Exploring East Anglia - Is closing Waterbeach station such a good idea? 

I used to visit Waterbeach a few times a year. My sister lives in the area and this was the easiest station to travel to for her to pick us up. But when Cambridge North station opened, we switched to that station instead. It's a shame they're planning to close it and I agree, I don't see why they can't have both stations, especially when Cambridge South is opening soon too?

Back in 1999, I used to commute daily from Waterbeach to Kings Cross and return. It was not an easy commute for me even then (involving a lengthy bike ride). I certainly remember having to belt along Station Road sometimes to reach the level crossing before it closed! Never actually got cut off from the up train though! But with the station closure, commuting will doubtless be a real challenge for those living in the main village. Seems like a stupid decision to me.😳

Indeed a disgrace that a station for a whole village is closed just to accommodate a new one for a housing project. This shows what (political) power lays in developers hands. The people of Waterbeach should unite against this plan.

Stumbled upon! Loved this presentation and coverage (and how you say wa'-a-beach 😂) great soundtrack too. Thx for taking us along. Subbed 👍

You’ve done Waterbeach! I have been wondering if you were going to do Waterbeach, it was an anomaly as a localish station you have not visited yet (other than Shippea Hill which is challenging). Waterbeach is nice, if you go further into the village there is a large village green, if you walk the other way from the station there is a nice nature reserve which leads to a river.

I used to live in water each and it has nice village

How strange that the university owned property developer building houses on university owned land promised to fund the station move during the planning process then once they obtained planning permission they suddenly decided that they couldn’t afford it, so the non elected Greater Cambridge Partnership, on which the University sits, offered to fund it instead using taxpayer money. The consultation run by the GCP prior deciding that they wanted to move the station was an overwhelming rejection of the idea (something of the order of 75% of respondents were against it) but apparently the public doesn’t know what is best and the result was completely ignored.

The curious steps up to the bus shelter (and the area around it) at 10:25 is, I believe, a remnant of the old station building. If you look up the East Anglian Railways Archive there's a spectacular photo of it at night! I think there might need to be another scoring axis for fold-down trays: whether they squeak or not. Your one is silent! From memory the ones on the old 365s could be hilariously loud.

Lovely video on a local(ish) to me station. Thanks! :)

3:00 that a fair way to move a station and close the old one - I would have built a new station called Waterbeach New Town while keeping the old station

Brilliant video Sarah and didn't knew that Brian had that wonderful knowledge of transport planning!

Brilliant video Sarah, it would be a very bad idea to close Waterbeach station as there's many people who rely on Waterbeach. Nice to see Brian knows about railways and transport planning as well lol.

A lovely little video by Sarah and Brian. I would like Sarah to do a similar video of my home station of Knottingley in West Yorkshire that had a roof and four tracks and a huge siding and now just has a bus stop and bridge and a Parliamentary service.❤

Fantastic video. Thoroughly enjoyed watching that. Thank you

Another Excellent video 👍👍

Waterbeach dose look amazing & its weird to see the class 700s up there as i didnt think they ran to ELY or Kings Lynn as they usally run as far as Cambridge but it would be cool if the pride one ran up there & talking of pride trains brilliant shot of the Greater Anglia one anyway brilliant vlog

Great vlog, Sarah! I've been on quite a few of the trains around there before, although I'll probably say I do prefer Greater Anglia's 755 FLIRT's!

Lovely video and inspirational!

Excellent video again Sarah & Brian! 🙂👍

Good video. I would have been well hacked-off if I had moved to Waterbeach to be close to the existing station only to find that the local authorities were going to move the station a testy walk up the road to suit the needs of a new housing estate. I wonder if any reliable survey was ever considered to see who relies on the station where it is now compared to those in a new estate who may well have cars at their disposal. I am also not a car driver and have only regretted that in the last four or five years when the railway services where I live have been an almost daily comedy of errors (often due to external nuisances).

Ah, plenty of time to do Waterbeach then *starts scribbbling in plans to do start next year* but you are not the only one who was surprised about 700s going GN services as when I did the vlog for Royston (uploading 8am this Saturday - very cheap plug), I too got 700/0s on Elys and even a Kings Lynn service

I don't know the specific circumstances, maybe a station between both settlements would have been better. But I guess they went with the place with the bigger prospective population. Glad You Tube showed you on my feed.

That interesting train to start with going to Kings Cross - I remember the class 90s going to Norwich/Great Yarmouth to Liverpool Street and the Kings Cross threw me

It will be interesting to see the Addenbrookes station once open

Another informative and entertaining video. Will Brian be wearing a jacket for future trips out now that the weather has turned...

Great video Sarah, who knows what goes through the minds of the planners. Build a new station and then close a station? I'm guessing the land where the new station will go was available because of the near by development whereas the land around the existing station isn't so expansion would be out of the question and that doesn't include any road infrastructure required. The main thing is the railway is getting (Hopefully) more investment. 👍.

Er Buckingham hasn't had a station since the 60s. Great video otherwise - glad I found your channel.

Water beach has had some bus routes gone and only have one bus route that is every 20 mins to Cambridge

Richard Beeching wanted Waterbeach station closed. The pressure is on the new Labour Government to keep open and expand investing in the railways.

Oooh a Thameslink adventure...... i have done the stations on the other line, between Bedford & St Pancras

Hi Sarah, how do I put this? As a resident of Milton which is the next village down from Waterbeach I’m guessing that South Cambs council seem to think that we should all now use Cambridge North despite its current lack of car parking. Whilst I was lucky enough to grow up in an urban area where we had a Passenger Transport Executive, with a degree of joined up thinking I’ve always found it difficult to fathom that Cambridge, Norwich and Ipswich can’t do something similar, how hard can it be?

Also 9:52 Pride Rider!

Did you ever go to the Berney Arms station when the pub was open?

Great video 📹 why couldnt they keep both stations just alternate which station the trains stop at they could then serve both communities

I feel sorry for Ease Tanglier 😉 It seems to be a dumping ground for every new housing project going Shame we have generic announcements on trains these days. South Eastern Electrostars are the same. Sure, it makes them easy to understand but it takes away regional character.

08:04 the signal goes green when ever the line ahead is clear

What a profound waste of money - relocating a busy station for what?