New station to launch with full train services

Cambridge South Station will be included in the December 2025 timetable change, but trains will not stop until the station opens in early 2026

A new railway station is expected to open with a full schedule of services from day one.

Cambridge South Station, on Francis Crick Avenue at the city's Biomedical Campus, is due to open in early 2026.

It will be the city's third railway station, designed to boost links to the growing science and healthcare sector, including the Biomedical Campus, which employs about 23,000 staff.

Once open, passengers will have direct access to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, and frequent connections to London, Birmingham, Stansted Airport, Gatwick Airport and international rail services via St Pancras.

The East Coast Main Line, which runs from London to Edinburgh, will have a timetable update in December 2025, which will include the new station.

This means all passing services from Greater Anglia, Great Northern, Thameslink, and CrossCountry will stop at the station from the day it opens in early 2026.

Improve connection

Service levels were expected to mirror those at the existing Cambridge station, including three to five trains per hour to and from Ely.

Katie Frost, Network Rail's route director for Anglia, said: "Cambridge South will be an amazing new station for passengers travelling to and from the adjacent biomedical campus.

"With up to nine trains per hour from Cambridge, the campus will become very well connected to major destinations across the country as well as to airports and European destinations via the Eurostar, helping this vitally important medical research hub to grow and help secure the UK's ambition to become the centre of medical excellence."

The station was expected to serve about 1.8 million passengers a year and improve connections in the East of England.

John Whitehurst, the chief operating officer at Govia Thameslink Railway, said: "The new station will make it easier for people to travel, with fast and frequent services to London alongside direct connections to key regional destinations such as Stevenage, Ely, King's Lynn and Gatwick Airport.

"The new timetable being introduced this December will also mean shorter journey times between Cambridge and London."

Rail Minister, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, said the new station created "vital links to jobs and homes, breaking down barriers in this ambitious city".