News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 206 - 20/06/2010
- RAIL FRANCHISES [all issues]
- DfT aborts Greater [East] Anglia and Essex Thameside franchise re-letting processes whilst it conducts a rail franchising review
- National Express East Anglia confirms December 2010 service changes at stakeholder meeting
- RAIL ROUTES [all issues]
- Study commissioned by EEDA finds that major investment in upgrading Great Eastern Main line will bring massive business benefits
- GRIP4 study for western section of East West Rail Link finds "exceptionally strong" business case
- STATIONS [all issues]
- Attleborough, North Walsham and Wymondham ticket offices closed "until further notice"
- National Express East Anglia hold Community Day at Great Yarmouth station
- RAIL PATRONAGE [all issues]
- RAIL FREIGHT [all issues]
- GUIDED BUSWAY [all issues]
- More busway delays as County council says that none of six defects have been completed by BAM Nuttall
- MP's call for public inquiry into Cambridgeshire Guided Busway debacle is rejected by government but internal review will occur
- County council's Bob Menzies speaks at yet another bus rapid transit conference
- BAM Nuttall "commences work" on Luton-Dunstable busway despite criticism of its performance on Cambridgeshire busway scheme
- PRESERVED RAILWAYS [all issues]
- WEBSITES [all issues]
A reminder than the next Railfuture East Anglia Branch meeting will be on 29th June in Ipswich. Unfortunately Ian Dinmore is unable to attend so branch vice chairman Peter Lawrence will give a presentation on a related subject: the Wherry Lines community rail partnership.
The Ely Society (Civic Trust/Civic Society for Ely) will be hosting a presentation by Mr.J.J. Penney on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway on Wednesday 14th July starting at 19:30. The venue is the Methodist Hall in Chapel Street, Ely (about 20 minutes' walk from the station - mostly uphill!). Admission is £2.50. Contact details and access info at http://www.cambridgeshire.net/organisation/ely-society/7729.aspx.
An online petition http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/norwich-in-ninety.html has been set-up to call for the Inter-City service between Norwich and London Liverpool Street to be reduced to 90 minutes.
When Passenger Focus became the watchdog for bus services on 1st April a reorganisation took place resulting in Sharon Hedges becoming responsible for all First Capital Connect services with Guy Dangerfield responsible for East Coast, East Midlands Trains, National Express East Anglia and Grand Central. Linda McCord will represent bus passengers across East Anglia.
On 10th June the government announced that the public inquiry into the £1,200 million upgrade of the A14 between Ellington and Fen Ditton has been postponed until the Government has completed a full spending review in autumn 2010.
Louise Ellman, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, has kept her position as chair of the Commons' Transport Committee. Meanwhile at its AGM the All-Party Rail group elected joint Chairmen: Tom Harris MP and Stephen Hammond MP, Joint Vice Chairmen Lord Peter Snape and Kelvin Hopkins MP with Lord Tony Berkeley as Secretary and Lord Richard Faulkner as Treasurer.
Tim O'Toole, Former Managing Director of London Underground, became Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive of First Group with effect from 14th June 2010. Moir Lockhead, who is aged 65, is retiring.
The second series of Michael Portillo's Great British Railway Journeys is now being filmed at locations across the country for transmission in early 2011. East Anglia was omitted from the first series (January 2010) and it is not known if it will be featured in the new series.
As part of the cost cutting to bring the deficit under control the government has suspended the plans to upgrade the A14. The public inquiry planned for late summer had already been postponed. Full list of major projects cut: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10341863.stm.
Christian Wolmar will be giving a launch lecture in aid of the Railway Children to coincide with his latest book, "Engines of War: How wars were won and lost on the railways", at the German Gymnasium next to St. Pancras on the evening of 28th September. There is only a limited number of tickets, which are £15 but that will include £5 off the price of the book. Reserve a place by contacting the Railway Children office on 01270 757596.
RAIL FRANCHISES
DfT aborts Greater [East] Anglia and Essex Thameside franchise re-letting processes whilst it conducts a rail franchising review
The new coalition government intends to conduct a review of the rail franchising system, looking at longer franchises in particular, to see if the railway can be made more efficient - providing better value for money and a better service - whilst allowing more money to be invested by the franchisees. As a result on 17th June it announced that all franchise tender processes initiated by the previous government, would be terminated and relaunched once a decision on modified franchises has been made.
The Greater [East] Anglia and Essex Thameside franchises, which are both held by National Express (as NXEA and c2c respectively) are directly affected, with the tendering process cancelled. This means that the discredited NX, which Lord Adonis was eager to see expelled from the railway, will survive a few months longer, as the re-letting process will not begin before the end of 2010.
The government announced that the East Coast franchise tender launch is also likely to be delayed, with a new franchisee starting well beyond the November 2011 planned date. At the same time it also revealed that the planned new seven-trains-a-day direct service from London King's Cross to Lincoln will be dropped in order to save £9m a year. One direct return train a day (at peak time) will be provided using existing rolling stock rather than the planned Adelante trains. Railfuture's Lincolnshire branch chairman David Harby was quoted on the Lincolnshire Echo on the subject.
Government statement: http://www.dft.gov.uk/press/speechesstatements/statements/villiers20100617.
National Express East Anglia confirms December 2010 service changes at stakeholder meeting
Keywords: [NationalExpressEastAnglia]
On 15th June two representatives of the Railfuture East Anglia branch attended an NXEA presentation on the
December 2010 timetable. Key elements are:
- Loss of through London - Peterborough / Lowestoft service
- Hourly Ipswich to Saxmundham service
- 2 extra Lowestoft - Ipswich trains in morning
- Off peak Harwich branch service
- Extra through services to Colchester Town
- Fewer stops on London-Norwich trains
- Felixstowe off-peak departures changed by 30 minutes from Ipswich
- Extra evening Ipswich to Cambridge and return - all services 3 minutes quicker and using Class 170s
- Concern over loss of text service - too expensive to run say NXEA.
NXEA was asked about plans for enhancements beyond December 2010. It said that future funding is unclear and they have met MPs to discuss priorities, which include:
- Felixstowe - Nuneaton upgrade
- Great Eastern mainline works
- Hourly Ipswich - Lowestoft
- Hourly Ipswich to Peterborough
- Work towards 7 day railway and less disruptive engineering work.
RAIL ROUTES
Study commissioned by EEDA finds that major investment in upgrading Great Eastern Main line will bring massive business benefits
An Atkins study commissioned by the East of England Development Agency entitled "The Economic Case for Investment on the Great Eastern Main Line" found that improvements to train services could generate business benefits of £3,700 million over 60 years as a result of reduced travel times, new trains, improvements to rural services and Wi-Fi access. A range of partners, including Regional Cities East, Shaping Norfolk's Future, the Haven Gateway Partnership, Norfolk County Council, Suffolk County Council and Norwich City Council were consulted.
GRIP4 study for western section of East West Rail Link finds "exceptionally strong" business case
Keywords: [EastWestRail]
As predicted in [Snippets 204] the 'Draft Final Report' from the recent GRIP4 study into the western end of the East West Rail Link has shown a very high benefit:cost ratio. A basic £178m scheme generated a BCR or 4.94:1 whilst the preferred scheme, costing £211m, has a BCR of 6.30:1, producing a revenue surplus. The DfT's current "good" value for money threshold is 2:1. The study also looked at longer-distance journeys including, for example, Reading. The "final report" for the outline business case is expected to be published in July.
GRIP4 Draft Report: http://www.eastwestrail.org.uk/reports/documents/EWRDraftOutlineBusinessCaseNTS_08062010_Final.pdf.
STATIONS
Attleborough, North Walsham and Wymondham ticket offices closed "until further notice"
The part-time ticket offices at Attleborough, North Walsham and Wymondham stations, which were opened about five years ago by National Express East Anglia have been shut "until further notice". This may not necessarily be intended to save money directly, but may be redeployment of ticket-office staff to avoid having to recruit staff to cover natural wastage.
National Express East Anglia hold Community Day at Great Yarmouth station
Keywords: [GreatYarmouthStation]
On Saturday 19th June NXEA organised a Community Day at Great Yarmouth station. Its staff, local residents and representatives from Great Yarmouth Borough Council and BBC Radio Norfolk gave their time to undertake further improvements at the station, such as planting flowers donated by Highway Garden and Leisure in the station flower tubs and spring cleaning areas of the station and surrounds. The aim was to present a more welcoming environment for visitors and rail passengers. In recent months NXEA installed new station signage, poster boards and new litter bin holders throughout the station.
RAIL PATRONAGE
Rail patronage for last 14 years shows continuous increase in the East of England
|
The Office of Rail Regulation has released statistics that give passenger numbers since privatisation with breakdown across the 11 areas. The passenger figures (in millions) on the right show rail journeys that either originate or terminate in the East of England (including journeys wholly within that area). In the last year for which figures are available there were 145 million journeys involving the East of England's railway. This is almost 1/7th of the total journeys in Britain. The graph on the right shows clearly that there has been a sustained increase for each of the 13 years, giving an 85% increase between 1995/96 and 2008/09. |
 |
RAIL FREIGHT
GB Railfreight signs five-year contract to continue hauling freight from North Walsham and Harwich
Keywords: [GBRailfreight]
GB Railfreight has renewed its contract with Petrochem Carless for a further five years to move gas condensate from North Walsham to Harwich, from where it would then move mud oil to Aberdeen.
GUIDED BUSWAY
More busway delays as County council says that none of six defects have been completed by BAM Nuttall
A progress report produced for councillors at a cabinet on Tuesday 15th June 2010 said that contractor BAM Nuttall was slipping even further behind its own deadlines with many of the dates set to address six defects on the track (some reported more than a year ago - the final section of track on the busway route from St Ives to Cambridge was laid on 15th June 2009) having been missed and none completed. Therefore without a clear programme to resolve the faults it was "unwise to speculate" on when the long-delayed northern section between Cambridge and St Ives might open. At the meeting, according to the Cambridge News, councillors passed a recommendation expressing their "frustration with BAM Nuttall's inept management of the project", although the word "inept" was later omitted after the council sought legal advice on its use. In a statement to the Cambridge News, John Onslow, the council's acting executive director for environment services, said that BAM Nuttall was now "revisiting the argument over liability for the defect", implying that it may refuse to fix the defects at its cost. Meanwhile BAM Nuttall has accumulated delay payments of more than £6 million based on £14,800 for each day that delivery is delayed (assuming that it i exclusively responsible for the delay).
CGB Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridgeshire_Guided_Busway.
MP's call for public inquiry into Cambridgeshire Guided Busway debacle is rejected by government but internal review will occur
Julian Huppert, the new Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge, tabled a question to ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he would hold a public inquiry into the Cambridge Guided Bus project and for what reasons his Department decided to allocate funding to the Luton and Dunstable Guided Bus project. Norman Baker (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Regional and Local Transport) replied on 2nd June that it was a matter for the scheme promoter (Cambs county council) to assess the delivery of the scheme and how the contract has worked. However, he has asked his officials to begin investigating options for a review of guided bus policy, which will draw on the Cambridgeshire experience, among others.
The council has confirmed that a review will be carried out by one of the council's existing cross-party scrutiny committees (with meetings held in public) and it will look at how the contract with BAM Nuttall (a standard type used by the Highways Agency and the Ministry of Defence) has worked and whether there are lessons to be learned for organisations which use the same type of contract in the future. Critics say that rather than look at how the project was managed (perhaps mismanaged) by the Council, it has decided to just review the standard contract and its clauses, a contract that has apparently been used by other councils and government usually without the problems that the council has experienced, rather than look into why the project has got into such major difficulty. Posting on a newsgroup one critic wrote "We were promised high-tech super buses that became bendy buses, that then became just plain old buses. We were promised high speed and high tech, which turned out to be buses running down a concrete gutter slower than they would be running if they were on the road. We were promised a cycle lane, instead we've got muddy gravel track that is in some places entirely submerged most of the time." The review would not look at any of these complaints.
Audit Scotland said it had plans to probe the running of the Edinburgh tram project ? but only once it is finished
County council's Bob Menzies speaks at yet another bus rapid transit conference
Bob Menzies, the Busway's Head of Delivery at Cambs County Council, will be speaking at yet another conference about kerb-guided buses - this time in London not Australia! It's "Bus Rapid Transit World Europe 2010" from 29th June to 1st July. Details on http://www.terrapinn.com/2010/bus. Critics have repeated their belief that the county council should wait until the busway is actually open before giving speeches, unless it's about how NOT to build a busway. However, a spokesman said "A spokesman for the county council said: "As it states on the conference organiser's website, he will be speaking about the technology involved in kerb-guided busways and the advantages of such schemes."
News item: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Cambridge/Guided-busway-boss-will-deliver-conference-speech.htm.
BAM Nuttall "commences work" on Luton-Dunstable busway despite criticism of its performance on Cambridgeshire busway scheme
Keywords: [LutonDunstableBusway]
On 1st June an event was staged by Luton Borough Council to suggest that BAM Nuttall, which was announced as preferred bidder in March 2010, had started initial work on the 13.4km £89m Luton-Dunstable guided busway. A bus was placed on the railway track for publicity purposes along with an impromptu ground-breaking ceremony where Cllr Roy Davis (portfolio holder for regeneration at Luton Borough Council) cut the first sod and Kelvin Hopkins MP looked on.
In fact the busway, which has been 16 years in the making and could open in 2012, was at risk of having all government withdrawn and critics suggest that the ceremony was merely an attempt to dissuade the government from causing public outrage if it was cancelled (conveniently forgetting that there is virtually no public support for the scheme, although Luton Friends of the Earth recently gave support - see http://www.southbedsfoe.co.uk/luton_dunstable_busway.htm - but plenty of support for reopening the railway). In the background of the photos rail were apparently being lifted (a possible own goal) but apparently only one length of rail was actually removed, supporting the claim that scheme is stalled. It is likely that the rails are destined for the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, although the Northampton and Lamptort Railway has also been suggested.
On 17th June, just over two weeks after the publicity stunt, the government confirmed that it would honour the busway funding commitment made by the previous government. Therefore construction of the busway is expected to commence without delay.
BAM Nuttall was apparently chosen because it had the equipment to construct the busway quickly. The contractor's reputation has been damaged by the Cambridgeshire scheme it had previously built the Crawley busway, dubbed by critics as the "Farce Way".
New Civil engineer: http://www.nce.co.uk/news/transport/bam-nuttall-gets-going-on-89m-luton-busway/8600559.article
Luton busway photos: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/threecounties/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8715000/8715503.stm
Official website: http://www.luton.gov.uk/busway.
PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Mid-Norfolk successfully completes Thuxton passing loop on time but funding still required to finish the project
On the weekend of 12th/13th June, as planned, the MNR's volunteers laid track across the level crossing at Thuxton and joined it up with other rails thus completing the passing loop. This was almost 40 years to the day when, in 1965, the line from Wymondham to Dereham was singled, with just one passing loop, at Hardingham; the line north of Dereham having closed in 1964. This new loop needs to be operational in order to run the full service intended for its diesel train gala in September. However, some signalling work remains to allow it to operate as a passing loop (no signalling is planned to enable operation as a run round loop or for shunting). The other major outstanding work is to complete the construction of the scone platform to allow trains to stop there. The MNR's Passing Loop Appeal is still open in order to raise the remaining £15,000 of its £5,000 target.
The MNR is also attempting to raise funds to purchase the former Whittlesford footbridge (removed in 1987 when the West Anglia line to Cambridge was electrified) to erect it immediately north of the canopy at Dereham station. This will allow access (albeit not for disabled people) to the platform opposite, which will be useful on gala days in particular. The footbridge has been owned by the North Norfolk Railway and is being purchased for just £600. Most of the money needed was raised by donations at the AGM on 19th June.
At the AGM it was revealed that a contractor has been hired to work on the canopy at County School station, although trains will not run for many years. Apart from the massive cost of repairing the track, the MNR would also need to spend at least £20,000 to get a Transport and Works Act order from North Elmham to County School (the operational section's one having cost £25k, and the northern section £15k). The section of track from Hoe to Worthing is in such poor condition that it cannot be spot re-sleepered and new track will be needed. Lastly, members of the Trust confirmed that the MNR has money put aside to repay the bonds when they become due in late 2011.
WEBSITES
Irish campaigners launch website to fight closure of Waterford-Rosslare line as part of government's austerity measures
Campaigners against the imminent closure of the Waterford-Rosslare line in the Republic of Ireland and the consequent mothballing of the only bridge across the Barrow estuary have set-up a website called http://savetherail.org.
Ireland currently has a Fianna Fail-Green Party coalition government. If this closure goes through it will be the first significant Green Party railway closure in history, and takes no account of the recent Irish rail success where the newly opened Western Rail Corridor from Limerick to Galway is reportedly loading well above plan. The Irish cuts are seen by many in Britain as a warning of what may come as the Irish Republic is further along the austerity process.
Real-time website shows locations of all trains on the London Underground
The amazing http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube website provides a geographical map of the London Underground with near real-time positions of every train on each line, apart from the Hammersmith and City line for an undisclosed reason. Unfortunately it is unlikely to be of much use to passenger waiting on the station platform as they would be unable to get a mobile signal! The website has been made possible because LUL has allowed the train position data to be used, unlike National Rail, which has sought to frustrate such innovations.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 206 - 20/06/2010
[Prev Issue (205)] [Snippets Issues] [Next Issue (207)] [Category List] [Keyword List] [People List] [Story List] [Branch Dashboard]