Loading...
 

East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 168 - 15/11/2007

[Home] [Meetings and Events] [Campaigns] [Consultations] [Newsletters|Latest|Covers] [News Archive] [Document Archive] [Gallery] [User Groups] [About] [Contacts]

News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.

Railfuture News Snippets 168 - 15/11/2007



'one' Railway continued its 90%+ punctuality record (see [Snippets 166]), when it achieved 90.34% in the four-weeek period to 13th October.

On 11th November Network Rail completed a £5m renewal of track on the Wherry Lines between Norwich and Great Yarmouth that began in late October. It replaced over seven miles of sixty-year-old bull-head rail on wooden sleepers with continuous-welded rail on steel sleepers between Brundall Junction and Great Yarmouth. This will provide a smoother and quieter journeys for passengers and will also reduce maintenance costs.

The resurrected Norwich - Cambridge rail service celebrated its fifth birthday in October. It is now attracting 670,000 passenger journeys each year, which is a 35% increase over its first year.

The Mid-Norfolk Railway is playing host to DRS, which is using the Dereham yard pit to inspect and service its locomotives that are currently operating daily rail-head treatment trains in East Anglia. The first visit to the MNR was on 11th October.


RAIL FREIGHT
Government funds £80m project to carry more freight on the Felixstowe to Nuneaton route

On 29th October the DfT announced funding (via its Transport Innovation Fund) of £132 on four specific projects across the country to improve infrastructure for rail freight with the aim of removing 300,000 lorry journeys from our Britain's every year.

The largest amount, £80m, will be spent on enhancing the gauge to support larger 9' 6" containers and capacity for rail freight on the Peterborough to Nuneaton route (the Felixstowe to Peterborough upgrade is being funded by the Port of Felixstowe), providing a crucial alternative to the busy rail routes via London. This was a recommendation from the Anglia RUS published earlier in the year.

The Railfuture East Anglian branch publicly welcomed the news saying that improving the Peterborough to Nuneaton route would cut the need for many lorry movements along the heavily congested A14 trunk road.

Network Rail will start the construction of these projects in early 2008, enabling all schemes to be completed by 2011.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 168 - 15/11/2007

[Prev Issue (167)] [Snippets Issues] [Next Issue (169)] [Category List] [Keyword List] [People List] [Story List] [Branch Dashboard]