News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 395 - 28/02/2026
Railfuture held a partliamentary reception at Westminster on Tuesday 3rd February 2026 to launch 'A Growth Opportunity for Railways', its discussion paper on the impacts and potential for Great British Railways; read it here, which is linked from https://railfuture.org.uk/Social-Media-3rd-February-2026. The includes a high-level summary of a possible new Universal Railcard that knows about the traveller's circumstances and what journeys they do and have done and, crucially, givesd a bit for evcery trip made - see https://www.railfuture.org.uk/display4258.
Greater Anglia (GA) to extend pay-as-you-go (PAYG) contactless ticketing (which uses a contactless bank card, smartphone, or smart device) to 20 additional stations from 8th March 2026. This will make it easier for people travelling on key commuter and airport routes into and out of London (including the Stansted Express route). Contactless ticketing allows passengers to pay for individual journeys, combining peak and off-peak fares where appropriate, with fares automatically calculated based on where and when they travel. Daily and weekly caps apply on journeys into and within London. Passengers need to check that contactless is available at both their departure and destination stations before travelling and to ensure they touch in and out correctly at the start and end of each journey. The extension of contactless ticketing will primarily cover stations just south of the Railfuture East Angia branch area; only Stansted Airport and Stansted Mountfitchet are in the branch area: check on https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/contactless. See news story.
The government's Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government launched a consultation on 4th Februar 2026 to seek views on establishing a new development corporation in Greater Cambridge, to be known as the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation. The consultation ends of 1st April 2026. See announcement.
A BBC news article on 3rd February 2026 about the new Waterbeach Town railway station was titled "New railway station to have cafe and waiting room", implyuing that it deifnitely would, but the first sentence then said: "A new railway station in a village could include a cafe, waiting room and toilets." Of course, the existing station (2.4km south along the track from its replacement) does not have any of these amenities, and critics have suggested that these additional facilities may just be a ploy to reduce criticism of the proposed clusure, and might not actually be provided. The new station will also have wider platforms, 100 cycle spaces and a new car park, which will include electric vehicle charging points. Work has already begun to create on a temporary haul road, which will be used by construction traffic accessing the new station site from the A10.
A BBC news article on 20th February 2026 said that work on the Peterborough Station Quarter project would begin by the end of March 2026. The full project, which includes adding a western etnrance to Peterborough station, project is being delivered by the city council in partnership with the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA), Network Rail (NR), the government-owned company Platform 4 and LNER. The Railfuture 'mini-conference' in Peterborough on 15th May 2025 included a presentation about the project by Lewis Banks, Transport & Environment Manager at Peterborough City Council.
Network Rail (NR) has announced that weekend engineering work will be taking place n the East Suffolk line in March 2026. Old jointed rail near Saxmundham (which is around 100 years old in places) will be replaced with continuously welded rail, helping reduce noise from passing trains and improving passenger comfort. In addition to the track renewal works, NR will be strengthening the bridges over the River Deben and River Alde; installing and activating new signalling equipment at multiple locations on the East Suffolk Line; repairing the road surface near Brick Lane Level Crossing and upgrading drainage near the Broomheath area to reduce flooding and keep the railway operational in wet weather. The footbridge at Woodbridge station will be refurbished whilst trains are not running. Train services will be replaced by buses between Ipswich and Halesworth on the weekends of 7th/8th, 14th/15th and 21st/22nd March. See new story.
Greater Anglia (GA) said in February 2026 that the construction of its new £17m wheel lathe facility in Clacton is progressing well with the majority of underground works at the Clacton site, including drainage, have been completed as of February 2026, with above-ground construction now well underway (the building's steel frame is in place and the roof cladding has been completed). Once in use (the planned date is summer 2026), the lathe would enable trains to be serviced on site, transforming how it prepares its fleet for service, as it will be the first time that Greater Anglia has had its own permanent wheel lathe facility. Trains will not need to be sent away, so they will be serviced much quicker than before, allowing them to return to passenger service faster. The Clacton wheel lathe wil be used by the entire Greater Anglia fleet: class 720, 745 and 755 trains.
The Greater Anglia Integrated Transport Forum, which is an online event, will be held on 23rd March 2026. The annual Greater Anglia Rail Users' Forum will take place at Greater Anglia's headquarters in Stratford, East London, on 20th April 2026.
The Mid-Anglia Rail Passenger Association (MARPA), which is affiliated to Railfuture, will be holding its AGM on Saturday 21st March at 14.00. The venue is the Friends' Meeting House, St John's Street, Bury St Edmunds IP33 1SJ. The meeting will be addressed by Community Rail Partnership Chairman. All members and friends are welcome, free refreshments.
Greater Anglia (GA) has launched competition to find a promotional name for Ipswich to Cambridge rail line, which will be used by the recently-created Ipswich to Cambridge Community Rail Partnership (CRP) to help it forge closer links between local communities and their railway. An article in the Suffolk News mentioned names suggested so far included the East Anglian Arc, the Grain, Brain and Train line, the St Edmund's line and the Wheatfield line, among others.
Great Yarmouth railway station's Changing Places toilet facility, which was installed in 2025 in partnership with Muscular Dystrophy UK, has achieved 'Platinum Plus' grading at the 'Loo of the Year Awards'. The awards highlight excellence in public toilet provision across the UK. Independent assessors visit facilities and grading them on criteria that includes quality, hygiene, accessibility, and customer experience. The facility was designed to meet the needs of people who could not use accessible toilets, with enhanced facilities that include a height adjustable adult-sized changing bench, a ceiling hoist, ample space for carers, and a peninsular toilet for ease of access. The Department for Transport had provided funding support. Greater Angia had installed a Changing Places faciity at Ely, and will be doing so for Cambridge South station. See news story.
The East Anglia Transport Museum in Carlton Colville opens for its new season on Good Friday, 3rd April 2026. The volunteer-run museum will then open every Sunday and Thursday in April; then every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday from May to September; and on Thursdays and Sundays in October. On normal opening days the museum is open from 11.00 until 16.30. The entrance price is £12 per adult; £10 for concessions; and £7 for children 5-15.
The East Coast Digital Programme (ECDP) had successfully completed a full programme of testing new digital signalling equipment on the East Coast Main Line (ECML)( over two weekends in February 2026, according Network Rail. Test teams successfully carried out 100 test cases on Sunday 15th February. A full system data update took place on Saturday 21th and Sunday 22th February, along with further test cases, including confidence and reliability testing for two-train running under ETCS (European Train Control System). This testing took place ahead of the introduction of digital in-cab signalling on the ECML in summer 2026. One further day of testing is planned, on Sunday 15th March, meaning services between Peterborough and London King's Cross will be affected.
On 9th February 2026 the BBC reported the unhappiness of the residents of Winslow that their new station was still not open more than 15 months after Network Rail opened the route from Bicester to Bletchley, with a vocal member of the town council saying that "it makes Winslow station a laughing stock". The platforms will need to be extended from four to five casrriages to support the planned service for the Universal theme park, but this will not affect the opening date according to the East West Rail Company.
RAIL FREIGHT
First engineering train to arrives at Sizewell C site
Keywords: [SizewellBranch]
On Monday 23rd February 2026, the first engineering train arrived at the size of Sizewell C, which is the new nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast that is being constructed. The train, which was delivering aggregates, travelled past Leiston along the Sizewell branch line, which has been significantly upgraded recently by Balfour Beatty Rail on behalf of Sizewell C, reaching the project's Ancillary Construction Area (ACA).
The upgrading of the branch line, which has seen little traffic in recent years (and no daily passenger services since 1966), was necessary to reach the target of 60 per cent of construction materials being moved by rail or sea, primarily to reduce road traffic: each freight train is expected to remove around 50 HGV journeys from local roads. The upgrade included renewing 4.5 miles of track on the Sizewell branch line, replacing jointed rail with continuously welded rail to reduce noise, upgrading level crossings, and installing a new signalling system. It is also upgrading sections of the East Suffolk line which runs from Ipswich to Lowestoft. It is intended to create a 'Green Rail Route' which, once complete, will provide a direct connection from the existing branch line to the project's Temporary Construction Area, bypassing Leiston entirely. Following construction of Sizewell C, both the Green Rail Route and the line serving the ACA will be reinstated to their original condition.
Rail deliveries are expected to scale up in phases, with up to four freight trains per day at peak operation.
News: https://news.railbusinessdaily.com/sizewell-c-welcomes-first-engineering-train-to-site/
https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/first-engineering-train-arrives-at-sizewell-c-via-upgraded-branch-line-25-02-2026/.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 395 - 28/02/2026
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