News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 331 - 31/10/2020
- COVID-19 PANDEMIC [all issues]
- Statistics show dramatic fall in passenger numbers during initial COVID-19 lockdown
- Greater Anglia cuts early evening inter-city on-board catering to abide by government 22:00 hospitality closure rules
- STATIONS [all issues]
- Network Rail launches second and final public consultation on Cambridge South station proposals
- Proposals for aparthotel and multi-storey car park at Cambridge station rejected by council planners
- ROLLING STOCK [all issues]
- RAIL ROUTES [all issues]
Greater Anglia (GA) announced on 16th October that over 95% of its trains ran on time four weeks ending 19 September 2020. With 98.7% of trains running on time, the Marks Tey–Sudbury line had the best punctuality on GA's network, closely followed by the Ipswich–Felixstowe line at 98.3% — one of its best-ever results. Most other rural and coastal routes achieved better than 96%, but Intercity and West Anglia services were between 93% and 95%. The most punctual route was Ipswich to Cambridge/Peterborough, at 91.0%.
Britain's railway provides more 'open data' to third parties than almost any other country. Network Rail will soon supply data on status of 1,500 lifts and 300 escalators at nearly 500 stations, so app developers can provide this info to passengers. See https://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/articles/network-rails-open-data-programme-begins for details.
On 4th October 2020 Network Rail had replaced four miles of track (including sleepers and ballast) between Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds over a 10-week period during the summer, which commenced on 18th July.
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which runs Great Northern, Thameslink and two other London brands, announced in October 2020 that it has, following numerous campaigns as the railway struggled to attract "female talent" (in the words of its press release), doubled the number of women applying to become train drivers. It the year to March 2020 it received 826 applications from women, up from 413 in the previous year. GTR has committed to doubling this number again by 2021, with the company setting itself the target of having a 50/50 gender split on all training programmes by the end of 2021.
During October engineeers rettned to the new siding just outside King's Lynn station to move the driver's walking route closer to the rail track. Railfuture understands that this was to make it easier for the driver to inspect the train. The incorrect placing of the route was a, somewhat embarrassing, mistake that was only spotted when driver training took place.
On two consecutive evenings in late October 2020, thieves attempted to steal electrical cabling at the Mid-Norfolk Railway's Dereham station. Fortunately, staff and volunteers who monitor the CCTV system spotted the thieves and called the police, although no-one was found when a sweep of the site was carried out. The thieves security fittings and fencing, but caused no other damage. The railway is appealing to the public and if anybody has any information on this incident can they please contact the local police. The MNR might have been targeted because it is closed to the public. However, the railway itself is not closed, as Direct Rail Services (DRS), which uses the MNR as an operating base and runs rail head treatment trains (on behalf of Network Rail on the East Anglian rail network) train on the track on a daily basis.
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
The Mid-Norfolk Railway has been awarded £190,000 from the government's Culture Recovery Fund, whilst the North Norfolk Railway received £360,000. They are just two of dozens of heritage railways given awards to help them survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
Statistics show dramatic fall in passenger numbers during initial COVID-19 lockdown
Statistics released on 8th October 2020 estimated that rail passenger journeys in Britain fell by 404 million (from 349m to 35m) between April and June 2020 (known as 2020-21 Q1) when compared to the same quarter in 2019. This drop of 92% across 13 weeks represents the lowest level of passenger usage since the mid-19th century. Bearing in mind that ticketless travel may have been higher than normal, owing to the lack of on-train ticket checks, the total passenger revenue in this period was just £184 million. This equates to 6.9% of the £2.7 billion in 2019-20 Q1. Anytime/Peak tickets accounted for 24.1% of all passenger revenue in this quarter — the lowest share for such tickets in any quarter since the time series began in 2010-11.
Greater Anglia cuts early evening inter-city on-board catering to abide by government 22:00 hospitality closure rules
Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]
The railway must follow the same COVID-19 government rules as hospitality venues, which means that café bar services on train must close between 22:00 and 05:00. Greater Anglia (GA) has no trolleys, and its on-board catering is limited to intercity services between Norwich and London. GA could have closed its buffets just before 22:00, but as they did not attract much business in the evening, because intercity trains had low passenger numbers it announced with immediate effect that there would be no catering service on the 19:00, 20:00 and 21:00 services from Norwich to London Liverpool Street, and the 21:30 (plus, obviously, the 22:30 and 23.30) services from London Liverpool Street to Norwich, with catering on the 20:30 service from London Liverpool Street to Norwich operating as far as Stowmarket.
GA's announcement said that its "teams" will instead carrying out passenger counts and performing additional cleaning around the station. It also mentioned the introduction of a 'Hot Drink Loyalty Scheme' with every fifth drink being free.
STATIONS
Network Rail launches second and final public consultation on Cambridge South station proposals
Keywords: [CambridgeSouthStation]
Following its first public consultation in early 2020, as a result of which Network Rail (NR) selected the northern option for the location of the proposed Cambridge South station, it launched its second and final public consultation on Monday 18 October. It will close on Sunday 29 November 2020. Because of the Coronavirus situation the public consultation is being conducted remotely to maintain the safety of both the public and NR's staff. There will be opportunities to speak directly to the project representatives via webchat during October (available via the consultation portal on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 10:00 to 16:00 and Wednesday 14:00 to 20:00) or by phone (0800 160 1835 on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 14:00 to 17:00, Wednesday 17:00 to 20:00 and Saturday 10:00 to 13:00). Questions can be emailed to cambridgesouth@networkrail.co.uk. The consultation materials will be available on the online consultation portal via the www.networkrail.co.uk/cambridge-south-station project webpage until 29 November 2020. Feedback can be submitted to Network Rail using the online survey accessed via the project webpage.
Railfuture East Anglia had an hour-long MS Teams meeting with Network Rail three days before the consultation opened. The key points are:
- Opening date is officially 2025-27 but they are striving to open it in 2025 (probably for December timetable change), as this is the target of the funders (DfT, AstraZeneca) and the Combined Authority
- NR is aiming to submit its TWA Order application in 'summer 2021' (website merely says 2021). That immediately triggers the statutory six-week consultation period. Railfuture estimated that a public inquiry would start in January 2022 at the earliest, with the inspector writing up their report by August 2022, the Secretary of State announcing their decision in January 2023 and the order being granted (after the six-week judicial review request period) in March 2023. NR assume two years to get the TWA Order, so that really means summer 2023, before they could execute any compulsory purchase or compulsory land use/access powers. Website says 2023 to start work. The land use/access powers enable them to temporarily use land for compounds, and also to place cranes etc. They could start some work before the order is granted but it is not likely to be significant
- NR can only seek powers for what is needed for the station, not what is needed to support East West Rail (EWR); that must be done separately by the EWR team. The advantage is that the station TWA Order will be simpler
- The station will be have four 12-car platforms (the intention is to have full-length canopies, although this is an easy target for cost reduction) for the four tracks paired by direction. Note: only the station will have four tracks. The platforms will be 1+2+1 as this requires less space, apparently. A 2+2 configuration would require the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway over bridge to be rebuilt, NR claims
- The main access to the platforms will be at the northern end, with a pair of lifts on the island platform and the single platforms for capacity reasons (NR said "two lifts per platform"). There will be a footbridge (no lifts) at the southern end of the platforms to provide a second emergency exit, and would also be available for cross-platform interchange (unclear to Railfuture whether entering or exiting the station by this route would be possible at normal times)
- The station building shown in the images is only an architect's impression - it could change based on consultation feedback
- Station will have a 'changing places' toilet, which is something Railfuture asked for. There will be five disabled car parking places and drop-off/pickup for three taxis and three private cars. Not a taxi rank though (in these days of Uber and apps for taxi companies, ranks are unnecessary)
- It is possible that East West Rail may switch the pairs of tracks to be paired by route (to avoiding trains crossing one another at Shepreth Branch Junction), but NR will not be making any passive provision of this (e.g. bi-directional signalling) since EWR would require such major changes away from the station that it is not sensible to predict what will be done. However, NR will 'improve' the signalling to get capacity/performance benefits
- There will be no further 'formal' consultations, but NR will engage with stakeholders. Railfuture will be giving its input into the facilities at the station
- Although the Biomedical Campus's own estimate of future rail passengers was around four million, the DfT estimated just 1.8 million annual patronage in the initial years (based on the government's Green Book, which has under-estimated Cambridge growth in recent decades). This should not be dramatically reduced despite changing work patterns following COVID-19 as the Cambridge South station footfall is considered to be fairly robust. This is an eight of the 12 million pre-COVID annual footfall (including interchange) at Cambridge station. NR has looked as far ahead as 2043 for passenger number projections
- Since calling at the station will make journeys longer, NR is planning to achieve some time saving by easing the curvature of the track at Shepreth Branch Junction for the Royston route allowing line speed to be increased from 30mph to 50mph. This is more significant than it sounds because train drivers tend to slow sooner than necessary. It will require land take (agricultural land) so this will need to wait for the TWA Order
- At Cambridge station it is only possible for one southbound train to leave at a time from the island platforms (7/8) since the same track is used for both. NR will change this to have separate tracks with a fourth track under Hills Road bridge, using the current (unused) head-shunt track, which will be extended (reference to 10 new OLE structures might imply as much as 400 metres) and then join up with the up running line (it was unclear how beneficial this would really be since there would still only be a single track going south, but it would release the platform for reoccupation, which is good). Work can be done within permitted development. Railfuture asked NR if this work could be done early as it would deliver benefits as soon as it was done; NR was non-committal but agreed it would be useful to do so.
Cambridge community campaigner Sam Davies, expresses concerns that Network Rail's station scheme — which is governed by budget limitations — is too modest, and that the road traffic generated could cause "potential chaos". She proposes that Cambridge South station should be built beside the guided busway bridge. See her "Avoiding chaos by design at Cambridge South" short video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RciV9UZeF_s&feature=youtu.be.
There will be an article in the December 2020 issue of RAIL EAST (issue 188).
Proposals for aparthotel and multi-storey car park at Cambridge station rejected by council planners
Keywords: [CambridgeStation]
In mid-October 2020, Cambridge City Council Planning Committee voted five-to-two to refuse permission for the Brookgate/Network Rail proposal to build an aparthotel with multi-storey car park on existing car park at Cambridge Station. Reasons for the refusal included the excessive size of the Aparthotel B2, which would have indirectly cramped the new Chisholm Trail cycling route. Network Rail had insisted on keeping the current amount of car parking at the current location by constructing a multi-storey car park in the Aparthotel, which hugely increased its size.
Railfuture is promoting an eastern entrance to the station, which would allow car parking on the other side of the railway, and therefore the Aparthotel could have been a lot smaller.
ROLLING STOCK
Greater Anglia modifies Class 720 train order from Bombardier swapping 10-car trains to pairs of five-car units
Keywords: [GreaterAnglia] [Class720]
Back in September 2016, when Greater Anglia (GA) after been awarded (though not yet commenced) its nine-year franchise, it placed an order with manufacturer Bombardier for 89 five-carriage 720/5 units (540 seats, 145 standing) and 22 10-carriage 720/1 units (1,100 seats, 290 standing). Although many of the five-car units have built, few have been delivered to GA because of on-going IT issues with the train's management system. In October 2020 GA announced that it had cancelled its order for the 243-metre-long 10-car units, and instead Bombardier will deliver 44 122-metre-long five-car sets. GA will then have 133 Class 720/5s in total, which is the same number of carriages as originally ordered. Six sets accepted and on-board training now underway.
A pair of two 5-car units couped is one metre longer and has 20 fewer seats (but the same number of standing). One might assume that post-COVID GA/DfT didn't expect as many people to travel at peak so fewer long trains would be needed. However, Railfuture understands that a reason for the change was caused by problems stabling a longer train, particularly at the maintenance depot at Ilford where it's difficult to deal with 10-car fixed-formation trains. One would have expected GA to be aware of this problem back in 2016, but it has faced issues with depots, including the abandoned proposal near to Manningtree.
Having a standard fleet seems a wise move, giving greater flexibility to match capacity to demand. Although longer trains are efficient if there are high all-day loadings, there are also operational issues. Avoiding long trains should bring greater availability as a fault with one vehicle will not require a whole 10-car service to be cancelled. For example, if a driver's screen is smashed (e.g. vandals on over bridges) then 10 cars would be out of use until it was repaired, rather than only a five-car train. By October 2020, GA had not received permission to couple up the five-car trains, but as they are not in passenger service yet this is not an issue. Some observers have suggested that there will be savings in production made by Bombardier not having to change the process from five to 10 cars, and GA avoiding having to get approvals for operation of the 10-car trains. Because the driver's cab full width, an operational downside is the inability for staff to walk through from one end to the other. Passengers would have access to fewer toilets and therefore may have to queue.
The first of the new Bombardier trains is due to enter passenger service by the end of 2020, with the roll-out expected to reach the West Anglia line in the second half of 2021. The trains are the first in Britain to have underfloor heating.
Railfuture is not pleased about the 2+3 seating on the new trains, which was in effect dictated by the DfT in order to increase the number of seats at peak time. However, in the post-COVID world, perhaps some could be replaced by 2+2. This would still provide 864 seats, which should be sufficient for the 'new normal' peaks. Unfortunately, Greater Anglia has confirmed to Railfuture that the Class 720s - even those yet to be built - will still have 3+2 seating throughout despite expected post-pandemic changes in demand.
RAIL ROUTES
East West Railway Company sets up a Community Hub as a prelude to its public consultations in 2021
Keywords: [EastWestRail]
In mid-October 2020, the East West Railway Company, which will deliver the new East West Rail connection between Oxford and Cambridge, launched a new Community Hub communityhub.eastwestrail.co.uk on the company's www.eastwestrail.co.uk website (note: the consortium's website is 'org.uk'), enabling local residents to ask questions, take part in surveys and discussions, and access information relating to their local area. The Hub has been set up in advance of public consultations planned for early 2021, giving communities a one-stop-shop on the East West Rail project.
The hub encourages people to tell the company's Customer Experience team their best and worst travel experiences, so that the new railway can "get it right from the start."
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 331 - 31/10/2020
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