News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 374 - 31/05/2024
The Fen Line Users Associaiton, FLUA has announced that its 2024 AGM will be held in Ely Library (address is 6 The Cloisters, Ely CB7 4ZH) on Saturday 2nd November 2024 at 14:00.
According to a Network Rail X/Twitter post about Cambridge South station on 8th May 2024, the lifts shafts were being lifted into place, the western station building roof is extending along the platforms, new points were installed at Shepreth Branch Junction over the May bank holiday as well as with work on the overhead electrification. Signalling changes will obviously be signficant. There will possessions at Christmas 2024 and Easter 2025 in order to open the staiton in May 2025.
Unhappy at the unnecessarily short platform canopies at Cambridge North station, Railfuture has expressed is disappointment to Network Rail (NR) that the canopies at Cambridge South will not stretch all the way down the platform. The Fen Line Users Association asked NR for a statement on this wnd was told: "All four platforms will have canopies, each one of which will extend to about 100 metres in length. These are much longer (approximately 2.5x the length) than the canopies at Cambridge North station. Whilst they will only cover a part of each platform, the additional length should allow passengers to spread out more evenly when joining or alighting trains." At least NR recognises that in bad weather punctuality can suffer if canopies are too short, as those waiting to board bunch up and create a queue.
From Tuesday 14th May 2023, Greater Anglia (GA) has teaemed up with SeatFrog to enable passengers to upgrade to First Class seats on services between Norwich and London Liverpool Street, from £13 via the rail ticket app. This can result in a saving of up to 60% off the standard price. Other operators, such as LNER, have allowed first class upgrades via SeaFrog for several years, including in June 2022 at GA's sister company, EMR, so GA is catching up. Details at https://seatfrog.com/partners/greater-anglia/.
GTR has been using a tap-in/tap-out smartcard on its network (across Great Northern, Thameslink and Southern) for some years. According to GTR this has provided "best value daily walk-up fares when travelling between two stations on [its] keyGo network". GTR has recently upgraded 'keyGo' to support pay-as-you-go 'capping', whereby someone can travel many times between the same two stations, Monday to Sunday, knowing that when the weekly season ticket threshold is reached, the cost will be capped. Depending on the journey, the 'cap' could activate from as few as three days of travel during a week. What is inclear is whether it would cap (using the same weekly season fare) if shorter journeys between thsoe two station were made. The introduciton of capping is a case of GTR catching up with Transport for London (TfL), which introduced weekly capping on contactless some years ago.
The summer timetable changes will commence on Sunday 2nd June 2024. For Greater Anglia, there will be additional weekday evening peak services from London to Southend, Southminster, Witham, and Ipswich; faster journey times between Norwich and London, with most off-peak services timed for 1 hour 47 minutes (08.00 from Norwich to London and 17.00 London to Norwich weekday services back to under 1 hour 40 minutes journey time); off-peak Clacton to London services will call at Hythe - offering better links for the University of Essex plus normal peak summer season additional services (on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays between Norwich and Great Yarmouthm and additional Sunday morning services between Ipswich and Peterborough. On this occasion, GTR will not be making many changes in East Anglia. They will be limited to two additional Great Northern fast services between Peterborough and London King's Cross, calling at Stevenage, Biggleswade, St Neots and Huntingdon. In the morning, the new service will depart Peterborough at 06:35, with the evening service departing from London King's Cross at 17:42, arriving at Peterborough for 18:53. The GTR & Timetable Update Forum was held via Microsoft Teams on Tuesday 28th May and was presented by Phil Hutchinson, Head of Strategic Planning.
According to an East Anglia Daily Times news story business representatives (such as the Port of Felixstowe, Rail Freight Group, Greater Anglia, logistics companies, Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce) and political leaders (such as sub-national transport bodies England's Economic Heartland and Transport East), all of whom have been brought together by the Suffolk Chamber of Commerce, were to meet shadow transport Secretary Louise Haigh for an hour on 21st May 2024. The meeting's purpose was to plead for more rail investment on the line from Felixstowe to Peterborough. They want a future Labour administration to prioritise the Ely Area Capacity Enhancement (EACE) and Haughley Junction projects before any other rail schemes, so that more freight and passenger trains can then use the route. Both schemes were approved in principle in the 2023 Autumn Statement, but have not advanced since, at least not beyond the due dilligence process. Railfuture's Phil Smart, who is also a suffolk councillor, was one of the attendees. Read LinkedIn review of meeting.
The East West Rail Company has announced that its new CEO will David Hughes, who was Major Programmes Director at ARUP. He will start on 3rd June 2024, and replaces Beth West. In mid-May EWR representatives started a door-knocking exercise to encourage potentially affected households and landowners on the route to have their say. It is unclear whther the announcement (on 22nd May) of a General Election on Thursday 4th July 2024 would have seen this exercise suspended. Certainly, its remaining Community Conversations events in Bletchley and Marston Moreteyne along with the statutory consultation planned for June 2024 have had to be delayed, as they cannot take place during the pre-election period.
The work of the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) has also been affected by the announcement of the imminent General Eleiton. All meetings of the Joint Assembly and Executive Board have bene postponed. The report on moving Waterbeach station was due to be presented to the Board meeting on 27th June 2024. Presumably publication of the report (which was due on 17th June along with the agenda pack for that meeting) will also be delayed.
More General Election news...Huw Merriman, who has been transport minister since October 2022, announced on the first day of the campaign that he will not seek re-election. Whilst polls strongly indicate that the Conservatives will lose the election, he might have become shadow minister, which will now not be the case.
A Cambridge Independent article in May 2024 quoted rail minister Huw Merriman saying in the House of Commons that East West Rail is crucial for Cambridge to compete on global stage, as the railway line is needed to deliver a workforce to the city, otherwise "we will not see the pioneering scientific and bio-health developments that we see from Cambridge".
Transport East announced on 20th May 2024 that, following a competitive recruitment process, Will Quince MP (the current MP for Colchester who will not be standing at the forthcoming general election) has been appointed as its new Chair. He will oversee the continued growth ofTransport East and its role to support local authority members and partners to improve transport connections for people and businesses across the region. Will Quince will be introduced to partners at Transport East's annual Summit in Ipswich on 13th June. He replaces Cllr Kevin Bentley, who initiated Transport East and chaired the partnership since 2018. Andrew Summers remains Chief Executive.
There will be a free-to-attend takk about the Digital Transformation of the East Coast Mainline (ECML) at the Bradfield Centre on the Cambridge Science Park on Thursday 20th June 2024 at 18:30. The speaker will be Paul Thomas, Technical Director for rail systems at Atkins, who has worked on modern system such as the Copenhagen driverless metro. The event is being staged by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). Register here to attend. Also. see advert on Meetup for more details.
The May 2024 issue of the Fen Line Users Association's 'Fenman' newsletter menioned that 611 objections were recieved to the aborted plans to close the station ticket office at Ely, with King's Lynn having 505 and 257 for Downham Market station.
Station usage figures for the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) had already confirmed that London's Liverpool Street station has the largest patronage, but it has now been revealed that it is also the highest grossing station, accounting for over £92m in total annual retail sales, over the last year. Retail sales reached over £800 million in the past 12 months across Network Rail's retail portfolio of 19 managed stations in Great Britain. Meanwhile, Trainline's gross ticket sales have grown 22 per cent year-on-year, mainly driven by £3.5 billion in train tickets in Britain.
Cambridgeshire County Council has confirmed that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has served it with prosecution summonses over the three deaths (Jennifer Taylor in 2015, Steven Moir, in 2018 and Kathleen Pits in 2021) caused on the Cambrideshire Guided Busway, which opened in 2011, and a court hearing has been set. The court summons means that the council will now need to prepare for its first hearing date — it was announced some time ago that its legal costs will exceed £1.6 million,
A BBC news story on 10th May 2024 reported that the Nene Valley Railway (NVR), located near Peterborough, is facing a financial crisis because of rising costs and subdued visitor numbers that are below the pre-COVID level. The NVR, which has existed for 40 years and describes itself as Britain's "leading international steam attraction", has launched a fundraising appeal with the hope of raising £300,000 to help maintain operations, conduct essential repairs and embark on vital infrastructure upgrades and restoration projects for the railway's long-term viability.
The Mid-Norfolk Railway (MNR) has raised sufficient funds (almost £46k) for its 'Back on Track' appeal to repair the bridge at Crownthorpe, allowing trains to once again go between Dereham and Wymondham. The MNR announced on 17th May 2024 that the first public trains will run on the late May Bank Holiday (25th-27th May) during which it will be staging a diesel gala. On 1st June 2024, it will be running a special train as far as Wymondham Junction for donors to the appeal, although that train was fully booked several weeks before the event.
The secure bicycle parking area at Cambridge North station opened in late May 2024 after £600,000 was spent essentially erecting a two-metre-high metal fence around 730 existing spaces in the 1000-space cycle park, turning it into a cage. The 'safe' cycles are parked at 276 surface-mounted Sheffield stands, notorious for having bolts that can be very easily removed, and two-tier cycle racks with space for 432 bikes. To gain access to this compound requires a £25 annual smartcard, which provides an audit trail back to registered users. The area is also covered by enhanced lighting and CCTV. The DfT has funded this after Cambridge North was reported to be the least secure railway station in Britain according to a Freedom of Information request by the BBC found that 143 bike thefts were reported there in 2023 — more than anywhere else in Britain. Critics of the new system said that thieves vcould buy a pass to access the storage area, or follow legitimate access-holders (tailgating), saying that CCTV should also monitor who had entered it and when.
As reported in [Snippets 371] the Mid-Norfolk Railway (MNR) planned pulbic events on Saturday 11th May 2023 ("Dereham Day") and Sunday 12th May ("Vintage Bus Day"). Both were successful. On Dereham Day they welcomed nearly 800 local residents for a free train ride in the Pacer to Thuxton and back with donations received around the £500 mark (more than they would expect to take on a normal Pacer day with all passengers having to buy a ticket). On its Vintage Bus Day, 35 buses visited Dereham with the station and trains being very busy. Konectbus had sponsored the day. Takings from Catering over the weekend were "superb!" according to a MNR message to members.
According to the Spring 2024 issue of its Blastpipe newsletter, the Mid-Norfolk Railway (MNR) has agreed terms for an energy company, Vattenfall, to run six lines under their railway at Northall Green. These will carry power from an offshore windfarm which is being developed off the North Norfolk coast. Hopefully this will provide useful income for the railway.
STATIONS
New railway station south of King's Lynn could form part of a strategy to update Norfolk's railway network
Keywords: [SouthLynnStation]
According to an article in the East Anglian Daily Press (EADP) on 16th May 2024, a new railway station south of King's Lynn on the Fen Line is being seriously considered as part of wider plans for a huge upgrade of Norfolk's railway network. The station, the EADP claims, forms the centrepiece of the strategy unveiled days earlier in Cambridge by the Eastern Powerhouse, a business-led body (made up of MPs, councillors and business leaders) to boost the economy of the East of England setup in 2022, chaired by James Palmer, the former Cambridgeshire and Peterborourgh Combined Authority mayor.
The Eastern Powerhouse, which "can only open doors" according to Mr Palmer, hopes that a new station at South Lynn, on land to the south of the A47, would be funded by central government. If it goes ahead, South Lynn would become Norfolk's first new railway station since Roughton Road station on the outskirts of Cromer, which opened in 1985. The focus would be on West Winch, which is a village in the area where major development and growth is expected (more than 4,000 homes are due to be built, accompanied by new health, education and community facilities). Terry Parish, leader of the Independent coalition-led West Norfolk Council, believes there was strong support for the station, telling the EADP: "A new railway station in West Winch would be ideal given the new homes. There is a lot of interest among councillors and officers for [it]."
Something to throw into the mix is the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which is located to the east of King's Lynn, but much of the complex is in dire need to rebuilding. Might it be relocated in the West Winch/Hardwick area to the south, on a green field site with room to expand, yet being close to the new station?
There was once a station in the South Lynn area on the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway. In opened in 1886 on land that is now just to the south the Saddlebow roundabout, but was closed to passengers in 1959 but (when almos tall of the M&GN closed) though it continued as a coal depot until 1966. Some features of the line and station area can still be found. However, the proposed new station would be to the east of the original station, to sit on the mainline to Ely, Cambridge and London.
The Eastern Powerhouse also wants to upgrade several other stations that it belives are lacking in trade and in need of regeneration with the aim of developing them into business hubs. It has held talks with the Secretary of State for Transport and subsequently worked with Network Rail to look at ways of improving the railway network in East Anglia and find potential new projects within the region.
Longer platforms and other improvements at Whittlesea railway station appear to move forward
Keywords: [WhittleseaStation]
The Cambridge & Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) studied the lengthening of the platforms at Whittlesea station and providing a larger car park a few years ago, but nothing became of it — only minor improvements such as a second ticket machine and two new shelters — although major improvements at March station and a 100-space car park at Manea did.
Now, according to a BBC news story, Fenland District Council has accepted CPCA funding to move forward with work to improve the Whittlesea railway station that could see trains calling more frequently (this is largely dependent upon the remodelling of Ely North Junction so that the two-hourly Ipswich-Peterborough service becomes hourly). The proposals would see a footbridge between the two platforms, which would be useful wen the level crossing gates are closed. There is a separate crossing keeper as the signal box is too far from the road for the signaller to operate the gates. The £3 million scheme would see the gates replaced by barriers.
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Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 374 - 31/05/2024
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