News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 305 - 31/08/2018
- ROLLING STOCK [all issues]
- STATIONS [all issues]
- GUIDED BUSWAY [all issues]
- Cambridgeshire Guided Busway achieves little over half of its intended 20,000 pasengers per day
- Cambridgeshire Guided Busway driver given 12-week suspended prison sentence for crashing bus in 2016
- PRESERVED RAILWAYS [all issues]
The Bittern Line community rail partnership (CRP), which helps promote one of rural railway lines from between Norwich and Sheringham (via Cromer), celebrated its 21st anniversary on 14th August with a photo call at Norwich station.
In August 2018 Network Rail secured permission for level crossing closures and changes as part of the upgrade to the Ipswich to Felixstowe branch line. As reported in [Snippets 300], work to add a second track for a 1.4km stretch from Trimley to the level crossing at Gun Lane began April 2018. With its new powers, Network Rail will now close Gun Lane level crossing and replace it with a new bridleway bridge across the line. The work will be done by VolkerFitzpatrick, who built Cambridge North station. The powers will allow it to permanently close five other pedestrian level crossings and upgrade four road level crossings between Trimley and Westerfield.
LNER has begun improvements to the car park at Peterborough station. There will be new signage, renewal of the car park surfaces and creating more car parking spaces. Watlington station's car park is being partly resurfaced over the period 10th August to 9th September 2018 during which time new lighting and kerbing will be installed.
A warning to users of Cambridge North station who by a car parking ticket at a TVM. From mid-Sept 2018 you'll need to allow extra time to walk to your car and back as Greater Anglia station staff will no longer hold it for you. It is unclear why this change is happening and one hopes it is not because of a reduction in staffing levels. Full marks to the staff for displaying notice prominently but not for withdrawing the useful service.
Work has taken place during July and August 2018 to install TVMs at Dullingham and Elmswell stations on the Mid-Anglia line. There have never been TVMs at these stations.
The installation of free water fountains at Greater Anglia rail stations - initially at Ipswich, Colchester and Cambridge, and primarily to reduce plastic waste - has been shortlisted for the "Idea of the Year 2018" award, which will be announced in November 2018. The operator has been shortlisted for eight awards, including Customer Service Excellence and for its Smart Card ticketing at the 2018 National Rail Awards.
On 31st August 2018 the Chief Executive of the Crossrail Project announced that the central tunnel section would not be ready to open to passengers on 9th December 2018 as intended, when services between Paddington (Elizabeth line station) and Abbey Wood were due to begin, but it would be put off until 'autumn 2019', which is not a date! This means that the 19th May 2019 date for Elizabeth line services between Paddington and Shenfield via Liverpool Street (Elizabeth line station) will not be met either. It therefore seems unlikely that the gaps between phases could be dramatically shortened to meet the 8th December 2019 date for opening the full route, linking Abbey Wood and Shenfield to Heathrow Airport via Paddington, and existing services between Reading and Paddington transferred to Elizabeth line and extended to Abbey Wood and Shenfield.
The East Suffolk Travellers' Association (ESTA) will hold its autumn meeting on Saturday 6th October at the URC Church, Quay Street, Halesworth at 14:00. The venue is only 5 minutes' walk down the hill from the rail station. All train and bus users will be welcome. Guest speaker will be Alan Neville of Greater Anglia and there will also be updates and discussion of other local transport issues. Details on www.eastsuffolktravel.org.uk.
ROLLING STOCK
Greater Anglia takes disabled rail passengers to Switzerland to examine new trains
Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]
In late July 2018 Greater Anglia (GA) took a small group of disabled rail passengers (a wheelchair user, a blind person and a visually impaired man with a guide dog) to the Stadler factory in Switzerland (where 58 of GA's new trains are being built). They were shown the accessible features on its new trains and tried out new prototype ramps, during which they suggested modifications to the design to make it easier for wheelchair-users to get on and off the trains. This was the latest part of GA's consultation with disabled rail passengers to make sure the new trains are suitable for people with disabilities. During a previous visit, the group had suggested a number of different adjustments to the design of the trains to make them easier to use for disabled people, and the majority of their suggestions have been incorporated, including installing an additional emergency button at floor level in the accessible toilet and installing a "modesty screen" between a raised section of seating and a disabled section on the trains. The layout of the two wheelchair spaces on the regional trains have been changed so that passengers can face the direction of travel.
Wheelchair-user Dominic Lund-Conlon, Transport Project Lead at Essex County Council, said: "Achieving the standards set out in law is one thing. Greater Anglia has gone much further than this, working in partnership with stakeholders to achieve a train that will work across much of the disability spectrum as possible. They have actually listened and implemented recommendations from the disability professionals. The result so far is impressive and I can't wait to see the new trains arrive in the UK later this year."
Each Stadler trains will have low floors and retractable steps to cover any gap between the train and the platform. There will be one accessible toilet on every train and designated seating areas, with tables, for wheelchair users. The outside of the train will have clear marking to identify the carriage where the disabled toilet and seating area are located.
STATIONS
Greater Anglia installs LED lighting at stations for passenger and environmental benefits
Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]
As part of a £1.7m investment, Greater Anglia is installing LED lighting on platforms, on concourses and in car parks, at more than a hundred of its stations to make stations look and feel brighter and more pleasant as well as reduce the impact on the environment by saving energy. Since December 2017 it has replaced lighting at more than 80 stations. Greater Anglia has also installed LED lighting at its Clacton depot.
News: https://www.railbusinessdaily.com/greater-anglia-installs-led-lighting-at-more-than-80-stations.
GUIDED BUSWAY
Cambridgeshire Guided Busway achieves little over half of its intended 20,000 pasengers per day
Cambridgeshire County Council was probably hoping for an easy ride when it announced that the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway had attracted "more than 23.7 million passengers since the busway opened in August 2011", hailing this as "fantastic". However, the Cambridge News chose the angle that "but there is disappointment as the number of journeys being made is still only 'roughly half' what had originally been promised."
Based on expectations at the public inquiry in 2004, there should have been 20,000 passenger journeys per day by 2016, but by 2018 it was achieving 11,000. The council's official figures, presented to its economy and environment committee, says that in the 12 months between May 2017 and May 2018 there were 4.1 million trips made. It says that the busway carried 351,373 passengers in May 2018. Of course, as needs to be restated until it sinks in, these were not all actual busway journeys but the total of journeys made anywhere - on busway or road - of a busway-branded bus. A council spokesperson said the failure to attract the expected number of passengers was caused by the delay in Northstowe town being built. However, others suggested that true evidence of success would be a large drop in traffic on the A14, which has not happened.
The inspector at the public inquiry lapped up the council's estimates and claimed in his report that the figures were an underestimate and would be easily exceeded!
Cambridgeshire Guided Busway driver given 12-week suspended prison sentence for crashing bus in 2016
As reported in [Snippets 275] on 22nd February 2016 a guided bus left the guideway on the southern section of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway and ended up on side of cutting near to Trumpington injuring five passengers, two of whom were taken to hospital. One of the guided wheels was "sheared off" (when the bus collided with part of the concrete guide track) and this had a "catastrophic effect on the bus's guidance...magnified by the bus's forward momentum", Cambridgeshire County Council said at the time.
The driver was driving at more than 53mph in a 30mph zone and he was dismissed around a week later. An investigation found that he was reading a time duty card while driving and therefore had no vision of the busway ahead and was not holding the steering wheel. On 9th August 2018 at Huntingdon Magistrates' Court he pleaded guilty to failing to take reasonable care of himself and his passengers under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. He was sentenced to 12 weeks' imprisonment, suspended for 12 months.
Unlike the Croydon tram accident, there is no proposed changes to the operation of the buses/busway, for example, the extended or lower speed limits. It reflects a difference in regulation with the tram operation coming under the independent Railway Safety & Standards Board, whereas the safety authority for the guided bus, is the county council, which has a vested interest in the service.
PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Mid-Norfolk Railway's diesel weekend on hold to allow contractors access to line to add new track
Keywords: [MidNorfolkRailway]
The Mid-Norfolk Railway has announced that it has had to put on hold its plans for its September Diesel Weekend because of the multi-million-pound contract to upgrade the line between Kimberly Park and Hardingham having agreed to store some of Greater Anglia's new rolling stock on the line. Hopefully the short-term financial impact will be recovered by future events.
According to its statement in early August, "major infrastructure works started almost as soon as the contract was signed, with deliveries of sleepers, machinery and other materials almost daily and contractors already busy on site, tracklaying works are about to begin in earnest. For safety reasons, the works are of course carried out under engineering possessions and a major one is scheduled for the week before the planned gala, meaning that the days we normally have prior to a gala event for intensive preparations, won't be available."
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 305 - 31/08/2018
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