[2] The financial climate in the early 1840s ensured that no further scheme got off the ground but, by 1843, Parliament had passed the Northern and Eastern Railway Act 1843 (6 & 7 Vict.

[5] The following year, the Eastern Counties Railway opened a line between St Ives and March which saw some passenger services although the coal traffic (mentioned above) was then diverted on to this route.

The line was completed in 1851 and initially the GNR, who had leased the Royston and Hitchin Railway in the interim, ran a connecting horse-drawn omnibus service.

This proved unsuccessful, so in April 1852 the line was extended to join the ECR main line south of Cambridge and was leased to the Eastern Counties Railway for 14 years with a connection to enable the ECR to run trains from Cambridge to Hitchin.

Originally a local undertaking, it was soon acquired by the London & North Western Railway (LNWR), extended to Bletchley, and saw services between Oxford and Cambridge introduced on what became known as the "Varsity Line".

[8] The GER opened the cross-country line from Marks Tey via Sudbury and Haverhill to Shelford in 1865, which enabled the introduction of direct services to Colchester.

In 1866 the Great Northern Railway (GNR) again applied to run services from King's Cross as the lease on the line to Hitchin was ending.

The following year the branch to Mildenhall railway station opened and services operated direct from there to Cambridge.

East Anglia was one of the first areas in the UK where British Railways wanted to phase out steam operation in favour of diesel traction.

Diesel shunters and DMUs were allocated to another shed on the opposite side of the line known as Coldham Lane.

The Stour Valley Railway route to Colchester via Haverhill and Sudbury closed on 6 March 1967 although the Sudbury-Marks Tey section remains operational as a branch line.

Passenger services along the Cambridge & St. Ives Branch managed to survive the Beeching Axe, but with British Rail citing heavy losses the final passenger service ran between St Ives and Cambridge on 5 October 1970.

[11] The station also underwent a £650,000 refurbishment in 1987, funded jointly by BR Network SouthEast, the Railway Heritage Trust and Cambridge City Council.

Services to Ipswich and Norwich were initially operated by Anglia Railways from January 1997 and these routes later became part of the NXEA franchise.

In November 2007, the Central Trains franchise was split up with services through Cambridge becoming part of the Arriva CrossCountry network.

[15] In 2012, the station infrastructure was under scrutiny as it emerged passengers were forced to queue for over 40 minutes to purchase tickets.

The station building, with its long classical façade and porte-cochère (infilled during the 20th century), has been attributed to both Sancton Wood and Francis Thompson[18] and is listed Grade II.

Greater Anglia serves the station with three routes: A new East West Rail is being developed allowing travel from Oxford to Cambridge and onto Norwich and Felixstowe without needing to go via London, which has not been possible since the Varsity line was closed in the 60s.

[22] The central section from Bedford to Cambridge is more difficult as parts of the Varsity route have been built on, for example by the guided busway.

[23] The government has committed £10 million of funding as part of the 2016 Autumn Statement to continue to develop the route.

[24] Several local bus services by Stagecoach in Cambridge and Whippet Coaches stop immediately south-west of the main station building.

There are 9 stops linking the railway with the city centre and other parts of Cambridge, including Addenbrooke's Hospital, and the surrounding area.

On 30 May 2015 the 09:14 GTR Great Northern service from London King's Cross failed to stop when entering a platform and collided at low speed with the stationary train it was due to couple with shortly after 10:00 BST.

[26] The Eastern Counties Railway opened a small motive power depot at the station in 1845.

Cambridge was the principal shed of a main GE district and during World War 1 was recorded as having 101 drivers, 89 firemen under an inspector named G Dorrington.

Finally another foreman was charged with the day-to-day running of the depot as well as being responsible for the outstations such as King's Lynn, Ely, Mildenhall and seven others.

Most significantly a mechanical coaling plant was bought into use as well as the construction of a new lifting shop and modern sand dispensers.

Some of the track in the former loco yard next to platform 6 was kept as engine sidings,[33] while the rest was made into a car park.

The allocation consisted of:[28][page needed] This was closed by the London and North Eastern Railway in 1924, and used as a wagon works until it was demolished in 1985.

The Bedfordshire and Cambridge Railway opened a small motive power depot on the west side of the line at the south end of the station in 1862.