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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 123 - 17/09/2003

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News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.

Railfuture News Snippets 123 - 17/09/2003



The September 2003 branch meeting, in Norwich, will start at 10:30. A speaker has been booked from the Green Party who will be talking about transport issues, and there will also be a presentation about CAST.IRON. It has not been possible to get a rail industry speaker for this meeting, although a senior representative from Central Trains has agreed to speak at the Cambridge meeting on 22nd November.

On Friday 17th October, the East Suffolk Travellers Association (ESTA) have a film show and buffet at Victory Hall, Campsea Ashe, next to Wickham Market Station starting at 18:00. An incorrect date was given with Rail East 120.

On Saturday 25th October ESTA also has a day trip to Lille. Details from Trevor Garrod, 15 Clapham Road, Lowestoft, NR32 1RQ. SAE please.

On Saturday 15th November there is an ESTA meeting at the URC Church Hall, Halesworth, starting at 14:00.

The Huntingdon and Godmanchester Civic Society is presenting a meeting entitled: "RAPID TRANSIT? Can a busway between Huntingdon, St Ives and Cambridge work?" with speaker Councillor Shona Johnstone - Cabinet member for Environment and Transport at Cambs County Council. It is held on Tuesday 14th October at 20:00 at St Mary's Parish Hall, The Walks East, Huntingdon. The venue is near the bus station - in the middle of the buildings to the left. Further details from David Hufford 01480 450920 or Richard Meredith 01480 380505. CAST.IRON is invited and therefore all of its members should try to attend.

It's been about a month since the last Snippets, owing to travel commitments. The next one will be soon. From now on Martin Thorne is taking over distribution of Snippets, so please contact him if your email address changes.


ST.IVES LINE
Cambridge And St.Ives Railway Organisation (CAST.IRON) wins first major victory

On 15th September CAST.IRON learned that in a last minute decision Cambridgeshire County Council decided to defer their submission for a Transport and Works Act Order until January 2004, instead of November 2003.

The deferral may be due to the government indicating that it will not yet give in-principal funding for the submission, because there are a significant number of objections to the proposals, or because of the impact that CAST.IRON is making. CAST.IRON chairman Tim Phillips told the Cambridge Evening News: "There is now an awareness among the public of a rail option 'on the table' and ... this has contributed to the TWA application delay. My guess is that the Cabinet realised that the council vote on 16th September [for an immediate TWA application ] would be a close call, and instead proposed a date of January to win over councillors". The revised timescale was supported by 30 councillors, opposed by 7, with 10 abstaining and the remaining 11 did not attend.

CAST.IRON had written to every single County Councillor enclosing the Vision Document, the Story So Far and a copy of a letter to Brian Smith protesting about Shona Johnstone's public comment that the 'rail scheme is dead in the water', which was intended to dissuade the public from investing in CAST.IRON. In addition many CAST.IRON supporters had written independently to councillors. Press and radio coverage of CAST.IRON, plus its leafleting campaign (see below) had also contributed to the decision, as had a public meeting of Histon and Impington Parish Councils on Thursday 11th September in which CAST.IRON supporters posed extremely awkward questions to the busway project team, who had no convincing reply.

The Luton-Dunstable busway scheme, called Translink, recently confirmed its hope to apply for a TWA in December 2003, with a public inquiry in mid-2004, a final decision from Government in mid-2005, construction in Spring 2006 to early 2008, with the services opening from mid-2008 following testing. Assuming the same timeline, the St.Ives line busway could not open before late 2008.

Cambridge And St.Ives Railway Organisation's publicity drive

CAST.IRON started distributing a glossy leaflet to villagers within five miles either side of the St.Ives line from the first week of September. This is still in progress. CAST.IRON has received a steady stream of membership fees and donations, which now total several thousand pounds. Six weeks after launch, only two objections (both from NIMBYs, not busway supporters) have been received which criticise the proposals for passenger services on a reopened Cambridge to St.Ives railway line.

The leaflet campaign was widely reported in newspapers, and resulted in recorded interviews with Star 107.9FM and Q103 on 2nd September, and a long live interview with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire on 5th September. Despite not being a preserved railway, CAST.IRON was also mentioned in Heritage Railway magazine.

CAST.IRON seeks alliances with various organisations

Keywords: [CASTIRON]

CAST.IRON has been making contacts within many parts of the rail industry both to get an honest appraisal of the viability of its proposals and to identify organisations who could provide support. The reaction from all in the rail industry who have been approached is that CAST.IRON's phase 1 plan for a standalone community-commuter railway between Swavesey and Cambridge Science Park, using a combination of volunteers and paid staff, is viable. CAST.IRON have also met with consultants who are willing to help prepare both the business case and rail safety case at costs substantially below commercial rates.

CAST.IRON has written to the PR firm for the developers of Northstowe new town pointing out that the rail services can start very quickly and grow with the housing developments. It has also made a submission to the House of Commons Transport Committee as part of their new investigation, 'The Future of the Railway'.

Railfuture questions Cambridgeshire County Council's optimistic estimates of guided bus usage

The Railfuture East Anglian branch has sent a letter to Cambs CC questioning the claim made at a Hunts District Council meeting that there were 8,000 existing bus users along the A14. In 2001 CHUMMS said there were 5,000 users, meaning a 60% increase in two years, which without any major improvements would be a national record! Railfuture says that if the initial numbers are wrong then the predictions will be wrong.

July 2003 saw the first-ever letter of support for the guided bus in the Hunts Post.

Back in Cambridge, the council says: "capacity in Drummer Street is already an issue. For that reason, improvements will be brought forward before the start of guided bus services that will provide for up to 40 per cent more buses, mainly through changing the operation of bus services".


RAIL FRANCHISES
National Express host presentation for Greater [East] Anglia franchise at Norwich Football club

People: [Dominic Booth] [Phil White]

National Express held a presentation - to an invited audience - of their plans for the Greater Anglia franchise at Delia's in the Norwich City Football station at 10:30 on Wednesday 27th August. One of the main speakers was Dominic Booth, Divisional Director South for UK Trains.

According to Railfuture attendee Chris Burton, "Bland is probably the only word which fairly describes the presentation. Chief Executive Phil White opened proceedings by announcing that SRA rules prevented any meaningful discussion of the franchise, for which bids were due to be submitted to the SRA on 1st September. Even the varied and often searching series of questions from the audience were all too often neutralised in the public relations 'charm offensive'. To be fair there was probably little alternative. However, everybody was most grateful to National Express for bringing two refurbished Midland MainLine Mark 3 carriages (one First Class and one Standard Class) for display at Thorpe Station. This was to illustrate the type of rolling stock that would replace those currently used by Anglia Railways should National Express Group emerge as the successful bidder. All in all, though, National Express proved a very serious contenders for the franchise."

SRA starts negotiations for extending Great Northern franchise

The Strategic Rail Authority has entered into negotiations to extend several rail franchises in the south east by two years in order to finalise infrastructure plans for rail routes in the areas concerned. This includes the Great Northern services from King's Cross/Moorgate, which had been sidelined with attention focusing on the Greater Anglia franchise.


RAIL SERVICES
Anglia's highly successful Norwich-Cambridge service reaches half a million passengers

On 20th September it was announced that the number of passengers on the Cambriidge-Norwich service, which began less than a year ago at the start of the 2002/03 winder timetable, has reached 500,000. Passegner levels are 30% over target.

The September edition of The Railway Magazine ran an excellent article on the service, proving that by providing a quality direct service, a new market can be created. Peter Meades, Anglia Railways PR Manager, said: "There was a lot of support from the communities, local authorities and MPs who all felt the time was right to compete with the A11 road. It is not a particularly pleasant road. You can drive it in 70 minutes [the train takes 73 minutes] but actually getting into either Cambridge or Norwich and parking is a different matter altogether."

Meades continued: "We are getting in excess of 1,200 journeys a day. We didn't set out with any particular target at the outset, although we are happy with the way things are progressing. We have recognised four different markets - the commuting clan between Norwich and Cambridge and also from Thetford, the leisure market, the business market and on top of that, the students." It is understood that Cambridgeshire County Council's officials are pleased with the service, but are already calling for improvements.


PROMOTING RAIL TRAVEL
Central Trains to rebrand their East Anglian services to encourage greater patronage

Keywords: [CentralTrains]

The winter 2003 timetable (from September) will see the Norwich-Liverpool and Stansted-Birmingham services rebranded as "Central City Link". A range of new advanced purchase tickets will be available.

Association of Community Rail Partnerships promotes scenic train journeys in East Anglia

Keywords: [ACoRP]

The Association of Community Rail Partnerships (ACoRP) has produced a booklet of "Scenic Britain by Train", which includes both the Bittern and Wherry Lines, which have community rail partnerships in place. There is even a page on Cambridge.


RAIL ACCIDENTS
New Transport Minister Kim Howells says common sense approach needed regarding rail accidents

New Transport Minister Kim Howells spoke a lot if sense according to anyone who understands railways - though not to victims of rail accidents and their relatives - in a BBC Radio 4 "Today" interview on Friday 22nd August. He said: "we mustn't paralyse ourselves and our whole rail network by being terrified of even admitting that occasionally an accident will occur, because of course it will. That's the way life happens."

Predictably there was an outcry at these "insensitive remarks", though those critical expressed little concern for the 3,500 people killed on the roads each year. Perhaps Railfuture members would like to write to their MP expressing support for Mr Howell's remarks and asking for their thoughts to be passed onto him.


RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE
Federation of North Essex Rail User Groups calls for upgrade to fifty-year old electrification on Great Eastern mainline

The rail user groups of Colchester, Manningtree and Harwich, and the Clacton and Walton branch lines feel that serious investment is needed to replace 50 year old OHLE to the south of Chelmsford on the Great Eastern Main Line. They claim that the equipment performs well in ordinary weather conditions, because it was robustly made. However, unlike modern equipment, it does not allow for the expansion and contraction of the wires in extremes of temperature (modern systems keep the overhead wires taut by means of pulleys and weights). In the recent hot weather, the wires expanded and sagged so much they touched a passing freight train, injuring the train driver and delaying homeward bound commuters for two hours.

Possible freight acitivity at Ipswich goods yard?

Railfuture members have been wondering if the freight line departing from the disused goods yard to the east of Ipswich tunnel, which once served the southern dock area, is going to be used again. Work has been done to repaint and repair the bridge.


ROLLING STOCK
First Great Eastern's new Class 360 EMUs running in passenger service

Keywords: [FirstGreatEastern]

First Great Eastern's new 360s, which were delayed into service, have been running for some weeks on the Liverpool Street to Clacton and Ipswich off peak services.


RAIL ROUTES
Cambridge-Sudbury Rail Renewal Association forms company to enable line reopening

Keywords: [SudburyBranch]

With just one vote against, the CSRRA is to form a company limited by guarantee, known as The Cambridge to Colchester Railway Development Company Limited (CCRDC) with CSRRA Secretary Malcolm Hill becoming joint Chairman/Secretary of CCRDC and David Edwards the Treasurer. The CSRRA will remain to support the work of the CCRDC.

Cambridge-Sudbury Rail Renewal Association Chairman Rev.Malcolm Hill and Treasurer Malcolm Edwards met with representatives from local authorities along the line of the route at the Town Hall Arts Centre in Haverhill on 23rd July unanimously passed a resolution to concentrate available resources upon a feasibility study (Stage 1 - Market Research) of a light railway between Cambridge and Haverhill, upgradeable to a heavy railway. Also, in view of the sale (subject to planning permission) of the former Haverhill rail station site to Tesco, the association wishes to conjoin the proposed supermarket with a railway station to bring customers to the retail outlet by train.


OPINION RESEARCH
Government fails to give leadership on transport according to survey

An national Institute of Civil Engineers survey of local authority staff shows 79% are 'disappointed' or 'very disappointed' with the amount of leadership given by the Government on transport issues, with the government appearing to be reactive rather than pro-active and not knowing how it wants things to change for the better.


RAIL FREIGHT
ASDA remains positive about rail freight

ASDA supermarket chain, who have many stores in the branch area, is looking to increase rail freight including services to Felixstowe. ASDA says the 90% arrival with 30 minutes by rail is better than road. Current rail use saves 5m road miles per year.

Network Rail reaches agreement with HMP Whitemoor after it objected to NR "virtual quarry" proposals at March

HMP Whitemoor had objected to Network Rail's plans to create a "virtual quarry" on the site of the former marshalling yard, saying that the noise levels may create prisoner unrest at the maximum security facility. It asked for an earth bank - or bund - to be constructed between the "virtual quarry" and the prison to reduce noise to an acceptable level. It is believed that an acceptable compromise has since been agreed.


CHARTER TRAINS
More rail tours are expected to visit the Mid-Norfolk Railway in 2004

Keywords: [MidNorfolkRailway]

Visiting railtours represent a significant percentage of income for the Mid-Norfolk Railway. Following the successful Nenta Railtour from Dereham to the Severn Valley on Saturday 2nd August, it has been announced that the 2004 trips from Dereham will be to Canterbury, Dover and the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in May, with Crewe and Chester following in August. Anyone wanting information can email [enquiries at nentatraintours.co.uk].


RAIL SAFETY
WAGN driver suspended after speeding incident

Keywords: [WAGN]

A WAGN train driver was suspended from duty after taking the curve on the approach to Hitchin station from Letchworth at excessive speed (there is a 40mph speed restriction) to try to make up lost time, following a 20 minute delay at Cambridge. According to the media, commuters were thrown to the floor and luggage, food and drink went in all directions, with "a derailment only narrowly averted". The train was also taken out of service for inspection.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 123 - 17/09/2003

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