News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 376 - 31/07/2024
Following the general election, the new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, appointed Louise Haigh as the Secretary of State on Friday 5th July 2024. Her declared approach is to "move fast and fix things." Network Rail Chairman Lord Hendy as a Transport Minister with responsibility for setting up Great British Railways (GBR). Three transport parliamentary under-secretaries have been appointed. The highest profile one is its former shadow Secretary of State for Transport (and latterly a chair of the Transport Select Committee), Lilian Greenwood. The other two are Simon Lightwood and Mike Kane. Stephen Morgan, who was a shadow transport minister has been appointed to a role in education. A list of all appointments can be found here. The outgoing Secretary of State for Transport, Mark Harper, and his predecessor, Grant Shapps, lost their seats.
On 5th July Railfuture published an article (www.railfuture.org.uk/article1912) on what it believed the new government needed to do for the railway.
On 15th July Greeater Anglia (GA) tweeted that it would be installing tables around facing seats on its Class 745/1 Stansted Express trains following feedback from customers, particularly families, who were critical of the lack of tables for drinks and toys. All these trains will be upgraded before the end of 2025, with four tables due to be fitted to a train each weekday night while it is stabled at Orient Way train care depot in London. {Passengers on London-Norwich services will also benefit as these trains make a return trip each day for servicing at Crown Point depot in Norwich. GA still has no intention of providing even some small tables on their class 720 commuter trains — just somewhere to put one's coffee.
Labour's plan for Great British Railways was in the King's Speech on Wednesday 17th July 2024. Labour's landmark "The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill 2024-25" was introduced into the House of Commons on 18th July 2024 and had its second reading on 29th July. On 24th July 2024, the East Anglian Daily Times (EADT) newspaper published an article how soon Greater Anglia might be nationalised, with some believing that the government would be foolish to change a well-performing operator in a hurry. Also in Parliament, on 25th July, the Secretary of State for Transport reintroduced the "High Speed Rail (Crewe - Manchester) Bill" (the 'Bill'), which has been carried over from the last Parliament. The Bill grants the powers necessary to develop, construct and operate new rail infrastructure.
Railfuture understands that Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director, will be leaving the company in the autumn 2024 for a new role at Network Rail in its Eastern Region. He has been its MD since 2012 and lives in Cambridge. There is no news on who might succeed him and no obvious deputy.
According to a rather vague BBC news story date 30th July 2024, Peter Hendy, the new minister of state for rail, is set for talks with Network Rail about the future of the long-awaited Ely Area Capacity Enhancement (EACE) scheme which includes a revamp of Ely north junction. MPs have long campaigned for the improvements.
As part of the East Coast Digital Programme, Network Rail to test in-train signalling on East Coast Main Line over the August bank holiday on Sunday 25h August 2024. The first long-distance train (Grand Central Class 180) and a Network Rail Class 43 measurement train will test the newly installed system between Welwyn Garden City and Hitchin at high speed. For the testing to be carried out under controlled conditions, the railway needs to be closed in and around the affected section, so there will be no trains between Potters Bar, Peterborough and Royston, and between Hertford North and Stevenage that day. The testing is in preparation for trains to run on this route using digital signalling from late 2025 as part of the East Coast Digital Programme. See: announcement.
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which includes the Great Northern brand, is launching a Summer Sale, with sales from Tuesday 6th to Monday 19th August 2024 (via ticket offices, its app and its website) with tickets available for travel between Tuesday 20th August and Tuesday 3rd September.
On 16th July 2024 at a GTR 'drop-in' session, Angie Doll (the new-ish CEO) gave a short speech in which she said they don't know any more than rail user groups do about the plans for Great British Railways (GBR) etc, and were hoping more would be revealed in the King's Speech the next day — spoiler: it wasn't! Attendees were introduced to John Whitehurst, the new COO (Angie's previous job).
The websites and apps for all of the GTR brands now provide a revamped "Live map: Service status at a glance" facility, which gives live departure times from each station (with platform number, the length of each train and seat availability), and shows real-time disruption — classed as 'Minor delays' and 'Severe delays'. A calendar function shows engineering works that will be taking place across its network within the next six weeks, with the ability to choose a specific date and time of day to check. To use this facility, visit https://livemap.greatnorthernrail.com/#/GN/mapview.
According to the Fen Line Users Association's newsletter, The Fenman, Great Northern has accepted all 30 Class 379 units and the supply chain will now get them ready for passenger service. The plan is for the units to be first used on the Peterborough peak time services. They units will then replace most Class 387s on Fen Line services.
Greater Anglia (GA) launched its first Stadler-built, Class 755 bi-mode trains in operation on Monday 29th July 2019. GA marked the fifth anniversary on 29th July 2024, inviting stakeholders and media representatives to an event which started at Norwich station and included a special trip to Lowestoft and back on the specific train that operated the first service (unit 755410). At Lowestoft there were speeches from representatives from Greater Anglia, Stadler, who built and maintain the bi-mode trains, and Rock Rail who own them, along with refreshments and photographs. The special trip then returned from Lowestoft to Norwich. See: news story.
Following criticism of the appallingly short canopies at the £55 million Cambridge North station, there has been concern that Network Rail will provide short canopies at the £200 million Cambridge South station as well. It has been hard to get an answer, but Network Rail has confirmed that the length of the canopies will be only 100 metres. It is understood that this excludes the area covered by other buildings, such as the footbridge, protection from the rain will be somewhat longer, but far short of the 240 metres of a 12-car GTR train (or 10-car Greater Anglia train).
The annual Cromer Carnival is always based around the 3rd Wednesday in August. Greater Anglia (GA) will be running extra trains on Wednesday 21st August to cope with demand, as GA expects services to be very busy.
The Mid-Norfolk Railway's station at Dereham closed on Thursday 4th July 2024 so that it could be used as a polling station for the general election.
The North Norfolk Railway's Christmas Lunch Express will be returning in 2024 on seleced dates between Sunday 3rd November and Thursday 19th December. Passengers will board one of the dining cars, originally built for British Railways in the 1950s or 60s at Sheringham. They will be served a pre-dinner drink with the main course being a choice of a roast turkey dinner with all the trimmings, pan-seared salmon served with parsley sauce, vegetables and potatoes or vegetarian ratatouille stuffed peppers with a cheese and herb crumb topping. This will be followed by coffee and mini mince pies, with a selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks available to order too. Trains will open for boarding from 11:45, departing at 12:20m, with arrival back in Sheringham at approximately 15:15. Tickets start at £75pp and pre-booking is essential at nnrailway.co.uk/dining-trains.
The Board of the North Norfolk Railway (NNR) has appointed Graham Hukins as General Manager of the North Norfolk Railway. Graham has a 30-year track record of managing award-winning tourist and heritage attraction.
In their report to shareholders, directors of the North Norfolk Railway (NNR) reported that the financial outturn in 2023/24 was a marked improvement on the previous year with the railway posting an operating profit of £58,798 — a turnaround of £267,816 compared to 2022/23. Fares income exceeding expectations. Public trains operated on approximately 30 fewer days than in 2022, to reduce the pressure on staff and volunteers, with visitors being advised to visit alternative days, which increased the passenger loadings per day increased by 9 per cent to 627 with overall passenger numbers totalling 148,801 compared to 152,322 in 2022. For the 2024 season so far, but the end of June the railway line had carried 46,330 passengers which is within a day's loadings of last year. Income is above budget and ahead of last year.
The North Norfolk Railway (MNR) announced that nine locoomotives would be starring in its 2024 'Festival On Rails' from Saturday 24th August 24 to Sunday 1st September 2024. The event will begin with a three-day Bank Holiday Gala, featuring six locos working an intensive service. The exact line-up will change each day so that all nine will run at some point during the event.
East of England Co-op has launched a new convenience store in Ipswich station. It already has one in the building opposite Cambridge North station, and others are planned for Thetford and Bishop's Stortford.
RAIL ROUTES
Six days of engineering track work on the East Suffolk line to replace old track
Keywords: [EastSuffolkLine]
Network Rail engineers will be renewing over 1,700 metres of track between Woodbridge and Westerfield junction from late evening on Saturday 10th August until the early morning of Saturday 17th August 2024. It includes renewing rail, sleepers and ballast as part of a wider programme of track renewal along the line. Jointed track, some 100 years old, will be replaced with continuously-welded rail, which reduces noise from passing trains and gives passengers a smoother ride. This work is also a follow up to last year's work to stabilise a mile-long section of embankment which was slipping away and risking important signalling equipment falling down. This work will improve passenger journeys and prepare the line to accommodate increased freight traffic for Sizewell.
Buses will replace trains between Saxmundham and Ipswich every day from Sunday 11 August to Friday 16 August. Trains will continue to operate between Lowestoft and Saxmundham.
Since 2000 almost all jointed track in East Anglia has been replaced by continuously-welded rail. It is one of the hidden improvements that goes unnoticed and unreported, but passengers now take it for granted.
News: https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/24455263.network-rail-works-woodbridge-westerfield/.
STATIONS
Eastern Daily Press article claims "Locations for potential new Norfolk railway stations mooted"
Keywords: [Norfolk]
An Eastern Daily Press article on 15th July 2024, claimned that seven Norfolk locations mooted for new railway stations. Railfuture got a mention, although in the context of not supporting the proposal for a station at Forncett St Mary, near Long Stratton. Although Norfolk County Council has no direct control over railways, it will decide whether to spend money to explore the posasible business cases for the new stations (it could use £40,000 from its local transport plan budget to carry out a high-level feasibility study into the potential new stations).
A station at Broadland Business Park on the Bittern Line is one of the most likely to open. Initial work on a business case, which was conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic, suggested there would be benefits. However, because fewer people are now working in offices, the council says more work would need to be done to establish if there is still a business case.
A new station at Postwick Park and Ride on the Wherry Line was previously mooted, but a preiovus stdy considered that passenger demand might be low.
Major housing growth is planned in the Rackheath area, and suggestions of a new station have been around for almost a decade. However, council officers were concerned thay that another station would create longer journey times along the Bittern Line.
Council officers were dismissive of a new station for North Thetford as part of the new Kingsfleet neighbourhood, where 5,000 homes are being built, saygin that it would make more sense to focus on improving the town's current station.
A parkway station just south of King's Lynn has considerbale support and Norfolk County Concil has said it will this as part of a review of the King's Lynn Transport Strategy.
At Thickthorn and Hethersett new stations have been suggested to serve the UEA, Norwich Research Park and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, but the county council saying that any new station would be "some considerable distance from the destination it is proposed to serve and would not offer any advantage over the existing stations at either Norwich or Wymondham."
Although only part of Wisbech is in Norfolk, the county council is supporting the reopening of the March to Wisbech rail line.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 376 - 31/07/2024
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Railfuture is a non-profit making pro-rail campaiging organsaiton, which is run entirely by unpaid volunteeers, incluoding production of Rail News Snippets for the East Anglian branch of Railfuture.
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