News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 71 - 11/09/2001
- CHUMMS - A14 CORRIDOR STUDY [all issues]
- CHUMMS preferred plan consultation deadline extended following protests
- Huntingdon MP Jonathan Djanogly's views on the CHUMMS proposals
- Railfuture send official response to CHUMMS
- Rail Freight Group ask CHUMMS not to ignore rail
- Railfuture attend East of England Local Government Conference
- Cambridge City Council environment committee holds special meeting to formulate its response to CHUMMS.
- STATIONS [all issues]
- RAIL FARES [all issues]
- PROMOTING RAIL TRAVEL [all issues]
- PRESERVED RAILWAYS [all issues]
- PASSENGER INFORMATION [all issues]
Richard Stuart from the Strategic Rail Authority will be attending the Railfuture East Anglia branch meeting in Ipswich on 29th September. They will give a presentation on the current work of the SRA in East Anglia. It is anticipated that they will cover franchise replacement, including possible merging of existing franchises, East-West rail link, the process of dealing with RPP bids and the role the SRA takes in multi-modal studies.
A photo of the Ipswich County Library in Northgate Street (post code IP1 3DE) is available on: http://www.suffolkcc.gov.uk/libraries/locations/ipswichcounty-library.html.
A map from Ipswich Railway Station is available on: http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?pc=IP13DE.
CHUMMS - A14 CORRIDOR STUDY
CHUMMS preferred plan consultation deadline extended following protests
Huntingdon MP Jonathan Djanogly was one of many people who asked for the deadline for the comments on the CHUMMS proposals to be extended owing to the delay in the publication of the full plan. The deadline was extended to Monday 10th September.
Huntingdon MP Jonathan Djanogly's views on the CHUMMS proposals
Following the public meetings in Godmanchester, St.Ives and Brampton held by Jonathan Djanogly, he personally wrote to everyone who attended, enclosing a copy of the letter he wrote to Alan Moore, the Head of Planning and Transportation on the Regional Planning Panel. In part of the letter, Mr Djanogly said "The vast majority of people support a light rail option as opposed to the Preferred Plan's proposal for a guided bus option... Concerns have been raised that the guided bus system relies on unproven technology, that it would be much slower than light rail, that it cannot carry freight as can light rail and that it carries fewer people than light rail."
Hunts Post article on Mr Djanogly's letter: http://www.huntspost.co.uk/News/07_09_01/expansion.asp.
Railfuture send official response to CHUMMS
Nick Dibben sent an official CHUMMS response from the East Anglian branch of Railfuture to Cambridgeshire County Council, Labour MP Anne Campbell, Conservative Shona Johnstone and Lib Dem councillor Terry Bear amongst others. The response is available online in PDF format (311kb) from http://miltonstation.members.beeb.net/CHUMMS_criticism_by_railfuture.pdf.
Rail Freight Group ask CHUMMS not to ignore rail
Keywords: [RailFreightGroup]
In a letter about CHUMMS to Caroline Bowdler at GO-EAST, Alan Peats, Chief Executive of the Rail Freight Group (RFG) said "We believe that the CHUMMS study is too narrow and should also consider the railway line to Huntingdon.
"In general we would oppose the use of a rail track bed for other than rail use and the proposal to convert the line to St Ives to an untried guided busway appears unwise. So much is being done with light railways that surely this should be considered and keeps the track available for rail freight at a later date albeit we have a conflict between light rail and heavy rail."
It appears that Freightliner - who recently announced pre-tax losses of £2.7m for 2000 - are concerned that railfreight will decrease if the A14 improvements happen without the equivalent upgrade to the rail route to improve capacity.
RFG official response to CHUMMS: http://www.rfg.org.uk/ftp/policy53.rtf.
Railfuture attend East of England Local Government Conference
On Monday 3rd September, Nick Dibben, Ivan Ivanovic and Ben Walsh attended the EELGC meeting and expressed their concerns about the guided busway proposals. They were not alone in having reservations about the busway proposal. The EELGC still intend to pass their views to the minister by the end of October.
Cambridge City Council environment committee holds special meeting to formulate its response to CHUMMS.
On Monday 10th September, Cambridge City Council held a special meeting of its environment committee to hammer out its response, according to the Cambridge Evening News.
In a report to the committee, Peter Studdert, the city council's director of environment and planning, recommended councillors support the plans, but on condition "effective demand management measures are introduced in Cambridge" and the public transport element of the plans is "delivered in advance of the highway works".
STATIONS
SRA confirms funding of extension to Waterbeach station car park
Keywords: [WaterbeachStation]
The SRA has announced that it will be contributing £92,000 to fund an extension of the car park at Waterbeach station. It currently has 40 parking spaces, and there were plans to increase it to 60, but now a further 38 spaces will be added making 78 in all.
CCTV, disabled parking and further cycle parking will also be added. Cambridgeshire County Council is providing the land for the extension.
SRA press release: http://www.sra.gov.uk/news/releases/2001/sep/SRA_Funds_Extension_of_Car_Park_at_Waterbeach%20_100901.htm.
RAIL FARES
Regulated fares in East Anglia will fall next year
The SRA has announced that the average regulated train fares will fall by an average of 1.4% in January 2002 because of poor train service performances. Such fares are being decreased by 3% in real terms, with the inflation rate taken as 1.6%. As it is the average fare that is being reduced, it does not necessarily mean that individual regulated fares will not rise. The train operators are still at liberty to increase unregulated fares to compensate, or add further restrictions on cheaper fares.
The SRA says that approximately 39% of all revenue (around £3.4 billion total in 2001 financial year) is from regulated fares.
Companies in East Anglia who are being punished for poor service are WAGN, FGE and c2c.
BBC News report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1530000/1530473.stm.
SRA press release: http://www.sra.gov.uk/news/releases/2001/sep/Rail_Fares_to_Fall_in_London_South_East_070901.htm.
PROMOTING RAIL TRAVEL
Reedham Beer Festival
Anglia Railways are arranging for extra Sunday services between Norwich and Lowestoft to call at Reedham for the 16th Reedham Beer Festival which is taking place at the Railway Tavern, Reedham, Norfolk from Friday 14th to Sunday 23th September 2001. The Railway Tavern is situated just a few metres from Anglia Railways' station.
Fares from Norwich to Reedham are £3.00 return and Anglia Railways ticket-holders can obtain a 10% discount off a two-course meal from the Festival menu.
Anglia Railways press-release: http://www.angliarailways.co.uk/latest-information/news-detail.asp?id=210.
PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Part of Southwold Light Railway to reopen?
According to RAIL magazine, although there was a poor response from local residents, there is 74% support for a £1.4m project to rebuild part of the Southwold Light Railway between Southwold & Walberswick. The original 3ft gauge railway between Southwold & the East Suffolk line at Halesworth closed in 1929.
Background information: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/Members/rj.cullen/Suffolk.htm.
PASSENGER INFORMATION
National travel line service giving local travel information on 0870 608 2608
Railfuture member Dave Taylor recently tried using a new national 24-hour travel line service on 0870 608 2608. Although a national number, you will be routed to your local travel information centre for advice on rail, coaches and buses
Dave says "It is an excellent idea and somewhat overdue. I thought I'd test it by asking how to get from Bures to Stansted airport to see what it came up with. It gives you the usual choice of buttons to get to the information you want. I wanted Suffolk travel, but ended up in London. They transferred me to 'East Anglia', which was actually answered in Norwich. They said they didn't have any details of buses in Suffolk (they weren't on their computer!), so gave me a Suffolk bus number. Suffolk buses don't have train times."
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 71 - 11/09/2001
[Prev Issue (70)] [Snippets Issues] [Next Issue (72)] [Category List] [Keyword List] [People List] [Story List] [Branch Dashboard]