News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 216 - 28/04/2011
- RAIL FRANCHISES [all issues]
- RAIL FREIGHT [all issues]
- Reopening of Barrington rail line for new construction land-fill deliveries gains planing approval
- Additional sand trains from Middleton Towers quarry (near King's Lynn) commence running
- STATIONS [all issues]
Railfuture's national AGM in Brighton on 7th May was attended by around 60 members from 12 of the 16 branches, including East Anglia.
Network Rail is continuing with its consultation on the Ipswich Chord. For "Public Information Round, Phase 3" it has produced a new leaflet that will be distributed to all neighbours within 350 metres of the proposed chord. It can also be found online - see http://www.networkrail.co.uk/felixstowe-nuneaton.
ESTA (Felixstowe) will be holding their AGM on Tuesday 24th May at 19:30 in St Andrew's Hall, St Andrew's Road, Felixstowe. The main speaker will be Samantha Hodder, Group Communications and Deputy bid Director for the Go-Ahead Group, which is on of the bidders for the Greater [East] Anglia franchise. The second speaker will be Tracey Vobe, Passenger Transport Services Group Manager at Suffolk County Council.
As part of the Fenland Open Heritage Weekend the Friends of March Station will be holding its second Open Day on Saturday 10th September 2011 from 10:00 to 14:00. There will be a number of railway related displays.
On 11th April a meeting was held at the Church Hall in Heacham to discuss the prospects of reviving the Hunstanton railway branch, which once carried holidaymakers from King's Lynn, but closed in 1969. The meeting was organised by retired civil engineer Colin Abbiss.
The Essex and South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership has opened an office at Manningtree station.
The Peterborough-Ely-Norwich Rail User Group (PENRUG) will hold its annual general meeting on 7th May.
This year's ESTA AGM, which is also a public meeting, on Saturday 14th May starting at 14:15 will take place for the first time in Aldeburgh in the church hall, next to St Peter & St Paul Parish Church. The meeting will be and is timed to fit in with buses to and from Saxmundham. There is a bus stop by the church. Guest speakers will be Councillor Guy McGregor (who holds Suffolk CC's Transport Portfolio) and Ms Linda McCord, responsible for East Anglia Bus issues at Passenger Focus.
Members of ESTA have sent their experiences of nearly 130 rail journeys made south of Ipswich since summer 2010, both before and after withdrawal of the through London trains. Its survey shows that since 12th December 2010 just under 50% found changing trains at Ipswich unsatisfactory with a minority missing their connections. However, 70% of respondents said withdrawal of through trains would not reduce the number of journeys they made; and 57% said the new hourly service between Saxmundham and Ipswich had persuaded them to use the trains more.
Four Axiom Rail depots transferred to LNWR on 21st April. This includes the maintenance depot at Cambridge, which is used to carry out overnight maintenance on Arriva Cross Country's class 170 fleet. Both Axiom and LNWR are now owned by Deutsche Bahn, following its acquisition of Arriva, and the transfer of depots between sister companies will allow Axiom to concentrate on long-term engineering projects rather than day-to-day maintenance.
RAIL FRANCHISES
DfT issues the Grester [East] Anglia franchise Invitation to Tender
Keywords: [GreaterAngliaFranchise]
Following its announcement of the three shortlisted bidders on 24th March (see [Snippets 215]), less than four weeks later the DfT issued the Invitation to Tender in a 67-page document on 21st April. Formal bids for the 17-month interim franchise (which cannot exceed 600 pages) must be submitted by noon on 7th July. The winner is expected to be announced in November.
DfT notice: http://www2.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/passenger/franchises/greater-anglia/invitationtotender.pdf.
RAIL FREIGHT
Reopening of Barrington rail line for new construction land-fill deliveries gains planing approval
Keywords: [BarringtonBranch]
Cambridgeshire County Council's planners have agreed to allow Cemex UK Operations Ltd. to bring 1.2 million cubic metres of construction, demolition and excavation waste from London over four or five years by rail into Barrington quarry. The waste will be used to infill the big hole in the middle of the quarry site, and after completion it will be landscaped far ahead of the 2042 deadline when Cemex is legally required to restore the site.
The mothballed railway line between Foxton and Barrington will be refurbished (to take heavier trains with a 25-tonne axle-loading), with new ballast laid in the existing base ballast, and extended all the way to the quarry. It could see up to three return trips a day on Monday to Friday using trains of up to 23 wagons that would generally operate between 07:00 and 20:00 but throughout the night on occasions. Residents have expressed concerns about noise from the trains, but a company spokesman said the link would be relaid with welded rail and ballast mats would reduce vibration.
Warning flashing lights and new signs will be installed at Foxton and Haslingfield Road, Barrington. Because there will be no barriers a member of the train crew will get out of the locomotive to ensure it is safe to use the crossing. Only one train will be allowed on the line at any time, which will allow 15mph running, although the sidings will be retained at the Foxton end so that a train can arrive whilst another waits to depart.
Cemex had mothballed the quarry three years ago, along with the railway line. The scheme is dependant on it winning a contract to dispose of tunnelling waste from the Crossrail scheme.
Additional sand trains from Middleton Towers quarry (near King's Lynn) commence running
Keywords: [MiddletonTowersBranch]
On 7th April Freightliner Heavy Haul ran its first sand train from the Sibelco UK Middleton Towers quarry to Quality Freight's unloading facility at Ellesmere Port. The sand will be used by Quinn Glass in the manufacture of glass food and drink containers at their plant at Elton, Cheshire. This is the start of a long term contract between Quinn Group and Freightliner. To begin with, three trains a week will deliver sand to Ellesmere Port (where the railhead has reopened after having been closed for 20 years), but in November 2011 the operation is to transfer to a dedicated terminal and unloading facility at the Quinn factory.
STATIONS
First work on the ground for Cambridge station island platforms
Keywords: [CambridgeStation]
Cambridge station platforms 5/6 were closed over the weekend of 16th/17th April so that the buffer stops could be moved north to shorten platform 5. Thus ensuring that the foundations can be put in for the new footbridge to platforms 7/8. The track in platform 5 is unchanged.
Bizarrely a massive fence has been constructed along the platform edge to stop people falling into the space that now has no track. Clearly this health and safety nonsense is required to protect claims against the contractors rather than the railway organisation as there is no common sense justification to protect the public from falling onto somewhere without track than somewhere with track. As usual, the passenger/taxpayer will pay the cost.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 216 - 28/04/2011
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