News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 249 - 29/01/2014
- RAIL ROUTES [all issues]
- More frequent service following opening of 'Beccles loop' leads to significant increase in passengers on East Suffolk line
- Secretary of State for Transport is told about the economic importance of a reopened Wisbech to March railway line
- Phase 2 of the Ipswich Chord for cross-country freight trains is completed
- East West Rail vegetation clearance work commences on mothballed section between Claydon Junction and Bletchley
- STATIONS [all issues]
- Manea village gets a much improved rail service made possible by the new island platform at Peterborough station
- Approval gained for new piazza outside Cambridge station should end traffic gridlock and expanded ticket hall should help reduce long queues
- New high-quality footbridge under construction at Kennett station
- ROLLING STOCK [all issues]
- RAIL FRANCHISES [all issues]
- GUIDED BUSWAY [all issues]
- PRESERVED RAILWAYS [all issues]
On Wednesday 12th February Stephen Timothy, Head of Relationship Development, Eversholt Rail, will be giving a talk on Eversholt Rail Group to the Cambridge University Railway Club in the William Thatcher room at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.
Felixstowe Travel Watch will be holding its next public meeting on Tuesday 18th February at 14:30 at the Salvation Army Church in Cobbold Road in Felixstowe. The guest speaker will be Robert Scrimgeour of Suffolk Coastal District Council who is leading the project to restore Trimley station building to become a community hub. FTW's AGM will be held at the same venue on Tuesday 27th May at 19:30.
On Friday 7th February 2014 at 19:30 Mark Smith (better known as 'The Man from Seat 61') will be talking to the Cambridge Railway Circle about "Railways beyond the Channel", at their normal Arbury Community Centre venue in Campkin Road, Cambridge. See http://www.cambridgerailwaycircle.org/. A month later, on Friday 7th March 2014 at 20:30 Chris Austin and Lord Richard Faulkner (authors of the book Holding the Line) will be talking to the Cambridge Railway Circle in a presentation entitled "Beeching and other things."
Also on Friday 7th February at 11:00 there will be a public consultation by Haverhill Public Transport Connexions at Days Inn hotel in Haverhill. On Saturday 22nd March at 14:00 the 'Campaign for a Haverhill Railway@, known as C2CRP, will hold its AGM at the Haverhill Arts Centre. Their feasibility document can be found at http://railhaverhill.org.uk/downloads/feasibility_doc.pdf.
The official opening of the new St Neots footbridge, between St Neots station and Loves Farm, will be on Wednesday 19th February. The ticket gates will be on the bridge and there will be a ticket vending machine next to the ticket gates. The booking office will remain in its current location.
RAIL ROUTES
More frequent service following opening of 'Beccles loop' leads to significant increase in passengers on East Suffolk line
Keywords: [EastSuffolkLine]
Abellio Greater Anglia has announced that the East Suffolk Line saw a record number of passengers in 2014, following the introduction of an hourly service (still two-hourly on Sundays) along the whole route, which became possible for the first time since the 1980s (when the line was singled) following the opening in December 2012 of the passing loop at Beccles at a cost of £4m including bringing the disused platform at the station back into use. The 653,000 journeys recorded on the Ipswich to Lowestoft line (double the number travelling six years earlier) was an increase of 11.5% on 2013. The loop was able to be completed cheaply as it was done at the time as the £21m project to re-signal the East Suffolk Line. Prior to this service improvement an hourly service was introduced on the southern half of the route between Saxmundham and Ipswich in 2011.
As well as the improved train frequency, better facilities have been provided, some in partnership with stakeholders such as Suffolk County Council and the East Suffolk Community Rail Partnership. They include:
- New ticket vending machines to enable easy ticket purchase and collection at Beccles, Saxmundham and Woodbridge
- New bus links and through ticketing between Halesworth and Southwold
- Station re-painting at all stations along the line
- Enhanced interchange facilities at Lowestoft station, to make it easier for passengers arriving by bus, bicycle, car, taxi or on foot to travel to and from the station
- Car park improvements at Melton and Wickham Market
- Introduction of print-at-home and mobile ticketing for a number of advance purchase tickets in use on the line
- A refurbishment programme for the two carriage Class 156 trains used on the line (six out of nine units completed)
- New carpets installed on the three carriage Class 170 trains used on the line.
Secretary of State for Transport is told about the economic importance of a reopened Wisbech to March railway line
North East Cambridgeshire MP Steve Barclay met the Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin, on 23rd January to press for the re-opening of the Wisbech to March rail line. He thinks that it is vital given the potential for Fenland to provide housing linked by rail to the economic growth in Cambridge includes jobs at Cambridge Science Park.
Phase 2 of the Ipswich Chord for cross-country freight trains is completed
Keywords: [IpswichChord]
The second part of construction of the Ipswich rail chord was completed over Christmas. An old 190-tonne bridge over the River Gipping at the start of the new junction was demolished, removed and replaced with a brand new steel bridge. At the same time, the new junction that links the East Suffolk and Great Eastern lines was installed. As should be widely known, the new chord will mean that freight trains no longer need to reverse at the sidings adjacent to Ipswich station, and this will reduce freight journey times, saving fuel and becoming more competitive with road transport. The final work on the chord, which required four new bridges, two embankments, a 350-metre retaining wall and 1.2km of new route, should be complete by April 2014 allowing a new 31st daily train to commence (summer 2013 saw the introduction of a 30th daily freight train).
To avoid further congestion on the Felixstowe line, the introduction of freight trains along the Chord has to be phased in and managed very carefully as poorly regulated freight movements may destabilise the already vulnerable passenger service on both the Felixstowe branch and to a lesser extent the East Suffolk line.
UK Railtours has announced that it will operate the first charter on the chord, on Sunday 25th May, called the "Anglian Backwaters" tour. It will travel down the East Suffolk Line from Lowestoft and take the Chord across to Stowmarket.
News article: http://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Rail-News/ipswich-rail-chord-phase-2-complete.
East West Rail vegetation clearance work commences on mothballed section between Claydon Junction and Bletchley
Keywords: [EastWestRail]
On 15th February the Oxford-Bicester Chiltern Railways shuttle service will be suspended for the re-build of the railway line to support the new Marylebone to Oxford service, as well as the East West Rail services towards the end of the decade. In parallel, Network Rail will be carrying out vegetation clearance and topographical and winter ecology surveys on the section of track east of Bicester, between Claydon Junction and Bletchley, which has been mothballed since the last freight trains ran in 1994 (the passenger service having ended in 1967), and will be a vital part of the full route between Oxford and Cambridge in a decade or so. Ecologists will be on site throughout the works to ensure that the clearance is carried out in a manner that will not impact on local ecology.
News article: http://www.eastwestrail.org.uk/news/vegetation-clearance-work-start-onmothballed-railway-line.
STATIONS
Manea village gets a much improved rail service made possible by the new island platform at Peterborough station
Keywords: [ManeaStation]
On 10th January local MP Steve Barclay gathered on the platform at Manea station with councillors, residents and school children to celebrate the new two-hourly to the small but growing village. In the past the village was served by the Stansted Birmingham cross-country services and saw only two trains a day, but more recently it swapped with the Abellio Greater Anglia Ipswich-Peterborough service. The increase in frequency became possible because of the the new platform at Peterborough station, which allowed time to be saved and therefore re-allocated to serving Manea instead. Railfuture had called for a better service for a long time, and it has been achieved without increasing journey times, and the train company hasn't simply used the spare couple of minutes just to improve punctuality. Crucially, the better service contributes towards the positive business case for reopening the railway line from March to Wisbech.
News article: http://www.cambstimes.co.uk/news/gallery_manea_welcomes_improved_train_service_with_symbolic_voyage_1_3199354.
Approval gained for new piazza outside Cambridge station should end traffic gridlock and expanded ticket hall should help reduce long queues
Keywords: [CambridgeStation]
Approval has been given for the £4 million square in front of the entrance to Cambridge station. This should provide a much calmer environment to passengers entering and departing the station, with an end to the current traffic gridlock right in front of the entrance around the mini-roundabout. Greater Anglia, which manages Cambridge station, used the publicity to reveal a computer-generated image of its plans to enlarge the station ticket hall. Work on both projects, which have suffered long and tortuous delays, should begin during 2014, along with the ling-promised 3,000-space cycle park and a 230-bedroom hotel. A northern access route for taxis and cars has also been approved.
New high-quality footbridge under construction at Kennett station
Keywords: [KennettStation]
Kennett station, between Ely/Newmarket and Bury St Edmunds, used to have a very low patornage but that has been increasing because of new housing. Network Rail is constructing a high-quality footbridge, which will allow passengers to safely cross between platforms. Previously a barrow crossing between the staggered crossing was used but this was fouled by three-car trains that often now operate on the route. There are also plans to improve the platforms and provide a surfaced car park.
ROLLING STOCK
Public gets its first chance to see what the new Class 700 trains will be like
Keywords: [Class700]
On 29th January at the ExCeL exhibition centre in east London Siemens, the Department for Transport and First Capital Connect displayed a full-sized mock-up of the future Class 700 Desiro City electric multiple-units, of which 115 units comprising 1,140 carriages (configured as 55 x 12-carriage trains and 60 x eight-carriage trains) will be introduced in early 2016 during the long-term TSGN franchise. Siemens is building them at its Krefeld plant in Germany under a £1.6bn train supply and maintenance private finance initiative contract. At the moment two prototype Desiro City cars are on test at the Wildenrath test track in Germany. The new trains will be used across the new TSGN franchise area, including in East Anglia as far as Cambridge and Peterborough. All will be fitted with Automatic Train Operation (ATO), which is needed to allow 24 trains an hour to pass through the Thamkeslink central core.
Although the purpose of the display, as well as advertising the new trains, is to get feedback in reality it is far too late to change anything significant with the trains. Railfuture was invited to Germany to see the first carriage and gave a lot of constructive feedback to improve the passenger experience. Unfortunately most of the changes that Railfuture requests, such as seat-back tables for coffee and laptops will not be included, and neither with power points and Wi-Fi, both of which are vital, because the DfT has refused to authorise them.
News article: http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/traction-rolling-stock/single-view/view/new-thameslink-train-mock-up-on-show-to-public.html
The February/March 2014 edition of Rail Technology Magazine contains full coverage of the event, including more photos, interviews with all the key people and technical data on the train and bogie.
RAIL FRANCHISES
DfT announces short-listed bidders for the InterCity East Coast passenger franchise to take over from Directly Operated Railways
On 17th January the Department for Transport announced the three short-listed bidders for the InterCity East Coast passenger franchise (running run from King's Cross to Scotland, north east England and Yorkshire, north east England), which will take over for the state-owned Directly Operated Railways (DOR) in early 2015. They are:
- East Coast Trains Ltd (FirstGroup plc)
- Keolis/Eurostar East Coast Ltd (Keolis (UK) Ltd and Eurostar International Ltd)
- Inter City Railways Ltd (90% Stagecoach Transport Holdings Ltd, 10% Virgin Holdings Ltd)
The DfT plans to issue the invitations to tender at the end of February 2014, which gives bidders at least three months to develop their proposals. The winner will be required to use the IEP train-sets supplied by the Agility Trains consortium once they are ready to go into service.
GUIDED BUSWAY
Stagecoach increases frequency of guided buses to cope with demand
As one would expect, with a growing city and growing economy, the number of passengers using 'busway' branched buses, whether on the guideway or the roads, has increased. At peak times this has, naturally, lead to overcrowding, just like the railways have done. Stagecoach has responded by announcing, on 30th January, that it would increase the frequency of departures to every five minutes during peak times (although still providing fewer seats per hour than a good train service would have done). The extra buses will be tidal (i.e. operating only in one direction), in the morning (07:00 and 09:00 on weekdays) from St Ives and central Cambridge and in the opposite direction in the evening (between 16:00 and 18:00). The new service, which required buying additional buses, is scheduled to start on 23rd February 2014.
The current service is one bus every seven or eight minutes. Andy Campbell, boss of Stagecoach Cambridge, told the Cambridge News "I would hope to be able to get more buses at some point to increase the frequency again, which we will have to do when Chesterton station opens and with work due to start at Northstowe." The news article did not mention that the original promise was one bus every three minutes, although this is unachievable because of loading and unloading times (unlike trains, which have multiple wide doors designed for fast boarding and alighting) especially given the demographics of typical passengers (e.g. elderly people). Anyone with a wheelchair, pushchair or significant luggage will block the access to the stairs on most double-deckers, while getting in or out. The type of buses used on the busway are not well-designed for throughput. One way to allow shorter intervals using existing buses would be to rebuild every major stop to be multiple parallel stops, although that causes its own problems, especially if buses could not overtake one another.
PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Colne Valley Railway races to raise funds as landlord plans to sell line
Keywords: [ColneValleyRailway]
The one-mile-long Colne Valley Railway, which is located at Castle Hedingham and attracts about 40,000 visitors each year, is a small heritage railway by anyone's standards,although it occupies a considerable amount of land. That is actually a problem as it could be used for housing development and is therefore quite valuable. The site's owner, an Australian property developer who bought the site in 2006, has given the Colne Valley Railway Preservation Society until 2015 to find the undisclosed amount of money necessary to buy the land. The society hopes that Heritage Lottery Fund grant, for which Essex County Council is providing £2,500 to support and develop their bid, could help raise the money that it needs.
The railway is built on a stretch of line that closed in the 1960s. Unfortunately there is no potential for the line to be extended to provide a public service since it has been built on at both ends. Therefore its only realistic railway use is for tourism and educational purposes. Castle Hedingham Parish Council regards the railway along with the nearby castle as key to the area's tourism industry.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 249 - 29/01/2014
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