July 1922

All services in 1922 were operated by the Great Eastern Railway. Ely was the start point for some local stopping services to March, Newmarket, King's Lynn and Norwich, as well as the branch line to St. Ives. As a result, there were some carriage sidings on the east side of the station where stock for these was stabled overnight.

Longer distance services all called at Ely, although one exception was the 11.20 London St Pancras – King's Lynn and Hunstanton. The GER had running rights into St. Pancras, via Tottenham and Hampstead, and it was used by them when running royal trains to Sandringham which was located on the Hunstanton line. Most London trains originated from Liverpool Street station.

Some trains, such as the 11.50 Liverpool Street service, arrived at Ely at 13.34 and split into Hunstanton and Norwich portions. Pullman cars and restaurant cars would have been seen on the longer distance trains operating through the area at this time. A number of services to and from the Norwich line avoided the station completely, by being routed via the West Curve; this was unlike 2020, where nearly all services call at Ely and reverse.

Ely was served by the Hook Continental service from Parkeston Quay to various destinations in the North and Midlands. By 2020, standards service levels were low and on Sunday there were few trains running; for example, on the King's Lynn line, there was one departure to Hunstanton departing Ely at 12.00 and one to King's Lynn at 17.40.

Present day

The station is served by four operators:

• CrossCountry trains provides an hourly service from Cambridge to Birmingham New Street, via Peterborough and Leicester. It uses Class 170 Turbostar diesel multiple units.^[7]
• East Midlands Railway provides an (approximately) hourly service from Norwich to Liverpool Lime Street, via Peterborough, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester Piccadilly. Services are operated using Class 158 DMUs (or, occasionally, Class 170 DMUs) which reverse at Ely.^[8]
• Great Northern serve the station as part of their service from London King's Cross to King's Lynn. Outside peak hours, the services run non-stop between London and Cambridge as part of the half-hourly Cambridge Cruiser service. Trains then continue beyond Cambridge, with one an hour terminating at Ely and one continuing stopping at all stations on the Fen Line to King's Lynn. The journey from King's Cross to Ely is timetabled to take just over an hour on the fastest services. During peak hours, most trains divide (northbound) or couple (southbound) at Cambridge which adds some minutes to the journey time. In addition, during peak hours most services make additional stops between London Kings Cross and Cambridge which contributes further to an extended journey time. Over recent years, the number of direct services has increased: from the timetable change of December 2013, there are direct services from London every half hour from 16:44 to 23:14. Some off-peak services can take as little as 1 hour and 5 minutes between London and Ely. During peak hours, they can take up to 1 hour and 21 minutes. All services are operated by Class 387 electric multiple units.
• Greater Anglia serves the station with three routes:
  • An hourly service between Cambridge and Norwich, via the Breckland Line. These services normally use four-coach Class 755 units. Four units are diagrammed to work the hourly service. Nine services a day are extended to Stansted Airport^[9]
  • A two-hourly service between Ipswich and Peterborough, via Bury St Edmunds. These services normally use a pair of three or four-coach Class 755 units.^[10]
  • On weekdays, there are four services that operate from here to London Liverpool Street in the morning peak. There are four return journeys in the evening; There is no service on Saturday or Sunday. These services normally use Class 720 EMUs,^[11] replacing the now stored Class 379. Services used to go towards King's Lynn until December 2022.

The Hunstanton portion of the 10.39 service from Liverpool Street at Ely in 1958

Trains in the station platforms

Ely railway station signals

Summary

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Cambridge		CrossCountry Stansted Airport - Birmingham New Street Line		March
				Manea Limited Service
Thetford		East Midlands Railway Norwich-Liverpool Lime Street Line		Peterborough
Brandon Limited Service				March Limited Service
Waterbeach		Great Northern King's Lynn - Cambridge		Littleport
Cambridge North		Greater Anglia Norwich - Cambridge		Brandon
				Shippea Hill Limited Services
Soham		Greater Anglia Ipswich - Peterborough Line		Manea
Waterbeach		Greater Anglia London Liverpool Street - Norwich Line Peak only		Terminus
	Future Services
Cambridge		East West Rail Oxford-Norwich		Norwich
Historical railways
Soham Line and station open		Great Eastern Railway Ely and Newmarket Railway		Terminus
Chettisham Line open, station closed		Great Eastern Railway Ely to Peterborough Line		Terminus
Disused railways
Stretham Line and station closed		Great Eastern Railway Ely and St Ives Railway		Terminus

Accidents and incidents

• On 25 August 1866, a passenger train derailed near Ely due to defective track. One person was killed and five were seriously injured.^[13]
• On 1 June 1870, a passenger train was derailed near Ely. Some passengers sustained minor injuries.^[14]
• On 2 April 1874, two freight trains collided at Ely.^[15]
• On 16 January 1890, a train from Newmarket ran into the rear of a freight train near Ely.^[16]
• On 26 September 1905, a freight train derailed at Dock Junction, fouling the adjacent line. A passenger train collided with derailed wagons. Four passengers were injured, one seriously.^[17]
• On 22 June 2007, a goods train derailed at Hawk Bridge which carries the Ipswich line over the River Great Ouse a mile south of Ely. Photographs showed derailed wagons on their side, only prevented from plunging off the embankment by subsidiary structures and their attachment to the rest of the train. As a consequence of the derailment the bridge had to be rebuilt and there were no train services between Ely and Bury St. Edmunds until the works were completed on 21 December 2007.^[18]
• On 14 August 2017, a freight train was derailed at Ely West Junction, near Queen Adelaide. The line between Ely and Peterborough was closed until 21 August.^[19][20]

Engine shed

Opened in 1847, the shed would have housed locomotives for some of the local all-stations services operating around Ely. A shed was employed from opening but this was replaced by a second structure in 1867.

This was a single road engine shed located on the up side, south of the station. The shed was a corrugated iron affair and a timber coaling stage allowed coaling of trains by hand. There was a turntable which was provided from opening and replaced by a 45-foot turntable in 1879 and, as loco designs got bigger, this in turn was replaced by a 55-foot turntable in 1912.^[21]

A short siding extended from the loco yard to a small dock on the river.

In July 1922, the allocation was:^[22]

The D13/D14 class were employed on local passenger services, with some of the J15 0-6-0s which would have also worked freight trains. The J69 tank engine was employed to shunt the goods yard and station area.

It is unclear when the shed was demolished, but steam locomotives continued to use the site until the end of 1962. After that, an outbased Cambridge diesel shunter took care of shunting duties in the area until the early 1990s; when not in use, this was stabled in a short siding adjacent to the station.

Signalling

The list below shows the signal boxes operating in the Ely area when the area was controlled by manually operated by semaphore signals. The boxes are listed south to north.^[23]

Ely Station North signal box, level crossing and semaphore signals

The station area is currently (2020) controlled by Cambridge Power Signal Box.