Hereward Line

The line was originally opened by the Eastern Counties Railway company in 1847, linking the ECR mainline from London via and Ely to and with Peterborough. Trains initially terminated and started from , though a link to the Great Northern Railway's station was subsequently built to allow through running to the Midland Railway line to and the GNR main line to the north. Onward travel was also possible over two London and North Western Railway lines from Peterborough, to and whilst March would soon become a very busy junction with the opening of branches to via Wisbech and Cambridge via St Ives (both by the ECR) in 1847–48 and the GNR route to in 1867. The latter two were subsequently jointly vested in the GER and GNR in 1879. Many of the branches fell victim to the Beeching Axe in the early to mid 1960s, as did Peterborough East and several of the intermediate stations. The March–Spalding line also closed in 1982 with the rundown of the marshalling yard at Whitemoor, leaving only the original main line in operation. ==Service==

Passenger services are provided by CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway and Greater Anglia. To the west most trains continue beyond Peterborough to either Leicester and (via the Birmingham–Peterborough line), or to , , and . To the east most trains continue beyond Ely to (via the Breckland Line), (via the Ipswich–Ely line), or to or (via the Fen line). Connections are available for stations to at Ely. Services used to run between London and Peterborough until 2010. The line is used extensively by freight trains from the Port of Felixstowe to the West Midlands, North West and Scotland, as it forms part of the Felixstowe to rail freight corridor that is being upgraded by Network Rail to allow more railborne freight from the port to be diverted away from London. ==Infrastructure==

The line is double track throughout, has a loading gauge of W10 and a line speed of . Apart from short stretches at each end, the line is not electrified. ==See also==