News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 394 - 31/01/2026
Images have been produced showing what Lowestoft station could look like if a roof is reinstated across the concourse and along the platforms. The original roof was removed in 1992 because it was in poor condition and it has been entirely uncovered ever since. Thanks to donations received, the Lowestoft Central Project and Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership (CRP) commissioned railway architects to produce the designs that draw upon the station's Victorian heritage and similar railway structures in the region. The design 'concept' shows a double apex roof over the main station concourse with additional canopies situated over the station's three platforms. The next stage is to raise further funds for additional work to create full architectural plans which can then be fully costed before potential large-scale funding opportunities can be investigated. Information taken from a BBC article and the East Anglian Daily Times.
The team working on the Cambridgeshire 'C3R' re-signalling completed the converasion of Meldreth Road level crossing (to full-barrier) — after running tests on the new equipment and running a GTR test train over the crossing — a week earlier than planned, opening the road on 5th January 2026. A video can be seen at here.
Railfuture has a guest blog on the Cambridgeshire Sustainable Travel Alliance website discussing what needs to happen so more people can travel by train in Cambridgeshire. This opinion piece was published in the Cambridge Independent on 17th December 2025 on page 16.
The delay to the start of passenger services between Oxford and Milton Keynes (as reported in [Snippets 392]), partly becuase of a dispute between Chiltern Railways and the unions over Driver Controlled Operations (DCO), as reported by the rail media, was picked up by the Times newspaper on 3rd January 2026. Its article included comments by all parties, including the Conservative opposition spokesman, but did not add anything to what was already known. Whether this exposure to a wider audience will lead to a speedy resolution or just cause positions to be further entrenched remains to be seen. For sure, as the government continues re-nationmalisation train operators, it will not be able to hide behind TOCs in the future once it owns them.
The BBC reported on 6th January 2026 that the Nene Valley Railway (NVR) had a disappointing Christmas with fewer passengers than it hoped for, and fewer full trains, which means that it is facing 2026 in a "trickier position" than it anticipated. Explaining the situation, the NVR's chairman saud "drop in numbers reflected cost of living challenges." In 2025, the volunteer-run NVR launched an urgent appeal to raise £300,000 to help keep it running in the face of rising costs and financial challenges.
Additional content will be added to this page.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 394 - 31/01/2026
[Prev Issue (393)] [Snippets Issues] [Category List] [Keyword List] [People List] [Story List] [Branch Dashboard]
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.
How we spell Railfuture — singular, one word, one capital letter (can be abbreviated to Rf).