Royston  | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 A view of both platforms | |||||
| General information | |||||
| Location | Royston,District of North Hertfordshire England | ||||
| Grid reference | TL353412 | ||||
| Managed by | Great Northern | ||||
| Platforms | 2 | ||||
| Other information | |||||
| Station code | RYS | ||||
| Classification | DfT category D | ||||
| History | |||||
| Opened | 1850 | ||||
| Passengers | |||||
| 2019/20 |  1.436 million | ||||
| Interchange | 20,466 | ||||
| 2020/21 | 0.290 million | ||||
| Interchange | 2,650 | ||||
| 2021/22 |  0.835 million | ||||
| Interchange | 9,630 | ||||
| 2022/23 | 1.081 million | ||||
| Interchange | 14,420 | ||||
| 2023/24 | 1.272 million | ||||
| Interchange | 42,985 | ||||
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Royston railway station serves the town ofRoyston, inHertfordshire, England. The station is 44 miles 72 chains (72.3 km) fromLondon Kings Cross on theCambridge Line.[1] Trains serving the station are operated byThameslink andGreat Northern.
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 is theCambridge Cruiser fast services from London. It is also the last station before Cambridge with platforms capable of handling 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.
Royston station is still labelled asRoyston (Herts) on tickets and information displays, even thoughthe station with the same name inSouth Yorkshire closed in 1968.
The station was opened by theRoyston and Hitchin Railway in October 1850 as its initial eastern terminus. The line was subsequently extended as far asShepreth the following year and through to Cambridge by theEastern 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 theGreat 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.
The railway from London King's Cross to Royston was electrified in 1978.Class 312electric multiple units from King's Cross terminated at Royston; passengers wishing to travel to Cambridge had to change to a connectingdiesel multiple unit. 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.[2]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 ofBishops Stortford had been inaugurated the previous year.
Bothup anddown lines through Royston station are signalledbi-directionally,[3] 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 powersignal box.[3]
The station is located on a long sweeping curve, reducing the line speed[4] in theup direction to 50 mph,[3] and a differential speed of 50/65 mph[3] in thedown direction.
Services at Royston are operated byThameslink andGreat Northern usingClass 387 andClass 700 electric multiple units.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[5]
During peak hours, the service to London King's Cross and theall stations service to Cambridge are increased to 2 tph; the station is served by an additional half-hourly service between London King's Cross andKing's Lynn, viaEly, which runs non-stop between London King's Cross andLetchworth Garden City.
On Sundays, the service between Brighton and Cambridge is reduced to hourly.
| Preceding station |  National Rail | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thameslink | ||||
| Ashwell & Morden or Baldock | Great Northern | Meldreth | ||
| Great Northern Peak Hours Only | ||||
