Loading...
 

East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 160 - 30/11/2006

[Home] [Meetings and Events] [Campaigns] [Consultations] [Newsletters|Latest|Covers] [News Archive] [Document Archive] [Gallery] [User Groups] [About] [Contacts]

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

Railfuture News Snippets 160 - 30/11/2006



The next branch meeting will be on Saturday 2nd December in Cambridge at the usual venue: Little St.Mary's Church Hall.

ESTA reports that passenger numbers on the Felixstowe line increased by 11% during the past year, which it says reflects the value for money and convenience of the rail service as well as the lack of disruptions experienced. However, the organisation is critical of the failure by 'one' to hold connections. Meanwhile, the Lowestoft branch of ESTA has been busy analysing results of their August travel survey in which more than 125 train and bus survey forms were received from members.

Railfuture, the Peterborough-Norwich Rail Users Group and other groups such as ESTA have welcomed the DfT's announcement that plans to cut the popular direct Norwich-Liverpool service into two will not form part of the new franchise due to commence in November 2007.

Members interested in track diagrams will be pleased to know that the new colour computer-drawn 'Quail' track maps for the Eastern region (including the whole of the branch area) are now on sale - see http://www.trackmaps.co.uk/news.htm.

Members wishing to find out more about the threatened Leiston branch that is currently used solely by freight trains for Sizewell will be interested to know that Pathfinder Tours will be operating a charter on 10th March 2007. Details at: http://www.pathfindertours.co.uk/Enthusiast.htm. Unfortunately the only pickup/set down point in East Anglia is at Peterborough.

The Wisbech-March Bramley Line group has a new office in March. The address is Suite 9, Old Bank Chambers, Dartford Road. The telephone number is 01354 651188. Note: all mail should still be sent to the PO box in Wisbech. There is also a new email address: [bramleyline at btconnect.com]. Following much effort by the chairman and membership secretary to raise the profile of the group, it now has more than 200 members.


RAIL FARES
Train operators announce rail fare increases from January 2007

Like other TOCs, 'one' has announced its new fares from 1st January 2007. For example, season tickets between Cambridge and London Liverpool Street will rise £96, from £3,344 to £3,440. This 2.8% increase is less than the average of 4.3% for 'one's regulated fares and 5% for unregulated fares. By comparison First Capital Connect's 3.5 per cent for unregulated fares will increase by just 3.5%, although its regulated fares will also increase by 4.3%.

Some commuters will be hit harder. For example, Ely to London Liverpool Street season tickets increase by 6.9%, from £3,404 to £3,640. Both operators have blamed the increase in electricity costs for part of the rise.

Branch chairman Peter Wakefield was reported in the Cambridge Evening News saying "Services to Liverpool Street have improved in punctuality but there is still a lot to be done. A rise of about 2% would seem reasonable, but 6% is excessive. Unless there is capacity to match the demand, our view is that prices should not rise more than inflation."


RAIL FRANCHISES
GNER franchise to be re-let in 2007 - temporary cost-plus arrangement to be introduced

Keywords: [GNER]

The DfT has announced that GNER's franchise to run the East Coast Main Line, which was due to pay £1,300m back to the government (50% in the last three years), will be re-let. However, to avoid impacting passengers, GNER will continue to run it until 2007 on a new fixed-management-contract basis. GNER's parent company Sea Containers had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States in October with outstanding debts of in excess of £350 million and was unable to afford the increase in GNER's bond used as security for payment default, which would have increased from $27.5m to $51.7m in May 2007.


ST.IVES LINE
First stretches of track lifted as Cambridgeshire County Council acquires railway line

On 23rd November the 10-mile Fen Drayton branch, which originally ran to St.Ives and beyond, was transferred from Network Rail to Cambridgeshire County Council in order to be converted into a £116m guided busway. The purchase price was not disclosed, but the county council and its contractor Edmund Nuttall are understood to be furious that Network Rail allowed heritage railways to lift some of the track prior to the handover. With a 60ft length of rail being worth up to £200, Nuttall's had intended to sell the track for scrap. The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway (whose northern extension will use flat-bottomed rail) and the Swindon and Cricklade Railway (who are interested in bullhead rail) were the beneficiaries of Network Rail's generosity, although owing to heavy vegetation they were unable to retrieve as much as track ha hoped, and were unable to operate a Class 08 shunter over the line as originally intended. The Mid-Norfolk Railway have made arrangements with the county council to obtain the concrete gate posts in early 2007.

Diggers and trucks have moved onto a site beside the railway at Longstanton to prepare the ground. The first work included laying foundations of offices. Nuttall will then set-up a manufacturing plant to cast around 7,600 15-metre long concrete beams for the busway, which will each weigh 15 tonnes. At its peak, about 250 construction workers will be working on the busway, which will take two years to complete before opening in February 2009, some three years behind the original planned date.

The Cambridge Evening News reported Tim Phillips, chairman of CAST.IRON, saying "Today (Wednesday, 22nd November) is a bleak day for the future of Britain's regional and national transport 'strategy'. Here, finally, is the physical evidence that there is none. Instead of reinstating a crucial part of the national network for passengers and freight, rails that have been in place for over 150 years are being ripped up to be replaced by an unproven scheme involving 70 acres of unwanted and environmentally-disastrous concrete, obstructing byways, wrecking wildlife habitats - and running from nowhere to nowhere." He was also interviewed for Anglia News.

In early November the Department for Transport announced that the railway-to-guided-busway scheme for the disused Luton-Dunstable line, formally and confusingly known as "Translink", met with qualified approval by the public inspector, C.J.Tipping, and the promoters Luton Borough Council and Bedfordshire County Council have been granted a Transport and Works Act Order to construct it. Several observers have expressed the opinion that the DfT will choose not to fund it following the increase in cost to well over £100m and financial hole at the DfT created by the major increase in the Cambridgeshire scheme.


RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE
Major track upgrade to Wherry lines completed; Bittern line upgrade about to start

Keywords: [BitternLine]

Long stretches of life-expired jointed track on the Wherry Lines from Norwich to both Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft have been replaced with continuous welded rail, which will give passengers a smoother ride, and allow higher line speeds. The lines were closed for around three weeks, with buses replacing trains. Similar work is due to be carried out on the Bittern Line between 2nd and 23rd December. The line will be closed between North Walsham and Sheringham during the first two weeks, and only between Cromer and Sheringham from 16th December.

The Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership were critical of the Highway Agency for failing to communicate with Network Rail and thereby scheduling concurrent road repairs on the A47 Acle straight, meaning that there was no direct transport link between Great Yarmouth-Acle-Norwich for two weeks overnight.


STATIONS
Major track upgrade to Wherry lines completed; Bittern line upgrade about to start

Keywords: [BitternLine]

On 3rd November the Friends of Brandon Station, who are the adopters of Brandon station under the Adopt-A-Station scheme operated by one', hosted a ceremony to officially unveil a permanent mural at the station. The mural which depicts scenes from the history and life of the town and surrounding countryside was designed by schoolchildren. Funding was provided by several local businesses woth 'one' paying for the installation.

Clive Morris, Rural Business Director for 'one', said, "The mural is fantastic and will really enhance the appearance of the station, bringing some life and colour. It also represents the fact that this is a rail station at the heart of its community and it is wonderful to see the schoolchildren getting involved in a project that benefits the town."


CAMPAIGNING FOR RAIL
New rail lobby group for Norfolk formed

The Norfolk Rail Alliance, a new transport lobby group of group comprising MPs, businesses, community rail partnerships and councils, was recently launched to campaign for more investment in Norfolk's railways. The group particularly wants to see infrastructure improvements to the Norwich to London line, extra coaches on the Wherry and Bittern Lines and improved capacity on services to Cambridge.

In a front-page Eastern Daily Press article on 21st November, Adrian Gunson, chairman of the Rail Alliance, argued that Norfolk gets a bad deal under the current franchise system claiming that 'one' will pay the government around £500m over 10 years to run the franchise yet hardly any of this investment is returned to Norfolk. He said "It is vital that Norfolk receives its fair share, to overcome present deficiencies in the rail network and help realise the economic potential of the county with Norfolk's increasingly growing population."

Railfuture President and branch vice-chairman, Peter Lawrence attended the first meeting of the Alliance as Chairman of the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership and was also able to convey views on behalf of Railfuture. A further meeting of the Alliance will take place in February 2007.


PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Reminder of Mid-Norfolk Railway's fund raising activities

Keywords: [MidNorfolkRailway]

Anyone who has not visited the Mid-Norfolk Railway website in a while may be interested in two particular pages: Driver Experience Courses are explained on http://www.mnr.org.uk/services/driver.html and the Sponsor A Sleeper Appeal (where the sponsor receives a certificate) for the northern section between Dereham and Hoe describes the project and lists the benefits of sponsorship on http://www.mnr.org.uk/help/sleeper.html. Both of these would make ideal Christmas presents.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 160 - 30/11/2006

[Prev Issue (159)] [Snippets Issues] [Next Issue (161)] [Category List] [Keyword List] [People List] [Story List] [Branch Dashboard]