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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 381 - 31/12/2024

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

Railfuture News Snippets 381 - 31/12/2024


Many people were very disappointed that the new government's first budget gave funding for very few rail products. Of course, major spending was deferred until the Spring Forecast. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, confirmed on 16th December 2024 that it will take place on Wednesday 26th March 2025.

The DfT has announced the first train services to be brought back under public control will be those currently operated by South Western Railway (SWR) from late May 2025, with c2c following on 20th July and Greater Anglia in autumn 2025. The transition of these three operators is deliberately spread out to avoid overloading 'DfT Operator Ltd' (previously DOHL). The remaining seven DfT operators will be transferred by the end of 2027 — the transfer rate will be one operator every three months as contracts are expire. According to the government's press release is that the transition process will be 'thorough', suggesting that it will not be as simple as changing shareholder, but will be a reorganisation, followed by another reorganisation into the new structure of GBR when it is created. Railfuture Chair, Chris Page was interviewed by LBC and expressed concern about multiple reorganisations disrupting the focus on passengers — listen to the 3 minute 48 second interview.

The Railfuture East Anglia meeting at the prestigious Clayton Hotel, close to Cambridge station on Saturday 7th December 2024, had two speakers. First, before the break, was Cambridge City Councillor Katie Thornburrow, who is the Executive Councillor for Planning, Building Control and Infrastructure, which includes transport matters. She said that transport is becoming the highest priority. The second speaker was Phil Hutchinson of Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR). The most relevant announcement he made was that Cambrridge South station would not open until January 2026, in order to allow a line possession to be taken during Christmas 2025 — the signalling in that area will be a new system, and the first installation, elsewhere in the country, had run into problems. He explained that us that driver shortages have been exacerbated by them taking time out for training on ETCS and the class 379s — they've hired 94 new drivers across the four brands. The 379s, which are being returned from 'cold' storage, need more work than was anticipated because leaving them parked in sidings hadn't been a good idea. The December 2025 timetable will cut up to seven minutes off timings between Cambridge and King's Lynn, partly by eliminating the waiting time at Littleport. It'll also improve times for Shepreth etc, with the Cambridge-King's Cross stoppers running fast on the East Coast Mainline (ECML) and a separate stopping service from Letchworth. The fast trains will no longer overtake the stoppers, so it'll always be best for people arriving at King's Cross wanting to go to CBG to take the next train. He confirmed that current capacity on the two-track section of the ECML is 18 tph; but if automatic train operation (ATO) were to be introduced after the line was running under ETCS then it could potentially be more.

As part of the budget, the government announced that rail fares in England would rise by 4.6% on 2nd March 2025. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced that Tube and rail fares across London will rise by the same percentage on that date. However, bus and tram fares in London will be frozen for an historic sixth time next. For background to this, the Government had written to the Mayor to say that it expected TfL Tube and rail fares to rise in line with national fares in order for London to be able to secure funding for major transport infrastructure projects in the future.

Preparatory work to upgrade the Sizewell branch line, which runs between Saxmundham and Leiston, is set to begin from January 2025, primarily the delivery of materials and equipment to site, although the major renewal of the line — replacing 4.5 miles of jointed with continuously welded rail, installing a new signalling system and upgrading seven level crossings with new barriers, road traffic lights and monitoring systems — will not commence until later in 2025. The line will be used to carry up to 60% of the construction materials to support the construction project for the new Sizewell C power station. The branch line has not seen much activity over recent years as decommissioning of the old reactor had completed. See news article.

Greater Anglia's Class 755 four-carriage bi-mode trains were named the most reliable "second generation new diesel" train at the Modern Railways 'Fourth Friday Club Golden Spanners Awards' held on 22nd November 2024, completing a hat trick of wins, after the operator's Class 755 three-carriage bi-mode trains received the award in 2021.

According to a press release, Greater Anglia (GA) is to 'roll out' paper roll ticketing (PRT) to a further 194 more ticket vending machines (TVMs) across its estate following a "highly successful trial". The white PRT uses fully recyclable lightweight paper, so it is more sustainable than the traditional tangerine magnetic stripe card tickets, which cannot be recycled. Moreover, it uses a QR code, so that it can journeys can be accurately recorded by the automatic ticket gate (ATG) and by ticket checking staff on trains. The TVMs are supplied by Scheidt & Bachmann (S&B) and did not suffer any printer failure during the trial, according to GA. Paper rolls cost less overall and offer increased capacity as they print many more tickets before they run out, so both downtime for refills and staff time is minimised. Because the reverse side of the ticket contains numbered barcodes, the TVM can detect how soon the roll is likely to be exhausted. The new tickets are larger, perhaps so that they cannot accidentally be inserted into the ATG slot, and are not as convenient a shape as the tangerine tickets that are the same size as bank cards and easily fit into wallets.

Work costing an astonishing £5.5 million at Stowmarket railway station to install a replacement footbridge (in the same location) as part of the Government's 'Access for All' scheme will begin on 11th January. The line possession that weekend (for engineering works elsewhere) will be used to remove the old concrete footbridge and erect a temporary one further along the platform. In December 2024 some enabling work will be undertaken. Installation of the new 'AVA' modular footbridge, which is a new type of design that requires less time to install and does not need repainting in a regular basis, is scheduled for May 2025. The 'plug-and-play' lifts cut the installation time needed on site by over half, whilst also providing built-in resilience and redundancy to avoid going out of service. For more info, see news story.

Greater Anglia's innovative 'Live Alternative Route Map' has won the Digital & Technology Idea of the Year award at the 'ideasUK' conference. The innovation provides passengers with a real-time online map that details live train and alternative route travel information in a visual, interactive way during periods of disruption, bringing together real-time data from a variety of sources, including local bus routes, bus stop information, and routes using alternative train operators. When a rail replacement bus service is provided during disruption or engineering works, these details are also provided within the Live Alternative Route Map. The facility, which was launched in June 2023, also presents station details and accessible information, something particularly useful for passengers who may be travelling to a station they have never previously visited. It also provides a calendar feature, allowing passengers to skip forward to a future date and see if there are any engineering works planned. It acts as a one-stop shop for real-time information to both passengers and Greater Anglia (GA) staff. Further enhancements and features are also planned. At these awards, Greater Anglia's new 'Customers First in Disruption' (CFID) process was runner-up in the Customer Focus category, and its 'Found It' lost property online submission tool won runner-up in the Design category. See story.

The Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton community rail partnership (CRP) has been shortlisted in the Tourism and Leisure category for the Community Rail Awards for its our South Cambridgeshire Rail and Ale Trail, which features 16 village pubs close to the railway.

A video entitled "Be part of rail's revolutionary story" to promote taking part in the 'Rail 200' cdewlbrations has been crewated. View it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVMk1DiHM7s (2 minutes 31 seconds).

Mike Lamport will be familiar to long-standing Railfuture and Rail User Group members in East Anglia. He recently made the news as part of the 'Rail 200' celebration (to be held in 2025) as his family, dating back to his great, great grandfather Matthew Mathews joinig the railway in 1846 up to his son, Andrew, who now works for the railway are believed to be the longest continuous cross-generational family employed in Britain's railway history. That is, as Esther Rantzen would have said on That's Life, unless you know differently. See news story.

The Clacton Express Preservation Group has announced that it will be celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Electrification to Ipswich in 1987 on Saturday 12th April 2025. It will have the East Anglia Railway Museum's newest electric acquisitions (a class 309 and class 317) on show, and visitors will have an opportunity to look inside them. The museum is based at Chappel and Wakes Colne Station. Prices for adults are £11.50, children (4-15) at £8.50, under 4s are free.

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Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 381 - 31/12/2024

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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.

How we spell Railfuture — singular, one word, one capital letter (can be abbreviated to Rf).