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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 240 - 30/04/2013

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

Railfuture News Snippets 240 - 30/04/2013



At the BBRUA meeting in Lidlington Village Hall on Thursday 4th April, Patrick O'Sullivan of the East West Rail Consortium revealed that electrification between Bletchley and Bedford is currently unfunded and is "an aspiration". He pointed out that the 16.5 miles of railway had 43 crossings of all types and many would need to be closed to support a fast East West service. It was still undecided whether a Transport and Works Order or a Development Consent Order would be used for the works.

ORR figures covering the finances of the British railway system in 2012 can be found at: http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/gb-financials-2012.pdf.

The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) carried 100 million passengers during the financial year April 2012 to March 2013, breaking all previous passenger records. The figures include the 7.2 million passengers who used the service during the Olympic Games.

The Epping-Ongar Railway is now offering driver training days. A half-day course on a diesel train, which includes driving two round trips is £295. See http://eorailway.co.uk/extras/driver-experience/.

Engineering work will cause some disruption on the King's Cross to Cambridge line on Sunday 5th May when buses replace trains between Welwyn Garden City and Hitchin on the Cambridge route. It was not made public whether this is final work for the Hitchin flyover or resolving issues with the electrification masts that has led to speed restrictions being imposed.

Breckland Council will be making use of Dereham Station on Thursday 2nd May as a Polling Station for local elections and for vote counting on the Friday.

The Senior Railcard is increasing in price from £28 to £30 from Sunday 19th May. The three-year version (available online only) is increasing from £65 to £70.

The BBC website has an interesting video about the inside of King's Cross signal box - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21951560.


RAIL ROUTES
Local MP eager to see March-Wisbech line reopening holds meeting with Atkins and Cambs County Council transport officials

Keywords: [WisbechBranch]

The Fenland Citizen has reported that Fenland MP Steve Barclay met representatives from Cambs County Council and consultants from Atkins in mid-April to discuss the second stage of the study into re-opening the railway line from Wisbech to March. He invited the officers and consultants to meet him in his office at the House of Commons to stress the importance of the scheme and to understand more about how they would determine the detailed estimate of the capital costs for reopening the line.

Mr Barclay was quoted saying "The local community has come together behind these plans and I believe the second phase of planning by Atkins will give us the positive data we now need to make the case to Ministers. A railway line for Wisbech is key to addressing the imbalance within the County, as is a more frequent service between Ipswich and Peterborough". The news story also mentioned the online petition set-up by Railfuture which quickly generated more than over 1,000 signatures in support - a figure that is climbing as more leaflets are delivered to the 12,000 houses in Wisbech.

March-Spalding line arches before A141 road could be demolished

The March-Spalding line closed in 1982 (the last pasenger line to close in East Anglia) it provided a Peterborough avoiding route that wuold be highly valued today with much more freight coming from Felixstowe docks via East Anglia. Although the line was soon lifted, and some of the route built one, mainly at the March end where the Whitmoor Prison now sits, some of the historic infrastructure remains. One example is the 12 iconic arches beside the busy A141 road, which are not listed and have had no maintenance since 1982. They are now at risk of demolition after a Chatteris businessman bought them and wants to remove them to make way for housing.


STATIONS
Huntingdon railway station to be refurbished

Keywords: [HuntingdonStation]

First Capital Connect has announced that the ticket hall in the Grade II listed building at Huntingdon station is to be refurbished. The interior will be painted, have new lighting and new flooring to reduce the risk of slips and trips. Heritage style lamps will be fitted to the exterior of the building. Work would start on 7th May and take four weeks with work mainly taking place at night to reduce disruption, although the ticket office will close at 19:00, an hour earlier than normal. The station is used by about 1.67 million passengers a year.


ROLLING STOCK
Class 321 upgrade completed at Greater Anglia's depot in Clacton

At the end of March Greater Anglia has completed the in-house upgrade of its Class 321/4 emu train fleet at its Clacton depot. In total 17 trains (68 carriages) were refurbished as part of its franchise commitment. They now have new floor coverings and seat covers, with the body side panels and seat trims replaced where necessary. The trains all operate from the London Liverpool Street travelling to the Braintree, Clacton-on-Sea/Walton-on-the-Naze, Chelmsford/Colchester, Harwich, and Southend Victoria branches as well as the mainline as far as Ipswich. Many of them were transferred to GA from London Midland in 2010.

Greater Anglia London-Norwich loco-hauled Mark III carriages to be overhauled

The 111 locomotive-hauled Mark III coaches operated by Greater Anglia on its London-Norwich services are to be given a C6 overhaul and have corrosion repaired. A £5m contract contract was awarded to Railcare by the fleet's owners Porterbrook Leasing. The work is scheduled to start in October 2013 for completion by July 2016. Five coaches will undergoing overhaul at any one time.


GUIDED BUSWAY
Guided busway was built to get traffic off the A14 - but that cars not articulated lorries!

In Snippets 237 it was reported that 50 incidents occurred on the Cambridgeshire Guided Buswsy in just six months, mainly unauthorised vehicles entering, and being trapped on, the busway track. In April bus passengers looked on in amazement as a 44-tonne articulated 12-wheel lorry drove onto the busway at Longstanton, although the driver soon realised his mistake and turned off into the park-and-ride car park, which was just a little further down the track. It is the largest vehicle (so far) to get onto the buses-only route. The haulage company from north Yorkshire was quoted saying "We've had a call from the council threatening us with a £1,000 fine, but it was just an honest mistake."

PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Mid-Norfolk Railway hosts 'Operation Mardle' training exercise in Wymondham for the emergency services

Keywords: [MidNorfolkRailway]

On Wednesday 24th April an accident was staged on the Mid-Norfolk Railway to test the work of the emergency services. As part of the five-hour exercise, which involved more than 200 people, a van was "hit" by a three-carriage train with a group of college students on board at a level crossing in Becketswell Road, Wymondham. Nearly 60 people were "rescued" from the wreckage.

The organisations taking part included Norfolk Constabulary, East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST), Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service, HM Armed Forces, Norfolk County Council (NCC), NCC Children's Services, South Norfolk Council and Peterborough Medical Emergency Response Incident Team (MERIT). A year had been spent planning the exercise, which takes place every three years to comply with the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. A different scenario is used each time.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 240 - 30/04/2013

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