News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 60 - 26/05/2001
- RAILFUTURE NATIONAL AGM [all issues]
- Railfuture's national AGM in Liverpool is opened by Lord Mayor and guest speaker
- Railfuture Business
- RAIL SERVICES [all issues]
- Prunella Scales, CPRE National President, launches Anglia Railways' additional rail services
- Attleborough complain that Cambridge - Norwich trains will not stop at station
- PROMOTING RAIL TRAVEL [all issues]
- RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE [all issues]
- FORMER RAIL PROPERTY [all issues]
- PRESERVED RAILWAYS [all issues]
- North Norfolk Railway gains publicity for Sheringham Station appeal
- Car drivers jumping lights at Mid-Norfolk Railway level crossings
- LIGHT RAIL [all issues]
- RAIL NEWS OUTSIDE EAST ANGLIA BRANCH AREA [all issues]
The branch meeting in Norwich on 9th June will include a Jonathan Denby, Corporate Affairs Director at Anglia Railways, who will be talking about the history of Anglia Railways, recent RPP grants for the improved services which commenced on 20th May, the new Cambridge to Norwich service, rail re-franchising, GB Railfreight amongst other topics.
RAILFUTURE NATIONAL AGM
Railfuture's national AGM in Liverpool is opened by Lord Mayor and guest speaker
The National AGM took place on Saturday 5th May in Liverpool's Adelphi Hotel, just a few minutes walk from Lime Street Station. After a welcome from the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, the morning guest speaker was Neil Scales, Chief Executive of Merseytravel PTE, who talked about the City's local transport plan.
Mr Scales started by noting that local rail service usage was growing by 5-8% per year despite poor quality on some routes. The City had been given £210m out of £212m asked for in the local transport plan. Although much of the spending would be on buses, there were plans for new rail stations and Line 1 of a light rail system. The light rail scheme would be on a new alignment and would run in areas not currently served by train. The major rail scheme was a new interchange at Allerton. The station at West Allerton would be moved to provide an interchange with other routes. The station would also have a new bus link to Liverpool Airport. Another rail improvements such as new trains would come from the franchise replacement process. Due to the self-contained nature of many of the local routes, the PTE wants to take over the role of the SRA locally to give it more control over new development.
Railfuture Business
In the business part of the meeting, a shortage of candidates meant that existing officers and committee continue in their positions. Motions were discussed on a wide range of topics including: trackside rubbish, measures to contain runaway road vehicles and investigating if the Society should become a Company Limited by Guarantee.
One question posed by Peter Lawrence, our National Chairman was "does the society give good value to the members for their subscription money?" Peter would like your views. Report by East Anglia branch secretary Nick Dibben.
RAIL SERVICES
Prunella Scales, CPRE National President, launches Anglia Railways' additional rail services
Keywords: [AngliaRailways]
Actress Prunella Scales, in her capacity as the National President of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, was at Ely on Tuesday 22nd May to officially endorse and welcome the 25% extra trains that Anglia Railways are operating from Ipswich to Cambridge and Peterborough. The improved service as announced in Snippets 55 on Sunday 20th May commenced with the new summer timetable.
Ms Scales formally flagged away the 10:43 Ely to Peterborough service (the 09:45 service from Ipswich) at Ely station. Commenting on the new services, she said: "The extra rail services are very welcome and will improve the options available to commuters and other travellers in the region. The efforts of Anglia Railways, the SRA, the local Rail Passenger Committee and County Councils are to be congratulated for this valuable step forward."
Anglia Railways press release: http://www.angliarailways.co.uk/latest-information/news-detail.asp?id=147.
Attleborough complain that Cambridge - Norwich trains will not stop at station
Keywords: [AttleboroughStation]
The RPP funded direct Cambridge to Norwich direct service will stop at Ely, Thetford and Wymondham, but not Attleborough.
Attleborough mayor Michael Harper said to the Eastern Daily Press on 9th May that he could not understand why the town had been left out. "We all spend our time trying to promote Attleborough and the direct train to Cambridge isn't going to stop here," he said. "I can't believe that just stopping here for a minute or two would add too much to the journey."
Attleborough district councillor Adrian Stasiak said "It's a lost opportunity. Attleborough is growing and it's not going to slow down. We have new industry coming in all the time and I would urge the operator to revisit their plans."
South West Norfolk MP Gillian Shephard said: "I will be writing to Anglia Railways to protest in the strongest possible terms, asking what the rationale for leaving out an important and growing town like Attleborough could possibly be."
Anglia Railways' spokesman Jonathan Denby said the operator was sympathetic to Attleborough's claims, and would certainly be keen to see if there was a case for the extra stop once the new route was operating but "We cannot do that until we have started as we have to find out what the demand is for the service as a whole first."
PROMOTING RAIL TRAVEL
Anglia Railways gains free publicity by allowing ride in driver's cab
Keywords: [AngliaRailways]
Anglia Railways gained itself some useful free publicity by allowing the Norfolk County Council chairman, John Sheppard, to ride in the driver's cab on the 10:00 Norwich to London train on 24th May, to mark the end of his year in office. By doing so it was able to issue a press release that was picked up by the media.
Anglia Railways press release: http://www.angliarailways.co.uk/latest-information/news-detail.asp?id=151.
On 16th May Anglia Railways also offered rail enthusiast plumber Mike Norris a similar opportunity, to mark his retirement from RG Carter after 47 years following a request by his employer.
Anglia Railways press release: http://www.angliarailways.co.uk/latest-information/news-detail.asp?id=144.
RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE
May Gurney awarded contract to maintain stations in East Anglia
May Gurney has won a multi-million pound three-year contract from Railtrack to maintain and upgrade 240 railway stations, depots and other sites in East Anglia. A lot of the schemes will be small projects - such as improving lighting, clearing weeds and updating drainage - which currently cause complaints. It will also include improvements for the disabled. It is hoped the improvements will lure more people on to trains.
FORMER RAIL PROPERTY
Wolferton Station up for sale
The former Wolferton station building, near Sandringham estate, in Norfolk is now due to go under the hammer at an auction on 28th June at 15:00 at the offices of Strutt and Parker, Davies Street, London. Although there is no guide price, it is expected to fetch in excess of £500,000. The current owner has carried out a painstaking restoration which retains the original fittings and has won an award for design in the environment from West Norfolk Council.
BBC Norfolk Online news item: http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/news/052001/29/wolferton.shtml.
PRESERVED RAILWAYS
North Norfolk Railway gains publicity for Sheringham Station appeal
Keywords: [NorthNorfolkRailway]
North Norfolk Railway based in Sheringham, which attracts 100,000 visitors a year and is in the top 10 attractions in north Norfolk, has been gaining significant publicity for its £290,000 appeal to purchase the station, saving it from redevelopment.
John and Norma Major, who have a home in Weybourne which overlooks the railway, briefly visited the station on Saturday 19th May, accompanied by David Prior - the current* MP - and Mac MacGinn, the mayor of Sheringham, all of whom pledged support to save the station. (* MP prior to dissolution of parliament pending the general election.)
Monday 21st May was also a busy day. The appeal was the lead item on BBC Look East; there was an interview on BBC Radio Norfolk and there was also a half-page spread in the Eastern Daily Press.
NNR Director, Julian Birley, a London Property businessman, said they were taking the eviction possibility at the end of June "very seriously". He is confident they can raise the money and has asked Railfuture to publicise the current problem as widely as possible. People with deep pockets are welcome to buy shares in the NNR.
The railway is also seeking lottery money. North Norfolk District Council chief executive Bruce Barrell has sent a letter in support of funding from the Heritage Lottery fund.
Appeal website: http://www.stationappeal.co.uk
BBC Norfolk Online news article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/news/052001/21/sheringham.shtml
BBC Norfolk Online website "talk about Sheringham": http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/talk/talk_sheringham.shtml.
The situation has partly been overdramatised by the media, who have led people to believe that the loss of the station would be the end of the railway. The station loss would be a very serious setback, but platform two would remain, and track could potentially still link up with Railtrack metals.
Car drivers jumping lights at Mid-Norfolk Railway level crossings
Keywords: [MidNorfolkRailway]
| The Mid-Norfolk Railway are increasingly finding that car drivers are jumping the warning lights on Dereham's Greens Road industrial estate and at Yaxham Road according to the Eastern Daily Press. | |
 |
Peter Eyre, a director of the Mid-Norfolk Railway said: "We are concerned that the public are not obeying the signs and stopping when they should. We are a fully-operational railway and although we currently only publish a timetable for Saturday and Sunday, trains can be running at any time during the week, which they are doing more and more." |
LIGHT RAIL
Public meeting in King's Lynn to discuss park and ride services includes speaker from Parry People Movers
Keywords: [ParryPeopleMovers]
John Parry, the engineer who invented Parry People Mover, the Ultra Light Rail system, will be the key-note speaker at an open public meeting in Kings Lynn on Thursday 31st May at 19:30 in the Methodist Church Hall, County Court Road, off London Road. Doors open at 18:30 and the meeting is free.
The meeting, which has been called by Roger Turff and Sheridan Payne, are keen to re-open the debate of a park and ride for the town. Supporting speakers will be John Woods - eastern region representative of LRTA and Mark Wiles of Norfolk County Council's transport department.
A 3.1km-long light tramway system linked to a park-and-ride scheme close to the A47 has been proposed. It would carry people from Saddlebow, through the planned NORA development and into the old town.
Parry Associates website: http://www.parrytech.com.
RAIL NEWS OUTSIDE EAST ANGLIA BRANCH AREA
Major changes proposed for Lincoln to facilitate extra train services
Proposals to put a major rail line underground through the centre of Lincoln have been put forward in a master plan prepared for the local city council and East Midlands Development Agency, principally to resolve traffic queues at the level crossings in the city, especially when new train services are introduced.
The proposals drawn up by civil engineers Colin Buchanan and Partners and other, which follow Railtrack's plan to upgrade the line that cuts through the city, would create major new sites for shopping, offices and housing. Two options have been drawn up; the more modest option would involve new, better designed level crossings. The underground option whilst more expensive would bring much greater benefits to the city. Both options would give greater priority to pedestrian access to enable the historic heart of the city with more recent developments.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 60 - 26/05/2001
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