LETTER: Plea for new railway station at Soham on the edge of town

Trevor Heaton’s superb piece about the saving of the town of Soham in June 1944 was well-written and good to read.

We must never forget the bravery of the railwaymen who were involved when the old railway station was blown up but most of the rest of the town was not.

You rightly report that, seventy-one years later, the pressure for a replacement railway station is ever-present.

Those, like me, who favour the construction of a replacement railway station to serve Soham must be both pushy and realistic.

Soham has changed and grown greatly since 1944. The town’s population has more than doubled and there is much more development on the way.

The trouble with the old station site is that it has just four principal accesses - Clay Street, Fountain Lane, Mereside and Station Road itself.

All are now heavily congested 24/7. Car congestion wasn’t a problem in 1944.

I have suggested that a replacement railway station would now be better sited on the edge of the town, more specifically in the general vicinity of Cherry Tree Lane.

Such a site would have the benefit of being more easily accessible for many Soham residents but also a serviceable assistance for residents and train travellers from Fordham and Isleham, both of which used to have fully-fledged railway stations, as well as for those of Wicken.

We must get it right, for if we get it wrong, the critics will be very vocal indeed.

Geoffrey Woollard.

Andrew’s Park

Soham