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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 213 - 31/01/2011

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

Railfuture News Snippets 213 - 31/01/2011



Branch vice chairman Peter Lawrence appeared on BBC Look East on 31st December and 4th January to talk about the rail fare increases.

Railfuture and its in-house magazine Railwatch are now on Twitter. Follow them using: @Railfuture and @Railwatch.

Work to a gateline at King's Cross for platforms 0-5, which started in late December, is almost complete. It will be brought into use on 7th February. Platforms 6-7 will be next to be gated but platform 8 cannot be until the revamp of the station is completed.

On 11th February the Cambridge University Railway Club will have a presentation from Chris Stokes, former Deputy Franchising Director of OPRAF, entitled "The Franchising Process". See www.curc.org.uk for more details.

The Mid-Norfolk Railway has just announced more events for 2011. Sunday 22th May: South London Event, Sunday 24th July: Classic Transport Day. See http://www.mnr.org.uk/events/.

The Mid-Norfolk Family History Society will have a talk by Chris and Judy Rouse entitled "History of the M&GN Railway and Staff Records" at Trinity Methodist Church Hall, Theatre Street, Dereham on Wednesday 16th February at 19:30.

Ian Brown, former Managing Director London Rail, Transport for London, who spoke at Railfuture's Shoreditch conference in November 2010 and is about to become a regular contributor to Railwatch magazine was awarded the CBE in the New Year for services to the Rail Industry.

National Express East Anglia is to fully introduce Wi-Fi facilities on its Norwich to London intercity service from 1st February.

On Tuesday 22nd February Felixstowe Travel Watch will be holding a public meeting at St Andrews Hall, Felixstowe, at 14:30.

On 25th January the government scrapped Freight Facilities Grants which were launched in 1974 and have assisted in the transfer of freight from road to rail and water for environmental reasons. The cost was a mere £8m each year.

ATOC has announced that train travel in Great Britain during 2010 was at its highest peacetime level since 1928 at 1,320 million. However, the proportion of people using the train is still substantially lower than before World War II. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12320817.

First Capital Connect is offering "compensation" in the form of free passes to annual season ticket holders. The details are at https://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/complimentary-tickets.

London Midland's Great Escape offer provides a day rover on all their trains (on Mon-Fri: after 09.30, no restrictions in West Midlands PTE area or Chase Line, supplement for afternoon peak trains from London) for just £10. The offer runs between Saturday 19th February and Sunday 6th March 2011.

The Friends of March Railway station became a Community Interest Company, Limited by guarantee, in the second week of January 2011 when the CIC certificate was issued. The group's first project for 2011 is to reinstate the water supply on the centre (Cambridge-bound) platforms by hooking up to a supply in the buildings in Carrillion Yard at the back of the Station. This was started in the third week of January and should be completed by middle of April.

Wymondham station in Norfolk will be poorer when David Turner, proprietor of The Brief Encounter restaurant (which was featured in appeared in Michael Portillo's Great Railway Journeys on BBC2 on 6th January), retires in February. Although there will be a new tenant it will be without memorabilia from the David Lean film or the assortment of enamel signage and other railwayana. Mr Turner leased the buildings in the 1980s after they had been unoccupied for around twenty years.

Since the end of through trains between Lowestoft and London in December 2010, ESTA has received 45 questionnaires from passengers giving their experiences of the interchange at Ipswich. NXEA have been given some freedom to hold trains to avoid passengers missing connections.


RAIL FRANCHISES
Government launches invitation to tender for interim Greater [East] Anglia franchise to last until 2013

Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]

Whilst the government decides on its new model for franchises, and having already extended NXEA's franchise once (from 1st 31st March 2011 to 15th October 2011), it has confirmed that negotiations are under way with NXEA to further extended it to 5th February 2012. On 11th January the DfT published its invitation to tender for the approximately two-year franchise beginning on 6th February, which is a stop-gap until it is ready to offer a 15-year one. It lists the franchise objectives as:

* Controlling operational costs
* Maximising revenue
* Delivering a quality of service for passengers for the entire rail journey
* Working with the Department and other stakeholders to ensure value for money
* Managing and delivering changes required to accommodate Crossrail
* Implementing the station responsibilities if required
* Working effectively with Network Rail to maintain performance
* Delivering the plans around the Olympics
* Managing the introduction of the Class 379 HLOS vehicles.

The interim franchise will not introduce any changes to the service, or timetable changes, as part of the franchise. As stated in [Snippets 212], in 2009/10 NXEA generated £510m of passenger revenue from £107 million passenger journeys (less that £5 per journey on average) by providing about a thousand train services each weekday, with fewer at weekends.


RAIL FREIGHT
Network Rail consults on revised Ipswich Chord plans to take 750,000 lorry journeys off the road every year by 2030

Keywords: [IpswichChord]

Following the first consultation attended by 302 people on 8th-10th June 2010 on the proposed Ipswich Chord (formerly known as the Bacon Factory Curve), Network Rail is consulting on the revised proposal for the Felixstowe to Nuneaton freight-only 1km link to avoid revering at Ipswich goods yard and using previous line capacity.

Previously 95% of responses expressed support, many suggesting that it should be double-tracked initially to avoid disruptive works later on. It is now expected to cost £41m to link the East Suffolk line and Great Eastern main line with a double-track chord, long enough on allow 775-metre-loing trains to wait clear of the Great Eastern and East Suffolk lines. In addition the chord will be designed so as not to preclude future electrification. Network Rail will put on public show the design details. An online questionnaire will be available from 31st January until 13st March by clicking "have your say" on http://http://www.networkrail.co.uk/felixstowe-nuneaton or at a public exhibition inside Ipswich's Corn Exchange on Tuesday 1st and Wednesday 2nd February from 10:00 to 18:00.

Network Rail will submit its final plans mid-2011. If approved, work on the scheme is due to start in 2012 and will be completed by 2014.


STATIONS
Network Rail and East Coast fund £2.5m development of Peterborough Station

Keywords: [PeterboroughStation]

Network Rail will spend £2.5m transforming the whole of Peterborough station so that it presents a better gateway to the city for its five million passengers. Partly funded by East Coast (£875,000), there will be a smart new frontage outside and a lighter and brighter interior with the concourse increased in size to allow more seating, a new waiting room and refurbished toilets. Work will commence in summer 2010 and take about six months to complete.

More car parking at Diss station to cope with additional passengers

Keywords: [DissStation]

The car park at Diss station in Norfolk is being expanded to accommodate 60 more cars. Work costing £400,000 (roughly £6,500 per space) started on 25th January and should be complete in March.

Diss station has also seen other improvements recently, such as new stairs/ramps, along with relocation of the cashpoint machine from the station approach to the London-bound platform as requested by passengers.

Bletchley remodelling is a step in the right direction for the East West Rail Link

Keywords: [BletchleyStation]

Network Rail's remodelling of Bletchley station will allow trains on the fast lines to travel at 125mph and platforms 4/5 will be extended to 12 cars. The remodelling will also benefit Bedford-Bletchley trains by allowing them to go onto Milton Keynes station where they will turn round.

Around £29m will be spent at Bletchley: £18.9m for new track and overhead wires (Carillion) £8m for civil engineering (Clough Smith) £2.4m signalling (Signalling Solutions). The 1965-built power signal box will close and control will move to the Rugby signalling control centre for the WCML. It is unclear how the EWRL route might be signalled, perhaps from Marston Vale signalling centre.


RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE
Network Rail revises plans for Hornsey Depot to maintain new Thameslink Programme rolling stock

Keywords: [HornseyDepot]

Following negative feedback during the consultation stage Network Rail has revised its proposals for Hornsey depot to support the new Thameslink Programme trains. The existing site in North London will see a new depot built on disused sidings at the north end. Because of concerns about the size of the new depot it will now have only three maintenance roads and the building will be 240 metres long by 40 metres wide and 11.05 metres high. The existing depot will not be changed. Network Rail will also build a new depot at Three Bridges to support trains on the southern half of the route.


GUIDED BUSWAY
Cambridgeshire Guided busway could finally open in July 2011 if no further delays

The latest estimate - by the media - of when the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway could finally run public services is July 2011 although this estimate contains lots of caveats. Whilst the busway has been constructed many certificates have yet to be handed over by the contractor BAM Nuttall. The council's agents Atkins will inspect the works (which will take more time) and BAM Nuttall will then be given four weeks to repair everything that the county council believes is a defect before a new contractor can be brought in to rectify any outstanding 'defects'. After that bus drivers will need to be trained. As much of this is uncertain, and new problems could yet be identified, the county council has refused to give an opening date, not even an approximate one. However, Graham Hughes, the county council's director of growth and infrastructure, said it "will open this year". Sceptics ridiculed this by asking if he meant an "Earth year".

As many as one-in-ten busway beams could need 'trimming to avoid expansion in hit weather

One of the six 'defects' raised by Atkins is that the busway beams are too close together and could 'collide' as they expand causing them to ride up and reduce the journey quality. It is not clear if it poses a safety risk as well, perhaps leading to bus tyres bursting. it is now suggested that this fault could affect one in ten of the busway beams. However, the busway does not need to be lifted and relaid - the simple solution is to shave a small portion of the end of the affected beams.

Cambridgeshire Guided busway to be dug up as soon as it is finished

As if the debacle of the busway construction is not enough, once it has been handed over from BAM Nuttall a small section of busway near to Trumpington will be dug up by Countryside Properties to insert a 'crossing' for the Clay Farm spine road.

Stagecoach no longer obliged to use Cambridgeshire Guided Busway

Construction of the guided busway is now so late that the five-year agreement between the county council and the bus operators (just Stagecoach and Whippet, down from five companies originally) has expired. For the moment the bus operators are just waiting to use it, although Stagecoach has publicly threatened (as mentioned [Snippets 212] to walk away if it does not open in 2011. Details of the busway 'track access agreement' have been disclosed under a Freedom of Information Act request. The "period of 5 years" limit was redacted, however, it was incompetently done and can be revealed by simply highlighting the black area, copying and pasting it.

Rail supporters in Leigh use Cambridgeshire Busway fiasco to spur investigation of railway reopening instead

Keywords: [LeighBusway]

Cllr Norman Bradbury, when talking about the proposed Leigh-Salford guided busway (on a former railway alignment) cited the Cambridge Guided Busway as being "one of the world's biggest white elephants". He said it was over three years behind schedule (not quite that long - yet!) with the project not yet complete, and a current estimated cost of £181 million as compared with the original £65 million. He said that 2,700 letters and 4,000 signatures on a petition were sent to the Secretary of State for Transport objecting to it. Describing how public opinion was dismissed (with only four people at the public inquiry were in favour of the Guided Busway) and comparing it with the situation in Leigh he said "sounds familiar doesn't it?"

In Leigh's case there are now strong calls for their council to urgently consult with the citizens of Leigh to establish if they wished the council to continue to support the guided busway, or if the council should support a heavy rail link from Pennington.


PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Whitwell and Reepham Preservation Society finally gets electricity supply to its station

Keywords: [WhitwellReepham]

Whitwell and Reepham station in Norfolk, which was open from 1882 to 1959 and is not close to the settlement that it served, never had an electricity supply. This didn't make life easy when it was reopened in 2009 by the Preservation Society. However, thanks to the £25,000 grant from Biffa under their Biffaward scheme the station now has its own electricity supply. Thanks are also due to Whitwell Hall who allowed the supply cables to go through their land. It will now be possible to finish the new boiler house and commission the Biomassboiler, thus providing radiators in the station and in the engine shed.

The group's next priority, hopefully achieved by Easter 2010 is to extend the track almost 100 metress to the end of their land. Then they hope to install a halt there along with a picnic area.

North Norfolk Railway achieves record success in 2010 following reopening of level crossing

Keywords: [NorthNorfolkRailway]

The North Norfolk Railway announced in January that a total of 143,991 travelled on its trains during 2010, which is the railway's highest-ever passenger total. The year saw a rise of over 13% on the 2009 total. General manager Trevor Eady attributes the record figures to three key factors: the reopening of Sheringham level crossing, doubling the number of trains run in May and June, and introducing new family events such as the visit of Ivor the Engine." Marketing Director Colin Borg said: "Given the challenging economic conditions during the year, this is a splendid result. It's a real tribute to the skills and dedication of our volunteers and staff in delivering a superb experience for both residents and visitors."


WEBSITES
New Year fare rises may encourage more passengers to split their ticket to save money

Keywords: [CheapFares]

Many regular rail users now release that savings can be made by splitting their tickets (either because of fare anomalies peak-time restrictions), even though this does not involve using different trains: the only rule being that the train must stop at the station where the tickets are split. However, it can be time-consuming to identify the best place to split the tickets. Fortunately a new website http://www.splityourticket.co.uk has come to the rescue.

Meanwhile, the Campaign for Better Transport has launched a new website http://www.fairfaresnow.org.uk to argue against the recent fare rises and, in particular, fight the annual RPI+3% increases that will come into effect from January 2012. In response to the fare increase a spokesman for First Capital Connect, which carries 150,000 passengers a day, said "All of our fares are set at levels to encourage growth. It is not in our interest to price people off the railway." No doubt CfBT and many rail users would disagree.

Councillor launches website to promote road user charging in and around Cambridge to fund public transport

Cambridgeshire Liberal-Democrat county councillor Nichola Harrison has set-up a website called http://www.ourtransportfuture.org to promote her vision of much improved public transport in and around Cambridge, necessitating less use of cars, which would be funded by road user charging. Although remaining a county councillor she has become an independent in order to promote this highly controversial scheme without alienating Lib-Dem supporters.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 213 - 31/01/2011

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