News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 281 - 31/08/2016
- RAIL FRANCHISES [all issues]
- STATIONS [all issues]
- RAIL FREIGHT [all issues]
- PRESERVED RAILWAYS [all issues]
- WEBSITES [all issues]
Network Rail will be undertaking a new public consultation on level crossings in East Anglia during September. Essentially it is seeking to close as many as it possibly can (by diverting people to where a nearby alternative exists or by providing a new public route to a nearby alternative) in order to reduce risks to those crossing them. Benefits to the rail industry include a more reliable railway, reduced costs and the potential to increase line speeds in the future. The public consultation is necessary as part of its proposals when applying for Transport and Works Act Orders to close the crossings. It will be submitting separate ones for Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Essex. More details can be found at http://www.networkrail.co.uk/anglialevelcrossings/.
The East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership has now opened an office and Visitor Information Point at Lowestoft station in the former Shop Mobility room.
RAIL FRANCHISES
Abellio wins new nine-year Greater [East] Anglia franchise and promises complete brand new train fleet
Keywords: [GreaterAngliaFranchise]
Following the referendum vote for Brexit observers began to wonder how long it would take for the winner of the Greater [East] Anglia franchise to be announced. June and July went by with no concrete date. The shortlist had been announced more than a year earlier in June 2015, and it was down to just three bidders. Abellio East Anglia Limited (a joint venture between Abellio and Stagecoach, although Stagecoach withdrew from the partnership in in December 2015), First East Anglia Limited and National Express East Anglia Trains Limited. Finally on Wednesday 10th August, the recently-appointed Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, chose to announce the franchise award at Bombardier's Litchurch Lane works at Derby. The DfT press release explained the reason with the headline 'Enhanced services and faster trains across East Anglia franchise including new trains from Bombardier.' The franchise decision provides some continuity as Abellio had been awarded a 29-month contract to operate the franchise from 5th February 2012, and a further direct award contract in 2014.
An entirely brand new fleet of trains - every single carriageThe key element of Abellio's bid is a fleet of 1,043 new carriages at a cost of £1.4 billion, which is the biggest investment in trains in East Anglia ever (and the largest-ever privately-procured train order in Britain). Never before has a complete franchise fleet replacement been seen on this scale in Britain. The trains will be procured from two suppliers: the majority from Bombardier, who have a factory in Derby (hence the government's choice of location for the announcement), and the remainder from Stadler, who will build the trains in Switzerland. It will be Stadler's first major train order in Britain (London Tramlink uses its trams, for example).
The new fleet will consist of 665 Bombardier Aventra electric multiple-unit carriages and 378 Stadler FLIRT (Fast, Light, Innovative Regional Train) multiple-unit carriages, of which 240 will be emus and 138 will be electro-diesel (bi-mode). Like most modern light rail vehicles, both the Aventra and FLIRT trains will be articulated, which is quite rare on the mainline (an example being the old Eurostar e300 trains, some of which are now being scrapped, the T&W Metro trains and in the future the Sheffield tram/trains). The new train orders mean that Abellio will be have just two types of trains from the passenger's perspective (three if you differentiate between the FLIRT emus and bi-modes). Having 'uniform' stock on routes will enable timetables to be tightened as current timings must be to cope with the slowest train (measured either by maximum speed or ability to accelerate). For example, on the West Anglia line Class 317s are clearly slower than 379s, especially on the stoppers.
There will be maintenance advantages from a simplified fleet with depots becoming more cost-effective by having less equipment, fewer spares to be held in stock and more productive staff (ability to work on every train, with less training needed). The new trains are to be maintained by Bombardier at Ilford and Stadler in Norwich, taking over the existing depots. Abellio is to build a new stabling and light maintenance facility at Manningtree which will incorporate an underfloor wheel lathe for use by both fleets. As a completely new facility, this will need Network Rail to install a new rail link. Abellio will spend £120m on depots and their facilities.
Greater Anglia's (GA) existing emus are 20 metres long. However, the Crossrail Aventras have 23 metre-long carriages (so it's reasonable to assume the GA ones will be as well). They will run both as 5- and 10-car formations - up to 230 metres long, which is a fraction shorter than the 240 metres for current 12 carriages but proportionately more room will be given over to seating. The new fleet will allow 1,144 extra services a week and a 55% increase in morning peak-time seats into London. The new bi-mode trains will be three or four carriages long and will be replacing the current fleet of one-, two- and a few three-carriage trains, thereby increasing the number of seats on regional services. With a minimum train length of three carriages the Ipswich-Felixstowe service, which usually has a single Class 153, with have three times as many seats. Presumably it will be one of the last lines to see new rolling stock, which will clearly be prioritised on getting expensive trains off-lease. Another factor influencing deployment may be the need for stations to have platform extensions. Selective-door-opening (SDO) solves the safety issue but not trains blocking level crossings, for instance.
- Old regional fleet = 5 x Class 153, 9 x Class 156, 4 x Class 170 (2-car) and 8 x Class 170 (3-car)
- total 26 trains with an aggregate of 55 vehicles
- New regional fleet = 24 x Stadler bi-modes (4-car) and 14 x Stadler bi-modes (3-car)
- total 38 trains with an aggregate of 138 vehicles. The 'extra' work required from this fleet will be 4 x through workings per day to London ex-Lowestoft and extending the Norwich-Cambridge trains through to Stansted.
Both train suppliers were chosen as they could deliver quickly, although Bombardier must wait to complete its Class 345 Crossrail order, and Abellio will not be able to put its trains into service until 2020 (by which time all trains will have controlled emission toilets, which will please Network Rail staff). The Stadler trains will be introduced from May 2019 (with manufacturing in the queue following an order for Abellio in the Netherlands) when a new timetable will be introduced. The new Stadler trains should give excellent reliability, especially in the leaf-fall season. The existing class 150/153/156 trains do not have wheel-slip protection (as compatible equipment is not available for retrofitting) but the new trains will.
Passengers will not have to wait long for improved trains. Some of GA's existing trains are being refurbished and will continue to be re-introduced into service. Then in 2017 there will be additional electric trains - cascaded from other operators - to provide extra capacity. Abellio also intends to start fitting Wi-Fi to all the trains used on the suburban services into London.
Free Wi-Fi on all trains (a DfT requirement these days) is mentioned in the press release but no reference to power-points (especially USB ones). Passenger groups, Railfuture in particular, consider power-points to be potentially more important than Wi-Fi especially on longer journeys since most news apps cache stories. Not everyone wants to carry around a charged booster battery.
Service ImprovementsHighlights of the new service pattern include three trains per hour between London and Norwich, with the much-heralded 'Norwich in 90' shorter journey times offered on two trains per day. Through trains from Lowestoft to London will be reinstated (for per day) and the Norwich to Cambridge service will be merged with the Cambridge to Stansted Airport service, thus providing a direct train service to the airport from Norfolk for the first time. The Peterborough to Ipswich (via Ely) service will be extended to Colchester, thus avoiding another change of train on certain journeys. Most of the Sunbury trains will be extended from Marks Tay to Colchester, so yet another connection avoided. However, Railfuture is disappointed that Great Yarmouth has been left out in terms of direct trains so a change at Norwich is still required if coming from, say, Liverpool. Unfortunately, apart from the doubling of the Peterborough to Ipswich service (extended to Colchester) from two-hourly to hourly (presumably all calling at Manea, March and Whittlesea) there are no improvements in frequency - all of the branch lines are hourly and it seems will stay that way. In many cases infrastructure improvements (e.g. passing loops) would be needed to go half hourly, but Railfuture believes there is potential for a Cambridge to Bury St Edmunds service in between the hourly service to Ipswich.
Abellio has signed up to improving punctuality (the annualised PPM measure) from the current 89% to 92.9% by the end of the nine-year franchise period, which just puts the onus on Network Rail to fulfil their part of the bargain. This is in addition to the shorter journey times enabled by the new trains, which may also need line speed improvements.
Station ImprovementsAbellio has agreed to spend £9,795,000 of stations enhancements. This is additional to the commitment to provide free Wi-Fi at all stations (as well as on trains). There will be "smart ticketing on the entire network by 2019" (something GTR was supposed to complete by 2015 but found it was too difficult, especially at other operators' stations such as Peterborough). This commitment presumably means having smartcard readers at all of its stations. Would this include the Great Northern stations between Littleport and King's Lynn, which currently have only three GAs trains a day in each direction? GA is also promising advance purchase tickets that are available for sale up to 10 minutes before the chosen train. Abellio is also planning to introduce Club 50 offers, similar to those it introduced in ScotRail.
The DfT has provided a simple website page showing the improvements to services and stations by line (such as West Anglia). Go to http://maps.dft.gov.uk/east-anglia-franchise/.
Railfuture East Anglia gave interviews about the franchise award to several radio stations including BBC Radio Suffolk.
STATIONS
Network Rail provides publicity photos of Cambridge North station construction progress
Keywords: [CambridgeNorthStation]
On 1st August 2016 Network Rail's Media Centre posted publicity photographs of the on-going construction of the £50m Cambridge North station. The two concrete lift shafts on the island and Cambridge-bound platforms have been built along with the structures that will hold the footbridge and stairs. Network Rail has revealed that up to 10% of the station's power will come from solar panels.
Concern has been expressed about suggestions that none of the trains calling at Waterbeach station will call at Cambridge North because of the difficulty timetabling trains through the 10-mile single-track section between Littleport and Downham Market. This fear has not been confirmed by Network Rail yet.
News: http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/pictures-cambridges-new-station-is-taking-shape.
RAIL FREIGHT
Brand new track-friendly wagons to be used by GB Railfreight on sand trains from Middleton Towers
Keywords: [MiddletonTowersBranch]
The days of the four-wheel wagons dating from the British Rail era that are currently in use on the sand trains from and to Middleton Towers are numbered. GB Railfreight, which took over the operation in January 2014, has confirmed that it will lease 41 new 101.6 tonne hoppers from Nacco Leasing for a minimum of five years (with the option to extend) to support a contract extension with Sibelco Europe that begins in August 2017. As a result GBRf will move Sibelco's silica sand product (extracted from Sibelco's quarry at Middleton Towers to the east of King's Lynn) to Guardian Industries' UK plant in Goole, Yorkshire, and Ardagh Group's UK glass sites in Barnsley and Doncaster for a further five years, until December 2022. Guardian Industries uses the sand to produce windscreens for road vehicles; Luxembourg-based Ardagh Group uses it to manufacture glass containers.
The new wagons, which have bogies unlike the old wagons, are capable of a load of 70 tonnes (the old wagons were limited to 36 tonnes).
PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Mid-Norfolk Railway makes progress on its northern extension as members' inspection train gets close to Worthing level crossing
Keywords: [MidNorfolkRailway]
For the last 15 years the Mid-Norfolk Railway has been slowly working on extending its route north of Dereham station along the 4.5 miles of track it owns to North Elmham, which is covered by its existing Transport and Works Act Order (the mile of route that it owns beyond there to County School would need another TWA Order). The major milestone of Hoe was reached in 2013 (many years later than initially hoped) and it has been running occasional passenger trains there ever since. At each AGM members are informed of the revised target for reaching North Elmham, which is currently 2018. Progress is driven by how many sleepers are sponsored (currently costing £33 each) and how fast the volunteers can work to renovate the line.
Works trains have been progressing further north. There was excellent news on the evening of Friday 19th August 2016 when a a members' inspection train ran to 200 metres short of Worthing level crossing (the first train of any kind at that point since 1989, and the first steam train since 31st March 1962). Getting beyond the level crossing will be a major achievement. The good news is that the track is in much better condition towards North Elmham so progress could go from a crawl to a sprint. Because the former station building and platform at North Elmham is in private hands the track would need to be realigned for the MNR to provide a station there, so it is currently intended to erect a new platform just before them level crossing at North Elmham.
The MNR will also be acquiring the (cabin) top-half of Spooner row signal box, which has been out of use since the line was re-signalled in 2012, and it will be moved to become the new Church Lane signal box in Wymondham. The bottom half of the signal box will be demolished by Network Rail's contractors. The MNR paid a visit in September to retrieve the lever frame and is waiting to be told by NR when it can collect the cabin.
WEBSITES
Detailed history of Cambridge station from earliest days to the current time
The www.disused-stations.org.uk website covers many of the disused stations in Britain, and this includes many in East Anglia. It also has a pretty comprehensive history of Cambridge railway station (still open!), which is divided up into 12 sections, for the earliest days to pre-grouping, the Big Four, the British Rail era (split into steam, diesel and electrification) and after privatisation. It can be found at www.disused-stations.org.uk/c/cambridge/.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 281 - 31/08/2016
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