News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 321 - 31/12/2019
At the Railfuture East Anglia meeting in Cambridge on Saturday 7th December 2019, awards for Railfuture's Easy Stations project were presented to Andrew Chillingsworth, Community Engagement Officer, at Great Northern and Alan Neville, of Greater Anglia. See www.railfuture.org.uk/east/docs/Railfuture-East-Anglia-2019-11-26-Easy-Stations-Report-incl-2019-winners.pdf for a list of the winning stations. Railfuture's project is intended to encourage further investment in making stations user friendly for all.
Prior to the General Election on Thursday 12th December 2019, Railfuture published its own analysis of the political parties' proposed policies on transport. "The environment has taken centre stage, and railways have risen up to the top of the political agenda" said Ian Brown, who authored the report. "The key rail issues are devolution, electrification, HS2, and Northern Powerhouse Rail. But politicians need to be far better informed about the role that rail policies can take.in addressing environmental, economic and social change." As well as the Railfuture website, it was promoted by Rail Business Daily.
In January 2019 Railfuture set Britain's railway 10 challenges for improvement. At the end of the year it marked progress on each out of 10. The results were: 6,0,8,0,3,3,7,6,2,0. No-one expected miracles, but 2019 was not a good year. Read more at https://www.railfuture.org.uk/article1847-Rail-2019-year-end-report.
The latest accounts for Abellio East Anglia Ltd, which operates as the Greater Anglia (GA) train operator, show profits fell from £3.5m to £0.8m for year to 31/03/2019. Revenue was up £50m to £700m. It borrowed £50m from its owners (£30m from NS, which has a 60% share, and £20m from Mitsui) paying interest at 8% pa (£5m interest). The underlying passenger income growth rate was 7.8%. GA's premium payments can be adjusted by Central London Employment Mechanism index, but it does not cater for increased part-time working, which has led to a reduction in income from season tickets.
Greater Anglia (GA) started operating its new Class 755 bi-mode trains on the Cambridge ot Ipswich service in November 2019. However, the trains were initially unable to call at stations with short platforms, such as Elmswell, because the Automatic Selective Door Opening (ASDO) software was not in place. This caused great inconvenience to some passengers. Fortunately it was resolved for the week commening 2nd December, by which time the trains started operating on the Ipswich to Lowestoft route. Because the new trains were delivered a few months later than scheduled — and with the accessibility deadline date of 1st Januaey 2020 fast approaching — GA has been rushing the trains into service in a shorter timeframe than originally intended.
In a rare example of high-quality journalism from local newspapers, the Eastern Daily Press has been pursuing the detailed reasons — and explaining clearly — why Greater Anglia's new Class 755 trains had to be withdrawn across the region. Read it at https://www.edp24.co.uk/business/what-has-gone-wrong-with-greater-anglia-new-trains-1-6416221. The first sign of trouble came on 24 November when there was a very nasty near miss at a level crossing on the Bittern line, at which the barriers opened as a Class 755 was approaching with the train missing a car by a quarter of a second. The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) says that its investigations will include the implementation and operation of the crossing's predictor system, which detects the speed of approaching trains, 'including any effects of rail head contamination due to fallen leaves'. This type of predictor needs the track circuit to be shunted by the approaching train. If actuation is lost, it assumes the train has left the section and lifts the barriers.
Great Northern has been suffering from a shortage of train crew and this has affected various routes such as between London King's Cross and Cambridge where, according to some passengers, the excuse for trans being cancelled is becoming tediously frequent.
Railfuture is seeking ideas for a new name for HS2 to emphasise that it is about capacity rather than speed. See article at https://www.railbusinessdaily.com/hs2-needs-a-new-name-says-railfuture/ for details of the competition, which includes a prize of a visit to VivaRail.
STATIONS
Network Rail announces consultation on desirability and location of the proposed Cambridge South railway station
Keywords: [CambridgeSouthStation]
A Network Rail consultation on the desirability and location of the proposed Cambridge South railway station, to serve Addenbrooke's and the Biomedical Campus is being held from 20th January 2020 to 2nd March 2020. The venues are:
- Monday 20th January, 16:00-20:00, The University Centre (Hicks Room), Granta Place, Cambridge CB2 1RU
- Tuesday 21st January, 17:00-21:00, Long Road Sixth Form College, Long Road, Cambridge CB2 8PX
- Wednesday 22nd January, 09:00-13:00, Royal Papworth Hospital, Papworth Road, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0AY
- Thursday 23rd January, 16:00-20:00, Netherhall School, Queen Edith's Way, Cambridge CB1 8NN
- Friday 24th January, 10:00-14:00, Trumpington Pavilion, King George V Playing Field, Paget Road, Trumpington CB2 9JF
- Saturday 25th January, 10:00-14:00, Shelford Rugby Club, The Davey Field, Cambridge Road, Great Shelford CB22 5JU
- Tuesday 28th January 15:30-19:30, Little Shelford Memorial Hall, The Long House, 11 Church Street, Little Shelford CB22 5HG
- Wednesday 29th January, 16:00-20:00, Grantchester Village Hall, Vicarage Drive, Grantchester, Cambridge CB3 9NG
- Thursday 30th January, 13:00-17:00, Stapleford Jubilee Pavilion, Stapleford Recreation Ground, Off Haverhill Road, Stapleford CB22 5BX
Visit their website to view and respond - see https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/our-routes/anglia/cambridge-south-station/. Railfuture East Anglia met the Network Rail sponsor in December 2019 to understand the proposals and give its views on what is needed at the station, which is being designed to serve the increased number of trains that East West Rail will bring, but is not able to leverage funding from that project.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 321 - 31/12/2019
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