News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 369 - 30/12/2023
Around 40 people attended the Railfuture East Anglia public meeting in Cambridge on Saturday 2nd December 2023 to hear the guest speaker from Network Rail (NR), Martin Seiffarth, give a presentation on the new Cambridge South station. Slides will be uploaded to the website at a later date. Perhaps the most converning thing mentioned by the speaker was that Network Rail is required to propose a 'minimum viable proposition' (MVP) for all enhancements — many railways in other European countries do not have to suffer this. He did not know who much of the 12-car platform length would have a canopy, but said that NR does construct canopies on the entire length of the platform. Attendees expressed hope that it would be more than the 3.5 carriage length at Cambridge North. It should be noted that the recently-built Doncaster Platform has a canopy to the very end of the platform. The meeting was also told about a temporary track being laid to enable trains to avoid the work being performed on the platforms. Click here to watch a flythrough video that what it will look like from 2025 when it is planned to open.
Christmas holiday rail works took place in the Cambridge South station area to bring into use two new tracks (on that western side) that were laid prior to Christmas. Using hgtem will allow Network Rail to divert services away from the existing main line so that those tracks ca be lifted to provide space to construct new platforms (and start piling for the eastern station building) in the new year. Track connections have been made at either end of the new loop. Because of planned works, Stagecoach Cambridge announced on its website that anyone needing to travel between Cambridge Railway Station and Cambridge North Railway Station on 27th and 28th December 2023 could travel on their bus for free with a valid train ticket.
The government has announced that rail fares in England to rise by up to 4.9% in March 2024. This is around half what the July 2023 RPI figure was (although inflation has since fallen). Observers have suggested that this 'modest' increase by the government is more to do with avoiding stoking inflation or pre-election criticism rather than any real attempt to increase rail usage. See news story.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has released the official station usage figures. The number of entries and exits at Liverpool Street was 80.4 million in the 12 months to 31st March 2023. For Cambridge North station, Cambridgeshire County Council produced a business case on 800,000 entrances and exits a year. However, despite the prior COVID-19 hit, the ORR has calculated 1,074,602 for April 2022 to March 2023 - only its second 'full' year. Also consider how much disruption there has been from industrial action, engineering works and incidents. How much higher could patronage have been? The offical Cambridge South usage estimate of a mere only 2.2 million was ridiculed at the public inquiry for the new station.
The Train Travel Snapshot published in mid-December 2023 by the Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT), which analyses revenue, has revealed a 10% uplift to £2.6 billion in the three months from 1st July to 30th September 2023, compared to the same quarter in 2022 (when adjusted for inflation). Figures from the Office for Rail and Road (ORR) show a total of 397 million journeys made in Britain for the same period, which is a 14% increase on the 350 million for the same period in 2022. Comparing the total number of journeys for the latest 12 months compared to the previous 12 months, it found a 21% increase. These figures show a good recovery from the pandemic, particularly leisure travel, although revenue from commuting was down slightly; however, revenue from business travel was up slightly. See news story.
Transport for London (TfL) has confirmed that the latest figures show that the Tube reached four million journeys on Thursday 23rd November 2023 (a total of 24.78 million Tube journeys from 19th to 25th November), a further step towards ridership returning to pre-pandemic levels.
Transport Statistics Great Britain (TSGB) presents an annual summary of statistics for cross-modal transport topics, mostly relating to the calendar year 2022. Its statistics cover: a) the use of different modes of transport; b) freight and passenger traffic at UK air, rail and sea ports; c) use of public transport; d) road traffic volumes and e) transport expenditure. View the figures at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-statistics-great-britain-2023.
The East West Rail company will be launching a statutory consultation in the "first half of 2024", which will probably be in May or June. Railfuture will be gearing up to support the proposals and welcomes opportunities to speak to the media. In December 2023 it has been handing out cards at stations, such as Cambridge and Cambridge North. These contain QR codes to go to the website. Interestingly, they appear to be using slightly different codes in order to track where people had been given the card.
As the East West Rail company gears up to launching its statutory consulation on the Bedford-Cambridge route, it has announced its intention to find a permanent CEO, to replace Beth West who has been in the post since April 2022. See news story.
The National Audit Office (NAO) publisherd a report in December 2023 about East West Rail (EWR). The report says that the case for EWR rests on the economic benefits that a new railway brings in terms of new businesses, jobs and investment, rather than just improved connectivity alone.
Greater Anglia (GA) announced in December 2023 that it had started to upgrade ticket vending machines (TVM) for new barcoded ticket as part of a three-month-long trial, which means that tickets can then be scanned at ticket barriers, rather than being inserted. GA will then decide whether it is feasible to make scannable tickets (on plain white paper, instead of the usual orange, and will contain a barcode) widely available via its TVMs. The TVM upgrades will take place at 18 stations (Acle, Brundall, Cambridge, Cambridge North, Cromer, Ely, Gunton, Hoveton & Wroxham, Lingwood, North Walsham, Norwich, Oulton Broad North, Reedham, Roughton Road, Sheringham, Stansted Airport, West Runton, and Worstead). No changes are needed to the automatic ticket gates (ATGs) as they will use the existing scanner used for smartcards, e-tickets and mobile tickets purchased online can already be scanned at Greater Anglia ticket barriers. GA hopes that that scanning will be a faster method of passing through the ticket barriers, improving the flow at stations; naturally it may take some time for passengers to get used to the change.
The Swiss-made Class 755 bi-mode Greater Anglia (GA) introduced into service in summer 2019 (4.5 years ago) have been crowned "most reliable train of their type" in Britain in the independent Golden Spanners Awards 2023 for the third year running. They were in the "second generation new diesel" train category. All awards are made purely on the statistical reliability (i.e. those with the fewest faults) of every single type of train over the past 12 months up to 16th September 2023. See news story.
A Greater Anglia (GA) press release on 14th December 2023 said htyat its fleet of 38 Class 755 bi-mode regional trains save thousands of litres of diesel a year, now that they are able to change power supply on the move. When they started entering service in July 2019 they changed poewer source (i.e. raising or lowering the pantograph) only at stations. However, they ca now switch closer to junctions, such as Ely North Junction (rather than Ely station) on trains from Norwich to Cambridge/Stansted Airport section and Haughley Junction on trains from Ipswich to Cambridge/Peterborough. It also happens at Marks Tey for trains coming on and off the Sudbury branch line when travelling to/from the stabling and maintenance point at Colchester. Now that special zones that have recently been put in place on the network, drivers can press a button to allow the power supply to change between diesel and electric while on the move. This 'dynamic power changeover' will save at least 91,000 litres of diesel a year, as well as stopping more than 240,000 kilograms of co2 being emitted. GA's press reease referred onto to dynamic switching to electric power, i.e. raising the pantrograph when the wires were known to be above the train, rather than the opposite, i.e. lowering the pantograph, in case it did not lower in time.
Building better links between East Anglia's rail branch lines and the communities they serve, in order to keep branch lines thriving, was the focus at Greater Anglia's Annual Community Rail Conference held recently, in which the regions six Community Rail Partnerships, station adopters, local authorities and other organisations from across East Anglia came together with Greater Anglia. See news story.
Railfuture East Anglia spends a lot of time trying to influence a wide variety of stakeholders across the region either at stakeholder events (rail industry, local authority or sub-national transport bodies) or in private meetings. These have included:
- Encouraging improved passenger services at rail industry stakeholder events
- Speaking to county councils to feed into their rail policy and proposals prior to a formal public consultation
- MPs looking to improve transport links to benefit their constituents
- Airport management looking to increase the number of people who travel to/from there in sustainable ways (i.e. by rail)
- Major landowners looking improved rail services to support housing developments
- Rail infrastructure companies to identify ways that improvements and line re-openings could be delivered more cost effectively
John Drake, who had been the force behind the Mid-Anglia Rail Passengers Association (MARPA) and whom many Railfuture East Anglia branch members will know from meetings, died on 30th December 2023 aged 82.
On 18th December 2023, the East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership teamed up with Greater Anglia to arrange rail travel for 160 students and 20 teachers from Beccles Primary to see the panto to see Aladdin in Lowestoft.
All 38 of Greater Anglia's Stadler Class 755 electro-diesel (bi-mode) multiple-units can now switch between traction modes whilst the train is moving, which means that they can switch to using electicity once the train reaches electrified track (such as at Ely North Junction) or remain using electricity until just before the wires run out (such as at Haughley Junction just north of Stowmarket on the Great Eastern Mainline). This was covered in RAIL EAST in the June 2023 issue, prior to being rolled out, and was only publicised in December 2023. The trains had always had the capability, but signes needed ot be erected to tell drivers when to raise and lower the pantograph. See news story.
Mark Smith, known as "The Man in Seat 61", will be giving a talk to the Cambridge University Railway Club will be on Tuesday 30th January at 18.00 (doors open 17.45) in the Bateman Room at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge. Mark is an expert on European and international rail travel, founder of the amazing The Man in Seat 61 website, which is almost certainly the best guide on travelling abroad from Great Bitain by rail, and one of the leading advocates of cross-border rail links.
STATIONS
Replacement footbridge is finally opened at Royston station
Keywords: [RoystonStation]
The new footbridge at Royston railway station was opened on 11th December 2023, but the lifts have not yet bveem installed, and passengers will have to wait until early 2024 for that. The new footbridge replaces the previous footbridge that was closed in spring 2020 for safety reasons. It was decided to open the footbridge in phases so that station users will no longer have to use the temporary 'short-cut' footbridge (opened in October 2021) or the roadbridge on Kneesworth Street in order to switch platforms, helping improve the passenger experience. Work on the £3.5m project began in November 2022 and it has taken us longer than planned.
There is now also a new step-free route from the main station entrance to Platform 1, via the car park. This includes a 35-metre pavement with handrails and dropped kerbs with tactile paving.
News: https://news.railbusinessdaily.com/new-footbridge-at-royston-station-opens-for-passengers/.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 369 - 30/12/2023
[Prev Issue (368)] [Snippets Issues] [Next Issue (370)] [Category List] [Keyword List] [People List] [Story List] [Branch Dashboard]
Railfuture is a non-profit making pro-rail campaiging organisation, which is run entirely by unpaid volunteeers, including production of Rail News Snippets for the East Anglian branch of Railfuture.
How we spell Railfuture — singular, one word, one capital letter (can be abbreviated to Rf).