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.
Unhappy at the unnecessarily short platform canopies at Cambrdge North station, Railfuture has expressed is disappointment to Network Rail (NR) that the canopeis at Cambrdidge 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/.
The summer timetable changes will commence on Sunday 2nd June 2024. 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 will be held via Microsoft Teams on Tuesday 28th May from 12:00 and 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.
East West Rail started a door-knocking exercise in mid-May to encourage potentiualy affected households and landowners on the route to have their say.
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, located near Peterborough, is facing a financial crisis and has launched a fundraising appeal. It hopes to raise £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 tains will run on the late May Bank Holiday (25th-27th May) during whic it will be staging a diesel gala. On 1 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.
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.
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Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 374 - 31/05/2024
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