CORRECTION: Network Rail has since retracted its statement that the contract has been awarded to VolkerFitzpatrick. See www.railnews.co.uk/news/2020/07/01-network-rail-retracts-statement-about.html

PLANS to reopen the station at Soham, between Ely and Kennett, have won planning permission for Network Rail from East Cambridgeshire District Council. The funding has come from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, and enabling works should now start this autumn.

The rebuilt station will include a 99m platform, long enough for four-car trains, a stepped footbridge providing a link with an existing right of way, and a car park with 50 spaces. The footbridge will also be designed for lifts, if the line is doubled through the station at a later date and a second platform is built. VolkerFitzpatrick has been awarded the contract with the main construction phase planned for 2021. It is hoped the station will open in the spring of 2022.

The original station at Soham was badly damaged by an exploding munitions train in 1944, but it was restored. It was not recommended for closure in the 1963 Beeching report, but British Rail withdrew all services in September 1965.