News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 222 - 09/10/2011
- STATIONS [all issues]
- New footbridge lifted in place at Cambridge station as December island platform opening date looms
- Work starts on passenger facility improvements to Peterborough station
- Official opening ceremonies for new Southend Airport station and upgraded Southend East station
- Joint Railfuture-MARPA passenger count at Newmarket station showed significant growth since last count
- RAIL ROUTES [all issues]
- Hornsey depot enlargement for Thameslink Programme trains approved
- Fastest ever Liverpool Street to Cambridge rail journey achieved on Friday 30th September
- RAIL FREIGHT [all issues]
- GUIDED BUSWAY [all issues]
Railfuture is planning to conduct a passenger count at Meldreth station on Thursday 10th November 2011. Members willing to take part are asked to contact branch chairman Peter Wakefield. The last count was conducted in 2008.
National Express East Anglia has announced that in early October it had introduced all 30 new 4-car Class 479 trains into service on its Stansted Express and Cambridge to Liverpool Street services. Meanwhile the winner of the 27-month interim franchise that will replace NXEA should be announced in late October. The Guardian newspaper claims to know that Abellio has won.
The national "Club 55" (flat rate fares for over-55s) promotional fares are running again this autumn - see http://www.club55.co.uk/FCC.aspx for First Capital Services - the whole FCC area is one zone. London Midland is also using its Great Escape offer from 22nd October to 6th November, which gives unlimited travel after 09:30 and at weekends - see http://www.londonmidland.com/tickets-and-fares/great-escape/.
The Cambridge University Railway Club has announced a list of speakers for the Michaelmas term: 21st October, Ian Prosser, Office of Rail Regulation Director of Rail Safety; 28th October David Mapp, ATOC Commercial Director on UK Rail Fares and Ticketing, 19th November Christian Wolmar, 26th November Adrian Shooter of Chiltern Railways.
The Whitwell and Reepham Railway will be holding a beer festival on the weekend of 15th/16th October. There will be at least 14 real ales to try at only £2.75 per pint. See http://www.whitwellstation.com/.
The Mid-Norfolk Railway has a special half-term offer is for anyone travelling with children - half price on all fares for 22/23/26/27/29 30th October. Adults will be £3.50 return, children (5 and over) £1.75 and seniors £3.00 return. There must be least one child in the group. If the only child is under 5, then it is best to buy a half price child ticket for them (where they would normally go free) so everyone else can go for half price too. The offer has been promoted on posters at stations and the Local Advertiser.
The rails for the mothballed March-Wisbech line that crossed the A47 trunk road were lifted in early September, but will be relaid if they are needed. They had been lifted some years after the last train ran (2001) but were relaid after pressure from the Bramley Line heritage railway group.
UK Railtours will be running a passenger train over the Bletchley Flyover, a vital part of the East West Rail Link, on Saturday 21st January 2012 - see http://www.ukrailtours.com/tourshow.asp?tourtype=excursion_trains&tourfile=120121_THE_CONCRETE_COW.txt.
STATIONS
New footbridge lifted in place at Cambridge station as December island platform opening date looms
Keywords: [CambridgeStation]
Observers at Cambridge station might have thought that the construction of the island platforms, since work began in April, was taking an age. However, Network Rail took a giant leap forward on Sunday 25th September when the footbridge supports, lift shaft, stair cases and the 15-tonne footbridge (with an 18-metre covered walkway) was lifted into place, all in less than 24 hours.
On the following weekend - one of the busiest weekends of the year with many students arriving - the whole of Cambridge station was closed to allow signalling, track and overhead line equipment to be modified. Replacement buses using the recently completed bus interchange south of the station roundabout, alongside platform 3, and the new station link road to the traffic lights on the Hills Road/Brooklands Ave junction.
Stopmotion video: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Video-News/New-bridge-fitted-at-station-26092011.htm.
Work starts on passenger facility improvements to Peterborough station
Keywords: [PeterboroughStation]
Work has commenced on a series of new improvements to benefit the five million passengers that use Peterborough station each year. It will consist of a larger concourse, with a lighter and brighter interior and a smart new frontage to the station. On the current platforms 4 and 5 the toilets will be refurbished and a new waiting room will be created.
The £2.5 million work has been Funded by East Coast and Network Rail through the Government's National Stations Improvement Programme (NSIP). It should be completed by early summer 2012. This work does not include the proposals to add a new island platform on the western side (to segregate east-west from north-south trains) or a second entrance, on the west side of the station, which was announced in October 2010 (see [Snippets 210]). Photos of the work can be seen here.
Official opening ceremonies for new Southend Airport station and upgraded Southend East station
Keywords: [SouthendAirportStation]
On 21st September transport minister Theresa Villiers officially opened the new £16m railway station at Southend Airport, which is on the Southend Victoria to London line. It is run by airport operator The Stobart Group and has been operational since mid-July.
The airport's operator aims to boost air passenger numbers to two million a year by 2020. It opened a new control tower in 2011 and has started work to extend the runway by 300m. with a new terminal building due to be completed by autumn 2011.
Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-15002635.
Eight days later on 29th September nearby Southend East station (served by c2c) was officially re-opened after a £1.5m upgrade and rebuild over nine months. A new entrance has been created, a new ticket office constructed and there is extra cycling parking.
Joint Railfuture-MARPA passenger count at Newmarket station showed significant growth since last count
Keywords: [NewmarketStation]
 |
| Newmarket station is used by many students as this crowded platform shows |
Railfuture and the Mid-Anglia Rail Passengers Association (MARPA) held a joint count of passengers using Newmarket station on Thursday 29th September. A report was sent to NXEA and local authorities, and a press release was sent to the Cambridge News, Bury Free Press and the Newmarket Journal to raise visibility of the need to provide improved facilities and an extension of the platform so that 3-car trains can call. In fact the platform is long but has been fenced off beyond the first two carriage lengths with no maintenance taking place beyond it. Apparently Network Rail do have plans to extend it, even though no 3-car trains currently operate on the line. Railfuture also identified that the shelters were inadequate, there was no seating at the station (only a short tilted bar 'perch' within the shelter) and all 11 spaces in the car park were full leading to some rail users parking in the street.
The counts lasted for the entire day, and was conducted by several people in order to avoid missing anyone. There were 350 boarding and alighting the Ipswich-bound trains and 335 boarding and alighting trans heading for Cambridge. Obviously not everyone returns the same day. This was a total of 685 train users, which was 35% higher than the previous count on a Thursday in April 2009.
Article: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Newmarket/Rail-users-hit-out-at-Newmarkets-station-06102011.htm.
RAIL ROUTES
Hornsey depot enlargement for Thameslink Programme trains approved
Keywords: [ThameslinkProgramme]
On 12th September Haringey Council approved (in a 6-3 vote) a revised scheme for a second depot at Hornsey to maintain new trains for the Thameslink Programme, which will serve Cambridge. Some local residents had been worried about the impact on their neighbourhood.
Report: http://www.thameslinkprogramme.co.uk/news/news_items/view/104.
Fastest ever Liverpool Street to Cambridge rail journey achieved on Friday 30th September
On 30th September National Express held a ceremony to launch the new Class 379 trains into service on the London-Cambridge and Stansted Airport routes, with Cambridge Mayor Ian Nimmo-Smith naming the train "City of Cambridge". The train had travelled non-stop from Liverpool Street on a record breaking run of 48 minutes and 13 seconds which was four seconds quicker than the record set by a Class 86 in the 1980s.
Report: http://www.rail.co/2011/11/02/driver-of-the-second/.
RAIL FREIGHT
Port of Felixstowe now has 29 daily rail freight services
Keywords: [FelixstowePort]
On 1st October, the 29th daily rail freight service started operating from the Port of Felixstowe. It is operated by GB Railfreight, and runs to Barton Dock Manchester five days a week. This means that Felixstowe now has ten daily services to the North West, ten to the Midlands, six to Yorkshire terminals and others to Scotland, London, the North East and the West Country. Further capacity at the port will be provided in 2012 with the construction of a third rail terminal, which is designed to allow 30-wagon, freight trains. However, a remaining constraint to be resolved is the doubling of the branch to Felixstowe, which had been delayed because of the recession.
GUIDED BUSWAY
Bus interchange work at Cambridge station completed - busway stop no longer in a building site
Keywords: [CambridgeStation]
The main infrastructure work at on the new bus interchange area at the southern end of Cambridge station has now been completed. There are at present 4 southbound bus shelters and 3 northbound ones, plus another 2 poles which may one day house bus stops. The ones used by the guided buses are the furthest from the station.
Two cars attempt to drive onto busway and get stuck in the car traps whilst bicycle gets crushed
On 23rd September there were two incidents, on separate parts of the guided busway, where motorists drove onto the busway and got stuck in the car traps. This was despite numerous signs posts and painted warnings on the ground. Buses reverted to travelling on normal roads. leading to increased journey times. In August joyriders dumped a car on southern section of the busway but on that occasion it caused no disruption as not services operate there on Sundays.
Cars news item: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Cambridge/Double-trouble-23092011.htm
In mid-September a broken down bus and another that got stuck behind it, blocked the guideway for most of the day. However, this less exciting event didn't make it into the newspapers.
On Saturday 1st October a busway track was closed for two-and-a-half hours, and buses forced to use the A14, when a bus crushed a bicycle. A cyclist wearing earphones had been cycling along the busway oblivious to a bus immediately behind him. When he spotted it he jumped off the bike, which was then run over by the bus, which then suffered a fault. The cyclist had used the busway track because the adjacent cycling track was closed in order to have a new hard surface added. According to Stagecoach cyclists regularly use the busway.
Bike news item: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Bike-is-crushed-by-guided-bus-after-cyclist-rides-along-track-05102011.htm.
Videos of the entire Cambridgeshire Guided busway route
Below are links to Martin Thorne's videos of the journey along the busway. It was recorded on 7th August (opening day of the northern section) and 9th August (southern section) respectively.
Northern section:
Southern section:
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 222 - 09/10/2011
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