News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 343 - 31/10/2021
The latest Passenger Rail Usage statistics, released by rail regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), show that 182 million rail journeys were made between April and June 2021.
In a move that Railfuture and many others support, Greater Anglia operates an additional train on Saturday 16th October 2021 from Ipswich to Cambridge in the morning (10:10) and the return train in the afternoon (18:06) so that Town football club fans can watch the match against Cambridge United football club at the Abbey Stadium in Cambridge. The trains are essentially flighted just for and just after (respectively) the hourly trains because of the single-track section at the western end.
On 1st October Greater Anglia held its annual Community Rail Conference held at Ipswich Town Football Club, attended by colleagues from Community Rail Partnerships (CRPs) across GA's network, along with some station adopters. The event provided an opportunity to share best practice from the last 12 months, reflect on recent successes, identify key areas for further progress and discuss joint priorities for the next year, as we pass through and beyond the pandemic. There were presentations from Paul Webster from the Community Rail Network (CRN) highlighting community rail initiatives across Britain, Scott Dolling from Southend Borough Council on tourism opportunities.
In its October 2021 stakeholder briefing, Greater Anglia said that 31 of its 133-strong fleet of Class 720 five-carriage electric commuter trains (built by Alstom, formerly Bombardier, in Derby) were in service. The revised date for the entire fleet to be in service is the end of 2022. The briefing also mentioned that cycle parking capacity at Diss station has been increased from 20 spaces to 96, thanks to the installation of 72 new cycle racks and a 24-space secure cycle storage area. To gain access to the secure area requires a Greater Anglia Smart Card, which costs £25 per year.
Greater Anglia will be staging 'Meet the Manager' sessions at Cambridge station on Tuesday 9th November, Tuesday 30th November and Tuesday 7th December 2021, between 07:00 and 09:00. Managers will be available ready to answer questions from customers. These are the first such events undertaken by GA since COVID-19.
On Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th December 2021, the line between Cambridge and Cambridge North stations will be closed so that the track junction between the mainline and depot site can be replaced and reconfigured. The depot upgrade has included the construction of new sidings and a carriage wash, with the junction upgrade now needed to connect the wash to the rest of the depot. Network Rail will also use the closure to complete maintenance and preparation work ahead of a future re-signalling scheme in the area. A regular shuttle rail replacement bus service will operate between Cambridge and Cambridge North, and Great Northern will also run a bus service between Royston and Cambridge North.
The current ticket office at Ipswich station closed at midday on Saturday 16th October, with the new one opening at 05.00 on Monday 18th October, in order to carry out improvements work to relocate the ticket office. The new ticket office is part of a £3m package of improvements at the station, which will see extra ticket machines installed and space created for a new shop, along with refurbished and relocated toilets on platform 2. The work comes on top of a £2 million project in 2018 that included a complete refurbishment of the foyer and ticket hall to create more space during busy periods, plus the creation of a large waiting room with more comfortable seats with plug points for charging electronic devices, as well as revamping the station forecourt.
The start date for the public inquiry into Cambridge South station has been delayed. The provisional date has been set for 31st January 2022. The period for objections closed on Monday 2nd August 2021.
On 27th October 2021, Greater Anglia recognised the work of station adopters at its stations. It gave awards to the adopters of Buckenham, Brundall Gardens, Westerfield and Cantley stations, and named Ely the 'Best Staffed Station' after volunteers and its staff brought the platforms to life with new floral displays and established a wildlife garden.
Greater Anglia has calculated passengers activating emergency alarms on its trains caused more than 17 hours of delays in the six months from 1st April to 4th September 2021. There were 89 incidents. For non-emergency assistance on board the train, GA recommends that passengers should tweet @greateranglia. Despite this, GA says that average annual punctuality for the whole of its network is now at 94.57 per cent, with its intercity services between Norwich and London at 94.2 per cent of trains arriving on time.
Six former Great Northern Class 365 trains have been sent for scrap (two in September and one in October 2021), despite being just 25 years old and in full working order. The units were very popular with operators and passengers but because of the surplus of new trains in Britain, their owner has been unable to find any operator to use them. The other units are being retained for the time being.
Simon Blanchflower has announced that he will retire from his post as CEO of East West Railway Company in March 2022, which is around the time that the company is due to announce its preferred route alignment for the Bedford to Cambridge section. Meanwhile, the East West Main Line Partnership has recently called for the line to provide a coast-to-coast rail connection from South Wales to Suffolk and Norfolk saying, "the current East West Rail proposal should be just the beginning of the transformation in connectivity."
The Cambridge News reported that on Monday 5th October 2021 filming had taken place at Cambridge station for a television spy drama series (starring Gary Oldman to be shown on Apple TV in March 2022) based on the novel 'Dead Lions' by Mick Herron, set in High Wycombe. The news article showed a photo with the false name over the station entrance. Ironically Apple's rival, Amazon, is based at Station Square the Apple. Greater Anglia has been encouraging filming at its stations.
The Cambridge University Railway Club (CURC) will be resuming 'in person' meetings with guest speakers. The first will be on Wednesday 3rd November 221 with Neil Foster, Fleet Services Director, Porterbrook, held at Fitzwilliam College and also virtually. The second is via MS Teams on Wednesday 10th November, with Luca Arnold, Director Regulatory and International Affairs at SBB (Swiss Federal Railways). The speaker on Wednesday 17th November will be Richard Salmon talking about Heritage Railway Engineering at the Bluebell Railway. On Wednesday 1st December 2021 the speaker will be Keith Williams, Chairman, the Williams Rail Review, which has become the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail.
Rail head treatment trains have returned to the Mid-Norfolk Railway for maintenance at Dereham during the leaf fall season. They will be on the MNR between October and December 2021.
The Melton Constable Trust confirmed in late October 2021 that it had purchased an 18-metre-long stretch of land between High Kelling and Holt, which (along with another section purchased several years ago) would provide much of the route for the North Norfolk Railway to extend services into the town of Holt. The two sections together cost about £150,000 and were bought from the county council and a private landholder. Had the land not been obtained then it is likely that it would have been swallowed up by a housing development on adjacent site. The new land, which leads directly onto a wide margin of land that was left on the northern side of the Holt by-pass, has been fenced and according to the Trust press release "already begins to look again like the rail route that once it was." Funds were provided by supporters (donations plus interest-free loans) and also the National Heritage Lottery Fund. Trustee Derek Haynes said: "What we need now is wholehearted backing from the authorities, local and national." See news report for details.
The North Norfolk Railway (NNR) operated an adults-only 'ghost train' on 30th and 31st October 2021. See website for details.
The Whitwell & Reepham Railway Station has been trying to encourage visitors over autumn half-term. Its new children's play area and fully enclosed garden are, it says, "the perfect place for the little ones to run off a bit of steam." It also has a free museum and a brand new fully glazed garden room.
The next AGM of the Fen Line Users Association (FLUA) will be held on Saturday 27th November 2021 at 14:00 at Waterbeach Baptist Chapel, Chapel Street, Waterbeach CB25 9HR. It is a seven-minute walk from Waterbeach station. The meeting will begin with the usual Question and Answer session with rail industry managers. FLUA plans to offer a Zoom link to the meeting for those unable to attend. Please register by emailing [fluasecretary at flua.org.uk].
In its October 2021 newsletter to stakeholders, Network Rail said that its logistics team carried out a clean up of March depot with the aim of finding materials that could be re-used or recycled. Over four days, they gathered wooden pallets, baseplates and many other materials, before sorting and bagging them up on site. The team collected materials valued at £52k, which will be re-used across the Anglia route. The initiaitive is part of Network Rail's commitment to sustainability and reducing waste where possible.
Littleport station up platform shelter now has lots of seats &mdash previously it was bare with no seats. This is excellent for waiting passengers news!
The www.mylondon.news website reported that there is now a new London Underground map showing the cheapest and best independent coffee shop at every stop.
RAIL ROUTES
Part two of second consultation round for Ely Area Capacity Enhancement scheme opens
Keywords: [ElyAreaCapacity]
On Monday 4th October Network Rail announced that the second part of its second consultation round for the Ely Area Capacity Enhancement (EACE) will open on Monday 18th October 2021 and will last for six weeks until to 28 November. It will cover four aspects: remodelling the track layout at Ely North junction; options for level crossings at Queen Adelaide; options for level crossings at Stonea, Burgess Drove (Waterbeach) and Well Engine foot crossing; proposals to upgrade other 15 level crossings across the wider area. The consultation info for the full project can be read here.
The documents for this phase can be found at https://phase2b.elyareacapacity.com/. A further public consultation is being planned for spring 2022 which is likely to focus on level crossings between Ely and Ipswich and "other interventions not already included in [any] consultation [so far]". Crucially, they say that, subject to a TWAO being granted and funding being received, the potential construction could start as early as 2024 but gives no indication of a completion date. NR claims that the capacity released will be sufficient until 2043, although it is clear that the extra 3.5 paths per hour (in each direction) created will not support all of the anticipated new passenger services, such as two Wisbech-Cambridge services per hour.
STATIONS
Improved secure cycle parking opened at Lowestoft station
Keywords: [LowestoftStation]
The secure cycle storage facility at Lowestoft railway station has been relocated (adjacent to where the bus stops, taxis rank and pedestrian access to the main car park are all situated) and refurbished, thanks to funding from the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership (CRP). The new secure area can accommodate up to 40 cycles. It will help prevent theft and offer peace of mind to those leaving their bikes at the station. The facility can only be accessed with one of Greater Anglia's electronic Smart Cards, which are available from the Lowestoft ticket office for a deposit of £25. Access to spaces will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis, with ID required when applying.
GUIDED BUSWAY
Third death in a decade on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway
On Tuesday 26th October 2021 just after 18:00, a female pedestrian in her 50s was killed by a Stagecoach bus on the southern section of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway near Sedley Taylor Road. She was pronounced dead at the scene. There had been a fatality on the same stretch in 2018, when a cyclist collided with the busway kerb, after which the speed limit was reduced from 52mph to 30mph along the stretch of the city-bound track (i.e. next to the cycleway for around 875 metres between Hills Road bridge towards Long Road Bridge, but Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into the accident has yet to be completed. The first fatal accident occurred on the northern section. There is no fence beside the busway to protect pedestrans and cyclists, despite calls for fencing at the CGB public inquiry in 2004.
News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-59023765.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 343 - 31/10/2021
[Prev Issue (342)] [Snippets Issues] [Next Issue (344)] [Category List] [Keyword List] [People List] [Story List] [Branch Dashboard]