News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 269 - 11/09/2015
- RAIL FRANCHISES [all issues]
- RAIL ROUTES [all issues]
- RAIL FREIGHT [all issues]
- European Union funding refuses £86million towards Felixstowe-to-Nuneaton (F2N) rail upgrade
- Felixstowe Port expansion sees start of 31st daily freight train
- GUIDED BUSWAY [all issues]
The Cambridge News has been asking its readers to comment - and show their preference for - the various scheems suggested as part of the Cambridge City Deal to solve Cambridge traffic congestion. One of these is Railfuture's Cambridge Metro vision, which was shown prominently (with maps) on their website. See See http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/solve-Cambridge-congestion-Vote-favourite/story-27777367-detail/story.html.
As reported in [Snippets 268] some people have expressed concern that because planning approval was delayed the new Cambridge North station may not be completed in time to open on the timetable change in December 2016. However, Railfuture has been in contact with Network Rail, which has confirmed that it intends to meet the December 2016 deadline.
On 7th September Network Rail opened the first round of consultation for phase 2 of the Western section of East West Rail, which is everyone on the western section apart from Chiltern's Evergreen 3 part (since renamed EWR phase 1) that opens to passengers in October 2015. The work will upgrade and reconstruct existing and mothballed sections of track and includes a new station at Winslow, two new platforms at Bletchley, construction of 18 new overbridges, construction of 22 new footbridges/subways and changes to 97 railway crossings. Because the railway will need to purchase some land, and legitimise previous unauthorised construction there is a need for this consultation, which will end on 16th October. It will be used to support its Transport and Works Act application that it hopes to submit in mid-2016. Details of the plans, exhibition and consultation questions (five simple ones that can quickly be filled in online) can be found at https://consultations.networkrail.co.uk/communications/ewr-phase-2.
According to the August 2015 edition of Modern Railways the whole of the East Coast Mainline (presumably via the Hertford loop, which has fewer tunnels) will be passed for W12 loading gauge (9'6"x 8'6.25" containers) clearance at some point in 2016, which will create more opportunities for rail freight.
The government has announce that the TOCs paid a net total of £802m (i.e all premiums minus all subsidies) in 2014/15, which was up from a mere £40m in 2013/14. Overall, the government received 1.3p per passenger km in 2014/15, with the regional operators receiving a subsidy while those in the long distance and London and south east sectors (including Abellio Greater Anglia) paying a premium. This is the e fifth year running in which the government has received more in premium than it has paid out in subsidy. However, this will change as it has decided to return to the original arragement whereby the TOCs paid full access charges to Network Rail rather than lower charges with the government paying Network Rail directly.
On Sunday 6th September on of Railfuture's long-term campaigns was achieved - to reopen the (first part of) the Borders Railway, which was closed in 1969. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-34108746 for details. A series of photos can be seen on the Borders Railway page on Railfuture Scotland website.
On Tuesday 25th August Phase 2 of the Nottingham Express Transit (NET) tram system opened. The £570m scheme consisted of two new lines, totalling 17.5km from Nottingham station to Chilwell and Clifton, with construction having begun in March 2012. The expanded NET system now comes within 800m of nearly 30% of the Greater Nottingham population and serves 20 of the 30 largest employers in the region. At this point in time every tram system in Britain is in the process of being expanded or proposals are actively being considered for expansion. The next extension to open should be the Midland Metro to Birmingham New Street station later in 2015. Disapointingly, though, no new tram systems are currently being considered, and systems approved in Leeds, Hampshire, Bristol and Liverpool a decade ago never went ahead.
Felixstowe TravelWatch's next members' meeting, which is open to the public, will be held at 14:30 on Tuesday 20th October at the Salvation Army Church, Cobbold Road, Felixstowe. The guest speakers are Paul Oxley, Stakeholder Manager at Abellio Greater Anglia, and his colleague James Steward the Area Customer Services Manager.
The new series of Strictly Come Dancing on BBC-1 started on Saturday 5th September with a long scene filmed on the Epping-Ongar Railway in Essex. They encourage filming in ther 6.5-mile line - see http://railwayforhire.co.uk/.
RAIL FRANCHISES
All three bidders for Greater Anglia Franchise meet the Great Eastern Taskforce in Ipswich
Keywords: [GreaterAngliaFranchise]
On Wednesday 26th August the three bidders for Greater Anglia Franchise (Abellio/Stagecoach, National Express and First) visited the Suffolk County Council offices in Ipswich to meet separately with the Great Eastern Taskforce in hour-long meetings chaired by Norwich MP Chloe Smith. The purpose was to promote aspirations for improve services, primarily better rolling stock and faster journeys such as 'Norwich in Ninety'. Independently of the Taskforce, the London Stansted Cambridge Consortium (LSCC) wants faster and more frequent services to Stansted Airport and Cambridge. It also wants the new franchise to be operated by more new Class 379 Electrostars.
Felixstowe Travel Watch (FTW) has next all three bidders for the new franchise. For example, on Thursday 3rd September a delegation of its members met Abellio/Stagecoach, emphasising that their priority was to see an end to regular cancellations of the pswich-Felixstowe passenger services that result from a combination of traim failures (with no spare units available) and Network Rail prioritising freight over passengers because of the insufficient capacity on the branch for both passenger trains and the 30+ freight trains in each direciton each day. Abellio is paying for two rail replacement coaches on semi-permanent standby at Ipswich station forecourt ready for the next cancelled Felixstowe train. FTW asked if they would continue to pay for the standby coaches but received no response.
The franchise specification for the new East Anglia franchise from October 2016 (i.e. the formal invitation to tender that Abellio and Stagecoach, FirstGroup and National Express havebeen shoirtlisted for) has been delayed by at least a month and is expected to be issued around 10th September.
RAIL ROUTES
Canal Tunnels linking Great Northern lines with St Pancras International Low Level tracks open
Keywords: [ThameslinkProgramme]
On Sunday 6th September the Belle Isle Junction to St Pancras International Low Level Station link through the new Canal Tunnels was brought into use when the associated new signalling, controlled from (Belle Isle Junction end) London King's Cross power signal box, was commissioned. This is the vital link that will allow, from 2018, passenger trains from Cambirdge and Peterborough to run through London on the Thamelsink route to destinations such as Gatwick Airport for the first time ever.
The new lines are named the Up Canal Tunnel (UCT) and Down Canal Tunnel (DCT) respectively. EMUs will start using the Canal Tunnel lines for empty stock movements and testing of the new automatic Train Control System (plus route and traction-training for eastern route crews) in due course. Belle Isle was the inappropriately glamorously titled signal box which long ago stood between Gasworks and Copenhagen tunnels on the exit from King's Cross.
RAIL FREIGHT
European Union funding refuses £86million towards Felixstowe-to-Nuneaton (F2N) rail upgrade
Keywords: [Felixstowe2Nuneaton]
Railfuture was concerned to hear in early September that the European Commission has refused to fund £86m of the the £300m needed to upgrade the Felixstowe-to-Nuneaton route to carry more freight, and it will be contacting the region's MEPs to see if they can overturn the decision. Some of the MEPs have already complained to the EC, writing to Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc, and have demanded answers. However, it is not as simple as that because the the money available is more for European 'domestic services' not deep-sea as Felixstowe is categorised. Other UK projects miss out too for that reason.
Felixstowe Port expansion sees start of 31st daily freight train
Keywords: [FelixstowePort]
The doubling of the Felixstowe branch cannot come soon enough as GB Railfreight commenced operation of the 31st daily freight train from the port on 2nd September. This is its seventh service (most trains are operated by Freightliner) and will haul containers to the Birch Coppice intermodal distribution centre near Birmingham. In a recrnt interviewe John Smith, MD of GB Railfreight, said that he believed up to 34 daily freight trains could be accommodated if sharing the track with the currebt passenger service. With the opening in 2014 of the new North Rail Terminal the port has capacity to handle 48 trains a day.
GUIDED BUSWAY
Cambridge News reveals that Cambridgeshire Guided Busway patronage is flat-lining
A Cambridge News article about patronage on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway appears to be saying that by the end of June 2015, after 3 years, 10 months and 3 weeks of operation, the total number of passengers who have travelled on a busway bus (although it very clumsily, and quite erroneously, says "travelled on the busway") hit 12,429,842.
The Cambridge headline of 12.5 million "busway journeys" - actually journeys on buses where that bus goes on the busway at some point even though the passenger might not - may sound impressive but it represents about 4 million journeys in year 4 (7th August 2014 to 6th August 2015) versus 3.6 million in year 3. The year 3 target, stated at the public inquiry in 2004, was 3.6 million at it just hit it (well, within a whisker of it). A year later the patronage, according to the figures released, despite the frequency of the buses being increased, shows an increase of about 12%. That is definite flat-lining. In fact the signs were there more than a year ago as the year 3 versus 2 figures showed a much lower than year 2 versus year 1 (3.6m versus 2.7m [33%] compared to 2.7 versus 1.8m [50%]).
This miniscule increase is despite being in a growing region with a rising population and the local economy being vibrant. Moreover, rail patronage in the region continues to rise at impressive levels. A mere 12% increase so early in the life of a major scheme where frequency has bene improved would be seen as disastrous performance for the railway in East Anglia.
So the buses are now seeing about 333,000 journeys a month, versus the 300,000 a year ago. We will never know how many of those journeys make use of the guided busway because Stagecoach, Whippet and Cambridgeshire County Council refuse to say how many journeys there have been on the busway. The difference arises because the published figures simply count the number of people who board a busway bus regardless of where they board or alight. Someone who travels just within the city (e.g. bus station to railway station) or, say, just St Ives to Huntingdon, or Huntington to Peterborough, are included in these figures even though they never went on the busway at all. Given that buses are most heavily loaded in Cambridge city centre a reasonable guess of people who went on the busway (even if it was only the 50-metre stretch from Milton Road to the Science Park busway stop) may be about ten million journeys so far (or 80% of them) but it could be lower. Another often forgotten factor is that when the busway was opened some bus services were axed forcing passengers to use the new busway-branded buses, so one can't even claim that all of these supposed 'busway journeys' are new journeys.
The Cambridge News was correct, however, in stating "Passenger numbers on the route are also likely to be boosted once the new town of Northstowe is built and more passengers are expected to use the busway when Cambridge's second rail station in Chesterton opens next year." However, as people from, say, the Science Park, take the bus direct to the new station, and therefore saving significant time by not crawling through Cambridge's streets on a bus to the main station, the total passenger kilometres on these buses may decrease. But fear not, because those figures have never been revealed to the public!
Stagecoach Managing Director claims that busway patronage has not been impacted by introduction of park and ride charge
According to the Cambridge News, Stagecoach lost half a million bus passengers in a year from the park and ride sites around Cambridge after the introduction of a £1 parking charge. Its Managing Director, Andy Campbell, said that part of the cause was the inconvenience and time lost because passengers had to paying at the site rather than being able to do so using their mobile phobe when one the bus. Recently Cambridgeshire County Council intorduced the £1 charge at the Longstanton and St Ives park and ride sites on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, but Mr Campbell claims that it had not had such a major impact saying "but it has slowed down the growth we've previously seen. People who use the busway tend to be more regular commuters and get used to the system. A lot of these have gone online rather than pay at the machine. Your park and ride customers are infrequent visitors."
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 269 - 11/09/2015
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