News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 183 - 23/11/2008
- TRAIN OPERATORS [all issues]
- National Express East Anglia announces closure of Norwich call Centre and end of restaurant cars
- Fare increases for East Anglian TOCs announced
- RAIL MEETINGS [all issues]
- PRESERVED RAILWAYS [all issues]
- WEBSITES [all issues]
A last reminder that Gilly White, External Relations Manager for Arriva Cross Country, will be the speaker at the branch meeting in Cambridge on Saturday 29th November 2008 at Alex Wood Hall, Norfolk Street, Cambridge, CB1 1LD.
A warning to First Capital Connect passengers who travel on the outward part of an Off-Peak return (formerley 'saver') north from London in the evening peak (17:30-18:30. From 15th December, the outward part will not be valid either. Previously only the return portion was not valid. This is part of FCC's on-going attempts to reduce the severe levels of overcrowing on their trains.
At Cambirdge staiton track has been lifted on ten redundant freight sidings on land leased by EWS. It has not been revealed why this has taken place at this time as construction of the new island platform is still several years away and additional carriage sidings are not needed in the near future either.
TRAIN OPERATORS
National Express East Anglia announces closure of Norwich call Centre and end of restaurant cars
Keywords: [NationalExpressEastAnglia]
National Express East Anglia has confirmed that as part of the on-going restructing, which merges its rail and coach operations,it will be closing its rail call centre based at Grosvenor House in Norwich with the loss of 73 jobs. It is believed that calls may be directed to a call centre in Newcastle. Customers might not notice this change or the loss of other administrative jobs, but on 19th December they will see the ending of restaurant cars on the Norwich-Liverpool Street trains to be replaced by a buffet and at-seat area. NXEA are able to drop the restaurant cars since their franchise merely states "The onboard catering services on the Norwich services shall, as a minimum, include a trolley service offering light refreshments."
NXEA is also considering closing the small but successful part-time ticket office at Wymondham, North Walsham and Attleborough. this is particularly disappointing as the scheme was to have been rolled out to other unstaffed but well-used stations.
It is believed that NXEA is preparing for a serious downturn in business during in the coming recession. According to Transit magazine one of the causes is a sluggish growth on the Stansted Express services. Transit magazine has also reported that rival TOC Stagecoach is preparing for an "enormous recession".
Progress report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7735493.stm.
Fare increases for East Anglian TOCs announced
The DfT has decreded that, for the forseeable future, regulated fares will increase by an average of RPI plus 1% in January each year, with the Retail Price index (RPI) rate being based on the rate in the preceeding July. For January 2009 this means that First Capital Connect, National Express East Anglia and East Midlands Trains' fares will increase by 6%, although some unregulted fares may increase by up to 9%. Because RPI between July and September 2008 spiked, owing to the oil price of move than $140 a barrel, and has subsequently dropped signficantly as oil prices dropped to under $60, along with a fall in mortgage rates, rail fares will potentially increase by double January's rate of inflation - something the public and media will complain loudly about.
APEX fares bought on the East Midland Trains website http://www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk will not be increasing in January. In addition, some passengers will be able to obtain much cheaper fares on the Norwich to Liverpool route when it EMT becomes part of the www.megatrain.com bargain train fare scheme.
RAIL MEETINGS
Report from the FLUA AGM 2008 in King's Lynn
Keywords: [FLUA]
The Fen Line Users Association held AGM in King's Lynn on Saturday 22nd November 2008. The change of location, was because the Ely Maltings are currently closed for renovation. Unfortunately, staging the AGM at the end of the line had an affect on the number of members attending.
The main speaker was Guy Dangerfield of Passenger Focus, who explained about the work of the consumer body. First Capital Connect sent three members of its management team including Angela Palmer. Unlike five years ago when punctuality nad unreliability would have been the main complaint, almost all criticism was focused on ticket machines. The main complaint was that the machines were not visible in direct sunlight, and were not intuitive. In reply to a concern that ticket macheins do not sell Anglia Plus tickets and following the removal of the permit to travel machine at Waterbeach, Angela Palmer explained that no-one would receive a penalty fare if the machine did not sell the ticket that they required.
PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Embrionic Wisbech-March Bramley Line group takes two steps forward
Keywords: [WisbechBranch]
The Wisbech-March 'Bramley Line' group, which are trying to start up a heritage railway operation on the morthballed line has announced that they have raised all of the money to lease the line from Network Rail (although they do not state if this is just for one year, or several years) leaving just the legal costs to find. They have also received a two-year extension of their track clearing licence from Network Rail; previously the licence had only been extended by one year each time.
Earlier in the year the group sold their five Mark II coaches, which had been stabled in March sidings, to New Zealand. This enabled them to raise some of the money for the lease.
The BBC website recently added a feature on the Wisbech-March Bramley Line heritage rail group - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/cambridgeshire/content/articles/2008/10/31/bramley_line_feature.shtml.
WEBSITES
Website set-up for Liverpool-Norwich train passengers squashed into tins like sardines
A new website, http://www.trainsardine.org has been set-up "for East Midlands passengers on the Liverpool-Norwich line" which encourages people to "join the passegner fight back." The campaign group behind it have launched a series of guerilla stunts such as sending transport secretary Geoff Hoon a tin of sardines. They cheekily tried to place an advert in East Midland Train's own magazine promoting their campaign: "We are sick of the excuses given to explain the shortage of carriages and overcrowding at rush hour. We are frustrated with the inability of anyone to sort the problem, poor communication, and lack of respect. We intend to discover who is behind the chaos and give them the recognition they deserve." Apparnelty the TOC accepted the advert without even opening the advert; when they finally did the TOC refused to publish it!
The group claims that the goverment is making a false economy by not investing in new rolling stock to overcome overcrowding. They use as their evidence a House of Commons Transport Committee report from 2003 on overcrowding, which concluded: "Failure to provide an efficient public transport system means that employers are faced with staff who are tired, stressed and uncomfortable on arrival at the workplace. Lateness at work, loss of productivity, sickness absence, missed and rescheduled meetings and lost business due to public transport overcrowding and delays all impose real and significant costs."
Marston Vale Community Rail Partnership wins second place in CRP award for websites
Keywords: [EastWestRail]
The Marston Vale Railway line, which runs between Bedford and Bletchley, forms a critical central part of the East West Rail Link, which is a key Railfuture campaign. The website operated by the Community Rail Partnership for the line, http://www.marstonvalecommunityrail.org.uk, was awarded second place in the 'Best Website' category at the 2008 Comunity Rail awards.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 183 - 23/11/2008
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