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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 299 - 28/02/2018

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

Railfuture News Snippets 299 - 28/02/2018



At the Railfuture East Anglia meeting in Bury St Edmunds on Saturday 24th February 2018, the Network Rail speaker, Lisa Barrett, revealed - for the first time in public - that the new Cambridge South station would have four tracks from day one and the railway line from Cambridge station to Shrepreth Branch junction (where the Liverpool Street and King's Cross split) would be four tracked at the same time - in preparation for future East West Rail. In her presentation she provided an update on various schemes. The £8.8m; Ely Area Capacity Study, funded by two LEPs and the Strategic Rail Freight Network, is at the GRIP 2 stage. It should provide 11 trains per hour. Currently only eight are possible; these operate at peak-time and 6.5 off-peak. Ely platform 3 is under utilised and there are plans to get more from it. The TWA process for the Felixstowe upgrade is complete and NR is now just waiting for the Secretary of State to give consent, which relates mainly to closing several level crossings. Project completion is anticipated for May 2019.

Lisa explained that extending the platforms at Waterbeach would require (very expensive) 23-metre piles because of the very poor land conditions, with 'modular steel construct' relocatable platforms fixed to them. NR had to get access to the line and was still to agree dates for 52-hour weekend possessions with the train operators. The construction of new sidings for longer trains at King's Lynn was not helped by the mechanical interlocking (legacy signalling system) currently in place. Bridge strengthening north of Ely would allow line speeds to increase from 20/30mph to 60mph. Lisa also mentioned schemes outside of East Anglia that she is the sponsor for. This includes electrification on the Gospel Oak to Barking line (GOBLIN). Funding for enhancements has been taken out of the control period assessment process and is now managed through a "pipeline" process agreed with the DfT.

Cambridgeshire County Council claims that the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway just crossed the four million mark for the number of passenger journeys made in a single year. This makes 22 million since it started in August 2011. Of course, as Railfuture has pointed out many times, these are figures for bus journeys whether on the road or partly/fully on the busway, and no figures have ever been published of journeys on the busway itself.


RAIL ROUTES
Ely North Junction level crossing study being studied by councillors to decide if bypass is needed

Keywords: [ElyNorthJunction]

Cambridgeshire County Council is considering a northern bypass to ease congestion around the Queen Adelaide level crossing near Ely, whilst building a bridge over the Peterborough railway line is another option. The level crossings are one of the key problems that Network Rail faces when designing a solution to increase rail capacity around Ely North Junction. Having three level crossings in a row on the B1382 Ely Road at the hamlet of Queen Adelaide risk traffic building up and vehicles occupying one of the level crossings and being unable to move off it. In a consultation held in October 2017 residents expressed concerns that level crossings would not be able to cope with the future levels of both the road and rail traffic, especially as the crossings would be closed more often.

Funding for a bypass would probably need to come from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

Bridge strengthening on Fen Line avoids introduction of speed restriction

Keywords: [ThameslinkProgramme]

As briefly reported in [Snippets 298] between 12th - 16th February 2018 (during half-term week) Network Rail strengthened a six-span railway bridge between Ely and Littleport, which included the installation of 24 steel plates plus a thorough coat of paint to prevent corrosion, at a cost of £1m, to avoid the imposition of a speed restriction. It shows the cost of keeping the railway operating at its current capability - unfortunately raising the line speed was not in scope. Up to 76 passenger and freight trains cross the bridge each day, with the 110mph-capable passenger trains travelling at up to 80mph. To make the most of the closure, maintenance work at level crossings and vegetation removal was also carried out. Had Network Rail opted to do the work over a series of weekends, it would have taken six months to complete

Re-signalling continues on Wherry Lines between Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft

Keywords: [ThameslinkProgramme]

Work on the next phase of the £68m project to modernise the life-expired signalling system on the Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft railway lines will begin on Saturday 10th February 2018. The first-generation semaphore and levers were replaced on part of the route, and this will continue with 66 new colour light LED signals, 22 power operated points and a remote computer-based signalling control system. It should result in a more reliable railway.

To allow the work to take place, four level crossings will have their manual gates replaced with full barriers remotely controlled by a signaller using CCTV cameras, and the road will be closed temporarily on various days with road diversions in place:

  • Brundall level crossing will be closed to vehicles and pedestrians overnight from 18:00 Sunday 11th to 06:00 Monday 12th February
  • Strumpshaw level crossing will be closed to vehicles and pedestrians on Sunday 4th February between 08:00 and 20:00
  • Cantley Road will also be closed at nights from 23:00 to 04:00 from Saturday 3rd March until Monday 5th March 2018.

Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge Corridor All-Party Parliamentary Group launched

Keywords: [EastWestRail]

An All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge Corridor was launched on Wednesday 31st January 2018 in Westminster with many representatives from businesses, local authorities, LEPs, universities and other organisations present from across the corridor. Chaired by Iain Stewart MP, the corridor's official champion, it builds on the existing East West Rail APPG with a wider remit that goes beyond rail and reflects the challenges and opportunities of the region, which has the potential to become the UK's answer to Silicon Valley in the United States.

This new APPG, which consists of Members of both Houses, will promote the corridor on a cross-party basis, working closely with local authorities, local enterprise partnerships and businesses. Mr Stewart will set-up meetings with stakeholders to map out their priorities for the Government.


STATIONS
Greater Anglia improves facilities at Harwich Town station but canopy will be lost

Keywords: [HarwichTownStation]

Greater Anglia (GA) is spending £500k to transform Harwich Town station. The platforms will be completely resurfaced with new tarmac and the coper slabs at the platform edge will be repointed and replaced where needed. The dilapidated platform canopy, which is no longer fit for purpose and is damaging the brick archways on the station building, will be dismantled. Unfortunately, it is not being replaced by a canopy, but merely a brand-new Accoya wooden shelter, which GA claims is adequate to protect passengers from the elements as they wait for trains. The affected brickwork on the station building will be restored. On a more positive note, as part of an overall electrical upgrade at the station, the existing orange-coloured lighting will be replaced by more energy efficient, white LED lights, which will be brighter despite consuming far less energy. Most of the work taking place during weekdays, when nearby residents are more likely to be out, and will be finished by summer 2018.


ROLLING STOCK
Assembly of Greater Anglia's new Aventra trains about to start in Derby

Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]

Having almost completed other train orders, mainly for Transport for London, the Bombardier train factory in Derby is getting the production line ready to start assembling Greater Anglia's 111 brand new Aventra trains (665 new carriages which will form 22 ten-carriage trains and 89 five-carriage trains), which will start to come into service in 2019. The trains will run on commuter routes into Liverpool Street from Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire.

As expected with modern trains - and demanded by passengers - every carriage will have air conditioning and underfloor heating, plug and USB points and fast free Wi-Fi. Accessible toilets are, of course, mandatory. Like Underground trains and trams, there will be no connecting doors. Railfuture is pleased that there will be seat back tables, as it had told Greater Anglia (GA) how important tables are. Railfuture is unhappy, as passenger will be, at the three-plus-two seating, which were forced upon GA by the DfT in order to provide a specified number of seats. Like the Class 700 trains operated by GTR, the information screens will indicate carriages where there are empty seats.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 299 - 28/02/2018

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