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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 377 - 31/08/2024

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News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.

Railfuture News Snippets 377 - 31/08/2024



Guy Dangerfield of Transport Focus will be the guest speaker at the Railfuture East Anglia branch meeting in Norwich from 14:00 on Saturday 28th Septemebr 2024 in the Octagon annex at the St Peter Mancroft church building.

On 7th August 2024, a test train ran westbound on the East West Rail section from Bletchley to Bicester and returned the next day, running to the Railway Technical Centre in Derby. The train included an observation car. It ran under speed and safety restrictions, as the signalling and control systems on this route weren't yet fully commissioned. The first passenger train over the new line will be Pathfinder Railtours' 'Verney Venturer' from Bristol on Saturday 15th February 2025 (re-dated from Saturday 16th November 2024), which will originate and terminate at Bristol Temple Meads, via Nuneaton both outward and return, travelling south on the West Coast Mainline and joining East West Rail via Denbigh Hall Junction.

Greater Anglia has launched a Customer and Community Improvement Fund, which is intended to support local, community-focused rail improvements across in its area. However, the budget is just £350,000 a year, with a maximum application limited to £50,000. It is expected that most projects will cost between £500 and £20,000), so each 'improvement' will be very limited in size and ambition. Key aims are to benefit rail customers, increase rail travel, promote rail to individuals or groups who do not currently use rail. See: news story.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Brundall Gardens railway station, which is on the Wherry Lines, on 3rd August 2024, the station's adopters were joined by volunteers from other stations, Greater Anglia staff, Parish Councillors, and representatives from the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership (CRP). There was heritage style bunting, a buffet, and an anniversary cake.

East Suffolk Council had proposed spending £1.96m redeveloping a disused part of Lowestoft station that has been dormant for 50 years, turning it into a restaurant, a café and flexible workspace as part of a plan to regenerate the town. However, after being unable to obtain ownership of the building from Network Rail — sale of railway property requires thorough cross-industry consultation and needs permission from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) — the council has decided to reallocate funding to other projects. Officially the proposal has been temporarily paused, and could be resintated in the future, perhaps after Great British Railway has been launched. The council's proposals to create a "modern, overbearing extension to the roof" would have "destroyed its architectural integrity" according to critics, whilst others said thast the restautant would be unviable trying to complete with nearby competition. See: news story.

Following the creation of a solution that prevents people fraudulently copying electronic season tickets onto other devices so that they can be used by others, GTR has introduced digital season tickets can now be bought and held on its new smartphone app. Passengers can now, for the first time on its services, buy and store weekly, monthly and annual season tickets as barcode sTickets on their smartphones. Rather than a fixed barcode that might last up to a year, the app generates a new barcode on each occasion that it is used, preventing reuse. The pasasenger simply scans the dynamically generated barcode from the phone screen at the station ticket gate. See news story.

On 30th August 2024, the newly formed Friends of Brandon Station group (not to be confused with a group of the same name that existed some years earlier) held its first meeting. SAVE Britain's Heritage wrote on X/Twitter: "It's great to see such enthusiasm to save this grade II listed station and bring it back into use." The formation of the Friends follows June 2024's very well attended public meeting to discuss the future and opportunities for Brandon Station's railway building, when there were speakers from SAVE, the Railway Heritage Trust, Suffolk Trust and Greater Anglia.

The Peterborough Station Quarter project had to be completed by March 2026 to be eligible for funding from the government's Levelling Up Fund, but conerns have been raised that this dealdine may not be met, according to documents presented to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority's Investment Committee. An 'amber warning' has been raised, meaning that there are challenges, but these could be overcome with the right interventions. See news story.

Work has started at London Liverpool Street station to provide 21 extra automated ticket gates (including four wide-access gates (to supplement the 36 existing gates) for platforms 1-10. This will improve the flow of passengers and reduce wait time. Four existing manual wide access barriers will be converted to automatic wide gates. The first change made will relocate the Greater Anglia (GA) ticket office to Platform 10 in the old First Class lounge. It is expected to open later in November 2024. Currently, the gateline is grouped into five sections, separated by six small retail units, mostly selling food. To make space, five of those retail units on the gateline will be removed in stages between August 2024 and spring 2025, with three new outlets being created in the former GA ticket office area. Since COVID-19, Liverpool Street has overtaken Waterloo to become the busiest station in Britain with 80.4 million journeys every year, hence the need to future proof the station. There is also a totally separate project to renovate the roof covering platforms 1-10 and the station concourse, repairing the drainage and replacing the older roof panels with new ones that will let more light into the station.

Railfuture-affiliate Cambridge Connect, which is proposing a Cambridge light rail scheme, has written to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to request the funding of £5million from Government for feasibility studies to test the viability of the proposed routes. It hopes that this would be included in the autumn 2024 spending review. On 15th August 2024, the Cambridge News quoted its director, Colin Harris, saying: "We have now reached the point when our proposals deserve to be fully tested. No strategy for the future of Cambridge can work without a radical modal shift away from the motor car. Light rail can provide a core backbone of fast, reliable, clean and adaptable public transport that when integrated with other modes such as trains, buses, coaches and active travel will serve the whole community well while unlocking our full potential as a key centre for European science and technology.

During August 2024, Greater Anglia (GA), expanded the list of stations where it provides an online virtual tour to include Bury St Edmunds. Aa's press rleease said that "The tour has been designed to support journey planning, give passengers a clearer picture of the station before they travel, and reduce anxiety about how they'll get around. It is particularly helpful for disabled people wanting to check accessible routes through the station."

Volunteers from the Friends of March Railway Station community group are moving a 149-year-old railway carriage from a back garden in Needingworth, Cambridgeshire to March railway station where it will be built on a disused platform and eventually converted into a tea room. It will be painted in its original burgundy red and opened to members of the public as a tea room, a project that is expected to take at least 18 months. See: news story.

The BBC website reported on the 1940s weekend held at the Mid-Norfolk Railway (MNR) on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th August 2024. See: news story, which says that the event has grown from a few stalls to now having displays at Dereham, Yaxham, Hardingham and Wymondham stations. Naturally, steam trains operated over the weekend.

Cambridge North station is seeing patronage far higher than predicted by the business case submitted to government by Camrbidgeshire County Council almost 15 years ago. This is not surprising, given how much Cambridge has been growing. Businesses are attracted to lcoations near to railway stations. Several original single-storey buildings on the Cambridge Science Park have been demolished and replaced by much taller buildings covering a larger footprint. This continues at pace, with approval by Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council for a new five-storey 27-metre-high laboratory and office building at the nearby Cambridge Science Park.

The Norfolk Orbital Railway, which aims to restore rail services in Norfolk, will be present at the Mid-Norfolk Railway on Saturday 7th September at Dereham Station and on Sunday, 15th September at County School Station. The group will be displaying some artefacts saved from when the railways closed, as well as talk with supporters about the Norfolk Orbital Railway project.

The North Norfolk Railway (NNR) has released tickets for its Norfolk Lights Express and Santa Special services running from 15th November 2024 until early January 2025. The 5.5-mile heritage line runs from Sheringham, through Weybourne to Holt and is currently running steam and heritage diesel trains until 2nd November. This year the 'lights; experience 'Four Seasons in Colour' as 'lights on the outside of each carriage shine onto the scenery in a series of changing colours, and illuminated installations are brought to life by on-board narration and music' according to the NNR's publicity. Santa Special trains will operate on weekends from 23rd November to 15th December and daily from 20th to 23 December.

On Saturday 26th October 2024 UK Railtours will be explorating East Anglian freight lines, including the five-mile Sizewell branch before it is substantially remodelled and modernised. The branch is the remaining section of the line to the seaside resort of Aldeburgh which opened in 1859 but closed to passenger traffic in 1966. It is hopeed that the charter train will go as far as the NR boundary. The charter is called "The East Anglian Freighter".

Greater Anglia (GA) has announced that it will install a new wheel lathe facility at the Clacton Rail Depot in Essex, as part of the £17 million project. This will be the first time Greater Anglia has had its own permanent wheel lathe facility, so that it will not need to send trains to anbother operator's facility, such as GTR's at Hornsey, in order to re-profile wheels with precision, correcting the small flat spots that can form due to wear and tear. Its entire fleet (class 745, class 720, and class 755 units) will then have their wheels re-profiled at Clacton. Having a local wheel lathe will reduce the time affected that trains are out of service and avoiding cancelled services owing to a lack of trains. The new facility, which is due to be conmpleted in summer 2025, will be located on land once occupied by the old Clacton steam shed and the unused approach road area from the existing shunting spur - — the facility will occupy around 5,000 square metres of space. See news story.

The government has announced that a new 'Rail Sale' will be launched early in 2025, to tie in with celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of Britain's passenger railways. The aim is to encourage more people on to the railways by offering up to 50 per cent off train tickets for a specific time period.


PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Mid-Suffolk Light Railway applies for Transport & Works Act Order to operate a new level crossing across a footpath

Keywords: [MidSuffolkLightRailway]

On 1st August 2024 the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway (MSLR), which is Suffolk's only standard gauge heritage railway (known informally as the Middy") submitted a Transport & Works Act Order application for maintenance and operation of the railway and level crossing for the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway museum in Wetheringsett, Suffolk. Essentially, this would give it the powers to operate a level crossing over public footpath 46, which passes through the site (the TWAO documenns can be read at www.mslr.org.uk/twa-documents/. The railway operates on land owned by a local farmer and has recently agreed to extend its term to 30th October 2054, with the landlord supporting the proposed order, but needs an Order from the Secretary of State for Transpofer because the railway's "interference with the operation of a public highway" when exending its railway to a new halt. Track has already been laid across the lightly used rural path, so the approval should be a mere formality allowing the the railway to run trains on a 936-metre-long line, rather than the current 410 metres.

Letters of support included with the application have been received from form MP Ben Gummer who wrote "I am writing, as a parent with two small boys who adore the museum, and a host of cousins and friends who feel the same, to support this modest proposal, which anyone would hope would be endorsed by statutory authorities as an unalloyed benefit to local people and railway heritage. Most importantly, it will give tens of thousands of people yet more enjoyment from this wonderful railway for many years to come." There were similar suppotive letters from Lord Deben and Dr Daniel Poulter MP.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 377 - 31/08/2024

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