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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 144 - 25/11/2004

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

Railfuture News Snippets 144 - 25/11/2004

On Saturday 27th November at Ely Maltings there will be a meeting of the Peterborough-Norwich Rail Users Group at 11:15. The panel will include Paul Dickson of RPC, Clive Morris of 'one', Jon Quarmby of Central Trains. Passengers who use the Central Citylink or Norwich-Cambridge services are particularly welcome to attend. At 14:00 the Fen Line Users Association will hold their AGM in the same room, and Clive Morris will be their main speaker.

A week later the branch will be holding a meeting in Cambridge at 14:00 at Little St.Mary's Church Hall, the usual venue. Guest speaker will be Lord Berkeley of the Rail Freight Group. The date for the branch AGM has been announced as Saturday 19th February 2005. It will be a joint meeting with STEER at the Ely Maltings instead of the usual Bury St.Edmunds library. Meeting will consist of Railfuture branch AGM 13:30 to 14:30, speaker from the rail industry from 14:30 to 15:45 and STEER AGM 15:45 - 16:45.

HSE interim report Ufton Nervet http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/10_11_04_crash_hse_interim.pdf.

There will be a BRTA Members Meeting on Saturday 5th February 2005 at the Friends Meeting House, 5 Lansdowne Road, Bedford at 13:30. This will be to discuss and adopt a new constitution and get feed back on their projects (including East West Rail Link). Non-members are welcome to attend.

The public inquiry into the Luton-Dunstable Translink guided busway application will begin on 15th February 2005 in the Council Chamber at Luton Town Hall and is likely to run for about 4-6 weeks. An independent website, run by the inquiry's programme officer, will be regularly updated during the inquiry. It is: http://www.translinkexpress.org.uk/inquiry01home.htm.

RAIL ROUTES
Crossrail included in Queen's Speech

On Tuesday 23rd November as part of the Queen's speech plans by the government to pass a law to build the new CrossRail link were announced.

The government's plans included a railway bill to reorganise the rail industry, which involves abolishing the SRA (giving the Secretary of State responsibility for setting the strategic direction for rail) and transferring safety functions to the ORR and devolving powers to Scotland (almost everything except safety and franchising), Wales and the London Mayor. A new Rail Group of around 250-280 staff will be set up within the Department for Transport and will help ministers to define strategy, monitor performance, sponsor rail investment and let franchises. The Conservative Party has said that it will oppose some of the proposals.

RAIL FRANCHISES
Virgin/Stagecoach bid for ECML franchise may be turned down on competition grounds

Keywords: [EastCoastFranchise]

On 29th October the Office of Fair Trading announced an Invitation to Comment on the bidders for the ECML franchise. It is concerned about the effects if Virgin/Stagecoach has both the WCML and ECML franchises. This could be considered a "merger situation" under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002, in which case the OFT will consider if there will be a substantial lessening of competition.

At the Bus Industry Awards ceremony in early November Former SRA chairman Richard Bowker criticised Britain's competition authorities for working against another government agency - the SRA - by hampering co-ordination between different branches of public transport. He accused the Office of Fair Trading of mounting costly, time-consuming inquiries into rail franchises that yield "minuscule" recommendations, citing the investigation into National Express's 'one' franchise and a second inquiry involving First Group's Scotrail franchise win.

News report: http://www.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200410291500026390e.html.

GNER bids for South Eastern Trains in partnership with Honk Kong train operator

Keywords: [GNER]

Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTR), which claims to be the world's most reliable train company with punctuality of 99% and is 77% owned by the Chinese government, is to launch a joint bid with GNER (Sea Containers) for the currently publicly-run South Eastern Trains franchise. It will face competition from First Group, Denmark's DSB and a joint venture between Go-Ahead and France's Keolis. However, none of them will be awarded the franchise if 117 MPs who signed an early day motion calling for the refranchising of the service to be halted are successful.

Jonathan Denby of 'one' give progress update to Cambridge University Railway Club

Keywords: [OneRailway]

Jonathan Denby, head of public relations from 'one' railway, was in Cambridge on Thursday 4th November to talk about "one" services and plans for the future. Much of the information was the same as he revealed to the branch in Ipswich in June, although updated as 'one' had now been operating for seven months.

They have 3,100 employees helping to run 1,600 trains each weekday accounting for 10% of passenger journeys in Britain. They run 168 stations, visiting all except Manea, and visit another six (Liverpool Street, Peterborough, Waterbeach and the four Fen Line stations). Stations on the Braintree branch are confirmed for extension to 12-coach lengths.

The last three Class 86's will be withdrawn by the end of 2004, and eventually there will be 134 Mark III carriages (including DVTs) operating on the mainline to Norwich. It is hoped that passenger seats can be put in the DVTs to make use of wasted space. From December 2004 there will be 70 mainline trains a day to Norwich (instead of 65), which is more than there has ever been.

There is an aspiration to swap Class 150's with 156's from Central Trains. It is also hoped that the Class 153's running between Cambridge and Ipswich will be swapped for other stock in the future.

It is not known whether Hertford East trains will run to Stratford. They may continue to serve Liverpool Street, which is what the local authority hopes. The new Customer Service Agency is likely to be in Stratford and would open in May 2005.

The new Public Performance Measure (PPM), which measures 100% of scheduled services (24x7) without exception, has averaged 88% 0-5 punctuality for the first six months of the franchise. In 2004 this has only been exceeded by c2c, Island Line, Chiltern and MerseyRail, all of which are largely self-contained routes.

The trolley service on the Cambridge-Norwich route was losing around £100,000 per year, hence its withdrawal in September. Mr Denby also acknowledged that National Express was the lowest bidder, or rather requested the most subsidy, for the Greater [East] Anglia franchise, partly due to its "buying power". He also revealed that the proposals were similar although only National Express's bid had included Peterborough to London via Ipswich and frequent Lowestoft-London services.

ST.IVES LINE
Objector at Public Inquiry for Cambridgeshire Guided Busway claims County Council is "in contempt"

During his evidence Steve Hannath, an objector living on the bus route into Cambridge, accused Cambridgeshire County Council of being in contempt of the public inquiry into its proposed guided bus scheme. He said that by releasing £3m to prepare for the scheme the council was "dismissing" the inquiry as a foregone conclusion and told the inspector that the County Council had "impugned your independence and integrity". Graham Hughes, project director, dismissed this saying: "If we want to deliver this system by 2007 we have to start this work early. For example, some environmental surveys can only be done at certain times of the year and we may wait a month and miss a year."

Only a couple of weeks later Cambridge County Council placed an advert in The Times for a £120,000 a year deputy chief executive of environment and community service specifically to oversee the introduction and operation of the guided busway. When questioned by the Cambridge Evening News a council spokeswoman said "At the interview stage it would be explained that we are in the middle of a public inquiry."

Arthur Henderson, who developed the guided bus concept 40 years ago slammed the guided bus proposal as "system-led, when it should be demand-led" and told Dr Chris Gossop (the inspector): "We should be planning for up to 50 years ahead - and for both freight and people."

County councillor Alexander Reid, the Lib Dem spokesman for environment and transport, said he was against extra buses going through the city.

Peterborough resident Anne Upton told the inquiry: "I feel the guided bus is putting all the eggs in one basket. "There are [other] areas crying out for better transport provision and maybe a better share of the cake could be devised."

Dr Stephen Ades, representing CAST.IRON suggested that a Ferrari would be hard-pressed to achieve rates of acceleration demanded of the guided bus, which would accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds and braking that was more severe than gravity. Dr Ades said that Cambridgeshire County Council's experts should have corrected figures that were clearly wrong. However they used these figures to predict optimistic journey times. He invited the Inspector, Dr Chris Gossop, to wonder whether, in the light of such elementary errors, there were not other farcical claims in the council's case.

Train operator has still not reached agreement with County Council and remains objector to guided busway

Cambridge station lessee 'one' are objecting to the guided busway, and also representing WAGN and Central, because of concerns that they will suffer inconvenience: engineering works will require bus replacement services ? but their customers will get no benefit from it. They are also concerned that once the busway is up and running there will be insufficient space in the forecourt of Cambridge station for their rail replacement buses.

Cambridge City Council does now appear to have reached a compromise with the County Council.

Rail Freight Group reiterates its opposition to guided busway

Keywords: [RailFreightGroup]

On 3rd November the Rail Freight Group held a members conference in Peterborough. Afterwards an interview with its chairman Lord Berkeley was broadcast on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. He followed this up with a letter to the inspector in which he said the St.Ives line must be considered as providing a diversionary freight route. He describes it as "the only viable alternative route to cater for excess demand on the Ely-Peterborough line or when this is closed for maintenance." He continues "given the long-term demand for freight on this corridor the Cambridge-St.Ives line might well be required to meet the needs of rail freight" and summed up saying "we urge the inquiry to reject the application on the basis that this railway line might be needed in the long term as a strategic freight route between the Haven ports and the Midlands and North."

RAIL ROUTES
East West Rail Link delayed by yet another government request for a study

Keywords: [EastWestRail]

The Government has called for yet another study, this time looking at opportunities for private finding, before it will support the western part of the East West Rail Link. In the recently published Milton Keynes and South Midlands Sub-Regional Strategy the Government says that running trains from Oxford to Bedford and from Aylesbury to Bletchley is "under consideration" for opening some time between 2007 and 2016. The plan for 169,800 new homes in the region by 2021 has not spurred the government into action, and re-linking Bedford to Cambridge is ruled out before 2021.

In 2003 Steer Davies Gleave prepared a business case for passenger services on the western section to be restored within 30 months of receiving Government approval, which encouraged the East West Rail Consortium (representing 35 local authorities, South East England Regional Assembly and the South East England Development Agency) to submit a bid for £87m from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. To date their have been NINE studies of the East West Rail Link.

Transport select committee hears evidence from 'one' on rural railways

Keywords: [OneRailway]

The House of Commons Transport Committee, chaired by Gwyneth Dunwoody MP, is holding an inquiry into Rural Rail. ACoRP gave evidence on November 3rd, together with members Wensleydale Railway and Jonathan Denby of 'One' which operates the Bittern Line in Norfolk. Jonathan Denby backed the development of more community rail partnerships, pointing out that the passenger growth for the Bittern Line now stood at a staggering 162% over the last seven years.

On 17th November the Secretary of State for Transport, Alistair Darling, announced the seven pilot schemes for the SRA/DfT's new Community Rail Development Strategy, from a total of 56 that meet the criteria. The aim is to double the fares income on these lines and reduce subsidy by a third in five years. The list does not include any of East Anglia's line, although one is just up the road. The seven are: * St Ives Bay Line (St Erth — St Ives, Cornwall)
* Looe Valley Line (Liskeard — Looe, Cornwall)
* Tamar Valley Line (Plymouth — Gunnislake)
* St Albans Abbey Branch (Watford Junction — St Albans)
* Grantham — Skegness Line
* Penistone Line (Sheffield — Huddersfield)
* Esk Valley Line (Middlesbrough — Whitby).

According to an article in the Guardian on 21st November about rural lines, the least used lines in Britain include nine that it considered to be in "Eastern England". It listed: Marks Tey-Sudbury, Wickford-Southminster, Norwich-Sheringham, Norwich-Lowestoft, Norwich-Yarmouth via Reedham, Ipswich-Lowestoft, Harwich-Cambridge, Bedford-Bletchley and Watford Junc-St Albans.

Guardian report: http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,2763,1356217,00.html.

STATIONS
Disabled activist wins Court of Appeal battle against Central Trains for Thetford station travel

Keywords: [ThetfordStation]

The Court of Appeal has backed disabled activist Keith Roads ruling that Central Trains wrong to make him unnecessarily travel 30 miles to Ely (free of charge) as he was unable to cross from one platform at Thetford to another in order to travel to Norwich. Previously Norwich County Court backed Central when it refused to offer the wheelchair user him a taxi to get around the problem. Crucially the ruling applies only to Mr Roads and no other person therefore not setting a precedent He was awarded £1,097 damages for discrimination under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) under the section of the Act dealing with access to goods and services.

Mr Roads had wanted specially adapted taxis (from Norwich, at £50, if necessary) to shuttle him and other wheelchair users to the other platform, which is linked only by a rampless footbridge. and would otherwise require a journey of half a mile by road. Currently Thetford doesn't have a taxi company that operates a vehicle capable of taking a person in a wheelchair.

According to interim research by Tripscope some 60% of stations in Great Britain are not accessible to disabled people.

BBC News report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/3984199.stm.

Norwich station forecourt gets a thorough cleaning

Keywords: [NorwichStation]

AquaForce (Pressure Washing) Ltd of Dereham was recently hired by 'one' to pressure wash and remove chewing gum from the walkways immediately in front of Norwich station. Aquaforce operates a state-of-the-art trailer-mounted pressure washing machine.

Customer information screens for Fen Line stations

New customer information screens will be installed by Amey Datel on the Fen Line stations at King's Lynn, Littleport and Waterbeach stations. The work is due to be finished in 2005. The Fen Line Users' Association has asked WAGN to ensure that the Kings Lynn screens display arrival information as well as departures.

This investment will provide screens for the first time at Waterbeach and Littleport. Further south, an information screen was recently installed at Shelford.

RAIL FREIGHT
Depot at Creeting St Mary

On 9th November the East Anglian Daily Times reported that Richard Turner from the Stowmarket Multi-Modal Distribution Park has said a new application for a depot and warehousing on farmland next to the A1120 at Creeting St Mary could soon be on the table. Currently Mid-Suffolk District Council has heard nothing for 19 months when an environmental impact study was requested. The report did not say whether a rail freight company was involved in the new application.

Felixstowe branch to be doubled for freight trains according to BBC Look East

Keywords: [FelixstoweBranch]

BBC Look East reported on 12th November that the Felixstowe branch is to be doubled in 2005 to support an increase in freight traffic, partly as a consequence of more trains running following the 9'6" container gauge enhancement. The line was singled as part of British Rail's rationalisation policy to save money.

RAIL AWARDS
'one' and CRPs receive accolades at the 'Connections 2004' in London

Keywords: [OneRailway]

Jonathan Denby, 'one's Head of Corporate Affairs, was joint winner of the 'Outstanding Individual Service' award at the 'Connections 2004' awards that were presented by Minister of State for Transport, Tony McNulty. The company's alternative arrangements for cyclists during the Ipswich Tunnel Closure received the 'runners-up' awards in the 'Best Customer Service' category. The Bittern and Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnerships received the 'runners-up' award in the 'Best Cycle/Rail Innovation' category.

'one' press release: http://www.oneanglia.com/latest-information/news-detail.asp?id=617.

RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE
Network Rail renews briudges in East Anglia and tackles leaf fall

Network Rail is spending £900,000 to renew two rail bridges. The Wroxham Turnpike bridge on the Norwich-Sheringham "Bittern Line" is to have its beams on the bridge deck and parapet replaced, and the St.Georges Road bridge in Beccles on the Ipswich-Lowestoft "East Suffolk" line will have its central beams replaced with concrete slabs. The work on both bridges is being done to conform with new European Union safety standards.

Network Rail has been demonstrating to the media how it tries to prevent leaf-fall delays to the region's trains. In the early hours of 2nd November the press were invited to Spooner Row, near Wymondham, to see NR's anti-leaf armoury in action. The demo included petrol-driven rail scrubbers, portable sand-sticks and sand-prams to spread sandite or sand on the rail. Later that day Anglia TV showed the leaf gang in action.

RAIL SAFETY
Level crossing near miss for Ely-Peterborough train

On Wednesday 3rd November the 06:34 Central Trains departure from March to Cambridge was forced to make an emergency brake application at the unmanned level crossing at Silt Drove just east of the town after a refuse lorry had stopped on the crossing. Apparently the driver of the lorry had not telephoned the signalman to ask permission to cross. Fortunately there were no injuries although the driver and passengers were shaken. This incident was just a few days before the tragedy at Ufton Nervet in Berkshire.

PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Mid-Norfolk Railway used by 'one' for driver leaf fall training

Keywords: [MidNorfolkRailway]

For the third year in succession train drivers have practised dealing with low adhesion caused by leaf fall by hiring the Mid-Norfolk during weekdays when no service operates. This is far cheaper and less disruptive than using Network Rail-owned metals and the rural line, which has route availability 7 (RA7) and a safety case exemption to allow 40mph running, offers a variety of gradients away from level crossings. The MNR has now secured a regular agreement with 'one' who will be visiting the line every year. It is hoped that 'one' will promote this facility to other train operators too.

A Class 135 train, based at Crown Point, was used between Friday 1st October and 8th October. To test the driver's ability to stop accurately a virtual station was created consisting of traffic cones and marker boards.

Wisbech-March Bramley Line offered redundant signal box for eventual relocation

Keywords: [WisbechBranch]

Over the weekend of 30th/31st October, Bramley Line volunteers, with aid of a local construction firm (who have been made an honorary member) were due to dismantle the former signalbox at Smeeth Road in the village of Marshland St.James for safe storage pending relocation to Wisbech. Remarkably, it survived complete with its 15-lever frame (also safely stored) when the Wisbech-Watlington line closed in 1968 and is in good condition. Of the 9 signalboxes between Watlington and March this was the only one that escaped demolition.

At the 28th October members' meeting in Wisbech it was revealed that negotiations with Network Rail continue over a 99-year lease on all or part of the March-Wisbech line. Apparently there are a small number of objections from within the organisation but it is hoped these can be resolved soon. Offers of help and donations continue: 200 concrete sleepers have been donated - which will go some way towards replacing the 700 rotten timber sleepers on the line - as well as the use of a two-way radio system which has a range of 30 miles radius from Wisbech.

The group has been approached by Norfolk County Council to see if at some point in the future they would be willing to relay the track between Wisbech and Watlington, which is a protected alignment.

A fundraising Christmas dinner-dance will be held at the Elme Road Hotel in Wisbech on Wednesday 15th December 2004, with tickets costing £25. Initially these will be restricted to members only but will be available to non-members if there are any spare places. Further details from Peter Downs, Wisbech & March Bramley Line Chairman on 01945-467740 (office hours) or at [peterdowns at bramleyline.co.uk].

WEBSITES
New website for UK's fifth freight operator

There is now a website for Advenza Freight Ltd http://www.advenza.co.uk, who are a newly formed company who are concentrating initially on developing a network of rail based services primarily for the road haulier who finds it increasingly costly and therefore unprofitable to use road for the trunk haul. This site links to http://www.freightbus.co.uk that promotes their pallet-load 'FreightBus' concept, which did start operating on 25th October 2004 (despite out of date news report) with a London to Glasgow service.

The website gives their rates, which is quite surprising given the cut-throat competition in road haulage. Their managing director is Tony Hagon.

New website for Fen Line Users Association

Keywords: [FLUA]

The Fen Line Users Association recently revamped its website: http://www.flua.org.uk/.

Rail Safety and Standards Board provides website to advise on railway safety critical matters

In order to provide a railway central repository of safety critical information and announcements, the RSSB has set-up a new website: http://www.rail-scc.co.uk. It is sponsored by various organisations within the rail industry including Network Rail.

Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 144 - 25/11/2004

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