The Marks Tey to Sudbury section of the line opened on 2 July 1849 and ran for five years before being taken over by the Eastern Counties Railway on 7 August 1862.

By the 1890s six passenger trains ran each way on a weekday with the majority going from Cambridge or Bury St Edmunds to Marks Tey or Colchester.

[4][page needed] In 1964 conductor guards collected fares on the trains and all stations on the line became unstaffed apart from Haverhill and Sudbury.

[4][page needed] A study in 2004[5] looked into the possibility of reopening the route between Cambridge to Haverhill and maybe the entire line.

On 12 July 2017, Members of Parliament Matt Hancock (West Suffolk, the constituency which includes Haverhill), Heidi Allen (South Cambridgeshire) and Lucy Frazer (South East Cambridgeshire) met with Councillor James Palmer (Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority), other councillors and further interested parties in the House of Commons to discuss a light railway link from Cambridge to Haverhill.

There is no doubt that better communications will bring an economic boost to the town and an improved quality of life for the residents".