News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 355 - 31/10/2022
Mark Harper has been appointed as Transport Secretary in Rishi Sunak's reshuffle, replacing Anne-Marie Trevelyan. Huw Merriman, who was chair of the Transport Select Committee has been apointed rail minister and said it was "the job he had always wanted to do", which is a hopeful (and unusual) sign.
Greater Anglia launched special 2022 'Hare Fares' from just £10 return for a limited time. The off-peak returns must be booked between 11th October and 30th October for travel between 12th October and 2th December 2022. Despite train oeprators no longer being 'real' businesses with all fares going directly to the Treasury, the fact that rail competition no longer exists in East Anglia has not yet sunk it at the DfT or among opererators. Mock competition, with train companies pretending that they have done a better job in attracting passengers than a neighbouring company, means that (to the detriment of customers) the fares are only valid on Greater Anglia trains. It has divided up its network with three zones and three return prices: £10 (e.g. Cambridge to London, Chelmsford to London, Norwich to Cambridge), £15 (e.g. Chelmsford to Ipswich, Colchester to London, Southend to Colchester) and £20 (e.g. Chelmsford to Norwich, Norwich to London, Shenfield to Norwich), with children travelling for just £2 return each. There is no limit on the number of tickets that someeone can buy.
On 24th October 2022, the first of the Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) 'Electrostar' Class 387/1 Great Northern trains was sent to Worksop to be upgraded to European Train Control System (ETCS) in-cab signalling, as part of the East Coast Digital Programme. The train will be retrofitted with the latest iteration of ETCS used in Great Britain (Baseline 3 Release 2, also referred to as version 3.6.0). Eventualy the entire fleet will be equipped, since lineside signals will be removed from King's Cross to Peterborough and beyond.
Greater Anglia (GA) has been named Passenger Operator of the Year at the rescheduled National Rail Awards (NRA). GA's win was primarily as a result of the successful implementation of an entirely new train fleet across its entire network (albeit the Class 720 trains from Alstom are not yet all in service). Whilst the bi-mode trains were innovative in Britain (low floors with extendable steps), most of the featrures are common on all new trans (fast free Wi-Fi, air conditioning, an accessible toilet on every train, modern passenger information screens) and some have been around for decades (e.g. dedicated cycle spaces). NRA judges also favourably recognised GA's recent punctuality (its best ever annual average punctuality of 94.81 per cent, up from 92.97% in 2020) and reliability, safety performance, station investment, community rail activities and successful station adoption programme.
Greater Anglia (GA) also says, according to its press release, that following customer feedback over response times and connectivity, it is using high-tech to improve customer help points across a number of their stations. Using AI technology, new help points will provide answers from IVY, the automatic AI customer assistant, hopefully much more quickly than staff would. Queries about train times and directions can be answered from the platforms with the press of a button, GA claims, with the system tackling the simpler questions, freeing up staff to deal with more complex queries. It will start to roll-out the equipment at Lea Bridge station (north of London) on 31st October 2022. In the East Anglia branch area, it will be installed at Acle, Beccles, Bury St Edmunds, Cromer and Sheringham and Waltham Cross stations in the coming months.
Charles Baker of Network Rail presented a set of [slides] (which cover East Anglia, not just the Mid-Suffolk Line) at the MARPA AGM that took place in Bury St Edmunds on Saturday 15th October 2022.
STATIONS
Deep cleaning undertaken at some Greater Anglia stations
Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]
Greater Anglia has been undertaking enhanced cleaning at some of its stations, such as Cambridge and Beccles working in partnership with cleaning contractor Carlisle, and largely performed overnight to avoid disrupting travellers. Platforms and forecourts have been pressure washed, canopies have been cleaned and station signs have been scrubbed. Inside, toilet floors have been steam-cleaned and windows have also been left shining. On electrified routes a late-night possession was granted during which overhead wires were switched off allowing contractors access to the track to be able to get to all the hard-to-reach places and carry out the high-level cleaning.
Greater Anglia uses a range of initiatives to keep stations clean, including a robot which is used to clean concourses at Norwich gumbuster machines to clean up chewing gum.
RAIL ROUTES
Weather-related problems disrupted Fen Line trains over four weeks until track faults could be fixed
Keywords: [FenLine]
The heatwave in summer 2022 with record temperatures brought a period of prolonged dry weather causing the peaty ground beneath the track on the Fen Line north of Ely to shrink severely enough to affect the track above. This created unsafe conditions for travel, which did not require complete line closures as it could be mitigated by running trains at lower speeds. However, doing so meant that the timetable could not be operated. As a result, there was a four-week period without through services to London, requiring passengers to change trains at Cambridge, whilst some trains London to Ely trains did not run. The direct services between King's Lynn and King's Cross were finally restored on Wednesday 5th October once the vital track repair works had been completed by Network Rail engineers, who realigned the tracks, and services to and from King's Lynn no longer had to finish early each evening for engineering work. Repair works took a month, beginning on Saturday 3rd September.
News: https://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/articles/track-repair-works-completed-along-anglia-route.
Network Rail works on Reedham and Somerleyton swing bridges to extend working life
Keywords: [WherryLines]
Between Saturday 22nd and Sunday 30 October 2022, Network Rail (NR) engineers worked on upgrades to the electrical and mechanical systems inside the swing bridges at Reedham and Somerleyton on the Wherry Lines, to ensure that they continue to have the ability to swing open when required. After more than 100 years of service, the internal parts and mechanisms of the infrastructures had become unreliable, requiring parts to be replaced and restored. The work should making them less likely to develop future faults, which will, in turn, reduce the overall future maintenance costs. works. Buses replace trains between Norwich and Lowestoft on nine consecutive days whilst the works took place. On 22nd and 23rd October NR perfofmed additional works on Oulton Broad swing bridge, leading to further bus replacements between Halesworth and Lowestoft on the East Suffolk Line for that weekend only.
At Reedham and Somerley bridges NR had to installed a beam in the building that houses the swing bridge machinery in order to will make the building strong enough for a temporary opening to be made in the wall, enabling the old and heavy machinery to be moved out and replaced with modern, more reliable equipment. It also upgraded and replaced the manual winch system that allows the bridge to be swung open manually by the bridge operator if there are problems with the machinery, keeping trains and boat users moving. Lastly, it completed a full renewal and upgrade of the electrical system. During thr epossession, NR took the opportunity to carry out drainage, track and vegetation management works along the line.
Future works will include a full replacement of the hydraulic and mechanical systems that the bridges use to open and close.
News: https://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/articles/swing-bridge-maintenance-works-preserve-historic-infrastructures
https://news.railbusinessdaily.com/100-year-old-swing-bridges-given-a-modern-makeover/.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 355 - 31/10/2022
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