News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 58 - 02/05/2001
- RAIL SERVICES [all issues]
- CHUMMS - A14 CORRIDOR STUDY [all issues]
- GUIDED BUSWAY [all issues]
- Guided "trolleybus" in Nancy beset with delays, technical problems and accidents
- Guided busway costs in Australia increased sharply
- RAIL FRANCHISES [all issues]
- RAIL PATRONAGE [all issues]
- OPINION RESEARCH [all issues]
Peter Lawrence informs us that Ian Carter (of Halesworth) former Chairman of Railfuture East Anglia Branch has died. Ian helped to establish the branch in the 1970/80s and formed the branch on the basis we know today.
RAIL SERVICES
SRA awards Anglia Railways £9.2m for direct Cambridge to Norwich rail service
Keywords: [AngliaRailways] [CambridgeNorwichService]
On 1st May, the SRA announced that it had awarded Anglia Railways £9.2m to provide an hourly 75-minute long direct service between Cambridge and Norwich 7-days a week. There will be 15 trains on weekdays, 14 on Saturday and 11 on Sunday. The earliest weekday train should arrive in Cambridge around 07:30.
Trains will stop at Ely, Thetford and Wymondham. This is the largest grant under the Rail Passenger Partnership (RPP) scheme to date, and reinstates the direct rail service discontinued by British Rail in 1985, which will be part of the franchise when it is re-let, probably in 2004.
The new service will commence by October 2002, though perhaps earlier. The long delay is to allow for the delivery and certification of the four new Class 170 diesel Turbostars which Anglia will need to acquire, and infrastructure changes at Norwich to provide cleaning facilities for the new trains.
 |
Anglia TV contacted John Saunders (of Peterborough-Norwich Rail Users' Group [PENRUG]) regarding the SRA announcement and Peter Lawrence (of Railfuture) did a couple of lines for the Radio Norfolk news bulletin at 15:00 on the day it was announced. This is the third major RPP award to Anglia. The previous two were the CrossLink service to Basingstoke and the award in April 2001 for more frequent local services ([Snippets 55]). |
Anglia Railways press release: http://www.angliarailways.co.uk/latest-information/news-detail.asp?id=137
SRA release: http://www.sra.gov.uk/news/releases/2001/May/New_Direct_Rail_Service_Between_Norwich_010501.htm.
CHUMMS - A14 CORRIDOR STUDY
Railfuture branch to respond to the results of the CHUMMS public consultation
The branch will be contacting Mouchel, GO-East and other organisations following the publication of CHUMMS newsletter 6 which claimed limited support for rail (see [Snippets 57]) to restate the case of rail and question the viability - both technically and commercially - for a guided busway on the St.Ives line.
The branch will also be commenting on the light-rail/tram proposals and pressing for the infrastructure to support conventional rail. Incidentally, Transport for London (TfL) are seriously considering two extensions to the Croydon Tramlink (opened in May 2000) - one to Crystal Palace and the other from Wimbledon to Sutton via Rosehill.
The branch will also be sending an information pack to EWS who have requested further information about the proposed re-instatement of the Cambridge to Huntingdon rail link.
GUIDED BUSWAY
Guided "trolleybus" in Nancy beset with delays, technical problems and accidents
The "rapid transit / train" (anything but a bus) system being proposed for Cambridge by CRTS is similar in design to the guided trolleybus system in Nancy, France - believed to be the only one in commercial service that uses the centre-rail guidance system. It finally opened for public use on 11th February 2001 after months of delays and several false starts, but has been suspended after less than a month pending a safety inquiry.
Passengers were injured when two accidents occurred in four days. Both accidents were caused by one of the 3-section vehicles losing stability when switching from guided to unguided mode, with the rear of the vehicle swinging out and colliding with an overhead electrification support mast.
News story: http://www.lrta.org/news/news0111.html
Guided busway costs in Australia increased sharply
The cost benefit - and reliability of cost estimates - of constructing guided busways were called into question in Adelaide, Australia. The proposed 10km southern extension to the world's longest guided busway - the "O-bahn" - has been abandoned on cost grounds.
News story: http://www.lrta.org/news/news0113.html.
RAIL FRANCHISES
SRA's plan for new Anglian franchise
 |
The Strategic Rail Authority's plan to merge the WAGN (WA part), Anglia and FGE franchises into a new "Anglian" franchise has provoked criticism. The SRA's Strategic Agenda says: "(The competition) has proved too much for Anglia's finances... Competition has served mainly to transfer the financial burden from user to the taxpayer." It also claimed that the three-operator system caused timetabling complications and reduced line capacity at congested areas of the track. |
According to the Cambridge Evening News, Peter Meades, Anglia Railways public relations manager, said the company was opposed to a single franchise. He said: "If there was a single franchise, inevitably that franchise would be managed from London, which would focus too much on commuter services rather than looking at local rural services." However, he said that if a single franchise was established, Anglia Railways would bid for it.
Peter Lawrence, Railfuture chairman, was quoted as saying that "It is quite clear that the rural railways of East Anglia would suffer from [a super franchise]. The recent gains in additional passenger traffic would be lost and overshadowed by the dominance of the commuter services."
RAIL PATRONAGE
National Express announce that passenger numbers on trains have recovered to old levels
NEx, owner of nine TOCs, held its AGM on Wednesday 2nd May. Michael Davies, Chairman said "Passenger numbers in our trains division are now back to last year's levels, despite the continuing disruption we highlighted in our preliminary results. We are focussed on growing patronage whilst continuing to pursue our claims against insurers and Railtrack".
National Express press release: http://www.nationalexpressgroup.com/news/agm2001.htm.
OPINION RESEARCH
Fares "nearly irrelevant" in making public transport attractive
According to research by the Union of International Public Transport, to be presented in full next month, fare levels have little effect in attracting car users to public transport in major cities. The UIPT Millennium Cities project which started in 1998 has studied data from 100 cities world-wide to relate urban planning and transport patterns, and to examine public transport efficiency and attractiveness.
Car ownership is also shown not to be decisive in determining public transport's market share. For example in Munich, there are 470 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, but public transport is used twice as much as in Manchester where car ownership is lower.
"Mobility policies", such as parking, are said to be a more important factor. London has one of the highest public transport market shares in Western Europe, despite it fares being amongst the most expensive, as it has one of the most restrictive parking policies with 120 spaces available per 1000 jobs.
Heavy and light rail and metro systems are also a significant factor in determining market share, as they improve public transport's competitive edge when compared to the perceived higher speeds of private car travel. UIPT will present the initial findings of its Millennium Cities project on 24th May at its bi-annual congress and exhibition at Earls Court.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 58 - 02/05/2001
[Prev Issue (57)] [Snippets Issues] [Next Issue (59)] [Category List] [Keyword List] [People List] [Story List] [Branch Dashboard]