News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 385 - 30/04/2025
- STATIONS [all issues]
- GUIDED BUSWAY [all issues]
- Cambridgeshire County Council fined £6 million for three "preventable" deaths on guided busway
- Serious head-on collision on Cambridgeshire Guided Busway only hours after County Council fined £6 million for three "preventable" deaths
- WEBSITES AND APPS [all issues]
- Hereward Community Rail Partnership (CRP) website provides a one-stop hub for travel and tourism in North Cambridgeshire
- Live London Undergroup map showing location of trains to assist passengers waiting to board
- Rail Insights — an interactive platform for the rail industry
- PRESERVED RAILWAYS [all issues]
A reminder that the next rail industry timetable change will take place on Sunday 18th May 2025. In East Anglia the changes to services are minimal. However, on the Stansted-Birmingham route, all services are restored to pre-Covid levels as from the start of the May Timetable change.
On Monday 5th May 2025, the Fen Lie Users Association (FLUA) will be celebrating 50 years since the reopening of Watlington Station. FLUA will have a stand in the car park and at 11am there will be a short ceremony to cut a celebratory cake followed by the unveilin of commemorative plaques on both platforms.
On Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th May 2025, there will be no trains operating on the East Coast Main line (ECML) between Peterborough/Royston and London King's Cross (or between Moorgate and Stevenage via Hertford North) because of more testing work on the £1.4 billion transformative East Coast Digital Programme (ECDP). Over the weekend, there will be high-speed digital signalling testing between Welwyn Garden City and Hitchin, preparatory digital signalling work between Biggleswade and Peterborough, and removal of traditional lineside signals between Moorgate and Finsbury Park (as in-cab signalling is now exclusively used on the Northern City Line). Engineers will also take advantage of the closure to renew and refurbish track equipment near Hornsey and Huntingdon, and complete work on drains near Fletton. See article. In April 2025, a world first was achieved when the Tornado steam engine was tested on the ECML with the ETCS equipment on board.
Greater Anglia will be running additional services for racegoers attending Newmarket Races 2000 Guineas Day on Saturday 3rd May 2025.
At Great Yarmouth station a Changing Places toilet — which is much larger than other accessible toilets and has equipment, including a changing bench and hoist, designed to support disabled people who need extra assistance — has been installed.
In early April 2025, objectors to the Cambridge South East Transport (CSET) busway (which is a planend a route between the travel hub near the A11 to A1307 and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus) application for a Transport and Works Order were informed that the deadline for deciding whether to have a public inquiry for the has been extended to 6th June. This is a month after the local elections, in which there could be a new mayor. The current front runner in the polls says he'll scrap it, which would take the decision out of their hands.
The CSET scheme, mentioned above, is one of two TWA Order applications submitted by the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP). About two months before the CSET applicaion, the GCP submitted an application for a busway between Cambourne and Cambridge. On 15th April 2025, the Department for Transport (DfT) wrote to objectors to inform them that a public inquiry will open at 10:00 on Monday 15th September 2025 at The Belfry Hotel at Cambourne: The Cambridge Belfry, Back Lane, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6BW, and it will run until 21st November — it will sit for eight of the 10 weeks during that period (it will not sit on 6th-10th October and 27th-31st October). A pre-inquiry meeting will be held in person on Tuesday 24th June 2025 at South Cambridgeshire District Council's Council Chamber: South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA.
The start date of regular passenger services between Oxford and Bletchley/Milton Keynes remains unclear, as stated in [Snippets 384]. An article in Railnews on 25th April 2025, said: "Chiltern Railways has been training crews with special movements between Bletchley High Level, Fenny Stratford and Bletchley depot, which involve reversing at Fenny Stratford. The training route includes the single line over Fenny Stratford viaduct, and the line is thought to be a candidate for doubling to avoid a bottleneck when services eventually start running between Oxford and Bedford." The article, which was written following an event at the Railway Civil Engineers' Association in London on 25th April, said that it was unlikely that services would start before December 2025.
Colchester car park has been de-constructed ahead of its re-design and reopening in 2026 (providing an increase in the number
of accessible bays, new walking routes, improved lighting, and CCTV, along with new cycle parking and motorcycle parking). The demolition was
undertaken by Capel C.S Ltd. The car park was closed in July 2024 after a structural survey of the decked area suggested potential deterioration
of the concrete structure, requiring it to be closed to the public for safety reasons. See
Many users of the long-running and incredibly popular https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/ website have asked why they could not use it to buy train tickets. Well, now they can! On 1st April (no, not an April Fool's joke), RTT announced on its blog the launch, having been working with TrainSplit on this quietly for the last few months. Purchase tickets using www.realtimetickets.co.uk. RTT won't charge a booking fee if just buying a normal direct ticket from us, but if they find you a saving using split ticket, then they will charge a small 'share of saving' fee based on the difference between the split and normal tickets. RTT's facility also includes 'Daytripper', which is not about finding the cheapest ticket from A to B, but instead it's about finding you ideas of places to go - click on the 'Give me ideas' option and specify your budget. They have worked with a travel journalist to compile this list and currently have over 170 destinations.
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) will now be hosting its May 2025 Timetable & GTR Update Stakeholder Forum on Tuesday 6th May 2025 at 12:00. GTR will share updates on the timetable changes coming to the Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express networks on 18th May, aloing with wider updates on the Govia Thameslink Railway network and the changes and improvements customers can expect to see over the year ahead. There will be an opportunity to ask questions. Contact GTR's Public Affairs team to join.
An open-access bid has been submitted to utilise the Marston Vale and Bletchley-Bicester section of East West Rail to provide a through service from Nottingham (via Leicester, Bedford and Oxford) to Bristol. See news story in RAIL magazine.
As mentioned in [Snippets 384] there was a UK Railtours charter on the reopened Bicester-Bletchley route in both directions on Saturday 17th May 2025. This has been so popular that a second charter, The Green Shed, will run on Sunday 25th May.
With £17,000 from Greater Anglia's Customer & Community Improvement Fund, the East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership (CRP) has ve been able to purchase and install defibrillators that are now at every station on the Ipswich-Lowestoft and Ipswich-Felixstowe lines.
The Westerfield station adopters are hoping to collect stories about the station through the ages to celebrate 200 years of the railway. They are aiming to compile a booklet of memories of Westerfield Station from local people who may have been involved with the station, or knew people who were, or people who have fond memories of travelling on the line between Ipswich and Lowestoft and between Ipswich and Felixstowe. The book will be produced with the support of the East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership. Stories (maximum of 500 words) can be sent in by email (deadline is Friday 30th May 2025) to [mary at jjp.myzen.co.uk].
According to a feature in the Cambridge Independent newspaper, candidates to become Cambridgeshire's next mayor have ruled out introducing a congestion charge but differ in how they would solve the challenge. Paul Bristow, the Conservative candidate, favours light rail, as does Liberal Democrat Lorna Dupré, who would explore trams and light rail; however, Labour's Anna Smith says a reliable bus service is the best option and Bob Ensch, standing for the Greens, says he would work to expand bus services. Mr Bristow believes a mass public transport system that is desirable, that people aspire to use, is convenient, that is there every few minutes can only be delivered by light rail, saying "A busway here, extra buses there and a junction alteration over here is not going to cut it." Stagecoach East announced in Marxh 2025 that it had been forced to adjust its busway timetables to get through the traffic in Cambridge.
On Wednesday 9th April 2025, the government confirmed that the Universal Leisure Theme Park will be coming to Bedfordshire, although it will not open until 2031. As mentioned before in Snippets, it will be located at the former brickworks near to the perimeter of the Bedford area with railway stations access on two sides of it (the Midland Mainline and the Marston Vale line). The new Wixams station is being built with two platforms on the slow lines and may need upgrading to provide platforms on the fast tracks as well. The theme park is predicted to have eightmillion visitors per year from all directions. This newes torty was carrfied in many newspepers and media (see: Independent, BBC).
Greater Anglia has announced that its 'Hare fares' are back, offering off-peak, day returns across the Greater Anglia network, with a range of simple return prices (£7 for Norwich to Sheringham, Norwich to Lowestoft, Norwich to Great Yarmouth; £14 for Cambridge to London, Chelmsford to London, Norwich to Cambridge; £22 for Chelmsford to Ipswich, Colchester to London, Southend to Colchester; and £28 for Chelmsford to Norwich, Norwich to London, Shenfield to Norwich) with children travelling for just £2 return each. Tickets must be booked by 22th April for travel between 8th April and 10th June 2025.
Greater Anglia (GA) has been named as the most punctual train operator in Britain for over 2 years. Its annual performance for the 12 months to 31st March 2025 was 94.1% with seven routes over 95%. However, this figure uses the discredited, but long-standing, public performance measure (PPM), which measures the arrival time only at the final stations for each service (not at each called station). However, GA achieved 93.9% on the more challenging 'Time to 3' performance measure, which measures the arrival within 3 minutes at every station it serves. See article.
In an interview with RAIL magazine in April 2025, Greater Anglia's Managing Director, Meartin Brable, said he was hoping for "earned autonomy" from the Department for Transport (DfT) once the operator is taken into public ownership in autumn 2025.
Heidi Alexander MP, the secretary of State for Transport will address the 2025 conference of the European Passengers' Federation, which brings together public transport users' associations from some 30 European countries. The conference will be in Swindon on 13th and 14th June. Details are on www.epf.eu. As Railfuture is affiliated to EPF, individual members receive a 50 per cent reduction in the conference fee. The conference will be in English and this will be the first time since 2009 that it has been held in Britain.
According to a government announcement, leisure travel now tops the chart for reasons that people choose rail, based on an analysis of ticket types sold. The full report can be read here.
By April 2025, the introduction of Greater Anglia's class 720 Aventra trains was almost complete, with 132 out of 133 trains available for traffic with one more to follow. The order has changed since it was initially placed and they are late.
On 9th April 2025 four former Cross Country Mk 3s carriages were moved to the Mid-Norfolk Railway for storage following their use on various tests on the ECML. This means 12 ex-XC Mk 3s were at the MNR, 10 of which will then exported to Mexico (after being taken to Great Yarmouth port). There are 14 already in Mexico, whilst sone is for sale and three have been scrapped.
The Fen Line Users Association (FLUA) has announced that its 2025 AGM will be held on Saturday 15th November at Marriott's Warehouse, South Quay, King's Lynn PE30 5DT from 14:00. It will be preceeded, at 12:30, by a FLUA 40th Anniversary Celebratory Lunch at the same venue. FLUA members have been sent a booking form for the lunch. FLUA has also arranged a visit to Hornsey Depot (where Fen Line trains are serviced and maintained) for its members on Saturday 28th June 2025. This must be booked in advance.
Many people in East Anglia would like to travel by train through the Channel Tunnel. Since it opened, Euroatar has had a monopoly on passenger services, but there are several challengers waiting in the wings, who wish to operate services. London St. Pancras Highspeed (formerly known as HS1) has proposed an incentive scheme that would offer track access charges discounts of up to 50% for the first year for rail operators that launch new cross-channel services. LSPH also includes proposes incentives for serving new destinations, including Stratford International.
An article in the Eastern Daily Press (EDP) on 14th April 2025 entitled "Save our stations! Fears for fate of 'abandoned' Norfolk railway buildings" looked at the station buildings at Brandon and Salhouse, which are both open stations, and at Trowse, a closed station. All stand empty and are boarded up. The EDP looked at the 'Save Our Stations' campaign (set up by Piers Hart, chairman of Historic Suffolk, with support from organisations such as Historic Norfolk, SAVE Britain's Heritage and countryside charity CPRE), which supports community groups that want to take on these buildings and to put pressure on railway chiefs. The artice included a quote, saying: "If Network Rail and Greater Anglia won't work with business and local communities, then responsibility for these precious buildings should instead be handed over to a trust charged with ensuring their sustainable future, which is where Save Our Stations comes in." Mr Hart gave a talk about the Save Our Stations campaign will be given in Wymondham on Wednesday 16th April at 19:00 at Becket's Chapel &mdashj; this is the Historic Norfolk Annual Lecture.
On Wednesday 23th April 2025, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander MP faced the Transport Committee for the first time since taking up the post, following the resignation of Louise Haigh. The cross-party Committee question Ms Alenander on the range of major reforms the Department for Transport (DfT) is undertaking, as well as on wider strategic issues such as decarbonisation across transport modes and road safety. There were questions about preparations to transfer rail services to the DfT Operator Ltd, establishing Great British Railways, and the Government's approach to open access on the railways. Read the transcript.
Community Rail Week wil be held from Monday 19th to Sunday 25th May, linking in with the national 'Railway 200', celebrations to mark 200 years of the modern railway in Great Britain. Each day will have a different focus. Monday is launch day, Tuesday covers skills & education, Wednesday is innovation, technology & environment, Thursday is heritage, culture & tourism and Friday celebrates railway people. More details on the https://communityrail.org.uk/ website.
It was reported on 24th April 2025 that class 321 unit 321316 was taken to Newport Docks for scrapping, leaving only 321327 and 321329 at Wembley. Once they have been taken away it will mean all 30 former Greatera Anglia Renatus EMUs will have been dismantled — quite a waste give the signficant cost of converting them only a few years earlier.
The UK government has announced a fund of £5 million for companies proposing ideas to drive rail innovations that would improving the passenger experience, particularly level boarding, greener transport, passenger safety and AI solutions. See government announcement.
The Cambridge University Railway Club (CURC) has announced that its final talk of the academic year will be Hannah French and Stephen Watson; Hannah and Stephen work at the Cambridge office of Arthur D. Little, which is a global consulting firm. They work regularly with the rail industry both nationally and internationally, for organisations including Network Rail, MTR, Alstom, LNER and SSICF, and with experience across a range of topics such as risk modelling, strategic safety management and infrastructure maintenance. The talk will focus on how consultants work with the rail industry. The talk will be on Tuesday 27th May 2025 at the Harrods Room in Emmanuel College, with doors opening at 17:45 for a prompt 18.00 start.
STATIONS
Network Rail enters into joint venture to exploit its land around Cambridge North to create a major mixed-use neighbourhood
Keywords: [CambridgeNorth]
Cambridge North station opened in May 2017, and at the time was the only building on Network Rail's vast area of the former Chesterton Sidings disused railway land. Since the the Novotel Hotel has opened along wiuth the One Cambridge Square office building, which is now 75% let, but the rest of its land is still unoccupied, although NR's intention has been for the entire site to be redeveloped to create a new residential quarter along with offices and laboratories. In April 2025, it was annouced that The Chesterton Partnership, a joint venture led by developer Brookgate, has selected blocwork (a joint venture between Network Rail Property and developer bloc) to bring forward the residential phase of development of 425 homes at Cambridge North for which there is already outline planning permission. It will be designed as an ultra-low car use neighbourhood with excellent public transport and cycling links. In rail terms, patronage at Camrbdge North station will grow immensely, dwarfing the original business case (produced by Cambridgeshire County Council 15 yerars ago) of a meagree 800,000 footfall a year.
Network Rail is the largest owner of brownfield land in Great Britain, and aims to unlock strategically important sites such as this to delivering sustainable housing to drive future growth, meeting the government's economic aspirations. Cambridge North will be one of the first schemes to be brought forward by Network Rail's newly created property compan, which is set to launch in late 2025 and will deliver more than 40,000 new homes over the coming decade.
Network Rail is not the only source of land that is within walking distance of Cambridge North station. Anglian Water's Development Consent Order (DCO) application for the relocation of the Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Plant (CWWTP) — to a new site between Horningsea, Fen Ditton, and Stow cum Quy, adjacent to the A14 — was granted on 8th April 2025 by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. This will free-up space for almost 7,000 new homes. Close by several offices have been demolished and are being replaced with taller and denser offices. Cambridge North station will be very convenient for many reaidents and workers in the area.
GUIDED BUSWAY
Cambridgeshire County Council fined £6 million for three "preventable" deaths on guided busway
As mentioned in [Snippets 378], Cambridgeshire County Council had pleaded guilty to two charges under Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, relating to three members of the public being killed when trying to cross the busway at designated crossings or accidentally falling into the path of a bus whilst cycling alongside the busway. During the long public inquiry in 2004, objectors had warned of the dangers posted by the council refusing to install fencing or lighting, presumably to save money. The case had been brought to court by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) because of the deaths, although other (less serious) incidents had never been reported to it. On 16th April 2025, the council was fined £6 million and given three years to pay. The council had pleaded a shortage of funds and asked for six years to pay, but the judge said that the council had more than £18m in reserves to cover legal risks.
Although the busway opened in 2011, the court heard that there was no risk assessment in place until 2016 — a fact the judge described as "particularly shocking" (a railway cannot operate without a safety case, which is extremely comprehensive), and accused the council of being "rigid and blinkered response" to the fatalities, as well as numerous near-misses and accidents. The first death was in November 2015, but nothing was done until after two more deaths in 2018 and 2021. The council's chief executive, Stephen Moir, said that they "should never have happened." It has since installed fencing on the southern section of the busway at the Cambrdge end, reduced speed limits and reviewed all signs. However, this was a case of shutting the table door after the horse had bolted — when the HSE issued an improvement notice in 2018, the council appealed the notice, claiming that the HSE's intervention was "unwarranted and unlawful."
News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdrg65y3107o "Council fined millions after three busway deaths"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg72djdvzl5o "The deadly flaws of the longest guided busway".
Serious head-on collision on Cambridgeshire Guided Busway only hours after County Council fined £6 million for three "preventable" deaths
Just after 14:00 — only hours after the £6 million fine was imposed on Cambrideshire County Council over three deaths on the busway — there was a crash between a fire engine and two single-deck guided buses at the junction with the busway on the B1050 Station Road close to Northstowe. In the head-on bus (cab to cab) collision, the 44-year-old female bus driver received serious injuries and remained in hospital, whilst 11 other people (including the driver of the second bus) were taken to hospital had minor injuries. Two air ambulances were also sent to the scene. Soon after the incident, the first BBC report included an aerial photo showing both buses on the same track having collided with the fire enginge behind, and it quoted an eye-witness who said: "There were two buses and a fire engine and it looked like the fire engine had hit one bus, which pushed that bus into another bus."
News: https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/live-b1050-updates-crash-closes-31438387
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8evrkkj0zo "People 'shouting and screaming' after busway crash".
WEBSITES AND APPS
Hereward Community Rail Partnership (CRP) website provides a one-stop hub for travel and tourism in North Cambridgeshire
The Hereward Community Rail Partnership (CRP) — which promotes the Hereward railway line between Peterborough and Ely and its stations at Peterborough, Whittlesea, March, Manea, and Ely — has recently upgraded its https://herewardcrp.org/ website with an improved home page, better site navigation, drone footage of trains passing through the Cambridgeshire countryside, travel guides and suggested itineraries, interactive maps, and walking and cycling maps.
The website upgrade was partly funded by a £4,000 grant from Greater Anglia's Customer and Community Improvement Fund (which is ultimately funded by the taxpayer, as train operators receive no fare revenue). The grants are intended to fund projects that benefit local communities and improve the role of rail transport in society.
Live London Undergroup map showing location of trains to assist passengers waiting to board
The https://www.londonunderground.live/ website, written by Ben James, enables London Underground passengers who are waiting for a train (or people waiting to meet someone currently on a train) to work out how far away the train is. It presents this information via a map of the underground system with each line's colour shown in bold on the stretch of route where the train is currently located, and in light where there is no train. The user can zoom in and zoom out on the map. The website uses Transport for London (TfL) data to show trains moving in real-time. Trains are shown moving (the graphic changes every fraction of a second, based on a prediction). Hovering over a train shows its identify code, progress towards the next station as a percentage and the expected arrival time at the next two stops.
As an alternative to using a map, the website can show a 'board' for a specified underground station showing the expected train arrival times at each platform.
News: https://www.mylondon.news/news/transport/incredible-live-london-underground-map-31409512
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/london-underground-tube-map-commuting-train-b1224331.html.
Rail Insights — an interactive platform for the rail industry
A new Rail Insights, emblazoned with the Network Rail logo, is being beta-tested. From the screenshots on the home page of the www.rail-insights.co.uk/ wensite, it looks like it pulls together a number of useful data sources for looking at current loadings / overcrowding etc - and some common demographics, even if it's not quite advanced enough to experiment with service planning right now. The team behind it says "We are dedicated to improving public transport in the UK by placing passengers at the heart of our thinking. We believe in the power of open data sharing to drive innovation and solve problems, making passenger journeys smoother and more enjoyable. With insights at our fingertips, we strive for clarity and excellence in everything we do."
PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Donations sought to relocate Wansford Road station in Sutton to become gateway at the Nene Valley Railway and Railworld
Keywords: [NeneValleyRailway]
The former Victorian Wansford Road railway station in Sutton, Cambridgeshire, which was at risk of of being bulldozed to make way for dualling of the A47 road, was rescued in 2024, when it was dismantled 'brick by brick'. The building, which was last used by passengers in 1929, is being erected at the Nene Valley Railway (NVR) in Peterborough to become a gateway to both the railway and neighbouring Railworld Wildlife Haven. Many of the buildings at NVR and Railworld were put up as temporary structures 40 years ago and were coming to the end of their lives. More than £200,000 of funding from National Highways was provided to support the relocation project. The building has been installed but it still needs to be made fit for catering — another £150,000 is needed to complete the project.
News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyvqg34lq6qo.amp.
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Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 385 - 30/04/2025
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Railfuture is a non-profit making pro-rail campaiging organisation, which is run entirely by unpaid volunteeers, including production of Rail News Snippets for the East Anglian branch of Railfuture.
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