News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 370 - 31/01/2024
The Great British Rail Sale started on 23rd January 2024 with up to 50% off travel between 30th January and 15 March, which coves the quiet winter months. However, don't get too excited. When trying to book certain journeys you may find yourself in a Little Britain sketch: Computer Says No! If you do find a journey then be aware that it is for single journeys and, unlike the 2022 Rail Sale has no railcard discounts, so losing your 34% discount means the up to 50% discount is only up to 16%. If you enter a railcard it will ignore it. Fares are only for those set by the DfT-controlled operators in England. Most fares are advance, but where the operator does not offer these (such as GTR) then they are off-peak fares. Simon Calder, in the Independent, pointed out that the one million discounted tickets was a tiny proportion out of the 160 million that would occur within a typical 38-day period.
On 25th January 2024, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) pub;shed its Rail Statistics Compendium for April 2022 to March 2023, which brings together statistics on rail usage, fares, industry finance and more into one convenient place so that people can explore trends and changes. See https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/compendia/rail-statistics-compendium/.
The official opening of the new Manea station 100-space car park took place on Friday 26th January 2024.
The Mid-Norfolk Railway (MNR) says that 43,000 passengers travelled on its 93 Polar Express ™ trains that operated in November and December 2023. In terms of passenger numbers, this was the most successful to date. A platform was extended at Dereham in advance to help accommodate the bumper crowd that attended. The popularity is very welcome given the financial problems it has had to deal with in recent years. The MNR is currently unable to run passenger trains south of Thuxton because of the condition of rail bridge 1677 over the B1135 road at Crownthorpe (the way beams are life expired), which is located between Kimberley and Wymondham Abbey. Its 'Back on Track emergency appeal' launched in 2023 has raised around half of the initial target of £95,000.
The Whitwell & Reepham Railway will be celebrating the 15th anniversary of its reopening to the public at the end of February 2024 (a date that marks 65 years since the closure of the M&GNR network). It will be holding celebratory Gala Weekends on 24th-25th February and 2nd-3rd March 2024, when there will be an intensive timetable of passenger workings along with demonstration goods trains. In March 2024, the railway will be hosting Mother's Day Afternoon Tea and an Easter Egg Hunt. On 6th/7th April there will be a 1940s Weekend.
Greater Anglia has announced that the project to install a new accessible footbridge with lifts at Stowmarket station is planned to start in the first quarter of 2024.
Two Railfuture directors met Stephen Morgan MP, Shadow Minister for Rail, on Wednesday 10th January 2024 to discuss what Railfuture believes needs to happen on Britain's railway under the next government.
The funeral of John Drake, who had led the Mid-Anglia Rail Passengters Association (ARPA) for a considerbale time, took place on 26th January 2024. He died on 30th December 2023, aged 82. A Railfuture representative was among more than 50 people present.
Network Rail has announced that Lawrence Bowman has been appointed as Route Director for Anglia. He will cover whilst Katie Frost, the current Route Director, is on maternity leave from the beginning of April.
Just slightly south of the Railfuture East Anglia branch area, Greater Anglia (GA) has awarded a contract to Capel C.S Ltd to undertake restoration works at Burnham-On-Crouch Railway station, transforming the existing life-expired canopy, with replacement of its existing dagger boards with maintenance-free GRP (glass-reinforced-plastic) style dagger boards to honour the original style of the canopy. People may ask that if such work can be done there, why can't it be done at other GA stations that desperately need remedial work.
The £65m "Station Quarter" project to redevelop the area around Peterborough's railway station could create 4,000 jobs and 700 homes, according to a masterplan described in a 152-page document. The current entrance would be redesigned to reduce congestion, a new western entrance would be created (something Railfuture has long called for in order to increase use of the station) and a multi-storey car park would be built. The project — a joint venture between Peterborough City Council (PCC), the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA), train operator LNER and Network Rail — is expected to attract new businesses (new office and commercial space) and housing developments as the wider area becomes a "welcoming entrance" to Peterborough.
The Cambridge News and BBC both reported that the board of the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) was told at its 5th January 2024 meeting that Network Rail has asked for additional survey work to be undertaken on the proposed new Waterbeach Station, and as a result the completion of the full business case has been delayed. In 2022 developers claimed that they could no longer provide sufficient funding, so the GCP agreed back in June 2023 to fund the excess cost of the new station, which was expected to cost around £37m, with the developer paying only £17m.
In January 2024, the chair of the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) watned that the Cambridge South East Transport (CSET) busway "won't happen without government help...and there's no sign of that yet". The GCP had paused the controversial scheme, which would provide an off-road public transport link and active travel route between the south east of the city, in September 2023 because of spiralling construction costs. See news story.
The former Wansford Road station, which is located between the villages of Wansford and Sutton, will be moved stone by stone to a new site on eastern end the nearby Nene Valley Railway to give it a new lease of life. The building, which was built in 1869 in the on the Stamford and Essendine Railway line, is currently in the path of a proposed new dual carriageway on the A47. National Highways will spend more than £200,000 to help with the relocation. See news story.
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Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 370 - 31/01/2024
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