News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 322 - 31/01/2020
- ROLLING STOCK [all issues]
- Greater Anglia's first Stadler Class 745 Intercity train runs in passenger service between Norwich and London
- Greater Anglia rolls out Stadler Class 755 trains onto final routes
- Greater Anglia Bombardier Class 720 trains commence safety and performance tests in East Anglia
- STATIONS [all issues]
- GUIDED BUSWAY [all issues]
Railfuture was quoted widely in the media on Thursday 2nd January 2020 in relation to the annual rail fare increases: "How on earth is the Government going to meet its climate commitments by pricing people off environmentally-friendly trains and on to our polluted and congested roads?"
Four Railfuture representatives attended the Greater Anglia Annual Rail User Group Forum for 2020, which was held at GA's offices in Stratford in London on Wednesday 22nd January 2020.
On day of annual rail fare rises, Railfuture East Anglia collated a table of day return fares from Cambridge (the station with highest patronage) to other destination in East Anglia and London. See document: here.
The government has given 1,509 vehicles dispensation to run in 2020 despite not meeting PRM-TSI accessibility requirements under The Railways (Interoperability) Regulations 2011. More than half are Greater Anglia trains (class 317 and 321 trains plus the Mark 3 carriages) because new trains have not been delivered on time, and the subsequent problems such as a training backlog. For details of the dispensations, click here.
Ellie Burrows is the new Network Rail Route Director for its Anglia route (within its Eastern region) that covers Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and parts of Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Greater London. She covers the majority of the Railfuture East Anglia branch area (i.e. all of Greater Anglia, but only part of Great Northern, such as Cambridge to King's Lynn).
According to the Cambridge News, Cambridge North station has the highest bike crime level of any station in Britain. During December 2019 the police held a session for cyclists explaining how to keep their cycles safe. Unlike stations such as Ely, there is no secure cycle parking. When the cycle racks were first installed thieves discovered that they could unbolt the stands to remove the cycles.
On 20th January 2020 the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Transport Board approved £';100,000 to progress business cases for the regional arms of the Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro (CAM), which would include routes from St Ives to Alconbury, Cambourne to St Neots, Newmarket Park and Ride to Mildenhall and Granta Park to Haverhill. The business cases would build on work already undertaken on the core city centre tunnelled section of the CAM.
In January 2020, railbusinessdaily.com Editor Dan Clark spoke to East West Railway Company CEO Simon Blanchflower about the progress made so far. Read at: https://www.railbusinessdaily.com/east-west-rail-cutting-across-established-lines/.
ROLLING STOCK
Greater Anglia's first Stadler Class 745 Intercity train runs in passenger service between Norwich and London
Keywords: [GreaterAnglia] [Class745]
Greater Anglia's brand-new intercity trains started passenger service between Norwich and London Liverpool Street on Wednesday 8th January 2020. The first Stadler Class 745 12-carriage electric-only intercity train for passengers left Norwich at 07:40 and called at Diss and Ipswich. It returned from Liverpool Street at 10.00, calling at Colchester, Manningtree, Ipswich, Diss and terminating at Norwich. It was the first time Greater Anglia's Class 745s had been in passenger service and is around six months after the first Stadler Class 755 bi-modes carried passengers on the Norwich-Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft routes. Both train classes are members of the FLIRT family of trains, look similar and share the same features (such as low floors and a retractable step at every door to bridge the gap between the train and platform). GA intends to ramp up the number of new trains in service as fast as possible, aiming to be used on all services by Easter 2020, so that the locomotive-hauled trains with Mark 3 carriages, which are not compliant with the PRM-TSI legislation and rely upon a short-term derogation, can be removed from service. An operational and passenger benefit over the slam door trains is that the driver can close all doors automatically so station dwell times will be shorter.
The new intercity trains have 757 seats, which is significantly more than the trains they will replace. They have plug and USB sockets, free fast Wi-Fi, air conditioning and improved passenger information screens. They will be the only new GA trains to have First Class seating and a café bar service.
News: https://www.railbusinessdaily.com/brand-new-intercity-trains-now-started-passenger-service/.
Greater Anglia rolls out Stadler Class 755 trains onto final routes
Keywords: [GreaterAnglia] [Class755]
Since early January Greater Anglia has been operating Stadler Class 755 trains on the Ipswich-Peterborough route. On Tuesday 21st January it started to use the three-carriage trains in passenger service on the Sudbury-Marks Tey route, which was an immediate improvement as previously the trains had only two carriages (an increase from a single carriage in the early 2000s). This is the tenth and final route where the bi-mode trains will operate. By March 2020 the transition to all new trains will be complete on Greater Anglia's diesel rural routes.
News: https://www.railbusinessdaily.com/new-trains-start-passenger-service-on-sudbury-marks-tey-route/.
Greater Anglia Bombardier Class 720 trains commence safety and performance tests in East Anglia
Keywords: [GreaterAnglia] [Class720]
The first of Greater Anglia's new Class 720 electric-only commuter trains, built by Bombardier arrived at GA's Ilford depot in Essex on Tuesday 14th January 2020 in order to commence safety and performance tests on its routes in Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Suffolk. It is necessary to test how the trains interact with the overhead wires, signals and points, their performance at different speeds, double-checking them at platforms in stations across the network to make sure new signage is in the right place. The delivery was a five-car train, which represents the majority of the 730 fleet with the remainder having 10 carriages. Around a third of the carriages have now been built. For familiarisation, a few GA train drivers had driven the new trains at Network Rail's national test facility in Leicestershire.
STATIONS
Greater Anglia submits bids for funding to help improve access at Needham Market and Bury St Edmunds stations
Keywords: [NeedhamMarketStation] [BuryStEdmundsStation]
Greater Anglia has submitted bids to the Government's Access for All funding programme for schemes to improve station access. It has selected Needham Market, which Railfuture has highlighted in both RAIL EAST and Railwatch, and Bury St Edmunds stations.
The bid for Needham Market has been coordinated with Suffolk County Council, Mid-Suffolk District Council and the Needham Market Group that was set-up to try to improve access to the Ipswich-bound platform 2 at the station. Although there is step-free access to the Norwich-bound platform at Needham Market station, Greater Anglia currently pays for London-bound disabled passengers to travel via taxi to Ipswich, where they can continue their journey.
At Bury St Edmunds, where there are already lifts from the ticket hall to both platforms, GA wants to build a new accessible entrance on the north side of the station, linking the newly-built car park with the station concourse. This has support from West Suffolk Council, Bury St Edmunds Town Trust and other local organisations.
News: https://www.railbusinessdaily.com/greater-anglia-bids-to-improve-access-at-suffolk-rail-stations/.
GUIDED BUSWAY
A14 upgrade closes busy cycle route and part of Cambridgeshire Guided Busway for a month
The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway has been closed between Histon and the Orchard Park Spur since 21st June 2019, which is now more than seven months, having been extended multiple times, with buses being diverted onto roads via Histon junction (J32) over the A14. The closure has been because of the A14 improvement scheme, where the bridge under which the busway passes is being widened. During part of that period the adjacent cycle path has also been closed. It was announced in early January 2020 that the guided busway on that stretch will remain closed for at least another month to repair the busway track following some damage from the A14 contractor's sheet piling work. The cycle path will also have to close from Monday 6th January for at least a month to provide a safe working area.
No-one would have expected a railway to be closed for eight months for a road widening. This shows a fundamental weakness of bus travel - unlike a railway it is not seen as 'permanent' so roadworks are allowed to close it in a way that they could not close a railway for an extended period of time.
Highways England confirmed on Monday 10th February 2020 that the busway would remain closed until March.
News: https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/cyclepath-guided-busway-a14-closure-17508409.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 322 - 31/01/2020
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