News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 166 - 13/08/2007
- STATIONS [all issues]
- Huntingdon station gets major facelift following £1.3m of improvements
- New waiting shelter offically opened at Littleport station
- RAIL PUNCTUALITY [all issues]
- RAIL SERVICES [all issues]
- PRESERVED RAILWAYS [all issues]
Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly has approved the £5,500m Thameslink modernisation programme. The project will produce a dramatic increase in capacity with 12-carriage trains running through central London at up to 24 trains an hour. For East Anglia, the main prize will see some trains from Peterborough and Cambridge avoiding King's Cross and continuing via St Pancras International low level station through London, perhaps as fas as Brighton. The announcement was made on 24th July during the launch of the government's White Paper entitled Delivering a Sustainable Railway.
Following the unveiling by 'one' of a train with Bittern Line branded livery in June (see [Snippets 165]), another unit was unveiled with bodysides read 'Ride the Wherry Lines' at Norwich station on 25th July. The Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership is chaired by Railfuture's Peter Lawrence.
On 31st July the former Halesworth signal box (which became redundant in the 1980s when semaphore signalling was abolished on the East Suffolk line) was delivered to County School station, at the northern end of the Mid-Norfolk Railway, and placed on a newly-built base. The transportation costs were funded by a sponsored walk in 2006 as mentioned in [Snippets 155].
STATIONS
Huntingdon station gets major facelift following £1.3m of improvements
Keywords: [HuntingdonStation]
Network Rail has restored the station canopy at Huntingdon station, whilst First Capital Connect has been responsible installing new automatic ticket gates and platform shelters. Work is now complete on a brand new bus/rail interchange, a new low-level ticket office window, automatic door opening and closing devices to the main entrance doors as well as additional handrails on the footbridge stairs. Other work to be completed in the near future includes a fully repainted, new signage and an upgrade of the existing cycle parking facilities that will provide an additional 98 cycle and motorcycle spaces.
According to a FCC press release, by March 2008 a new help point and 18 CCTV cameras will be installed at the station. These will be monitored constantly from a new central control centre, which is due to be completed early in 2008.
New waiting shelter offically opened at Littleport station
Keywords: [LittleportStation]
Om Wednesday 4th July a new waiting shelter on the London-bound platform was officially opened at Littleport station. The previous shelter at the Fen Line station was destroyed by fire in 2005. The delay in replacing it has been criticised, although this is partly excused by the need to design a bespoke shelter to fit in the limited space available.
RAIL PUNCTUALITY
Best punctuality figures for 'one' since its franchise began
Keywords: [OneRailway]
On 6th July it was announced that the services provided by 'one' railway had achieved a fourth successive period of punctuality over 90%. The period covering spring to early summer is generally the best of the year as the railway does not suffer from extreme temperaturss or leaf-fall. In the latest four-week period the train operator achieved 92.44% of trains 'on time', which is defined as within 10 minutes for inter-city services and five minutes for all other services. This is the best performance achieved by the operator since its franchise began on 1st April 2004. The punctuality improvement in East Anglia concides with improvements across the country as Network Rail continues its infrastrucutre improvements.
The announcement was soon overshadowed by figures for the following period, 24th June to 21st July, which saw 91.3% of 'one's services arrive 'on time' at destination - a fifth successive period of over 90%.
RAIL SERVICES
First Capital Connect introduces telephone-based Travelcheck service to show how trains are running
Keywords: [FirstCapitalConnect]
Passengers on the move, without internet access, can now check whether First Capital Connect trains are running normally or suffering from disruption by phoning 0845 330 3660 at any time. Information is broken down into Great Northern and Thameslink routes, and for each is split between planned engineering works and live running information. Whilst the service may be well used in the next year or two, the emerging use of smart phones, which give internet access on the move, is likely to reduce the use of phone based services in the future, not least because of the cost associated with 0845 phone calls.
PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Mid-Norfolk Railway's bridge-strengthening work to support heavier lorries commences
Keywords: [MidNorfolkRailway]
By taking over the railway line the Mid-Norfork Railway also became responsible for maintaininng some of the bridges along the route. Whilst maintenance to keep them in safe condition is understandable, it is also having to incur costs to strengthen them to allow heavier lorries. This is something that Railfuture nationally feels should be funded from the roads budget.
The MNR's bridges at Whinburgh, Hardingham and Wymondham will be strengthened. Work commended on 30th July.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 166 - 13/08/2007
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