Local council wants to fund second Cambridge-Ely route

AN enterprising local authority is pushing to create a significant new East Anglian rail corridor, by reinstating a short connecting spur west of Newmarket that has been closed for almost 60 years.

East Cambridgeshire Council (ECC) hopes to generate its own funds to get the work done - and provide an alternative direct service between Cambridge and Ely via Newmarket and Soham, and perhaps on to King’s Lynn.

This requires putting back the Snailwell Junction-Warren Hill curve, whose trackbed is clearly visible and free from any redevelopment because it is in open countryside. ECC says it would provide valuable extra business for the new £18.6 million station at Soham, which reopened with a fanfare last December.

What is not explained, however, is how the current acute and unresolved track bottlenecks around Ely would cope with any additional traffic, or how an operator such as Greater Anglia would be easily able to diagram rolling stock to run over what would effectively be a short outand-back route.

The single-line section south of Ely Dock Junction, which Newmarket trains would have to use, already struggles to cope with Felixstowe/Ipswich-West Midlands freight. And the idea of installing double track is not an immediate prospect.

“We may only be a small district council, but we like to pack a large punch and deliver the very best deal for our residents,” said ECC leader Anna Bailey.

Her authority prides itself on astute financial management, having generated a £3m surplus from its trading companies.

Newmarket, whose economy relies on horse racing connections, has had its once large station on the Cambridge-Ipswich line downgraded to a single platform for the hourly Greater Anglia service.

A century ago, it had another service on the Ely line, over the Snailwell curve (closed on September 13 1965) and taking around half an hour to cover the 13½ route miles. There was also a second station at Warren Hill, which was not in the timetable, but had five long stabling sidings because it did good excursion business on race days until the Second World War. It was later demolished.

In its latest planning document, ECC argues that there is a powerful case for the reopening to Ely, as well as creating further capacity west of Newmarket on the Cambridge line by partial double-tracking.

This would enable more trains to run to Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich, and better serve Kennett station where the council’s Palace Green homes company is building 500 new homes.