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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 294 - 01/09/2017

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

Railfuture News Snippets 294 - 01/09/2017



Felixstowe Travel Watch will hold its next meeting at 14:30 on Tuesday 17th October 2018 at the Salvation Army Church, on Cobbold Road, in Felixstowe. The guest speaker will be Alex Kirk from Network Rail. He will talk about the plans to add an extra track on the Felixstowe branch between Trimley station and Grimston Lane together with new crossovers, changes to the signalling and closures or changes to level crossings.

Cambridge University Railway Club has announced its guest speakers for the Michaelmas (autumn) 2017 term. They are:

  • 18th October - Stephen Haynes, Simon Ball & Colin Evans - Colas Rail Freight - 18:00, Knox-Shaw Room, Sidney Sussex College
  • 8th November - Graham Cross - London Overground (Arriva) - 20:30, William Thatcher Room, Fitzwilliam College
  • 17th November - Andy Mellors - South Western Railway (First/MTR) - 20:30, William Thatcher Room, Fitzwilliam College
  • 22nd November - Dr Michèle Dix - Crossrail 2 - 18:00, Knox-Shaw Room, Sidney Sussex College

  • STATIONS
    Platform extensions at Foxton and Shepreth stations nearly ready for use in December 2017

    Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]

    At Foxton and Shepreth stations the down (i.e. Cambridge-bound) platforms have been lengthened from four to eight carriage lengths, ready for the timetable change in December 2017. Currently only the original part of the platform is being used, with the new section fenced off.

    At Foxton the driver's large mirror was in the way (of passengers to walk) so it has been removed and replaced with cameras along the full length of the platform with screens at the half-way point (now being used) and at the end of the extension. This is a definite improvement for the drivers. The annoying thing in terms of expenditure is that although the class 387s and 700s have cameras on train exteriors, the legacy trains (e.g. 365s) do not, so they have had to add cameras. Beyond Cambridge North stations there will be no legacy trains so they will, presumably, not install cameras when they extend Waterbeach and Littleport platforms.

    Revamped Cambridge station wins coveted "Large Station of the Year" prize at National Rail Awards

    Keywords: [CambridgeStation]

    Judges for the National Rail Awards, including Railfuture Vice President Chris Green, visited Cambridge station after its major investment, which included a much bigger ticket hall (with more ticket counters) along with more ticket gates and machines, and decided that it now possesses the 'wow' factor. The new Dutch-style multi-storey cycle hub and station square (with modern buildings opposite) were key reasons why the judges described the station an outstanding gateway for the city.

    The improvements, which were completed earlier in 2017, followed the construction of a new island platform, which opened in 2011. Cambridge station is famed for having the third-longest platform face in the UK (after Colchester and Gloucester), although it is split into two individual platforms by the 'scissors' crossover. Passenger numbers have grown from 8.823 million in 2011/2012 to 10.954m in 2015/2016 according to Office of Rail and Road statistics.


    RAIL ROUTES
    Network Rail explains in detail the resignalling project on the Wherry Lines

    Keywords: [WherryLines]

    Ian Couzens and Peter Wakefield of Railfuture attended a meeting of the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership on Wednesday 27th September 2017 at the Broadland District Council Offices in Norwich. Network Rail (NR) officials gave an overview of Norwich-Yarmouth-Lowestoft £68 million re-signalling project, which will replace the first-generation signalling (e.g. semaphores and signal-boxes plus manually-operated level crossings - some of the oldest signalling equipment on the entire rail network) with conventional colour-light signalling (a total of 66 new colour light LED signals and 22 power operated points), as opposed to NR's earlier plans for a fully "Digital Railway" system involving ERTMS.

    Network Rail said that the aims at the end of the project was to provide a 24/7 railway at the end of project. This will be possible in a cost-effective way as all signalling would be controlled by a new panel at Colchester Power Signal Box (PSB). The level crossings that are currently operated by a crossing keeper will be replaced with a modern barrier type remotely controlled by a signaller using CCTV cameras. However, the movement of the swing bridges to allow shipping to pass would be controlled locally, although the railway signalling would be controlled from Colchester. The metal on the swing bridges is currently under repair and all will be repainted. NR confirmed that, apart from losing the short platform and its track at Great Yarmouth, no infrastructure would be rationalised. All double track will remain, an will the single-line passing places, and some 3.5 miles of track will be renewed (enabling some minor speed improvements and all permanent and temporary speed restrictions [PSRs/TSRs] will be removed). The new signalling will be fully commissioned in 2019 to coincide with the introduction of Greater Anglia's new train fleet, which will have better acceleration (and a higher top speed, in excess of the line speeds).

    The downside for passengers is that there will be several week-long blockades of all lines/parts of lines with bustitution. The first will be for a nine-day period from Saturday 21st October until Monday 30th October 2017. Railfuture expressed criticism that there will be few improvements for rail users, at least in the short term. The new signalling will provide for more services than now to run - for example it "could" cope with three trains per hour (tph) to Great Yarmouth and also three tph to Lowestoft, although it is includer if the Whitlingham Junction to Norwich section would be able to cope with up to eight tph plus freight).

    For freight customers, the freight sidings at Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth will be retained/maintained with remodelling of the sidings - all points will be motorised, rather than having manually-operated ground frames. At Great Yarmouth three sidings owned by Greater Anglia (which will be used to stable the new trains before they enter service and the old trains after that) and three by Norfolk County Council.


    ROLLING STOCK
    Final Thameslink Class 700 train rolls off production line

    Keywords: [GreatNorthern]

    Great Northern railway, one of the four Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) brands, is improving train reliability by fitting smart hi-tech kit that warns engineers in real-time by email when parts are developing a problem, but highlighting it months in advance before the vital components are likely to break down in service. In a first for Britain's railway, Great Northern has fitted vibration sensors to both wheel bearings and gearboxes across all 40 of its Class 365 trains, which run between Cambridge, Peterborough and King's Cross.

    Refurbishment of Greater Anglia Class 321s trains have been completed

    Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]

    The £3.8m refurbishment of 54 Greater Anglia Class 321 trains, which were constructed between 1988 and 1991, at its Clacton-on-Sea depot was complete at the end of September 2017. The trains, which run between Liverpool Street and Southend, Chelmsford, Colchester and Ipswich, will all be replaced by the end of 2019 so investment has been limited to things that passengers will immediately notice, such as new carpets and vinyl flooring, panels and seat covers. To ease overcrowding a little, four additional standard class seats per unit have been created by decommissioning an extended first-class seating area. Each four-car unit took around 60 hours to refurbish, with a team of 20 working round-the-clock to minimise the time each one was out of service.

    Greater Anglia to replace all toilers on its Great Eastern commuter trains

    Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]

    Greater Anglia is spending £150,000 to replacing all of the toilets on its Siemens-manufactured Class 360 trains, which were introduced by First Great Eastern from August 2003. New toilets have been installed on seven of the 21 trains so far and the remainder will be installed by the end of 2017, which should see them out of order less of the time. Greater Anglia claims that on an average day, less than 2% of its 556 train toilets are out of order.


    WEBSITES AND APPS
    Virgin Trains East Coast uses 'Seatfrog' smartphone app to allow passengers to bid to upgrade tickets to first class

    Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) is to make use of the innovative upgrade smartphone app called Seatfrog (derived from "leapfrog" as it 'gets one over' on other people). This will allows passengers with a standard-class ticket to bid, like an auction, on last-minute upgrades to First Class on VTEC services from just £5 up to 30 minutes before departure. It is the first time anywhere in the world that Seatfrog has been used for rail travel. The benefit for VTEC is that the live, dynamic bidding system, fills First Class seats that would otherwise be empty freeing-up standard class sets for other passengers. It's a win for both parties. VTEC has not revealed how many seats will be upgradable, or on which trains and days/times.


    Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 294 - 01/09/2017

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