News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 396 - 31/03/2026
- RAIL ROUTES [all issues]
- Plans for fourth phase of Alconbury Weald housing development could include an Alconbury railway station
- New Waterbeach station edges forward as cotractor appointed to buyild the haul road/
- GUIDED BUSWAY [all issues]
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has published a passenger usage update for the period October-December 2025. See details at https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/2hto1os3/passenger-rail-usage-oct-dec-2025.pdf. Revenue, which is adjusted for CPI, is up (+2%), revenue per pax km (-1%) and per passenger trip, is down (-2%). The average distance per journey is down. The traffic now coming back has a slightly bigger commuter component than 12 months ago. However, there are big differences between TOCs in this respect, with some showing significant increases in average trip length, and others significant decreases. Bigger growth in peak-time tickets is another signal that there is more work / business travel trickling back. Small growth in off-peak trip numbers, but the reduction in average distance is another signal that commuters are flexing their travel times to travel off-peak. Season tickets remain something of a thing of the past, a lower percentage of trips than 12 months ago. The cash freeze in regulated tickets shows up as an increase in anytime / peak trips / distance - but no revenue increase, and hence an income reduction per pax km. It's not the end of the world for a largely fixed-cost operation, until you run out of capacity at which point it gets very sticky if you don't have any more revenue to expand capacity. Analysis of ORR figures by Railfuture's Owen O'Neill.
Greater Anglia (GA) won four national awards for train performance at the Golden Whistles Awards 2026, which is an annual event organised by Modern Railways magazine and the Chartered Institution of Rail Operators. GA won the awards for Best London and South East operator (for the punctuality of its commuter and regional services), Best Long Distance operator (for the punctuality of its Norwich - Ipswich - Colchester - London intercity services) and Best Operational Performance (for minimising delays) for the fourth successive year. It also won the award for Minimising Cancellations - Long Distance Operator (for its Norwich - Ipswich - Colchester - London intercity services). GA had previously won three awards at the event in each of 2023, 2024 and 2025. GA is the first operator has won four awards at the annual event. See news story.
Following a delay to the launch because of technical problems interfacing with the Transport for London (TfL) system, Greater Anglia (GA) has now introduced TfL-managed contactless ticketing at 20 additonal stations, including Stansted Airport, which will avoid a lot of problems with passengers who touched at the start of their journey arriving there and finding that it was not in the contactless area. To reduce the number of passengers being caught without the correct ticket, large warning signs at Liverpool Street station reminded people to buy a ticket before boarding, but these have now been replaced with new adverts encouraging passengers to simply tap in and travel. Oyster cards don't work for trips to Stansted Airport as the technology is designed for a city rather than a region and has a limited number of zones. Unlike Oyster, contactless currently does not support railcard discounts so a paper ticket may be cheaper. See article.
The Department for Transport confirmed on 17th March 2026 that Delay Repay compensation claim systems will be merged into 'one easy-to-use service', with the passenger simply specifying the company through whichh they bought their ticket. This will include open-access operators and third-party retailers. No date for implementation has been confirmed yet. Railfuture considers the facility a major benefit to passengers, who can currently be passed for 'pillar to post' to get their claim resolved. The new facility was covered in a BBC news article, mentioning that it is expected to be launched once Great British Railways is up and running, along with additional checks when buying tickets using railcard discounts. In future, railcard users will have to complete what is described as a "simple verification step", whether they buy their ticket online, at a machine or in a ticket office. Thr trials are due to begin later in 2026 on the Greater Anglia and C2C networks.
The East West Rail Company will hold its route-wide consultation on the latest proposals for East West Rail from 14th April to 9th June 2026, with 12 in-person events and three online webnars. The consultation will show the latest proposals &emdash; including new station visualisations, fly-through animations of the route, plans for phased construction to bring benefits earlier, and updates on key areas such as stations, services, level crossings &emdash; to ogive people across the route an opportunity to share their views before the EWR Company submits its Development Consent Order (DCO) application to the government. The first onipne event will be on Monday 20th April from 18:30 to 20:00, with three events in East Anglia: Shelford Rugby Club (1st May), Cambridge United Football Club (21st May) and Cambridge Belfry Hotel and Spa in Cambourne (30th May).
On Saturday 30th May 2026 the Peterborough-Ely-Norwich RUG (PENRUG) will holdits AGM at Methodist Church, Tanner Street, Thetford IP24 2BQ. It begins at 10:30.
According to an article on Cambridgeshire Live on 13th March 2026, the East West Rail Company has introduced a Lead Environmental Regulator to streamline planning and make key decisions "efficient" and "effective" for the project due to be completed by the late 2030s — note: the link to Cambridge had been stated as deliverted by the mid-2030s (e.g. 2025) previously. The change is intended to cut bureaucracy rather than environmental standards, the company says. This was the only 'news' in the article, the rest of which focused on the unlock £6.7 billion in economic growth and 100,000 new homes that the railway would help deliver.
BBC News reported on 11th March 2026 that the footbridge at Woodbridge railway station, which was shut back in November 2025, was still closed (and would remain so for several more weeks) despite its planned reopening in late December. The plan was to strengthen its steelwork, improve the paintwork, and install new handrails with integrated lighting, but additional defects had been identified dureing the work. Anti-climb lighting will also be installed along the bridge deck, and existing timber decking and stair treads will be replaced. Passengers have been able to get from one platform to the other using the level crossing.
On 12th March 2026 A Cambridgeshire Live article featured the development plans around Cambridge North station focusing on the new three-storey car park that will replace the flat 428-space car park in order to free land for laboratories. The car park will be next to the Novotel hotel. The plans have been around for at least four years, but the article appears to have been written following a recent planning application. The aerticle refers to 618 parking spaces, with the ground floor having 150 spaces, EV charging spaces, and accessible spaces. Levels one, two, and three with also have 150 spaces. This totals 600, not 6q8 so perhaps the accessible spaces acocnt for the additinoal 18. The applicants say that the car park will provide a "strategically located parking infrastructure", mentipning that it is within walking distance of a number of business parks, including Cambridge Business Park, the Sunningdale Caravan Park, St John's innovation park, and Nuffield Road industrial estate. The article says the developers also hope it will be more "cost effective" and "sustainable" but not against what (presumably the existing car park).
It has been announced that the Ipswich to Cambridge rail line is set to be promoted as 'St. Edmund's Line' following a competition launched earlier this year by Greater Anglia and the Ipswich to Cambridge Community Rail Partnership (CRP), to find a promotional name for the route. Greater Anglia said that it had received more than 1.000 entries, with St. Edmund's Line proving the most popular suggestion "by far". The name is a nod to Saint Edmund, who was King of the East Angles and later canonised to become a saint. The CRP was set up in autumn 2024. The CRP officer, Lesley Rayner, will be speaking at the Railfuture East Anglia meeting in Ipswich on Saturday 13th June 2026. See news story.
A new 4.8 metre-wide large-format high-resolution LED information screen has been installed in the concourse at Ipswich station, providing real-time train departures, onward bus connections, and clear updates during disruption, all in one place. A similar system was installed at Norwich station in June 2025. Blackbox Company (UK), which provided this information system and the first colour display on the network back in 2017, said "our focus has been on improving the passenger experience by making information clearer, more integrated and more responsive to real-world operations." However, the photo shown in the press release did not include an arrivals board. See news story.
The BBC reported on 9th March 2026 that a study into the best new form of public transport for Cambridge has begun with options under consideration including trams and a light rail network. According to the BBC, the Cambridge Growth Company (CGC), set up by central government in 2024, is investigating which mode of transport is the most appropriate for the city and the surrounding area in terms of "feasibility, deliverability, value for money and environmental impact". Railfuture is strongly supportive of a tram network for Cambridge, potentially using tram-trains to travel on the rail network.
Greater Anglia says that in January 2026 it installed a new remote locking system for the waiting rooms at Stansted Mountfitchet and Harlow Mill stations, which could mean longer opening times, as access to them will be less dependent on staff being around. Previously, they were locked and unlocked manually, meaning access and security arrangements could vary depending on staff availability. See news story.
On 7th March 2026, th Cambs News belately reported that on 18th February Alan Neville, Greater Anglia's (GA) stakeholder, community, and customer engagement manager, addressed the March Society, detailing some of the progress made in recent years and future developments. He highlighted rising passenger numbers across the country, composed of leisure, business travellers, and commuters. He also Mr Neville acknowledged the Hereward Line community partnership's efforts in fostering sustainable rail travel amongst young people. Lastly, he expressed his personal optimism about the future of both local and national railways. Alan had spoken to the March Society on previous occasions.
Pressure is building for a permanent solution to bypassing the notorious Manningtree crossing, which was as busy as Ely's crossing and similar in layout. The A137 road crosses the railway next to the station and is the logical route to take when the A12 Trunk road is blocked. Bad traffic jams occur every day, but become horrendous if the A12 is blocked. There is a scheme on the table for an underpass passing beneath the station. The Clacton Gazette local newspaper has been running a campaign to get half-hourly train services on the Clacton branch line.
According to Network Rail (see BBC news article), at Liverpool Street station the final replacement roof panels (around 11,000 square metres of glass-reinforced plastic [GRP] from the old Victorian train shed and 770 panels on the concourse) have been installed. Roof materials originally installed in the 1970s on the train shed had a maximum life of around 40 years, so they were life expired. Other work at the station is expected to finish by November 2026.
Detailed design work is now under way to upgrade the roof at Greater Anglia's Norwich Crown Point depot, which will involve replacement of the depot's main roof cladding, alongside upgrades to skylights, safe walkways and access arrangements to support future maintenance. New systems will also be incorporated, including fire detection, ventilation, electrical upgrades and lightning protection. Crown Point depot services up to 27 trains over a 24-hour period. The design work is being led by rail infrastructure specialist Spencer Rail Engineering, which has also been awarded the contract for the new Waterbeach station. See news story.
Greater Anglia will open the doors of its Norwich Crown Point depot for an open day on Saturday 6th June 2026, giving the public a chance to step behind the scenes for the first time in over 35 years. The event will include a range of attractions, including trains on display, railway heritage exhibits and engineering demonstrations. Access is by ticket only, which is free but must be booked in advance athttps://www.greateranglia.co.uk/crown-point-depot-open-day. The tickets are for specific arrival times from 10:00 with last entry at 14:20. The depot will close to the public at 16:00. The open day is part of Railway 200.
An article on Cambridgeshire Live on 12th March 2026 looked at plans by Anglian Water for a major Fens Reservoir between Chatteris and Doddington to improve water resources to 250,000 homes in 'water stressed' Cambridgeshire, with a planning application submitted to Fenland District Council for part of the reservoir works. Boreholes, which will be in place for four years, will help "understand the groundwater conditions in proximity to the location of the future Fens Reservoir." If the Fens Reservoir goes ahead, it could supply 87 million litres of water a day and is hoped to be completed by 2036. The article failed to mention that the possible sites for the reservoir would be located near to the Ely-Peterbourgh railway, which would be a critical logistics solution to reduce construction traffic on local roads. To manage the estimated 1,000-1,400 vehicle movements per day at peak construction, the project is exploring two main railhead options for transporting approximately 2 million tonnes of aggregates and rock: Whitemoor Yard (March) and Manea Sidings (Stonea).
Actor/comedian Diane Morgan stars in a new Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) safety video (3 minutes 45 seconds) — watch it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xpt375MZO8 — and is seen taking part in risky behaviour at railway stations. The BBC covered this as a news story. GTR is aiming to reduce the 800 "preventable injuries" that happen across its network every year.
An article in the Fenland Times reported that on Saturday 7th March 2026, volunteers from the Bramley Line Heritage Railway Trust (BLHRT) marked 60 years since the closure of Coldham station on the March to Wisbech railway line. Passenger services on the line ended in 1968, with freight continuing until 2000. Today, little remains of Coldham station (originally known as Peartree Station) apart from the former toilet block, now hidden by dense undergrowth. In December 2025, the BLHRT submitted a proposal to Anglian Water, during the third phase of consultation on the proposed Fen Reservoir (see above), suggesting that the railway line between Whitemoor and Chain Bridge could be used to transport construction materials, transferring them to the inland waterways network for delivery to the site.
Network Rail has lodged proposals with Broadland District Council to relocate the Grade II-listed Victorian-era signal box at Brundall relocated to the County School Station (just beyond North Elmham) on the Mid-Norfolk Railway (MNR). The two-storey timber-clad signal box was built in 1883 for the Great Eastern Railway and was used until 2020, when it was decommissioned. Network Rail (NR) is willing to gift it to the MNR, as it (NR) is increasingly concerned about the deteriorating state of the signal box, the genuine threat of arson and ongoing vandalism, so moving it to the heritage railway in Mid-Norfolk is the best option of protecting it, saying: "relocating the signal box to an off-site heritage railway, [means] the building can be restored and maintained appropriately in the future." According to an article in the Eastern Daily Press — see here — papers lodged with the district council state that the box would have to be dismantled into two halves so it could be taken by road to its new home. Mid-Norfolk Railway has plans to extend its current heritage line to the County School station, where the box would be put to use, but the article fails to mention that MNR volunteers had erected the former Halesworth signal box there in 2007; however, it has arrived in poor condition and was eventually moved to the Mangapps Railway Museum for preservation in 2017.
The Mid-Suffolk Light Railway which opened an extension in August 2025, has made progress on the new terminus station at Aspall Halt. The first building now complete, transforming it from just a platform into a station with acilities to be added during the season. Passengers will be able to alight at the brand new station at Easter 2026. See article.
RAIL ROUTES
Plans for fourth phase of Alconbury Weald housing development could include an Alconbury railway station
Keywords: [Alconbury]
Plans to add a railway station on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) to serve the housing development at Alconbury Weald (south of Peterborough) in Cambridgeshire have finally been unveiled. The development, which currently has 6,500 homes although more are planned, was built on the site of the former RAF Alconbury, and the first residents arrived in 2020. The owner of the site, Urban&Civic, which is also involved in the western development at Waterbeach on its former RAF site, wants to expand the town and build a railway station — something that has the support of the mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Whilst the developer would provide the land, which is on the far eastern edge of the developent, Network Rail and other transport partners would be in charge of the delivery of the railway station and its associated infrastructure. Alconbury is on the three-track stretch of the ECML, and it would need the fourth track, the 'up slow', reinstating otherwise stopping trains could hold up intercity trains. A consultation on stage 4 of the development, which includes the station, runs until Monday, 23rd March 2026.
The developers said a railway station has "always been part" of the plans, and said it could play a "transformative role to unlock economic growth". The idea of a station here has been around for at least two decades.
New Waterbeach station edges forward as cotractor appointed to buyild the haul road/
Keywords: [WaterbeachStation]
Winvic Construction Ltd has been appointed by the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP)to build a £3 million, 3.1km haul road for the new Waterbeach railway station. It was awarded under the Eastern Highways Alliance Framework, the enabling project allows heavy construction traffic to bypass local areas and access the site. The work is due for completion in summer 2026.
GUIDED BUSWAY
BBC reports the locations with the highest incidents of road vehicles trapped on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway
There have been many occasions when road vehicles have been driven onto the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway. This was covered in [Snippets 390] following the submission of a Freedom of Investigation (FOI) request by the Cambridge News (CambridgeshireLive). In March 2026 a BBC article follwoed this up, and reported that vehicles have got stuck in a guided busway's car traps 127 times since the start of 2020.
In February 2026, a police officer responding to an emergency was given a temporary driving ban after falling foul of the trap at Station Road in St Ives which, with 73 cases, has the highest number of vehicles reported to have got trapped. The next highest spot where vehicles have got trapped since the start of 2020 has been King's Hedges Drive in Cambridge, with nine incidents.
News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdxky26309go.
The above incidents did not result in injury. However, to date there have been three deaths of pedestirans and cyclists, who were hit by buses. On 25th February 2026, the BBC reported the inquest conclusion of the death of Kathleen Pitts on 26 October 2021, an astonishing 4.5 years earlier. The area coroner said the reasons Pitts leant into the busway "unfortunately remain unknown" and there was "no evidence" to support a deliberate act to do so. Had the fencing that is now being erected along the entire length of the busway existred back then, the fatal accident would not have happened.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 396 - 31/03/2026
[Prev Issue (395)] [Snippets Issues] [Next Issue (397)] [Category List] [Keyword List] [People List] [Story List] [Branch Dashboard]
Railfuture is a non-profit making pro-rail campaigning organisation, which is run entirely by unpaid volunteers, 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).