Cambridge Station Long Platform

The Eastern Counties Railway opened to Cambridge in 1845. The station building, with its long classical façade has been attributed to both Sancton Wood and Francis Thompson. The long platform (platforms 1 and 4) is typical of this period but was unusual in that (apart from a brief period in the mid-19th century) it was not supplemented by another through platform until platforms 7 and 8 were added in 2011.

Before grouping the services provided were:

Great Eastern Railway
Main line from London Liverpool Street to Norwich and King’s Lynn
Cross-country services to Bury St Edmunds via Newmarket and to Colchester
Cross-country services via Ely, March and the Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Line to northern England
Branch line to St Ives and beyond
Branch line to Mildenhall

Great Northern Railway
Services to London King's Cross via Hitchin, including the Cambridge Buffet Car Expresses

London and North Western Railway
Cross-country "Varsity Line" to Oxford

Midland Railway
Services via St Ives to Kettering

Each of the four companies also had its own goods facilities in the station area, and, except for the M.R., its own motive power depot.

At 514 yards, Cambridge has the third-longest railway platform in the UK, after Colchester and Gloucester. This platform is divided into Platforms 1 and 4 with a scissors crossover in the middle to divide it in two, which allows trains from either direction to pass those already stopped there.

Information from Wikipedia