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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 298 - 31/01/2018

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

Railfuture News Snippets 298 - 31/01/2018



Chris Grayling, the Secretary of State for Transport, described resolving Ely North Junction as an "early priority" and "it's something we have to do" when he visited Ely on 11th January 2018. He told the BBC "There are probably four or five projects around the country that I regard as really strategically important for the rail network ... things that have a real impact both regionally and nationally. This is one of them." His statement is effectively the official go-ahead for track upgrades, which will expand capacity right across East Anglia, meaning fewer delays for passengers and opportunities to get more freight on the railway - crucial for the Port of Felixstowe.

Felixstowe Travel Watch will hold its next meeting at 14:30 on Tuesday 6th February 2018 at the Salvaiton Army Church, on Cobbold Road, in Felixstowe. The guest speakers will be Aaron Taffera and Martin Halliday from the East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership. They will discuss the purpose and work of CRPs along with some of the achievements in the East of England. Later meetings will be on 8th May at 19:30 (AGM) and 16th October at 14:30.

The Platform One cafe is due to open on Tuesday 20th February at Downham Market station in the former Railway Arms premises, which closed two years previously over a rent dispute. It will offer hot drinks and snacks. The cafe will have free Wi-Fi, charging points and a TV showing the news and stools people can sit on with their laptops. Meanwhile the Ely Food Station, which donates money from coffee sales to help Rwandan communities, has opened in the main station building at Ely station. It was officially opened by Ely Mayor, Richard Hobbs, on Thursday 25th January 2018.


STATIONS
Greater Anglia offers station buildings for community use

Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]

The are many boarded-up buildings at stations across East Anglia and Railfuture has repeatedly called for these to be opened, both to create a reason to visit the station and as to increase security by creating a manned presence there. It is pleasing that Greater Anglia is now offering empty spaces at stations in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire as part of its "community stations scheme". GA has grouped the spaces in buildings into Event/Exhibition, Small Community and Large Community categories. Temporary exhibition space will be available free of charge for non-profit making organisations.

It is looking for occupiers of larger areas at Billericay, Bishop's Stortford, Broxbourne, Cambridge, Cambridge North, Chelmsford, Clacton-on-Sea, Colchester, Ely, Great Yarmouth, Harlow, Hertford East, Hockley, Ipswich, Manningtree, Norwich, Rayleigh, Shenfield, Southend Victoria, Stowmarket and Wickford. GA have smaller areas available to lease to companies on a not-for-profit basis at Acle, Attleborough, Cressing, Great Chesterford, Great Yarmouth, Harling Road, Harlow Mill, Lowestoft, Newport, Prittlewell, Roydon, Shippea Hill, St Margarets, Stowmarket, Walton-on-the-Naze, White Notley and Worstead. Most of these would need some remedial work before being used. There are also large station houses needing substantial investment, which are available on a lease basis. These include Bury St Edmunds, Lakenheath and Thetford.

Burnham-on-Crouch, Lowestoft and Reedham stations already have successful schemes where the buildings have been reborn with a new purpose for a new era. At Reedham, the team of station adopters has created a museum in a disused room, while Burnham-on-Crouch's station building is used by local artists, and Lowestoft now has a tourist information office.

Cambridge station wins national heritage award for restoration work performed on front of station building

Keywords: [CambridgeStation]

Cambridge station's operator, Greater Anglia, won the MTR Crossrail Award for Urban Heritage at the National Railway Heritage Awards for the painstaking work to restore 32 decorative college roundels at the Grade II listed station's facade to their former glory, meticulously repairing and repainting its ornate roundels, cleaning and repairing damaged brickwork and tidying up unsightly cabling and surface pipes. The work cost £250k, funded by a grant from the Railway Heritage Trust, and took a year to complete. In recent years Cambridge station has undergone a £4 million transformation (including more space in the ticket hall and an extended gate-line). The roundels represent the coats of arms of Cambridge University's colleges.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 298 - 31/01/2018

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