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.
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.
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.
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.
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Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 369 - 30/12/2023
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