St. Neots railway station

St Neots railway station serves the town of St Neots in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located to the east of the town approximately 1.5 miles from the town centre. It is on the East Coast Main Line, about 52 miles (83 km) from London King's Cross. The station is managed and served by Great Northern.

St Neots
The entrance to the station
Location
Place	St Neots
Local authority	District of Huntingdonshire
Grid reference	TL197607
Operations
Station code	SNO
Managed by	Great Northern
Number of platforms	4
DfT category	D
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	1.272 million
2015/16	1.341 million
2016/17	1.351 million
2017/18	1.338 million
2018/19	1.326 million
History
Key dates	Opened 7 August 1850 (7 August 1850)
Original company	Great Northern Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Northern Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway Eastern Region of British Railways
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at St Neots from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

Great Northern Route
King's Lynn Watlington Downham Market Littleport Ely Waterbeach Cambridge North Cambridge M11 motorway Foxton Shepreth Peterborough Meldreth Huntingdon Royston St. Neots Ashwell and Morden Sandy Baldock Biggleswade A1(M) motorway Arlesey Letchworth Garden City Hitchin Stevenage Knebworth Watton-at-Stone Welwyn North Hertford North Welwyn Garden City Bayford Hatfield Cuffley Welham Green M25 motorway Brookmans Park Crews Hill Potters Bar Gordon Hill M25 motorway Enfield Chase Hadley Wood Grange Park New Barnet Winchmore Hill Oakleigh Park Palmers Green New Southgate Bowes Park Alexandra Palace Hornsey Harringay Finsbury Park London King's Cross Drayton Park London St Pancras Highbury & Islington Thameslink route Essex Road Old Street Moorgate

The station has two large island platforms and four main rail lines, a pair of "up and down" slow lines used by stopping services and a pair of "up and down" fast lines used by fast Great Northern services that stop there during peak times and for high speed services passing through.

History

The first section of the Great Northern Railway (GNR) - that from Louth to a junction with the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway at Grimsby - opened on 1 March 1848, but the southern section of the main line, between Maiden Lane and Peterborough, was not opened until August 1850. St Neots was one of the original stations, opening with the line on 7 August 1850.[1][2][3]

It was the scene of a derailment of a Scottish night express in 1895.[4]

Facilities

Platforms 1 and 2, with the stations buildings & Ticket Office in the background.

There are toilet facilities at the station and a newsagent/coffee seller in the ticket hall. A taxi office is situated outside the station, where minicabs can be booked.

St Neots station has automatic ticket barriers, which were installed in 2008 by former franchise holder First Capital Connect, which has led to the station being staffed for longer hours, and the station also has help points throughout.

Services

St Neots station is served by a half-hourly Thameslink service southbound to Horsham via London St Pancras and northbound to Peterborough. There is an hourly service in each direction on Sundays.[5]

There are extra services run by Great Northern at peak times on Mondays to Fridays to London King's Cross in the morning peak and from King's Cross to Peterborough in the evening peak.

The station is also served by several buses, with routes to St Neots town centre, Eaton Ford, Eaton Socon, Loves Farm, Cambridge, and Eynesbury.[6]

Recent developments

A new footbridge opened in February 2014, providing lifts to the platforms and access to the station from both sides of the track including access to the Love's Farm housing development.[7]

Route

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Biggleswade		Great Northern London Kings Cross–Peterborough Peak times only		Huntingdon
Sandy		Thameslink Horsham–Peterborough
Historical railways
Tempsford Line open, station closed		Great Northern Railway East Coast Main Line		Offord and Buckden Line open, station closed

Location

St Neots station (in Cambridgeshire)

In the chainage notation traditionally used on the railways, the station is 51 miles 58 chains (83.24 km; 51.73 mi) from London King's Cross.[8]

References

1. Gordon, W.J. (1989) [1910]. Our Home Railways. London: Bracken Books. volume II, p. 44. ISBN 1-85170-314-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
2. Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. London: Guild Publishing. p. 135. CN 8983.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
3. Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 204. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
4. "Accident at St Neots on 10th November 1895". Railways Archive. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
5. Table 25 National Rail timetable, May 2018
6. Cambridgeshire County Council. "Bus Timetables". Archived from the original on 12 November 2007. Retrieved 4 November 2007. Stagecoach Cambridgeshire. "Bus Timetables". Archived from the original on 10 December 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2009.
7. "New Footbridge at St Neots station unveiled". Network Rail. 20 February 2014. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
8. Yonge, John (September 2006) [1994]. Jacobs, Gerald (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 2: Eastern (3rd ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. map 15C. ISBN 0-9549866-2-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

External links

• Train times and station information for St. Neots railway station from National Rail
• First Capital Connect Timetables for St Neots