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Huntingdon railway station
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Huntingdon railway station
Huntingdon railway station (formerly known as Huntingdon North) serves the market town of Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, England. It is on the East Coast Main Line, 58 miles 70 chains (58.88 miles, 94.75 km) from London King's Cross, and has three platforms: one bay and two through platforms. The station is managed by Great Northern, although most services are operated by Thameslink. During engineering works or periods of disruption London North Eastern Railway (LNER) services sometimes call at Huntingdon, but there is no regular LNER service from the station.
When originally opened by the Great Northern Railway on 7 August 1850, the station was just named Huntingdon, however, from 1 July 1923 until 15 June 1965 the station was known as Huntingdon North to distinguish it from the nearby Huntingdon East on the line between Cambridge and Kettering via St Ives. The latter closed to passenger traffic in June 1959, along with the line.
From the mid-1970s to the late 1980s the station was slowly rebuilt, going from a station with one platform connected to the ticket office and an island platform to an electrified station with the main platform, a bay platform as well as a separate platform for the slow line. The reason for this was that pre-1976, only three tracks went through the station causing a major bottleneck in the area.
From 1977, when King's Cross suburban electric services were introduced, until the main line to Peterborough was electrified in 1988, local services were provided by a diesel multiple-unit shuttle from Hitchin that started and terminated here – passengers for stations further south had to change at Hitchin onto the King's Cross–Royston outer suburban electric service. Certain East Coast Main Line services between London, Doncaster and York or Hull stopped here to provide onward connections for through passengers and offer direct trains to the capital. There were also a number of King's Cross–Peterborough through trains for commuters at peak times. Once electrification began, stops by longer-distance trains were gradually removed and had ceased by the time British Rail was privatised in 1995, as can be seen from the East Coast Main Line timetable of that era.
On 14 July 1951 the West Riding express from London to Leeds, hauled by Class A3 60058, was on its way from London when a female passenger noticed a wisp of smoke rising between the arm rest of her seat and the side of the coach. She reported it to a pantry boy, who told the restaurant-car conductor, and the conductor told the guard. The guard noticed smoke seeping between the edge of the carpet and the coach side, and diagnosed a hot axle box. He decided to throw out a message to the Huntingdon station-master, as the train was approaching the station at the time.
Meanwhile, there was growing alarm in the affected coach as it filled with smoke. When a small flame appeared a male passenger decided it was high time to pull the emergency cord. After some delay, he duly did this. The driver made a full brake application and brought the train to a stop in 700 yards. By this time the flames suddenly spread with frightening rapidity up the coach sides and along the roof. The corridor became blocked with passengers trying to escape and some broke windows in order to jump out. Miraculously, although twenty-two people were injured, everybody managed to get out alive. The train staff were unable to isolate the two burning coaches from the rest of the train, and instead left them coupled to the next two coaches. As a result, four train coaches were destroyed by fire.
The cause of the fire was thought to be a hot ember in a hole in the coach floor, and the locomotive's firebar was missing. However, as with the Penmanshiel Tunnel fire two years previously, the circumstances were the same: the cellulose lacquer covering the corridor walls was found to be highly flammable with a very fast flame spread. It contained large amounts of nitrocellulose (68%). Draughts of air from the open windows may have fanned the flames.
On the evening of 1 November 2025, emergency services were alerted to an incident involving the stabbing of 10 people, many seriously injured, on an LNER train from Doncaster to King's Cross. The train was scheduled to go through the station on the fast line, but at the driver's request, it was diverted to the slow line to enable a stop with platform access. Armed and counter terrorism police were called to the train before it had arrived at Huntingdon station, where suspect Anthony Williams was arrested, and a suspect who was later released without charge.
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Huntingdon railway station
Huntingdon railway station (formerly known as Huntingdon North) serves the market town of Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, England. It is on the East Coast Main Line, 58 miles 70 chains (58.88 miles, 94.75 km) from London King's Cross, and has three platforms: one bay and two through platforms. The station is managed by Great Northern, although most services are operated by Thameslink. During engineering works or periods of disruption London North Eastern Railway (LNER) services sometimes call at Huntingdon, but there is no regular LNER service from the station.
When originally opened by the Great Northern Railway on 7 August 1850, the station was just named Huntingdon, however, from 1 July 1923 until 15 June 1965 the station was known as Huntingdon North to distinguish it from the nearby Huntingdon East on the line between Cambridge and Kettering via St Ives. The latter closed to passenger traffic in June 1959, along with the line.
From the mid-1970s to the late 1980s the station was slowly rebuilt, going from a station with one platform connected to the ticket office and an island platform to an electrified station with the main platform, a bay platform as well as a separate platform for the slow line. The reason for this was that pre-1976, only three tracks went through the station causing a major bottleneck in the area.
From 1977, when King's Cross suburban electric services were introduced, until the main line to Peterborough was electrified in 1988, local services were provided by a diesel multiple-unit shuttle from Hitchin that started and terminated here – passengers for stations further south had to change at Hitchin onto the King's Cross–Royston outer suburban electric service. Certain East Coast Main Line services between London, Doncaster and York or Hull stopped here to provide onward connections for through passengers and offer direct trains to the capital. There were also a number of King's Cross–Peterborough through trains for commuters at peak times. Once electrification began, stops by longer-distance trains were gradually removed and had ceased by the time British Rail was privatised in 1995, as can be seen from the East Coast Main Line timetable of that era.
On 14 July 1951 the West Riding express from London to Leeds, hauled by Class A3 60058, was on its way from London when a female passenger noticed a wisp of smoke rising between the arm rest of her seat and the side of the coach. She reported it to a pantry boy, who told the restaurant-car conductor, and the conductor told the guard. The guard noticed smoke seeping between the edge of the carpet and the coach side, and diagnosed a hot axle box. He decided to throw out a message to the Huntingdon station-master, as the train was approaching the station at the time.
Meanwhile, there was growing alarm in the affected coach as it filled with smoke. When a small flame appeared a male passenger decided it was high time to pull the emergency cord. After some delay, he duly did this. The driver made a full brake application and brought the train to a stop in 700 yards. By this time the flames suddenly spread with frightening rapidity up the coach sides and along the roof. The corridor became blocked with passengers trying to escape and some broke windows in order to jump out. Miraculously, although twenty-two people were injured, everybody managed to get out alive. The train staff were unable to isolate the two burning coaches from the rest of the train, and instead left them coupled to the next two coaches. As a result, four train coaches were destroyed by fire.
The cause of the fire was thought to be a hot ember in a hole in the coach floor, and the locomotive's firebar was missing. However, as with the Penmanshiel Tunnel fire two years previously, the circumstances were the same: the cellulose lacquer covering the corridor walls was found to be highly flammable with a very fast flame spread. It contained large amounts of nitrocellulose (68%). Draughts of air from the open windows may have fanned the flames.
On the evening of 1 November 2025, emergency services were alerted to an incident involving the stabbing of 10 people, many seriously injured, on an LNER train from Doncaster to King's Cross. The train was scheduled to go through the station on the fast line, but at the driver's request, it was diverted to the slow line to enable a stop with platform access. Armed and counter terrorism police were called to the train before it had arrived at Huntingdon station, where suspect Anthony Williams was arrested, and a suspect who was later released without charge.
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