News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 225 - 14/01/2012
- RAIL FRANCHISES [all issues]
- STATIONS [all issues]
- Cambridgeshire County Council business case data for Chesterton station shows ticket revenues would recover capital costs
- Network Rail announces detailed plans for extra capacity at Peterborough station
- Revamp of Colchester North station completed
- Three new ticket machines installed at Norwich station after successful six-month trial
- WEBSITES [all issues]
The new King's Cross concourse will open on Monday 19th March, with an official opening ceremony in the week before.
Passengers on the train between Letchworth Garden City and Hitchin can now see evidence of work to build the new 1km railway and bypass.
On 21st December the Queen took the 10:45 First Capital Connect service from London King's Cross to King's Lynn, station for an onward journey to Sandringham.
A report by Institute for Public Policy Research North shows an analysis of transport spending per head around the country. Eastern England saw just £43 compared to £792 for the South-east of England and £2,731 for London. Bottom of the table was the North-east of England with just £5 per head.
The Friends Of March Railway Station will be holding a clean-up event at March Railway Station, Station Approach, March PE15 8SJ at Saturday 11th February 2012 at 10:00.
Felixstowe Travel Watch will be holding a meeting at 14:30 on Tuesday 14th February in St Andrew's Hall, Felixstowe.
ITV is looking at the issue of metal theft for a national programme in the New Year, including the damaging effects that this crime has on rail passengers journeys.
RAIL FRANCHISES
Government issues specification for new Thameslink franchise in EU Official Journal
On 19th December the DfT issued a document requesting for "expressions of interest" from an "appropriately experienced and qualified transport operator to operate the Thameslink rail passenger franchise" for between seven and nine years commencing in September 2013. It would take over all the First Capital Services from day one with selected Southeastern services being added in 2014 and all of the services currently operated by Southern Railway between then and 2017. This will achieve further consolidation reducing the total number of franchises - something that will find favour with many rail supporters.
The DfT document says that the current FCC Franchise had total passenger-related revenue of £1,010 million in 2010/11 generated from 4.75 million passenger miles and reckons that the Southern franchise generates around £550 million.
A maximum of five shortlisted respondents (who must respond by 9th February) will be sent the Invitation to Tender document which is planned to be issued in October 2012. In May 2013 the DfT expects to announce the successful bidder which will have submitted "the most economically advantageous tender in terms of the criteria stated in the specifications and the Invitation to Tender." Like the new Greater Anglia franchise won by Abellio the winner will take on full repairing leases at all the stations it will manage.
Spec: http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/rail-passenger-franchise-thameslink/thameslink-ojeu-notice.pdf.
STATIONS
Cambridgeshire County Council business case data for Chesterton station shows ticket revenues would recover capital costs
Cambs County Council staff have been working on data for the Chesterton station, which the DfT has requested. Initial results were submitted on 23rd December 2011 followed by answers to questions on 11th January 2012. The council believes it has clearly demonstrates that the revenues from the station (from ticket sales and parking) would comfortably exceed the costs of building and running the station and therefore it should be possible to fund its construction on a commercial basis within 13 years whilst still allowing TOCs to earn net revenue from stopping trains at the station. Because of this positive return, and in order to get the station opened as soon as possible, the council has decided to borrow the money (at 4.5% per annum) to finance construction and then recoup it through a proportion of ticket sales rather than rely on government funding despite a benefit-cost ratio of more than 4:1.
According to county council documents its total costs over 13 years would be £38 million against £81 million of revenue from ticket sales and parking charges after all operation costs and abstraction from Waterbeach and Cambridge stations are taken into account. Train operators would pay the county council an access charge for calling at the station. However, this would not cover the operational costs as it would be managed by the lead TOC.
In making the case for the new station Cambridgeshire County Council has used many of the same arguments that
CAST.IRON used to back its plan to reopen the now lost St Ives railway line. These include:
- The greatly enhanced access to London, Stansted and Gatwick Airports, European rail services, and the national rail network
- the positive perception from a business perspective of being less than an hour from London by rail
- The increase in size of the public transport catchment of the Science Park and surrounding business parks
- The improvement in journey times for rail trips which previously involved a bus or taxi trip from Cambridge station
- The cost and time of journeys on key rail links into the area comparing very favourably with competing road links, allowing the opportunity for businesses and their employees to reduce the time and cost of transport
Network Rail announces detailed plans for extra capacity at Peterborough station
Keywords: [PeterboroughStation]
In October 2010 (see [Snippets 210]) Network Rail revealed its £38.8m project to add a new island platform on the western side of Peterborough station to increase capacity. It has now revealed more about the plans, which has increased to £43m.
The new island platform on the western side will have two faces (platforms 6 and 7) that will be used exclusively for the east-west trains (i.e. all those that travel via Ely) and will allow for 8-car trains. Currently platform 4 is used by both intercity trains travelling north and the east-west trains, which reduces capacity and can leave trains waiting for a platform to become free. In future both platforms 4 and 5 will be extended and used primarily for intercity trains, although the east-west trains could use them. The downside of this segregation is that the very convenient cross-platform interchange from Ely/March trains to north-bound ones (Doncaster, Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh) will now require passengers (often with luggage) to use the footbridge and as well as the inconvenience this could result in them missing connections.
There will be a new platform 3 (for southbound intercity trains) adjacent to the 'up fast' line that lies to the west of the current platform 3, which will be renamed platform 2. The current platform 2 will be extended to allow future 12-car Thameslink services plus two-car trains to Lincoln in the platform at the same time (as happens today), and will be renamed platform 1. The extension means that the southbound bay platform (no 1.) will have to be closed as it would be inaccessible, hence the renumbering. As it can only take four-car trains from the south, of which there will be few, the bay would have had very little use anyway. There is land to allow the bay to be turned into an 8-car platform but this would necessitate a series of points having to be moved southwards (with the corresponding relocation of signals) and this was not considered financially justifiable. The bay platform is likely to be filled in but Network Rail has not said what would be done with the space.
Overall there will be seven through platforms (with platform two being as two halves, making eight platforms) compared to the current four through and one bay platform. All lines will be bi-directional and all platforms will be served by lifts as part of the 'Access for All' scheme, with both footbridges (the passenger one and the former parcels one) being extended to serve the new island platform. One apparent downside is that fast non-stopping trains are currently not on lines that are adjacent to platforms but the down line will adjacent to the new platform 3. The work, which includes various track layout changes, is expected to be completed by December 2013.
NR Plans: http://www.networkrail.co.uk/redeveloping-Peterborough-station.aspx.
Revamp of Colchester North station completed
Keywords: [ColchesterNorth]
On 23rd December the revamped Colchester North station was officially reopened. Around £2.2 million had been spent on the reinstatement of the former south-side entrance, a new ticket office and booking hall, an extended canopy on the walkway to platform 3 along with waiting shelters and forecourt improvements. Railfuture East Anglia branch members will have a chance to see this on 23rd June, when the branch holds its quarterly meeting in Colchester.
Back in 2010 double-deck cycle racks had been installed. These hold 60 cycles, twice the previous capacity.
Three new ticket machines installed at Norwich station after successful six-month trial
Keywords: [NorwichStation]
Three additional ticket machines have recently been installed at Norwich station at a cost of £45,000. These allow customers to collect pre-paid and tickets. It is intended to speed up collection times for passengers using the station. They were only installed after a successful six-month trail of a new machine introduced in the summer.
WEBSITES
Website makes use of railway working timetables to provide live running information for each station
The http://www.opentraintimes.com website allows you to enter a station and find out each train that will be calling at the station around a particular point in time, with platform numbers and train origniating/destination stations plus the train operator, to identify the train you are interested in. It will even show timetables in the past, which may be useful for people claiming under the 'Delay Repay' scheme.
Google Maps now shows the train services amongst its list of transport options
Following numerous complaints that the railway was not included in the list of transport options, Google Maps now integrate nationwide train timetables and the mobile version can also automatically deduce fastest routes from a user's location and direct them to their nearest stations. This feature is accessed via 'Get Directions' on Google Maps; users can choose from walking, driving and public transport options but driving is the default. See http://maps.google.co.uk.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 225 - 14/01/2012
[Prev Issue (224)] [Snippets Issues] [Next Issue (226)] [Category List] [Keyword List] [People List] [Story List] [Branch Dashboard]