News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 382 - 31/01/2025
Former Greater Angila, Jamie Burles, has been appointed as Network Rail's first Deputy Managing Director for the Eastern region, a newly created role to support leadership across four major routes. He will work alongside Jake Kelly, the current Regional Managing Director of the Eastern region, and also support Ellie Burrows, who will take on the role of Regional Managing Director in April 2025. See news story.
The East West Rail (EWR) Company says that since the public consultation consultation was launched on 14th November 2024, by the end of it, 5,200 people (of which more than 3,100 were before the New Year) attended its 16 in-person events (10 in late 2024 and six in January 2025) to find out about it latest plans for the rail link between Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge. See the news story after it closed (and an earlier news story for the 2024 attendance figures). There is also an EWR EWR video on YouTube.
According to an article in the Cambridge Independent on 24th January 2025 Cambridge City Council have indicated their support for a Cambridge East station which could be created under plans for a railway turnback facility (to reduce the impact on Cambridge's main station and avoid disruptive works there) as part of East West Rail. They argue that a railway station at Cherry Hinton, not far from the Cambridge Airport site (proposed to accommodate 7,000 homes when Marshall relocates the airport by the end of the decade), could provide a long-term means of sustainable transport in the area.
In a speech on Wednesday 29th Jauary 2025 in in Oxfordshire, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced plans for an 'Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor', which has the "potential to be Europe's Silicon Valley" and could add up to £78 billion to the UK economy by 2035. She referred to new homes and improved transport infrastructure between the two cities (i.e. along the proposed East West Rail Line) were needed, saying "At the moment it takes two-and-a-half hours to travel between Oxford and Cambridge by train, there is no way to commute directly by rail from places like Bedford and Milton Keynes to Cambridge. And there is a lack of affordable housing right across the region [but] the demand is there" and claimed that the covernment had "already received proposals for new towns along the new railway, with 18 submissions for sizable new developments." As part of the speech, Ms Reeves confirmed funding for East West Rail, without saying how much would be provided, for what and when, although on the positive side, building of a new station on the East Coast Mainline at Tempsford will be accelerated by three to five years, but this seemed to be in the context of services to London, as the proposed interchange with EWR there would happen eventually'. See formal government announcement and news story.
An unexpected bonus to the case for East West Rail (EWR) has been the proposal by Universal Studios to build a theme park (covering 283 hectares of land) in Kempston Hardwick right beside the Marston Vale railway line and extending across to the Midland Mainline. It was not mentioned in Rachel Reeves' recent speech about EWR, and the government is still only saying that negotiations between it and the studios are 'ongoing'. See BBC News story.
Footfall at the under-construction Cambridge South station was given a further boost on 20th Jsanuary 2025 when the Secretary of State for Health, West Streeting, approved the Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital following the New Hospital Programme review. See news story.
Meanwhile footfall at Ipswich railway station will also be helped if three separate blocks of flats (comprising 111 one- and two-bedroom dwellings) on vacant land on the corner of Ranelagh Road and Princes Street bridge directly opposite Ipswich station are approved. See news story.
In late January 2025, Greater Anglia announced that £285,000 has been spent to upgrade and refurbish the platform canopies on platforms 1 and 4 at Cambridge station, with the installation of 200 new polycarbonate glazing panels along the entire length of the canopies — the original glazing that had reached the end of its life. The work took place from 27th to 30th December 2024. See news story.
Following similar promotions in the last couple of years, the government has launched a national 'Rail Sale' for 2025 with offers up to half-price discounts onf selected advance fares (and some off-peak fares) on over two million tickets. The purchase must be made between 14th and 20th January 2025 for travel between 17th January and 31st March. Railcards cannot be used, so for many travellers, the claimed 50% discount will only be a 17% discount. Posts on X/Twitter have highlighted some absurd anomolies, such as an 'advance single' being cheaper than the 'railcard advance single'. The Rail Sale in 2003 saw 600,000 tickets sold, worth £5.1m in ticket sales for the industry, and resulting in an extra 440,000 journeys taken by train. See news story.
According to its Janaury 2025 'InTouch' newsletter, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) intends to introduce advance fares on some of its Great Northern and Thameslink services to and from London, although it is inclear how this would work if few services have on-board ticket checks. GTR is also to increase weekend fares (by doing away with 'Super Off-Peak') "to better reflect the increase in demand in weekend travel". Some might comment that it seemed illogical to have lower fares when the trains are fullest, especially on Sundays.
Work started in January 2025 at Biggleswade station to install a new footbridge and lifts. It is funded by the Government's Access for All Programme and is expected to be completed by December 2025. See news story.
In January 2025, work also progressed on the new 'first-of-its-kind' accessible 'AVA' footbridge at Stowmarket station. See news story.
The northern entrance at Bury St Edmunds station, which was opened a couple of years ago, will be getting a new 52-space cycle hub and improved walking and cycling routes, thanks to funding from Suffolk County Council, West Suffolk council and the Department for Transport (funds managed by Sustrans).
Taxpayers will be paying for 34 community projects, worth £350,000, across Greater Anglia network as part of a Customer and Community Improvement Fund initiative. Most of the schemes have some link with the railway, including renovating station buildings, making the station area look better or easier to get to. For example, £10,000 was awarded to Community Rail Norfolk to enhance the appearance of North Walsham station with the installation of eight large planters, panels of artwork and a lined pedestrian walking route from the car park). A modest £500 will provide picnic benches at Gunton station to offer walkers an attractive place to rest and have refreshments, whilst almost £5,000 was made to the Hereward Community Rail Partnership to upgrade its website. See news story.
Contactless ticketing will be rolled out at 47 more stations in the southeast from 2nd February 2025 (haivngf been delayed from 2024. This doesn't affect East Anglia, but it was announced on 20th January that later in 2025 it will rolled out to another 49 stations including Stansted Airport (meaning all London airports will be accessible by tap-in tap-out ticketing for the first time ever) Baldock, Hitchin, Letchworth Garden City and Stevenage. See news story and DfT announcement.
Almost eight-and-a-half years after Greater Anglia placed its order, it is understood that there are still nine brand new class 720 trains in storage at Alstom's works in Derby. The original nine-year franchise would have ended in October 2025, around the time that the government will begin the company into public ownership. The question is whether these trains will be in service by then.
According to an article dated 23rd January 2025 in the New Civil Engineer magazine, Centre Port, the developer of the proposed Wash tidal barrage (with a rail link) and container port, says it has secured funding to pursue a development consent order (DCO) for the project. See news story.
The North Norfolk Railway (NNR) has recently used funding of £34,427 from the Rural England Prosperity Fund to complete vital infrastructure improvements, which includes the installation of new LED, low-energy lighting throughout the engineering facilities at Weybourne Station, along with a new (second) coal bunker and oil store. The NNR will now be able to store ovoids of smokeless solid fuel which are used blended with traditional coal to reduce the emissions and the risk of lineside fires. The NNR also grateful received £5,000 from 'Future Skills NOW' towards training staff in a range of safety critical tasks including banksman and slinger, woodworking, chainsaw use and abrasive wheel machinery. Overheads on many heritage railways have increased significantly in recent years and it now costs approximately £3.8 million for the NNR to run each year. July 2025 marks the North Norfolk Railway's Golden Anniversary — it will be 50 years since the line first operated steam services out of Sheringham Station during the preservation era, initially under a British Rail licence until 1976 when the company obtained a light railway order. See news story and also at EDP (requires login).
On Valentine's day (14th February 2025) the North Norfolk Railway (NNR) is offering couples the chance to wine and dine on a romantic journey aboard The North Norfolkman. Staff will serve a glass of bubbly as they board at Sheringham station at 19:00 before dishing up a three-course dinner on the jounrey to Holt. A sharing platter of meat and cheeses will be the starter, with lamb shank or cod for the main course, followed by dessert. See EDP news story.
The Mid-Norfolk Railway has relaunched its www.midnorfolkrailway.co.uk/ website to offer a "sleek, modern look and a more user-friendly interface."
For anyone promoting a new railway station or line, evidence of the "build it and they will come" principle will be conforted by news that more than 50,000 passenger journeys have been made on the Northumberland line in its first month, despite four of the six new stations not having yet opened. This includes more than 3,500 on its opening day and 16,000 in the first week. The route between Newcastle and Ashington opened on 15th December 2024 — 60 years after the last passenger trains — after a £298.5 million project to restore services.
The Cambridge University Railway Club (CURC) has announced its line-up of speakers for the Lent 2025 term. On Tuesday 4th Ferbruary Richard Clinnick (Editor of the Modern Railways magazine) will give a talk about railway journalism, Keith Alexander and David Hands, museum curators of the Nene Valley Railway on Tuesday 25th February, James Shanley of Young Rail Professionals talking about working in the railway industry in Ireland on Tuesday 11th March, and Ben Eyers, Sales and Business Executive, Hovertravel on Tuesday 18th March. All meetings will be held in the Angevin Room at Queens' College and start at 18:00, with doors opening at 17:45.
As well as the railway celebrating 200 years (since bringing together elements of earlier railways over preceding centuries with the opening the Stockton and Darlington Railway), the Railway Industry Association (RIA) is also celebrating a major anniversary, 150 years, in 2025. And thirdly, it's the 50th anniversary of the National Railway Museum in York.
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Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 382 - 31/01/2025
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