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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 350 - 31/05/2022

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News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.

Railfuture News Snippets 350 - 31/05/2022


Greater Anglia promises more frequent services on the Norwich-London and Norwich-Great Yarmouth routes, some additional services on other routes and an extra service between Ipswich and Peterborough and back on Sunday mornings, when the new summer timetable comes into effect on Sunday 16 May 2022. Some of the additional services are only for the summer and will end on 11th September. See news article.

Greater Anglia says that current passenger numbers, as a total across its area, are still lower than pre-pandemic levels, at around 77 per cent of 2019 levels. However, that number drops to about 60 per cent for commuting to London.

Greater Anglia's May 2022 Stakeholder Report says that 63 out of its 133 new Class 720 Alsthom suburban trains are now in service. Meanwhile, its annual Environment and Energy Report claims that carbon emissions have reduced by over 25,000 tonnes of equivalent Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in recent years.

On Friday 14th May 2022, a ceremony was held at March station following the upgrade to facilities, which were funded by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA). The station has a new open-plan ticket hall and waiting area, accessible modern toilet facilities, retail outlets, an upgraded and extended car park with improved cycle parking, and even a better station garden area. The improvements were unveiled by the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Dr. Nik Johnson. See article.

Great Northern has officially opened new cycle parking hub, which includes a secure area (operated by a fob) that holds 44 bicycles, at Biggleswade station. It was funded by the Department for Transport's cycle rail fund, which is managed by the sustainable transport charity Sustrans, with further funding from Central Bedfordshire Council. The MP for North East Bedfordshire, Richard Fuller, took part in the opening ceremlony. See article.

On 3rd May 2022, a mural was unveiled by Waveney MP Peter Aldous at Lowestoft station to commemorate 175 years since the arrival of the railway in the town. The mural had been installed by the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership and the Lowestoft Central Project. The timeline details the many changes the line has seen over its history from 1847 to 2022. See the full timeline of events in the news story.

On Friday 13th May 2022, Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner visited the newly upgraded train depot in Cambridge, which is is managed by Greater Anglia, since it operates the station, despite GTR having project managed the site's upgrades as part of the DfT-funded Thameslink Programme. Mr Zeichner's hosts, Govia Thameslink Railway in partnership with Greater Anglia, showed him the improvements on the site, which include a new south sidings with servicing facilities for 12-carriage trains, a new connecting track thatruns underneath a remodelled bridge arch, and a new carriage wash machine. The project is more than two years' late, particularly casued by COVID-19, and the final parts of the work — including testing the carriage wash machine — are still being undertaken.

As reported in [Snippets 349] the Great British Rail Sale took place for a few days in May 2022 and has been described as a "runaway success" with "more tickets sold than the entire population of Britain's second largest city, Birmingham." The hyperbole continued with the "total distance of the journeys sold would create a rail trip from the Earth to the Sun and beyond." Cambridge to London was mentioned as one of the more popular journeys in the press release.

During May 2022, the Department for Transport included a £1.1 billion contract for civils works on the East West Rail (EWR) project as part if its listing of future commercial contracts - a broad if lightly detailed glimpse at some major work in the pipeline. The East West Rail contract is for a construction phase main civil works partner or partners, with a procurement start date pencilled in as August 2024, work starting 2025 and finishing about 2032.

The trial of bio-coal by the narrow-gauge Bure Valley Railway was mentinoned in [Snippets 345]. The railway has now gone a stage further to find alternative fuels and will operate a new battery locomotive, which is being designed and built by Clayton Equipment Ltd.The locomotive will be able to haul the heaviest of trains on the 9-mile route and will meet the latest accessibility, working conditions and technological standards — see article.

On 26th May 2012 the Epping-Ongar Railway reopened as a full heritage railway service (it has been opened as a basic operation had ceased a few years earlier) and will be celebrating its 10th anniversary over four days between 2nd and 5th June 2022. See article for more information.

The European Passengers' Federation (EPF), of which Railfuture was a founding member, will be holding its 2022 conference on 10th and 11th June 2022 in Copenhagen. Current Railfuture members are entitled to book at the discounted rate.

It was announced on Friday 20 May 2022 that German infrastructure investor DWS has won the takeover battle for Stagecoach, which operates bus services in various parts of East Anglia, including at Cambridge and Cambridge North stations, and is the primary operator on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway.

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Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 350 - 31/05/2022

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