx52 services from CBG to CMB that have come in from Liverpool Street, which only make the journey around 19mins longer than a direct service would have been.
The overall effect of this is unfortunate. Unless you know which train you'll be getting back from London the average journey time from CBG to CMB (including connection times) is something like 15 mins (or longer if your potential departure times include 1615-1715). This means that unless CMB is more than 15 mins closer to you than CBG you may be better off going to CBG. If you have a bike that almost certainly means you're better off going to CBG...
One of the other great prospects for this station would be connections from the Guided Busway. It offers an entirely off road connection to St Ives in just 22mins, via the villages along the way and the Northstowe new town that just just started to see its first residents. There's therefore potential for a bus link to serve thousands of non rail connected residents and be super reliable.
Unfortunately the "N" service introduced to serve the station generally starts short of St Ives at Longstanton P&R, and is timetabled to continue to do a loop in the city center and return to Cambridge North in a highly ambitious 26 mins (even at rush hour). Further; it looks like the service only has 6 mins recovery time for each full return journey. Obviously serving the city centre gives the service a higher chance of commercial success, but I fear that the lack of reliability this will introduce will mean that rail passengers would be better off taking the longer and more frequent journey to Cambridge Station, from where they can take their chances at a far better choice of trains and selection of return buses.
Finally, bus links from within Cambridge itself are really very limited. The main service is this one: https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/Timetables/East/HYBRIDS/CA - CITI 2 - HYBRID.pdf (second half of the document). There's nothing from the remainder of the north of Cambridge at all (and the location of the station means that it would be hard to modify any other routes to go there). There's really only a few hundred yards of that route that aren't either places from where you'd be better going to Cambridge station or places from where you could walk to Cambridge North! Also, I suspect they will quickly realise that diverting the service away from the Science Park has been a bad idea as far more people would have wanted to take the bus there!
Last edited:
Probably due to new station hype and line closures rather than underestimating capacity
Probably this is the case. When I was boarding at Ely in the early afternoon a lot more people than usual let the x58 Kings Cross go and caught the ex-Norwich instead.
I was moaning about this in another thread a couple of weeks back with respect to Ely potentially losing its ticket office. If you don't have a manned ticket office, this is required! Especially in this case, where there is interavailability with another station.
As to how one is supposed to buy a PlusBus with an existing season ticket when there isn't a manned office, I've no idea.
And even though they have a 'travelcards' button, none are available (there are no fares), and there are no notices on the machines yet instructing people what to do if they want one! Instead people need to buy a travelcard starting from Waterbeach or Cambridge (relying upon the easement) but the machines haven't been configured to sell these. (I wonder if the easement has been programmed into the ticket barriers.)
But you couldn't make this up - a brand new barriered station where the machines don't offer for sale one of the most popular ranges of tickets!
Last edited:
I noticed both wide gates were left open all day. They were manned, but presumably many people (like myself) were allowed through without tickets. Seemed odd that the gate staff were not equipped with ticket selling equipment - what would they do if you arrived without a ticket?
When I arrived yesterday morning, one machine was completely out of use. The other two couldn't accept card payments or offer ToD. This was fixed very quickly, however.
The whole station seems geared up for commuters as a destination station, but with little thought for local people using it for leisure. I have the choice of a 3.5 mile walk to Cambridge or 1 mile to Cambridge North. I will probably continue to use Cambridge on Sundays, since the connection off the KGX services (along with the 100+ metre walk up Platform 3) took almost as long as just walking all the way home.
You just have to accept that in the 21st Century world, trains don't do connections any more. Unlike delays etc, connections are not reported to the DfT, so are at the bottom of any management priority. Whether this is inconvenient to passengers is quite irrelevant.
Sorry.
Sorry.
TheDavibob
Member
- Joined
- 10 Oct 2016
- Messages
- 407
They were unmanned in the evening, I just walked in and had a wander. Plenty of staff on the platforms, though.
With regards train provision, the current (reasonably naff) service provision is limited time only (as has been gone into in great detail). The final timetable with Thameslink is 2tph to Ely (+1 Kings Lynn) ; 2 tph Kings Cross and 2 tph Brighton via Thameslink, coupled with all the (current) GA services (including the proposed Norwich - Stansted). One could almost argue that the station opened "too soon".
When fully up and running it will be my main station, though for the time being I'll stick with Central (more frequent trains to KX).With regards the "N" service - whilst I can accept the annoyance of no direct St. Ives - Station link, the N is presumably the first workings of a Northstowe service (it's in the name), hence the reason it starts at Longstanton. When Northstowe is properly up and running I imagine there won't actually be capacity on the A anyway, so it makes sense to split them (annoying as it is).
The crap bus links are due to Cambridge's ludicrously radial bus network, but I for one am not actually complaining about the revised route of the Citi2 -- it actually gives me a bus route that goes from near my house to a railway station, which is a novelty. I know I can walk from mine to the station (I did it yesterday) or, as I'll usually do, cycle, but the option of being able to take heavy luggage certainly appeals.
I hadn't looked in detail at the timetables; but I had seen claims that there's no fast trains to King's Cross in the morning. Turns out this is wrong- the front 8 carriages of two services that start as 4 from Kings Lynn now start at CMB, running in just ahead of the KLN portion- departing half past six and half past seven from CMB
gingerheid
Established Member
- Joined
- 2 Apr 2006
- Messages
- 1,498
Yes, at first the online journey planners weren't showing them, you could only see them on realtime trains...
Travelcard fares now seem to exist. Though there's no super-off-peak version of them for weekends, so buying a ticket that starts from Waterbeach or Cambridge on Saturday and Sunday is cheaper.
I used Cambridge North on a trip to Norwich yesterday, and was generally impressed. There were less than a dozen people catching the 9:11 direct service in the morning, and the return leg using the 16:57 EMT service from Norwich, changing at Ely was as quick as the direct service. Few people got off at Cambridge North, but more were there to join that service, which was non-stop to Kings Cross after stopping at the main Cambridge station.
I had to buy a ticket on the train as I wanted a Ranger ticket they couldn't issue quickly, and noted that the indicator boards stripped the Norwich train off the board 30 seconds before it's scheduled arrival, even though it was running a minute of two late and I was able to tackle the fuji-like climb up to the overbridge and down to the platform without undue haste to catch the train. I wonder why new stations like this and Oxford Parkway need such high overbridges compared to other stations I use that also have overhead wires.
I used the new guided bus route N, which was convenient, but it still doesn't make a very good connection with the X5 Oxford to Cambridge route, in either direction requiring you to cross busy roads / junctions in the Midsummer Common area without the aid of pedestrian crossings.
I had to buy a ticket on the train as I wanted a Ranger ticket they couldn't issue quickly, and noted that the indicator boards stripped the Norwich train off the board 30 seconds before it's scheduled arrival, even though it was running a minute of two late and I was able to tackle the fuji-like climb up to the overbridge and down to the platform without undue haste to catch the train. I wonder why new stations like this and Oxford Parkway need such high overbridges compared to other stations I use that also have overhead wires.
I used the new guided bus route N, which was convenient, but it still doesn't make a very good connection with the X5 Oxford to Cambridge route, in either direction requiring you to cross busy roads / junctions in the Midsummer Common area without the aid of pedestrian crossings.
Last edited:
New electrical standard. Any point of the station that can be accessed by passengers must have a physical barrier to the overhead wires, or 3.5m from any live part of the overhead wires. For a platform of standard 915mm height, this puts the contact wire at a minimum of approx 4.5m above rail level. Add in standard height for the droppers from the catenary wire, maintenance tolerance, and the necessary gap to the underside of the bridge, and you're over 6metres.
edwin_m
Veteran Member
Possible the've avoided lowering the OLE at all, just built the bridge to go above where it was originally?
That wouldn't have saved much money anyway - the old OLE masts (single catilevers) have been replaced by much wider Portals anyway (with OLE re-done) to make space for the platforms (and the new bay platform)
- Status