Loading...
 

East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 187 - 16/02/2009

[Home] [Meetings and Events] [Campaigns] [Consultations] [Newsletters|Latest|Covers] [News Archive] [Document Archive] [Gallery] [User Groups] [About] [Contacts]

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

Railfuture News Snippets 187 - 16/02/2009



Robert Stripe, former Chairman of the Fen Line Users Association (FLUA) will be giving a talk about "The Fen Line and its various aspects" on Wednesday 11th March at The Methodist Hall, Chapel Street, Ely starting at 19:30. It is open to all. Admission is £2.

Because of engineering work, Grand Central and Hull Trains will both be starting and terminating their trains at Cambridge (for connections to/from Liverpool Street) on the weekends of 14th/15th and 21th/22th March.

New ticket gates were installed at Norwich on 7th/8th February as part of NXEA's DfT-supported plans to reduce fare evasion.

Following a similar offer by First Scotrail, people who are over 55 can enjoy cheap fares for longer journeys on First Great Western routes until 7th April. See http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=3420 for more information.

The outward portion of First and Standard Class Anytime Return tickets will be altered from 'date on ticket' to 'five days' (including date on ticket). This change will apply to tickets sold and dated from 16th March. However, because of the risk of fraudulent use it will be for a trial period, which will be reviewed in September 2009.

At its 2009 AGM, the Wisbech and Bramley Line will be launching an appeal to raise the £10,000 needed to pay the legal fees for Network Rail. It claims to already have raised the cost of the lease and its own legal fees. More details on http://www.bramleyline.org.uk.

The 9-mile-long narrow-gauge Bure Valley railway, which runs between Aylsham and Wroxham in Norfolk, will be holding its annual Volunteers' Open Day on 8th March. It is aimed at showing potential new volunteers the wide variety of areas where they can assist. It will include guided behind-the-scenes tours of the railway throughout the day from 09:30. See http://www.bvrw.co.uk.


STATIONS
Plan for new Chesterton Station in north Cambridge moves forward

Keywords: [CambridgeNorthStation]

In mid February the East of England Regional Assembly recommended that the proposed £22m Chesterton station should be given £19.8m from the regional funding allocation. The other £2.2m would come from developers, under Section 106 agreements. EERA has merely made a recommendation to government and there is no guarantee that funding will be given. If it were then construction could begin in 2012 with the station opened in 2015.

The land is already owned by Network Rail, although leased to DB Schenken. The station would have two through platforms and a bay platform. There would be a 400-space carpark with pedestrian and cycle links to the site from east Chesterton. The rail scheme would be served by guided buses, although it is now unclear whether the busway would be extended across Milton Road onto the remaining stub of the St.Ives railway line trackbed.

Cambridgeshire County Council estimates that 2,500 passengers a day would use the new station. It is unclear how many of these would be abstrated from the 20,000 using Cambridge station, or the many hundreds using Waterbeach station. Three trains an hour would call, one of which would be an express service to London.

Following the announcement the Cambridge News conducted an online poll of its readers and found that 92% were in favour - many times higher than similar polls have produced for the guided busway. The poll also found that 77% of respondents would use the station, and 82% believe it will ease the city's congestion problems, unlike the guided busway in which only councillors believe it will.


RAIL ROUTES
Steer Davies Gleeve announces route options for eastern section of East West Rail link

Keywords: [EastWestRail]

The East West Rail Consortium says there is growing acceptance that the western end of the track, from Oxford to Bedford, will be built, so it has turned its attention to ways of bridging the gap to Cambridge where much of the original route (via Sandy) has been built on.

Consultants Steer Davies Gleeve propose two different options:
* a £250 million route via Sandy, the East Coast main line and Hitchin
* a £300 million link via Luton and Stevenage, which would be a completely new route.

Both of these routes would allow passengers to travel from Cambridge to Oxford in 1 hour and 45 minutes. A northern route via Kettering, Corby and Peterborough was discounted. Although it would have been the cheapest option, at £50 million, journey times would have been too long and attracted fewest passengers.


ROLLING STOCK
DfT chooses preferred supplier for new Super Express Trains

The DfT has chosen Agility Trains, led by Hitachi, to construct new 125mph inter-city trains, which will be known as Super Express Trains (SET). A few of these £7,500 million IEP trains will be used on services to Cambridge. Although the first trains will be used on the ECML from 2013 it is unclear when they would first operate to Cambridge.


WEBSITES
Old BR training film about the Mid-Norfolk Railway's County School station posted on Youtube

Keywords: [MidNorfolkRailway]

A MNR colunteer has recently uploaded a 90-second black and white film clip of County School station onto YouTube - see http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xsCswZurYww.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 187 - 16/02/2009

[Prev Issue (186)] [Snippets Issues] [Next Issue (188)] [Category List] [Keyword List] [People List] [Story List] [Branch Dashboard]