page_title: Cambridge to Mildenhall railway
section_title: Closure
hierarchical_section_title: Cambridge to Mildenhall railway / Closure
caption_attribution_description: English: Barnwell Junction and Station. View northwards on Cambridge - Ely main line, at junction of branch to Fordham and Mildenhall. The station was only on the branch - NOT on the main line as shown in the Historic Map. It was closed to passengers on 18/6/62 (Goods on 31/10/66), the line on to Fordham and Mildenhall having been closed on 13/7/64.
context_page_description: The Cambridge to Mildenhall railway is a closed railway between Cambridge and Mildenhall in England. It was built by the Great Eastern Railway, and opened in two stages, in 1894 and 1895.
  Traversing thinly populated agricultural terrain, it was not heavily used. The GER introduced cost-saving measures on passenger trains, including push and pull trains and a conductor-guard system, and in 1922 opened three very basic lineside halts.
  The passenger service on the line was discontinued in 1962 and, except for a short stub, the line was closed completely in 1965. There is no railway use of the former route now.
context_section_description: In 1961 formal closure proceedings were initiated; members of the Transport Users Consultative Committee travelled from Cambridge to Mildenhall by special train, but returned by road. A formal public hearing into hardship was conducted, but approval was given for closure to passenger trains, and the last train ran on 16 June 1962.
  A goods train service continued, running from Cambridge to Mildenhall via Newmarket, and back via Quy; outside the sugar beet season this conveyed mainly domestic coal and coke. This too was hardly commercially viable in the face of modern road competition, and the final through goods service operated on 10 July 1964. A private siding for oil traffic remained at Barnwell Junction, and the branch from Fordham to Burwell was retained, but the remainder closed entirely. The Burwell terminal was expected mainly to handle traffic in connection with Corrugated Fittings Ltd, but that traffic was disappointing, and the Burwell stub too closed from 19 April 1965.
  The Barnwell Junction oil terminal was later operated by BP, and it too ceased to be used after the first months of 1994, although the track access remained in situ for some considerable time.
  Fordham station remained in use, served by trains on the Ely to Newmarket line, but that too was extremely thin, and on some days no passengers used the station. Fordham station was closed to passengers from 13 September 1965.
caption: Barnwell Junction railway station in 1963
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