News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 226 - 18/02/2012
- RAIL FRANCHISES [all issues]
- STATIONS [all issues]
- Government confirms that new franchise agreements will require TOCs to call at Chesterton Station and pay access charges
- Improvements completed at Bury St Edmunds and Marks Tey stations
- RAIL FREIGHT [all issues]
- GUIDED BUSWAY [all issues]
- WEBSITES [all issues]
It has been confirmed that ticket barriers will be introduced at King's Lynn station in April. CCTV will be introduced to monitor the barriers.
RAIL Magazine issue 689, from 8th-21st February, contains a detailed four-page article on the resignalling of the Ely-Norwich railway line.
BBC Two will be running a 6-part fly-on-the-wall series about the London Underground starting on Monday 20th February at 21;00. It is called The Tube. A second series is being made and will be screened in Autumn 2012.
Greater Anglia's media relations head Jonathan Denby will be talking to the East Suffolk Travellers' Association (ESTA) at their spring meeting on Saturday 17th March. He is expected to talk in detail about the improved service following the opening of the Beccles loop in December.
Dates have been confirmed for the switch-over to the new Ely to Norwich signalling system. The section between Shippea Hill and Thetford takes place on 23rd July with the rest of the line on 2nd December. It will see the elimination of nine manual signal boxes along the route.
The Whitwell and Reepham Railway Preservation Society will hold its AGM on 12th March at 19:00. It has announced that 406 passengers (161 of them being children) were carried on its 15 Santa Special trains in December.
On Sunday 4th March 2012 the Bure Valley Railway will be hosting its annual volunteers' Open Day for anyone interested in volunteering on the railway. There will be an opportunity to meet existing staff and volunteers and see behind the scenes. The railway now carries over 120,000 passengers each year with services operated by a small team of paid staff and active volunteers.
RAIL FRANCHISES
Abellio's Greater Anglia TOC takes over from National Express East Anglia
Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]
Abellio, which is a subsidiary of Dutch state railway, took over from NXEA on Sunday 5th February. It has chosen the TOC name Greater Anglia, which matches the franchise name. Their website is http://www.greateranglia.co.uk. The franchisee, which has 3,000 employees, is responsible for operating 174 stations, running 1,900 trains each weekday, with a fleet of 1,200 vehicles serviced at three depots (Crown Point, Ilford and Clacton).
Abellio has agreed to a very aggressive premium payment for the short franchise, committing to paying £418m. It is believed that Stagecoach bid £359m (second place) and £347m from Go-Ahead.
STATIONS
Government confirms that new franchise agreements will require TOCs to call at Chesterton Station and pay access charges
On 10th February Transport Minister Theresa Villiers wrote to Cambridgeshire County Council to confirm that the franchise agreements for Thameslink (commencing 2013) and Greater Anglia (2014) would require the franchisees to stop trains at Chesterton station. As stated in [Snippets 225] the county council would receive an access fee for this to recover the money it would borrow to build the station.
It would have been astonishing if the government had not done so as the National Express East Anglia franchise that commenced on 1st April 2004 and the First Capital Connect one that started on 1st April 2006 both required the operator to call at the station, albeit not having to pay a special surcharge to do so.
A consultation on the scheme will be undertaken later in 2012 with further consultation through the planning process to be undertaken in 2013. Studies have suggested that 805 of the vehicles using Cambridge station emanate from the north of the city so the opening of the station should see a reduction in through-city congestion.
Improvements completed at Bury St Edmunds and Marks Tey stations
The £150,000 'Access for All' improvements at Bury St Edmunds station, which includes a more spacious ticket hall, improved tickets and customer information screens, were ceremonially opened on 20th January. Meanwhile, one week later, on 27th January the upgraded Marks Tey station was formally opened. It has seen £2.2m of improvements, which included a new station building with a ticket office, toilets and a retail facility.
RAIL FREIGHT
Contract awarded to design and build the third rail terminal at Felixstowe
Under a new design and build contract, Volker Fitzpatrick will construct a third rail terminal, to be known as the North Terminal, at Felixstowe Port. The new rail terminal will support 30-wagon trains, carrying a total of 90 TEU containers, and will eventually have six rail-mounted gantry cranes to transfer contains between train and vessel. This enhancement will enable the port's rail terminal capacity to be doubled. Work is likely to commence in April.
Article: http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2012/01/24/volker-fitzpatrick-wins-20m-felixstowe-rail-terminal/.
GUIDED BUSWAY
Stagecoach to purchase eight more buses for busway services
The number and frequency of buses operating on both sections of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway was fairly low when the service started. This reduced the up-front investment needed until the busway was finally opened and also created a marketing benefit by the buses being well patronised rather than largely empty.
Seven months after the service started Stagecoach has now placed an order for eight new buses (three double-deck and five single-level vehicles) which will be delivered in July. This will allow an improved frequency.
There are also plans to construct a new bus stop in St Ives town centre to provide a shorter journeys for passengers from Huntingdon who will not have to go round the St Ives one-way system.
News item: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Frequency-of-guided-busway-services-to-increase-20022012.htm.
WEBSITES
Innovative website shows location of an East Coast train in real-time
An individual has set-up a website http://bbarker.co.uk/eastCoast/ that shows the positions of East Coast trains on the rail network in real-time. It is really designed for people on board the train to determine where they are at that point in time, effectively offering the same kind of location display that airlines provide. The website uses Wi-Fi feed from one DVT to show its movements up and down the ECML.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 226 - 18/02/2012
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