News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 334 - 31/01/2021
- STATIONS [all issues]
- New demand-responsive "Katch-a-lift" service planned for Wickham Market station
- Opening of relocated Waterbeach railway station required before new town
- More car parking spaces at Attleborough railway station
- Cost increase for Beaulieu station exceeds funding available - what can be done?
- Bury St Edmunds station building restored to former glory
- ROLLING STOCK [all issues]
- RAIL ROUTES [all issues]
- Werrington dive-under concrete box pushed under tracks during nine days in January 2021
- Rail taskforce tells Government that £660m investment in East Anglia rail network could bring £9.3bn economic benefit
- East West Rail 'Western Section' phase 2 funding confirmed by Treasury
- COVID-19 PANDEMIC [all issues]
Branch Line News in January 2021 reported that "Greater Anglia has rolled out miles of high-speed fibre optic cable to 108 stations and improved mobile Wi-Fi connections to the rest by increasing its 4G network capacity. The project means that all GA stations (even Berney Arms which has hot spots) are now 'connected' through the new software. It has also allowed GA to install new information screens and CCTV cameras at 132 of its 133 stations. New help points include CCTV cameras and the option to talk to a customer service advisor in Norwich. Emergency help buttons link directly to the emergency services." the article also said that the software linked to images from CCTV cameras can identify graffiti, broken lights and other incidents, automatically alerting the relevant teams. Greater Anglia hopes to create a satellite connection to every train to receive and distribute real time position data, which could be sent to staff and information screens to keep passengers better informed, especially during disruption."
It was announced on Monday 11th January 2020 that three suppliers have been chosen to develop innovative concept designs for the Cambridgeshire Automated Metro (CAM) scheme. They were Mott MacDonald (Engineering consultancy), Egis (Construction group) and Dromos Technologies (autonomous technology).
See www.cambstimes.co.uk/news/drone-footage-32-million-kings-dyke-project-6891546 for a video of works on the £32m King's Dyke crossing of the railway near ot Whittlesey.
STATIONS
New demand-responsive "Katch-a-lift" service planned for Wickham Market station
Keywords: [WickhamMarketStation]
A new demand-responsive minibus operation calling at Wickham Market station on the East Suffolk line is planned to launch on 1st March 2021. "Katch" (as in catch-a-lift) is the brand name for the new service and comprises a couple of eight-seater electric minibuses — available from 06:30 to 22:30 on Monday to Saturday and from 09:00 to 19:00 on Sundays — to take passengers between the station (which is in the village of Campsea Ashe) into Wickham Market town and then on up the valley to Framlingham. The vehicles have been leased by Suffolk County Council for five years and for the first year a subsidy has also been agreed.
In addition, the East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership will help to finance publicity for the service. The Rural Mobility Fund of the Department for Transport has also contributed to the project. The journey has to be booked in advance and, initially, each vehicle can carry just four passengers, because of social distancing rules. A single fare will be £4 (for a trip of some seven miles) and £7 return. A passenger can phone up to request a "Katch" vehicle to meet a particular train from Ipswich or Lowestoft at Wickham Market station.
Four electric vehicle charging points have been installed at the station. Two of these are for the "Katch" vehicles; the others are available for electric car owners, for whom there is a charge. Wickham Market station serves a wide rural area, for which park-and-ride is important. Framlingham, with its large mediaeval castle, is an important tourist attraction and the new "Katch" service should be ideal for the tourist season. The https://www.suffolkonboard.com/ website mentions it.
The dedicated http://www.katchalift.com is much more attractive and informative than the Suffolkonboard website, with good graphics, including a drawing (not a photo) of the vehicle sideways on being charged up drawings of Wickham Market station, Wickham Market Church and Framlingham Castle and a diagrammatic map.
Opening of relocated Waterbeach railway station required before new town
Keywords: [WaterbeachStation]
In late January 2021, South Cambridgeshire District Council has given approval (by six votes to five) for outline planning permission to RLW Estates for an expansion of the proposed new town at Waterbeach (comprising a further 4,500 dwellings [on top of the 6,500 proposed by developer Urban&Civic on the site of the old barrack that were approved in 2019], plus business, retail, community leisure and sports facilities, plus new primary and secondary schools and public open spaces), but it is conditional upon a new station at Waterbeach railway station – 1,600 metres north of the existing station – being built and open for use. The developer, RLW Estates, was given planning permission for the new station in 2018. This is a similar scenario to Angel Road station in north London being replaced by Meridian Water to serve new developments.
News: https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/plans-waterbeach-new-town-east-19732208.
More car parking spaces at Attleborough railway station
Keywords: [AttleboroughStation]
Work for Greater Anglia to increase car parking capacity at Attleborough railway station is due to recommence in February 2021, having been paused in autumn 2020 to wait for the outcome of a planning amendment, for completion in summer 2021. Following the removal of two ancillary buildings to make space, the £500,000 project will provide a total of 86 spaces (including five accessible parking spaces), which will almost triple the existing 30 spaces. There will also be designated areas for five motorcycles and 20 bicycles with new LED lighting and CCTV. Passive provision will be made for electric car charging in four spaces, if it is required in the future.
Greater Anglia also hopes to attract a new tenant for the restored station building (previously used as a veterinary practice), following a £110,000 grant from the Railway Heritage Trust and investment by GA of £177,000. The new direct service between Attleborough and Stansted Airport should help to attract more passengers, once COVID-19 is over.
News: https://news.railbusinessdaily.com/work-continues-to-attleborough-rail-station-car-park/.
Cost increase for Beaulieu station exceeds funding available - what can be done?
Keywords: [BeaulieuStation]
Thr media has reported Essex County Council's concerns that plans to build Chelmsford's new railway station at Beaulieu (the first new station on the Great Eastern main line (GEML) for more than 100 years) could be scrapped because of a £14m budget gap as the cost has grown to £171 million (including track works and allowing for risk and inflation) according to the cost review undertaken during Network Rail's GRIP stage 3 process (single option selection). The funding comprises a £22 million donation from Countryside Zest (the developer of Beaulieu Park), £123 million from Homes England Homes Infrastructure Funding (HIF) and £12 million from the South East Local Enterprise Partnership. The station project is linked to Chelmsford's North East Bypass scheme.
The intention was that contracts for GRIP stage 4 (development of the single option selected in stage 3) should be signed by June 2021 when the Transport and Works Act Order (TWAO) application is to be submitted, but that requires all funding to be in place. However, the GRIP 4 process can try to find ways to value-engineer the project with Network Rail (NR) to reduce the total cost by £14 million in order to proceed. NR says that it has funding until July 2020 to progress the project. In the first year of opening - planned for 2026 - the station is expected to welcome more than two million passengers.
News: https://www.essexlive.news/news/essex-news/plans-build-chelmsfords-new-railway-4907112.
Bury St Edmunds station building restored to former glory
Keywords: [BuryStEdmundsStation]
In January 2021 Greater Anglia announced that the restoration of the Grade II listed building at Bury St Edmunds station, which dates back to 1847 and was originally the Station Master's House and later as the station hotel, has been completed. There is no tenant, as yet, but it was last used as The Great Eastern Bar, restaurant and nightclub between 1991 and 1995, having been empty ever since.
The restoration, which began in 2019, has been financially supported by the Railway Heritage Trust. Contractors reinstated the roof, doors and windows and repaired fractured brickwork. The rail station itself was restored in 2016 thanks to a £1 million restoration programme, which saw Greater Anglia restore and repair brickwork across the entire station, fix decades of damage caused by leaks, replaced 100m of canopy fascia and carried out some platform adjustments with new surfacing and copers. The next work planned at Bury St Edmunds is to add a new north side station entrance, beside the newly-built station car cark.
There are currently just two tracks running through the station, but Railfuture wants the see the two original central tracks reinstated (and extended westwards) to hold freight trains.
ROLLING STOCK
Greater Anglia declassified First-Class seating areas on Great Eastern Main Line commuter trains
Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]
If all of its Bombardier Aventra Class 720 trains (which have only Standard Cass seats) had been delivered on time, Greater Anglia (GA) would have withdrawn first class accommodation on all of its trains except for the flagship Intercity services between London and Norwich. However, every Bombardier train order in Britain since 2017 had been exceedingly late, primarily caused by computer problems on the increasingly-sophisticated trains.
By late 2020, a small number of GA's Class 720 Bombardier trains had been introduced, all on the Great Eastern Main Line and branches of it (none on the West Anglia mainline). At the start of January 2021 Greater Anglia declassified First Class seating areas on all commuter trains on the Great Eastern and its branches (i.e. non-Intercity stopping services into London Liverpool Street from Essex and Suffolk). To avoid confusion, GA decided that the former First-Class seating on its old trains, on these routes, can be used with a standard class ticket. It will only sell First Class tickets for customers travelling on Intercity services between Norwich, Diss, Stowmarket, Ipswich, Manningtree, Colchester, Chelmsford, Stratford and London Liverpool Street. Passengers need to be aware that the Stansted Express trains, which operate a few times a day to and from Norwich (where they are maintained) do not have first class, and a refund can be obtained.
One advantage of Greater Anglia's new train fleet, which passengers don't tend to be aware of, other than no longer reading signs in the toilet cubicles telling them not to flush at stations, is that the toilet waste no longer ends up on tracks (putting track workers at risk). All of its new trains have controlled emission toilets to collect the waste in large tanks, which are emptied into sewers safely at depots (by cleaning staff who wear protective safety gear and use vacuum-powered hoses) at least every three days (hopefully none of them will become out of order because they have not been emptied). There will be a total of 442 toilets (191 are accessible) on GA's 191 new trains. Of its old fleet only 60 had controlled emission toilets.
In East Anglia, GA has CET service facilities at Norwich Crown Point, Colchester and Cambridge depots, with installation planned at Clacton. At the London end, there are facilities at Southend and Orient Way, Ilford.
RAIL ROUTES
Werrington dive-under concrete box pushed under tracks during nine days in January 2021
Keywords: [EastCoastMainline]
As part of the capacity increase on the East Coast Mainline (ECML), freight trains that currently cross the tracks north of Peterborough in order to take the 'detour' route via Lincoln (which releases capacity on the ECML), will in future travel under the tracks in a new dive-under being built at Werrington. Trains will pass through a huge 11,000-tonne 155-metre curved concrete box, which was pushed under the ECML tracks (at just 150cm per hour along pre-installed guiding supports) in a UK engineering first, once the three tracks above were been temporarily removed.
Engineers have spent nine months constructing the tunnel on-site next to the ECML without causing any disruption, on the basis of spending more on construction to avoid long-term disruption on the mainline, which would have seen its complete closure for a month rather than a limited service running for just nine days (between 16th and 24th January 2021). Ironically, if COVID-19 had been known about, complete closure ECML north of Peterborough with rail replacement buses (and diverted freight traffic) may well have been acceptable.
Reinstallation of the fast tracks above was completed, allowing the first LNER Azuma train crossed over the concrete box portal at 06:10 on 25th January 2021. Trains had still been running, using adjacent tracks, with a thinned-out service. Track still needs to be laid in the tunnel (install the northern tie into the Spalding Lines and southern tie in the Stamford Lines) along with signalling. Once that work is complete, at the end of 2021, slower moving freight trains will be able to dive underneath the passenger route. The two other outstanding key elements to the ECML upgrade are the King's Cross track remodelling and the power upgrades north of Doncaster.
Rail taskforce tells Government that £660m investment in East Anglia rail network could bring £9.3bn economic benefit
Keywords: [GreatEasternMainline]
According to a Strategic Outline Business Case – which has been developed by the Great Eastern Main Line (GEML) Rail Taskforce, financed by New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership and the three county councils it coves – improvements to the rail infrastructure in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex would not only reduce journey times, but are pivotal for its future economic growth. it has called on the Government to invest £660m in East Anglia's rail network in order to realise economic benefits of £9.3bn. The benefits would include 5,100 new jobs in Norwich, 5,400 in Ipswich, 10,000 in Colchester, 8,400 in Chelmsford and 3,700 in Southend, which are needed to satisfy the region's expected population growth, with around 320,000 new homes planned between 2016 and 2036, of which 80,000 will be within a 15-mile radius of the GEML.
On 4th January 2021, Giles Watling MP, Chair of the Taskforce, wrote in a letter to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak that highlighted the area's importance to 'UK Plc' and the urgent need for or a planned programme of investment. In autumn 2021, a finalised business case will be submitted to the government on the basis that funding is approved for Network Rail to progress the gap analysis work.
News: https://newanglia.co.uk/rail-taskforce-says-investment-could-deliver-9-3bn-in-economic-benefits/.
East West Rail 'Western Section' phase 2 funding confirmed by Treasury
Keywords: [EastWestRail]
The massive financial impact to the UK's economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may have caused alarm to many wanting to see progress on the reopening of East West Rail. Would it be descoped, deferred, or even cancelled, despite contractors on-site for the reopening of the central section between Bicester and Bletchley?
Funding was first announced by the government in 2012, and Network Rail had obtained its Transport and Works Order in January 2020, so all work could go ahead. The DfT announced on 25 January 2021 that the Treasury had confirmed £760m for the East West Rail 'Western Section' but only the infrastructure to support services between Oxford and Bletchley/Milton Keynes (not upgrading the route to Bedford, nor the link to Aylesbury) as the rest will be "phased". Moreover, the start of services has been pushed back by a year to 2025.
The government made a big fuss of the funding (announced together with £34m for the Northumberland line) but is the announcement new money?
Apparently so, as the Treasury has only just signed it off, although work to reinstate the Western Section is well in hand, especially the flyover next at Bletchley station, so some funding had to be provided regardless. However, slipping the target date and phasing allows the government to spend money more slowly, and the line will not be electrified, although this may happen eventually.
Meanwhile, the EWR Consortium of local authorities "will continue to press the Government for an early decision on the investment that will allow the Bletchley - Bedford and Milton Keynes - Aylesbury sections to be delivered as soon as possible." However, the key point is that, despite the fall in passenger numbers, the Government is continuing to invest in rail whereas, other than the Black Cat (A421/A1) to Caxton Gibbet (A428) scheme, the Ox-Cam Expressway is on hold.
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Greater Anglia reduces its service to about 72% of normal as new national 'Lockdown' is introduced
Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]
The Prime Minister implemented another COVID-19 lockdown in England commencing 6th January 2021. It took a few weeks for train operators to react and modify (i.e. reduce) their services accordingly. With far fewer people travelling to/from work, Greater Anglia reduced peak services on the Great Eastern and West Anglia main lines, with a lower off-peak frequency on branch lines, such as Manningtree to Harwich and Marks Tey to Sudbury. Intercity services between Norwich and London Liverpool Street dropped to hourly, whilst 'fast' services between Cambridge and London Liverpool Street were suspended. Some off-peak daytime services on rural routes in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire have become two-hourly. In total, 379 of Greater Anglia's weekday services were cancelled (the normal timetable would have had 1,372 services every weekday). Saturday services were reduced in line with weekday services, and changes have also been made to Sunday services.
The reductions will continue whilst government advice remains "stay at home and to only travel for essential reasons such as work, medical appointments and other legally permissible reasons", although services at student travel times will be reinstated when schools are reopened (likely to be the first relaxation).
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 334 - 31/01/2021
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