News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 383 - 28/02/2025
Railfuture's mini-conference for its East Anglia, East Midlands and Lincolnshire branches will be held on Thursday 15th May 2025 in Peterborough. Details are at www.railfuture.org.uk/conferences/. The event is free to attend (a donation of £5 is required for the buffet lunch) but spaces are limited so it is important to book up in advance via EventBrite.
At the Railfuture East Anglia meeting in Cambridge on 7th December 2024, the audience heard that Cambridge South station would not open until January 2026, something that was included in RAIL EAST issue 205 (February 2025). In late February, this 'news' finally broke with the local newspapers quoting Network Rail saying: "If both milestones are successfully delivered as planned in December 2025, we will be able to open the new station in early 2026. While later than originally planned, the integrated infrastructure and timetable enhancements will ensure Cambridge South is fully equipped to meet the needs of the biomedical campus, the local community, and the wider region for years to come." See news story.
MARPA will be holding its AGM on Saturday 29th March at 14:00. The venue is the Friend's Meeting House, St John's Street, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 1SJ. The meeting will focus on the new Community Rail Partnership covering the Ipsiwch-Ely/Cambridge line. Everyone is welcome and free refreshments will be available.
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has confirmed that it has signed a £24.5 million 'variation' contract with Alstom to help reactivate 30 Class 379 Electrostar trains that were used by Greater Anglia (GA) but have been mothballed since GA's replacement class 720 trains were introduced. The reactivation process will see the installation (a first for GTR) of Alstom's HealthHub web-based platform that analyses and displays all the data captured by the train, which sends data on more than 200 features (train speed, temperature inside the carriages, GPS coordinates that give its location). This provides real-time monitoring that alerts the team if there is anything wrong with the train and can help to prevent incidents happening in the future. The first class 379 trains entered service on Monday 10th February (units 379002 and 379022) and will initially be used on Great Northern services betweenm King's cross and Letchworth Garden City.
Greater Anglia has announced an hourly Sunday service for West Runton station from 14th December 2025, doubling it from the current two-hourly frequency. It already has an hourly service for the rest of the week.
Railfuture attended the Department for Transport's roadshow about its proposed national Integrated Transport Strategy in Ipswich on 19 February. The event was opened by Alex Hynes, DfT's Director General, Rail Services.
On 11th February 2025, Cambridgeshire County Council agreed to submit a Transport and Works Act Order to government on behalf of the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) to construct a new busway, travel hub and adjacent walking/cycling route from Waterbeach (serving the new town there). The new travel hub at Waterbeach, if it goes ahead, would link to Milton park & ride, the existing St Ives busway, Cambridge Regional College and the Science Park. There was no mention of Cambridge North station in the announcement.
On Saturday 15th February 2025, the first fare-paying passenger train travelled along the East West Rail route betweeen Bicester and Bletchley (see photo on X/Twitter). It was a charter train run by Pathfinder Tours caled "The Verney Venturer". An opening date for normal services has still not been announced, although Network Rail has been trumpeting the new 'cutting edge' signalling system used for the route, which will be operated from the Rail Operating Centre (ROC) in Rugby. Prior to this, the first trains carrying passengers — stakeholders and VIPs only — ran on Friday 7th February from South Marston Euro Terminal to Milton Keynes Central, consisting of four carriages with a class 47 locomotiove on either end.
The East West Rail Company announced in February 2025 that it had appointed a joint venture comprising WSP and Mott MacDonald as Construction Design and Management Principal Designer for East West Rail. They will provide the technical and management resources to support EWR Co as it prepares to apply for a development consent order (DCO).
Before the deadline for submissions to the 2025 spending review, Politicians and business groups from across the East of England (31 MPs, 20 business organisations, 11 council leaders and three university vice chancellors) have written to ministers saying the upgrades at Ely and Haughley are long overdue (the campaign to improve the two junctions has been going on for almost 15 years) and would play a major role in growing the economy. The two schmes together would cost more than £500m, but the investment could produce "£4.89 of economic benefits for every pound invested." Network Rail needs to be given money to start drawing up detailed plans for the work. A public consultation on high-level proposals was held in 2021. The outcome of spending review is due to be announced on 11th June 2025. See news story.
England's Economic Heartland's submission to the Spending Review 'call for evidence' says that a "core theme of our submission is to build upon and maximise the value of existing investment in the region to unlock an integrated, better connected transport system for both people and goods." It is pushing for an upgrade of Ely Junction as well as an Aylesbury-Milton Keynes link as part of East West Rail.
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) will have a new mayor from early May 2025 as the current mayor, Nik Johnson, who was was the second person to hold the role when elected in 2021, has decided not to seek re-election.
Greater Anglia (GA) has been named Train Operator of the Year at the Rail Business Awards 2025, with the judges saying that it has "consistently delivered a robust and reliable service for its users over the past year." This is the third time in six years that GA has received the accolade, having won it in 2020 and 2021. It was also a runner up in 2022, 2023 and 2024. GA was also named Passenger Operator of the Year award at the National Rail Awards in September 2024. See article.
As mentioned in [Snippets 377], Greater Anglia (GA) was installing a £17m wheel lathe at its Clacton depot, which would be its first permanent wheel lathe facility. In February 2025 Rail Business Daily reported a news update in which it was stated that Spencer group carried out two blockades totalling over 90 hours to upgrade the existing infrastructure at Clacton.
CrossCountry Trains has announced the appointment of Shiona Rolfe as its new Managing Director, taking effect from Saturday 1st March. She joins from Amazon.
On Thursday 6th February schoolchildren from the Shade School in Soham were take on a train trip from Soham to Ely to help to help them gain confidence when travelling by rail. The trip on was organised by the Hereward Community Rail Partnership (CRP), which serves Fenland's Hereward Line between Ely and Peterborough. See news story.
The Norwich to Lowestoft railway line (one of ther Wherry Lines) has been chosen as one of the most scenic train journeys in the UK by National Geographic. See article.
The Mid-Norfolk Railway (MNR) has annouced that its first public trains of 2025 will be on the weekend of 1st and 2nd March when it will be running its class 142 'Pacer' train. Its annual Model Railway Exhibition will be held on Saturday 1st March 2025 at Dereham Memorial Hall. The MNR will be running a variety of diesel and steam services over the weekend of 22nd and 23rd March to celebrate its 30 years of running train services. It will also be holding two Murder Mystery Experiences on Saturday 17th May and Saturday 19th July 2025. It will also be holding monthly car boot sales on a Thursday betrween March and September at Dereham station; details on its website.
COMMUNITY RAILWAYS AND PARTNERSHIPS
Ipswich to Cambridge Community Rail Partnership is now up and running
Keywords: [EssexSouthSuffolkCRP]
Greater Anglia (GA) announced in February 2025 that the new Ipswich to Cambridge Community Rail Partnership (CRP) is up and running and preparing for its first full year of operation (its creation was announced in October 2024). A CRP steering group has now met twice, funding has been committed by all the partners in the CRP, and Suffolk County Council is about to start the process of recruiting a CRP Officer who will lead the CRP's activities, helping to promote rail services along the route, in line with the aspirations and input of local communities.
The key priorities for the CRP include:
- raising the profile of rail travel along the line between Ipswich and Cambridge, with its regular, hourly service provided
- encouraging more use of the train for journeys along this key corridor
- building awareness of travel options to and from stations (e.g. bus, cycle and pedestrian routes and taxi options)
- encouraging rail use amongst groups who might not previously have been rail travellers
- further improving station facilities in partnership with GA, station adopters and other interested parties locally
- promoting attractions and places of interest along the route
- supporting social inclusion
- greater involvement of the community in the sustainable development of the railway in line with local needs
The CRP officer, once appointed, can then actively take forward the strategy and action plan for the CRP (which the steering group will agree), aiming to replicate the positive impact of other CRPs in the region, which have helped promote rail services in local communities and champion small scale station improvements.
News: https://news.railbusinessdaily.com/ipswich-to-cambridge-community-rail-partnership-gets-underway/.
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Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 383 - 28/02/2025
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