Cambridge South station will open and begin receiving services on Sunday 28 June, the Department for Transport said. The station will be the first to carry full Great British Railways branding, with permanent signage in GBR brand colours and a display of the new Railway Clock.
The station is located beside Cambridge's Biomedical Campus, Europe's largest medical research centre. It will connect the campus with direct trains to London, Brighton and Stansted airport, and will offer up to nine trains per hour to the centre of Cambridge.
The Department for Transport expects 1.8 million passengers to use the station each year. It forecasts that the adjacent Biomedical Campus will contribute £18.2bn to the UK economy by 2050, with the number of employees there doubling to 40,000 over the same period.
The station was built with £250m of government investment and a small private sector contribution. It had been scheduled to open in 2025 but was delayed partly due to the collapse of a contractor responsible for fitting out the electrics.
Rail minister Peter Hendy said the station would "Open up access to jobs, homes and world-class facilities for people across the region, boosting the growth of the Biomedical Campus as one of the most important engines of growth in the country." He added: "As the first new Great British Railways branded station, the opening is an important milestone for our railways and a sign of the real change public ownership will deliver." Jeremy Westlake, chief executive for Network Rail, said the station would "Significantly improve travel and connectivity for campus staff, visitors, and the wider community for many years to come." He said: "Thousands of people have worked tirelessly on this fantastic project to build a modern, accessible and sustainable station that reflects the excellence of the work that is being undertaken in Europe's largest biomedical facility."
Cambridge South will eventually serve the East West Rail line being built to Oxford. Initial services on East West Rail between Milton Keynes and Oxford have been delayed, and uncertainty about the route is likely to prevent direct trains between Cambridge and Oxford from starting in 2030.