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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 229 - 25/05/2012

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

Railfuture News Snippets 229 - 25/05/2012



On 31st May new signs at Audley End station that include the "for Saffron Walden" subtitle will be unveiled by local MP Sir Alan Haselhurst. Railfuture has been campaigning for the station signs to show the signficant near-by town. The station name is unchanged.

The 16th-29th May edition of RAIL magazine (issue 696) suggested that DRS is considering operating workers' trains along the Sizewell branch to the construction site of the new Sizewell C power station, which will involve 4,000 workers. This would see the first regular passenger trains on the Leiston branch since the 1960s. DRS, which runs the nuclear trains in Britain, has recently undertaken a 6-week trial of workers' trains to Sellafield in Cumbria.

Staying with RAIL magazine, the 13th-26th June edition will contain a detailed article about the resignalling of the East Suffolk line (49 miles between Ipswich and Lowestoft) and the new passing loop at Beccles, which was installed (but not commissioned) over the May Bank Holiday weekend (see Railfuture Photo Gallery). A photo of this will be appearing on the front cover of the next edition of Railwatch (issue 132) as well as Rail East. The signalling is scheduled to be commissioned in October, which will provide the ability to use the loop before December, although it is unlikely to happen. ESTA has booked slots in libraries to promote the service, which will have Railfuture mentioned on the publicity.


STATIONS
Two hundred new cycle parking spaces provided as an interim solution at Cambridge station

Keywords: [CambridgeStation]

Ahead of the planned 3,000 cycle space park (see [Snippets 227]), in order to cope with increasing demand, 200 new cycle racks have been introduced at Cambridge station. As part of the development works around the station that have seen existing bike racks moved to the new bus interchange, a range of new cycle storage facilities included two-tier storage (as used in other stations such as Colchester North) have been introduced. The Cambridge Cycling Campaign is asking cyclists to tell it which types of racks they prefer.

New Huntingdon footbridge commissioned

Keywords: [HuntingdonStation]

A new footbridge at Huntingdon station, linking the two through platforms across the four tracks, has been commissioned. The £3m project will be completed in July 2012 when the two lifts are bought into operation. The footbridge, built by Morgan Sindall, was first mentioned in [Snippets 214] when an opening date of 2011 was expected.


RAIL SERVICES
East Anglia MPs meet to put finishing touches to their 20-year Rail Manifesto amid criticism that they are too late for CP5 HLOS

Keywords: [CP5]

At Westminster on Thursday 17th May the group of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex MPs behind a 20-year master plan ('A Rail Prospectus for East Anglia') for a step-change in the region's rail services met to put the finishing touches to the document that they intend to use after is launch in June as a lobbying tool. Also present were local councillors, business representatives and officials from both Network Rail and Greater Anglia. Norwich North MP Chloe Smith chaired the meeting. As a member of the government's treasury team she should have known that it was a bit late in the day to lobby for improvements in the next seven years as the government is due to announce the High Level Output Specification (HLOS) for CP5 (2015-2019) in July, and nothing is likely to be added.

The MPs feel that East Anglia has lacked investment its railways (just two new stations in 20 years [Braintree Freeport and Southend Airport] and both were privately financed), and other regions such as the North, South East, South West and Wales have been lobbying hard.

Although much of what they are calling for (vital upgrades on the Great Eastern and West Anglia mainlines plus the Ipswich-Peterborough corridor, for example) may have to wait until 2019 it is very promising that so many of the region's MPs fully back the railway and see it as a priority. According to a press report, the MPs intend to take the prospectus to transport secretary Justine Greening with evidence showing the huge economic benefits of meeting its goals and challenge her to ignore it.


GUIDED BUSWAY
Cambridgeshire County Council report suggests that guided busway could be extended across Cambridge city to improve bus reliability

Many had predicted that once the guided busway was (finally) up and running then a series of proposals to expand the council's much-cherished baby would be made. It was unsurprising therefore that a report by Cambridgeshire County Council has suggested an extension to the guided busway. The report, which was produced to accompany Cambridge City Council's forthcoming consultation on up to 25,000 new homes in the city, proposes a route heading north from Cambridge railway station and another stretch of busway along the centre of Newmarket Road between East Road and Cambridge United's football ground, which already has a dedicated bus (and cycle) lane.

The Newmarket Road proposals soon drew a tide of criticism as being pointless because if only covered a part of the route and buses would soon get clogged-up with ther other traffic, and create problems at road junctions, as they went further into the city. Moreover, unguided buses would be forced off the existing bus lane to travel with cars, lorries and vans. The expense of widening the railway bridge on Newmarket Road was criticised as being highly expensive for no benefit, and questions were asked about how people would board or alight from buses in the middle of the road, especially as buses - unlike trams - have doors on only on side and so an island platform was not possible. Other critics wondered how on earth they propose to build a guideway from the station to Newmarket Road in the first place.

Despite the busway having now been open for 10 months, it is still regularly criticised, as seen by the online comments to the Cambridge News on this story. One poster using the name "Ranter" made the following very accurate criticism: "Please can we kill the myth that the guided busway has been successful? It has shifted existing passengers from frequent road services onto a less frequent CGB service. I do mean less frequent, as the three routes A, B and C all go in different directions once they leave the busway, and are run by two operators, so depending where you want to go and which operator you chose you in effect only have one or possibly two buses an hour! Of course, if you consider it a success to offer free-pass geriatric day-trippers, or kids during school holidays, somewhere to go for a day out and a ride in the countryside, then maybe it is. But surely the aim was to reduce congestion on existing roads by encouraging behaviour change."


PRESERVED RAILWAYS
MNR launches urgent appeal to fund erection of a shed to provide covered accommodation for its growing fleet

The Mid-Norfolk Railway has many aspirations that involve additional or improved infrastructure. Many are long-term and not particularly urgent (such as its northern extension) but it desperately needs to provide undercover accommodation for visiting steam locomotives and other prestigious locomotives and carriages in order to persuade their owners to bring them to the railway. Protection from the elements will also encourage volunteers to spend more time on the rolling stock. In particular it will allow restoration to continue during the winter months.

The MNR's appeal to build a train shed is now in full swing. Preparatory work, which includes clearance of the site and construction of a 3-way point to give access to the shed, has already started. An ambitious target has been set for Mid-July for construction to be started. The total cost has been estimated at £25,000.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 229 - 25/05/2012

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