News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 342 - 30/09/2021
- RAIL ROUTES [all issues]
- Short section of East West Rail line close to Bicester reopens, whilst commercial partner appointed for link to Cambridge
- Signalling for Werrington dive-under has been commissioned ready for freight trains
- STATIONS [all issues]
- GTR upgrades more than 200 stations, including almost 20 in East Anglia
- Greater Anglia completes improvement to Saxmundham station
- Greater Anglia stations introduce flexi-season car parking charges
- RAIL DEPOTS [all issues]
- PRESERVED RAILWAYS [all issues]
The Railfuture East Anglia meeting in Norwich was on Saturday 25th September 2021, starting at 14:00. It was a short 'al fresco' meeting in the car park of the venue, providing a briefing of news and giving attendees a chance to ask questions. Non-members were welcome, as always.
Greater Anglia (GA) re-introduced a near-normal weekday service from Monday 13th September 2021 following an increase in the number of commuters as more people returned to their offices after the pandemic. GA said that since the start of September use of its trains has increased significantly, up to 64% of pre-pandemic passenger numbers. In August the figure was 55%, and the rise during the summer was largely driven by leisure passengers using the trains for days out to coastal resorts or large cities in the region, rather than commuters to large cities, including London, which was still low. It suggested that the new flexible season tickets had only a marginal effect because of restrictions imposed on their use.
On Thursday 30th September 2021, the East West Rail Consortium, which has lobbied for the reinstatement of a railway between Oxford and East Anglia since 1995, was relaunched as East West Main Line Partnership at the East West Rail all-day conference at the Oxford Town Hall. The name change should avoid confusion with the government's East West Rail Company, which was founded in September 2018.
Over a three-month period between May and July 2021, Greater Anglia took 1,032 'fare dodgers' to court after they were found travelling on its trains, with no intention of purchasing a ticket. The courts ordering them to pay fines and also court costs, which added up to almost £325,000 (£191,456 in fines and £132,785 in court costs), and there are some cases that have not yet been dealt with. Before the pandemic GA was taking between 500 and 700 people to court each month. Most travellers without a correct ticket are given a penalty fare instead.
On 21st September 2021 a turf-cutting ceremony (involving district and parish councillors) took place on the site if the future car park at Manea station. It is being built on land north of the station with a new access from Fodder Fen Road and footpath to the station. The work is expected to take 12 weeks. The long-term management of the car park will be handed over to Manea Parish Council.
MARPA (Mid-Anglia Rail Passengers Association) will be holding its AGM on Saturday 23rd October 2021 from 14:15 at the Friends' Meeting House, St John's Street, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 1SJ. Charles Baker, Senior Public Affairs Manager at Network Rail will be giving a presentation about NR's plans for the region.
On the morning of Sunday 12th September 2021, the "Ever Ace" container ship (sister ship of the "Ever Given") arrived at Felixstowe port on her maiden voyage. It is said to be the largest in the world with a capacity of 23,992 containers. Many of the containers depart the port by train, but the number that can be transported by rail is limited by the capacity of Ely North Junction and other parts of the route. It is a Railfuture East Anglia priority to increase capacity.
The Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) decided at a meeting on 8th September 2021 that it will produce a Local Transport & Connectivity Plan (LTCP) rather than the traditional Local Transport & Connectivity Plan (LTP), for delivery in spring 2021. The addition of 'Connectivity' in the title reflects the change in society to depend more on digital infrastructure, including in working, conferencing, and meeting remotely. The CPCA has also decided to allow Network Rail to hold onto its £217,000 share of the £1.3m underspend from the previous phase of developing Cambridge South station and roll over the funding in the next phase. Without this decision, NR would have been obliged to return CPCA's underspent contribution. The CPCA has recently become an associate member of the Urban Transport Group (UTG).
Following on from [Snippets 341], which reported that Greater Anglia's new class 70 Aventra emu trains had started operating in passenger service to Cambridge (and the branch to Hertford East), on Monday 13th September the new trains went into service on Walton-on-the-Naze and Harwich branch lines. They had served Clacton (and other lines) for some months. No trains have yet served King's Lynn. At least 29 of the 13 units are now in passenger service.
The winter timetable, commencing on Sunday 12th December 2021, can be found at http://www.railwaydata.co.uk/timetables/Dec21/. Subject to weekend engineering works not occurring, then Soham station will open on that date with the first arrival at 10:42 going to El and Peterborough and the first in the Ipswich direction arriving at 12:35. The Soham page (see: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/SOJ/details.html on the National Rail website is out of date, claiming that the station will not open until spring 2022.
New research by the Rail And Station Innovation Company (RASIC) for railway product suppliers Shed Number 2 shows that Britain's heritage rail industry needs to further embrace technology for revenue and recovery after the Covid lockdowns. It found that only 63% of the 135 heritage lines survey had an online booking system and 37% had no online presence.
A superb new book has just been published by the Histon & Impington Village Society. Entitled 'Histon, On and Off the Rails' it covers the history of Histon station as well as the Cambridge to St Ives railway line, including reopening attempts. Railfuture gets numerous mentions. See https://www.hihub.info/features/full-steam-ahead-as-village-society-launches-new-local-history-book/ for details of the book and how to purchase it.
RAIL ROUTES
Short section of East West Rail line close to Bicester reopens, whilst commercial partner appointed for link to Cambridge
Keywords: [EastWestRail]
The formerly freight-only route to Claydon Junction is currently out of use to allow work on the East West Rail interface with HS2. A small 440-metre-long section of East West Rail Phase 2 (including signalling, power and communications works) was commissioned on Tuesday 31st August 2021 after work performed during the August Bank Holiday weekend by the East West Rail Alliance, which comprises VolkerRail, Laing O'Rourke, Atkins and Network Rail. This is the second track from east of Bicester Village station towards the junction with Chiltern Main line. The intention is for this track to be used to deliver construction materials by rail rather than road, and it will be gradually extended to bring more materials for the rebuild of the 31km railway route to Bletchley.
The works also involved the temporary closure of London Road level crossing in Bicester, in order to make signalling changes to the level crossing's control system and the Gavray Junction area signalling systems. These changes have reduced barrier 'down time' to 26 seconds for passenger trains and 42 seconds for freight trains - thereby shortening the amount of time road users need to wait as trains pass.
Arcadis has been appointed by the East West Rail Company as its commercial partner for the central section link to Cambridge. The role will focus on developing the business case and submitting the application for a Development Consent Order to build the link, and includes commercial management and cost planning, as well as procuring and administering contracts, with an emphasis on working with local suppliers where possible. It will work closely with American-giant Jacobs, which was appointed as programme partner in summer 2021. Arcadis' supply chain partners are RLB and KPMG. In a press release confirming the appointment, Matt Kitching, Partner and Account Lead at Arcadis, outlined its responsibility for driving long-term value, saying: "by connecting science parks, universities and industry, the East West Railway will support access to new opportunities that make the area more commutable, open up new job opportunities for local residents and help the economy to grow. As we work with the East West Rail Company to help improve journeys across the region, our role will focus on defining and improving the value that a new direct rail connection can bring... From faster journey times to lower transport costs and the easing of pressures on local roads, the new rail connection will be key to creating positive, long-term industry and social legacies."
The East West Rail Company will be conducting environmental surveys for the Bedford to Cambridge railway line in autumn 2021 (mainly on weekdays between 08:00 and 18:00) following surveys conducted in 2020. The survey teams will be gathering critical information on a number of areas, including species, landscapes and rights of way. For example, it will be monitoring water for birds and other wildlife (using technology to detect matters of archaeological importance such as Roman or Iron Age archaeological sites) an observe level crossings and public rights of way to see how they are used.
Signalling for Werrington dive-under has been commissioned ready for freight trains
Keywords: [EastCoastMainline]
Following on from [Snippets 340], which mentioned the connecting up of track, the signalling work for the Werrington dive-under north of Peterborough was commissioned over the weekend of Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th September, so freight trains will be able to start using it (to join the Great North Great Eastern route) before the end of 2021, once final testing and training has taken place. Work began at Werrington in Summer 2018 (it used pioneering construction techniques for the box and saw around 8km of track installed) so it has taken three years to complete it.
STATIONS
GTR upgrades more than 200 stations, including almost 20 in East Anglia
Keywords: [GTR]
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which operates Great Northern services and its stations, has published a list of improvements that it will be making to more than 200 of its stations in order to provide a better journey experience. It says that these will enhance comfort, safety, sustainability, accessibility and ambience. In the Railfuture East Anglia branch area, these improvements will feature:
- Arlesey: car park bay enlargement, cycle security, seating
- Ashwell & Morden: cycle parkin, landscaping, waiting shelter and waiting shelter refurbishment
- Baldock: seating, station clock, waiting shelter
- Biggleswade: cycle parking, cycle ramp on stairs, landscaping
- Downham Market: Customer Information Screen, landscaping, seating, waiting shelter
- Foxton: Customer Information Screen, seating, waiting shelter and waiting shelter refurbishment
- Hitchin: Customer Information Screen, cycle security, defibrillator, landscaping, station refurbishment
- Huntingdon: defibrillator, refurbishing the booking hall, toilet improvements
- King's Lynn: Customer Information Screen, defibrillator, landscaping, seating, toilet improvements, waiting room panel
- Letchworth: cycle parking, defibrillator, toilet improvements
- Littleport: cycle parking, seating, signage, waiting shelter
- Meldreth: Feasibility study for accessibility, seating, toilet improvements, waiting shelter
- Royston: defibrillator, landscaping, toilet Improvements
- Sandy: Customer Information Screen, cycle security, extension of PA system, landscaping, shelter
- Shepreth: Customer Information Screen, landscaping, seating, waiting shelter
- St Neots: Customer Information Screen, cycle security, defibrillator, seating, signage for community project, toilet improvements
- Waterbeach: community signage, cycle parking, cycle security, seating
- Watlington: cycle security, seating, waiting shelter.
Much of the work has been developed following passenger and local community feedback, including suggestions through the Passenger Benefit Fund.
Greater Anglia completes improvement to Saxmundham station
Keywords: [SaxmundhamStation]
On 24th September 2021 a ceremony was held at Saxmundham station to mark the completion of £1.3m of improvements. The work primarily included the remodelling of the station building following a fire in 2018 in which the roof and first floor collapsed into the building. There is now a new waiting room with seating and air conditioning, plus wi-fi access and laptop/phone charging points. There is a new area for self-service ticket machines, the platform canopy has been refurbished and the station area is now covered by CCTV.
The car park (which is next to the southbound platform) has been extended and now has 48 parking bays plus two blue badge parking bays and motorcycle parking, with CCTV.
News: https://news.railbusinessdaily.com/saxmundham-railway-station-upgrade-scheme-complete/.
Greater Anglia stations introduce flexi-season car parking charges
Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]
In May 2021 the 'flexi-season' ticket for passengers who regularly travel the same route by train two or three days a week was introduced across Britain. However, it covered only the train part of the journey, not cost of parking at the railway station. Greater Anglia (GA) has attempted to fill part of that gap by introducing the same 'eight days in 28' charge with a discount of up to 12.5% compared to daily peak time rates. It will be available for the car parks at 23 of GA's stations. Those in the Railfuture East Anglia branch area are Audley End, Cambridge, Cambridge North, Colchester, Diss, Ely, Ipswich, Kelvedon, Manningtree, Marks Tey and Whittlesford Parkway. It relies upon the presence of ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition).
Of course it will not necessarily be suitable for everyone, for example, where people car share.
RAIL DEPOTS
New carriage washer installed at Colchester for Greater Anglia's new Aventra electric trains
Keywords: [ColchesterDepot]
In August 2021 Greater Anglia installed a new £1.5m carriage washer machine at Colchester depot to clean the electric multiple unit trains. It can wash up to 70 carriages per hour and is more effective (improve the quality and standard of train washing) and efficient so it can save water (up to 10% by volume), energy and time compared to previous washers. A hand washing regime was put in place until the new machine was installed. A new washer was installed at Southend Victoria depot in March 2021 and GA's washers at Clacton, Ilford depot and Orient Way in London are also being refurbished, all as part of a £4m project.
News: https://news.railbusinessdaily.com/new-train-washer-installed-at-colchester-depot/.
Greater Anglia (GA), which is 60% owned by Abellio and 40% by Mitsui, has been awarded a directly-awarded National Rail Contract (NRC) with the Department for Transport (DfT), commencing on 19th September 2021 and lasting up to five years (2026). The DfT has an option to end the agreements two years early (2024, when Great British Railways is created with after legislation is passed) in line with changes planned for the industry (when TfL-style concession Passenger Service Contracts are expected to be introduced). GA has similar terms to the Emergency Recovery Measures Agreement contract that ended on 18th September, whereby the operator has no revenue risk and is paid a fixed management fee for running services, plus a performance fee based mainly on the delivery of customer-focused metrics. GA said an advantage for it over the franchise model is there will be annual business planning so that it can adapt to changes much faster and be flexible to external developments.
The West Midlands Trains NRC contract, which Abellio owns with Mitsui and East Japan Railway, was announced at the same time.
PRESERVED RAILWAYS
News from Mid-Norfolk Railway AGM in September 2021
Keywords: [MidNorfolkRailway]
The Mid-Norfolk Railway held its AGM in Dereham on Saturday 11th September 2021, having postponed it from July 2021 and not held one at all in 2020, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was attended by around 40 people and was a chance for members to hear how the MNR had been affected by COVID-19, what state it was currently in and plans for the future. Actually, contrary to what some may have expected from other heritage railways, the outlook was good, and the mood was optimistic.
The MMR's 25th anniversary was in 2020 but celebrations will be delayed until 2022 (as COVID-19 should be over by then) with the 50th anniversary celebration 23 years after that! The highlight for 2021 (for publicity and hopefully financially as well) will be the brief two-week visit of the Flying Scotsman (postponed from 2020). Tickets were sold out in just two hours, so an extra carriage will be added to the train to provide more capacity (carrying 350 passengers). The last train on the final day will be a 'fish and Chip Supper' train and called 'The Frying Scotsman'. Operating five trains a day but limited to on five days, which is the agreement with the National Railway Museum (the owner of the locomotive), it will be a static exhibit on the intervening days. According to a local policeman, the Flying Scotsman's visit was "the biggest thing to happen in Dereham since Jimi Hendrix played there on 7th October 1967."
The railway benefits from being a mixed-income railway, from both the public and the rail industry. It had been closed to the public since COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020 and did not resume running passenger services until July 2021 (postponed from its planned date), meaning 15 months without any fee-paying trains. However, during that time it had continued to receive considerable income from Greater Anglia for storage of rolling stock and also from the operators of the Rail-Head Treatment Trains (RHTT) that are serviced at Dereham. When these were not running, the railway as able to spend time upgrading and replacing infrastructure including level crossings (such as Yaxham Road in Dereham), along with work to complete construction of the new station building at Thuxton. Volunteers also moved the 800m permissive footpath, which is south of County School station, to the side, erecting new fencing, as the old path had regularly been underwater. Fortunately, the MNR could fund such work as it had substantial reserves, partly helped by the very successful Polar Express trains in November and December 2019, which carried 29,150 passengers, an increase of around 30% on 2018. The MNR has extended its contract up to 2024.
The MNR was successful in its applications from the government's COVID Culture Recovery Fund and has received a total of £401k (phases 1, 2 and an award for loss of income). In September 2021 it was awarded an interest-free Heritage Recover Loan of £250k, which must be paid back in full after five years. The railway has not yet decided how to use this, but it will be immensely useful if invested in facilities that will either generate a profit or reduce costs in order to help repay the loan. It needs to increase the number of visitors, but this will not be easy as it is not in a tourist area (unlike several other heritage railways, especially those by the coast). It has limited station buildings (it has the platform at Thuxton, but only fully owns Dereham — its major income generator — along with County School on its future northern extension), since British Rail (BR) disposed of everything other than what the train crew of the freight trains needed in order to open and close the level crossings, although it intends to build a proper station building at Wymondham Abbey, south of the level crossing (the temporary platform will soon be life-expired, again). One idea is to install a turntable at Dereham to keep visitors amused whilst they are waiting for a train.
There was no public date for launching public services to North Elmham (it was to have been 2020) and the MNR does not expect significant revenue being generated there as the railway will have limited facilities. BR sold off both the station and the whole of the platform, so opportunities for a major presence do not exist. Although it had been stated that a Transport & Works Order would be needed to re-lay the track from there to County School, the railway's parliamentary powers (obtained in 1845 (the railway opened two years later) have never been removed.
The cost of running basic services in the low season will be reduced by deploying Class 142 and 144 Pacers thanks to an individual (who lives in London) purchasing three units and, effectively, donated them to the MNR to use, on the proviso that he was trained to drive them. It's a pretty good deal for the railway, as logo-hauled trains are expensive to operate and time consuming to perform a run round.
The MNR has purchased 18 Greater Anglia Mark 3 carriages (previously used on London-Norwich services) at a "reasonable" price along with spares. It has also benefitted from donations by Network Rail. The former signal box at Harling Road has been dismantled and will be moved to the railway in the near future. Spooner Row signal box will eventually be erected onto the new base at Wymondham Abbey.
Little income is generated at County School, but this may change now that the model engineering club has been relocated there (see https://www.northnorfolknews.co.uk/news/mid-norfolk-railway-finds-new-venue-1643704) from the North Norfolk Railway's 'Holt' (actually High Kelling) railway station. The tearoom is now open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during the summer season.
Heritage railways are often required to maintain infrastructure that is of no benefit to them. In the MNR's case, disused concrete overbridge 1699 (close to Hoe) was condemned and at risk of collapsing, so it has to be demolished. As it used to take the Wensum Way over the railway, it will be necessary for the MNR to provide a replacement.
Those present at the AGM were told that the MNR is a "rapidly developing business". The MNR Trust, which is a charity, has a subsidiary company MNR IE Ltd for infrastructure and engineering, and this company has taken on staff to service the Greater Anglia storage operations.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 342 - 30/09/2021
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