Place Royston Station code RYS DfT category D Number of platforms 2 | Grid reference TL353412 Managed by Great Northern 2011/12 1.218 million | |
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Address Royston SG8 5AG, United Kingdom Similar Shepreth railway station, Ashwell and Morden r, Letchworth Garden City railw, Foxton railway station, Meldreth railway station | ||
Royston railway station serves the town of Royston in Hertfordshire, England. The station is 44.9 mi (72.3 km) north east of London Kings Cross and 13.03 mi (20.97 km) south west of Cambridge on the Cambridge Line. Trains serving the station are operated by Great Northern.
Contents
The station is an important stop on the commuter line between King's Cross and Cambridge as the majority of semi-fast services between London and Cambridge stop at Royston - one exception being the 'Cambridge Cruiser' fast services from London. It is also the last station before Cambridge with platforms capable of handling 8-car or 12-car trains. Therefore, it is used by many commuters, not only from Royston but also from smaller stations north of Royston who transfer from stopping services to faster trains at the station.
The station was opened by the Royston and Hitchin Railway in October 1850 as its initial eastern terminus. The line was subsequently extended as far as Shepreth the following year and through to Cambridge by the Eastern Counties Railway in 1852. The latter company took out a lease on the Royston company from then until 1866 and ran trains between Cambridge and the Great Northern Railway's main line junction at Hitchin until its lease expired. Thereafter the GNR took over and began running through trains from Cambridge to Kings Cross from 1 April 1866.
Electrification
The railway from London King's Cross to Royston was electrified in 1978. Class 312 electric trains from King's Cross terminated at Royston; passengers wishing to travel to Cambridge had to change to a connecting diesel multiple unit train. From 1988 the whole line from London to Cambridge was electrified, ending the need to change trains at Royston. Full services commenced on 2 May 1988. Network SouthEast commissioned the electrification from Royston to Cambridge as a 'fill-in' scheme to link the wired routes either side (the ex-ECR main line electrification north of Bishops Stortford had been inaugurated the previous year).
Infrastructure
Both Up and Down lines through Royston station are signalled bi-directionally, meaning that Royston is the only place on the Cambridge Line where a train can overtake one ahead of it. The Signalling is controlled by Kings Cross Power Signal Box.
The station is located on a long sweeping curve, reducing the line speed in the Up direction to 50 mph, and a differential speed of 50/65 mph in the Down direction.
Services
Great Northern serves Royston on services up to London King's Cross and down to Cambridge. Trains are usually formed of Class 317, Class 321 or Class 365 electric multiple units.
Trains to London King's Cross are either slow or semi-fast, departing at approximately half-hour intervals. Slow services call at all major stations to King's Cross (not inner suburban-only stations), taking 62 minutes to arrive in London at an average of 43.5 mph (70.0 km/h) Semi-fast services call at Baldock, Letchworth, Hitchin, Stevenage and Finsbury Park. During early morning peak-time there are some fast services (including a few that start or finish here) running non-stop or stopping only at Letchworth, reaching London in under 40 minutes.
Two trains per hour also operate towards Cambridge. Slow trains call at all stations and take 26 minutes to arrive at Cambridge, operating at an average of 30.1 mph (48.4 km/h). Fast trains run non-stop to Cambridge, taking 17 minutes at an average of 46.0 mph (74.0 km/h). Some Cambridge-bound services continue to Ely and King's Lynn.
From the completion of the Thameslink Programme in 2018 it is proposed that there will be a 2tph to Maidstone East service.
Trivia
Royston and Ashwell & Morden railway stations are available for SimSig, a signalling simulation game.
Royston station is mentioned in the novel About a Boy by Nick Hornby.
The train at the end of Jim Diamond's 1984 music video for I Should Have Known Better was heading to Royston from Finsbury Park.