Ely and St Ives Railway

Instead it opened only between St Ives and a station named Huntingdon, that was actually in Godmanchester, east of the River Great Ouse.

[1][page needed] The East Anglian Railway soon acquired the Ely and Huntingdon Railway, but it did not consider that progressing the completion of the Ely and Huntingdon scheme was worthwhile, and it allowed the powers to lapse.

[1][page needed] Accordingly in the Autumn of 1863 two prominent landowners, Oliver Claude Pell of Wilburton and Frederick Camps of Haddenham, generated enough support from other landowners in the area to consider building a line linking Ely and Sutton, about a third of the extent of the unbuilt Ely to St Ives line.

Now the local company proposed an extension from Sutton to Somersham on the St Ives to March line and this changed the GER position, as they saw this as a threat to their strategic intentions, potentially facilitating an incursion by the Great Northern Railway.

The GER was authorised to subscribe £12,000, and the EH&SR had running powers to enter Ely station.

Urgent improvements were put in hand, and Tyler authorised opening on 7 July 1866 subject to completion of certain final rectification.

[1][page needed] Passenger carryings were meagre; Gordon attributes this to the fact that "third-class facilities were restricted to the Parliamentary trains [once daily], and the normal fare from Ely to Sutton [7 miles] was 2s at a time when local wages were under 10s a week.

"[3][page needed] In May 1868 the GER informed the company that in the previous year the line had operated at a loss of £1,211.

The GER feared an incursion by the Great Northern Railway: the GNR had a lease of the Somersham to Ramsey branch until 1864.

The possibility of the GNR using its own Ramsey branch as a springboard to get to Somersham and then to Ely was an ever-present danger to the GER.

[7][page needed] To ward this off, the GER planned an extension to St Ives for the 1876 session of Parliament; the cost was to be £62,928.

The EH&SR was also authorised to change its name to the Ely and St Ives Railway when the extension was open for traffic.

"[6][page needed] Following World War I a local bus service was started in the area in 1919; the competition was an immediate blow to passenger carryings on the line; in addition there was a general depression in the agricultural sector in the locality,[3][page needed] and financial losses were heavy.

In an attempt to reduce costs, the conductor-guard system was introduced on passenger trains from December 1922, and booking offices at most stations were closed.

The passenger service could not sustain the losses, and it was closed on 2 February 1931, although half-day excursions to London and elsewhere were subsequently run sporadically.

The goods traffic in the early years was chiefly wheat, coal and potatoes, but in the 1890s fruit became more prominent.