Loading...
 

East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 227 - 30/03/2012

[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 227 - 30/03/2012



On 17th March Abellio gave a public apology for problems its service had experienced in the first month since taking over the Greater Angila franchise. Railfuture president Peter Lawrence was quoted by the BBC saying: "It is frustrating for passengers when trains break down and there are signalling problems. But it is a short time since they took the service on and I think they need time to bed in. Provided we see improvement take place, I think the apology will go down well." See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17415903.

On Saturday 28th April the neighbouring Railfuture London and South East branch will be holding its AGM in Stratford at the Greater Anglia Academy in the building next to the Ibis hotel. Thr focus will be on the Olympic and Paralympics Games. Speakers will include TJ Noomen from Greater Anglia and a representative from Network Rail. A third speaker has been invited but is not confirmed. The AGM starts at 10:45.

The new £366m passenger concourse at the western side of King's Cross station opened to the public on Sunday 18th March despite Network Rail having announced the following day as the planned opening date. Nearly all news coverage has referred to the incorrect Monday date.

The most recent station annual patronage figures have just been published, after substantial post-processing to remove some obvious anomolies. See http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.1529 for the April 2012-March 2011 station usage figures and accompanying notes.

ESTA's Annual General Meeting will be at 14:00 on Saturday 5th May in St Mary's Church Hall, Market Hill, Woodbridge. There will be a presentation about the East Suffolk Line resignalling project from Julie Houghton of Network Rail and one of her colleagues. Pip Wright will also talk about rural bus travel in East Anglia.

The Wisbech-March Bramley has posted its February 2012 newsletter on its website, which gives some information about its plans - see http://www.bramleyline.org.uk/Documents/2012/BramleyLineNewsletterFeb12%20%282%29.pdf.


STATIONS
Chesterton Station hoped to open in October 2015 and attract 800,000 passengers per year

In mid-March the Cambridge News finally picked up on the predicted patronage for Chesterton station, which had been in the public domain for three years (2,800 per day). It announced that 800,000 passengers per year were expected, some of whom would be transferring from Waterbeach or Cambridge station. Compared to the near 500 passengers using 'tiny' Waterbeach station each working day and the seven million annual footfall at Cambridge station this estimate is likely to be far exceeded after a few years.

In a cabinet briefing paper issued in late March Cambridgeshire County Council has outlined the following timescales for the opening of Chesterton station:

Date Task / Milestone
Jan 2012 - May 2012 Produce Network Rail GRIP (Governance for Railway Investment Projects ) Stage 3 Report and updated scheme cost.
Feb 2012 Minister of State 'in principle' assurance on scheme inclusion in upcoming rail franchises.
Summer 2012 Formal confirmation from Secretary of State that Chesterton will be included in the Thameslink and long term Greater Anglia franchises.
May 2012 - Dec 2013 Outline and detailed scheme design through Network Rail GRIP Stages 4 and 5.
Aug 2012 - May 2013 Consultation on scheme and preparation of planning application.
Oct 2012 Invitation to Tender for the Thameslink franchise issued by DfT.
May 2013 Submit planning application to County Council for determination by Joint Development Control Committee for the Cambridge Fringes.
Summer 2013 Invitation to Tender for the long term Greater Anglia franchise issued by DfT
Autumn 2013 Planning consent received.
Jan 2014 - Oct 2015 Construction on site. County Council delivers access, interchange, car and cycle parking. Network Rail delivers and commissions station platforms, building, footbridge and live rail works (GRIP Stages 6, 7 and 8).
Oct 2015 Station opens.
The somewhat surprising news is that the county council intends to open the station in October rather than at a timetable change, which is normal practice and was the case for the recently opened island platforms at Cambridge. This would probably lead to timetables being put in place from May 2015, perhaps with additional layover at Cambridge station until the opening.

Given such apparent certainty for the scheme observers night be surprised that council officers and Atkins rail division only commenced work on the GRIP Stage 3 (option selection) in January - surely the option of two through platforms and a south-facing bay and their precise location was determined long ago? What other options remain?

Once the GRIP3 stage is completed in May 2012 the DfT will give final confirmation to proceed. The GRIP phases that will follow this are 'single option development' [4], planned for completion in early 2013 at which point the council's cabinet will commit to proceeding; then 'detailed design' [5]; 'construction test and commission' [6]; 'scheme hand back' [7], at which point the station can be opened, and 'project close out' [8].

The joint council and Network Rail view is that planning permission for the station will be required as it will not fall under Network Rail's permitted development rights. However, this will require a conventional planning application and not a Transport and Works Act Order, particularly as Network Rail owns all of the land required (apart from a short stretch of Cowley Road which would be needed for user access).

3,000 bicycle spaces to be provided at Cambridge Station

Keywords: [CambridgeStation]

Contributions from developer Brookgate and the Department for Transport's Local Sustainable Transport Fund will be used to provide 3,000 bike parking spaces at Cambridge station, which should make it the largest in the country. The current provision is completely inadequate with bikes often chained three or four to a rack.

Chelmsford station will also have additional cycle parking thanks to funding from Essex County Council and Greater Anglia.


RAIL FRANCHISES
Thameslink franchise pre-qualified bidders announced along with those for Essex Thameside and Great Western

Keywords: [Thameslink]

On 29th March the DfT announced 13 short-listed bidders across three franchises: Great Western, Essex Thameside and Thameslink, which saw seven different owning groups pre-qualify. FirstGroup is the only owning group that was shortlisted for all three franchises.

The Thameslink franchise, currently held by First Capital Connect, saw the greatest number of bidders shortlisted. The five companies are Abellio Thameslink Limited, First Thameslink Limited, Govia Thameslink Railway Limited (Go-Ahead Group and Keolis SA), MTR Corporation (Thameslink) Limited and Stagecoach Thameslink Trains Limited. The winner will be announced in May 2013, with the new franchise starting from September 2013 for a minimum of seven years, with the possibility of a two-year extension. The next stage is the issuing of the Invitation to Tender by the DfT, which is likely to be in October 2012.


RAIL ROUTES
Railfuture concerned about rail freight threat to Ipswich-Felixstowe passenger trains

Railfuture is delighted that 29 trains are now leaving the Port of Felixstowe each day. However, it has protested to MPs and the Port of Felixstowe itself that the company seems to be encouraging the bustitution of passenger services on the line to create new paths for freight trains rather than pay for the doubling of the track which it had committed itself to prior to the recession.

On 14th March in a 24-page feature in the Felixstowe & Ipswich Star the Port of Felixstowe has gone public for the first time about its aspirations to curtail part of the passenger service. One Railfuture branch committee member suggests: "In August 2010 the port presented evidence to the local authority forecasting lower container volumes and reasons to delay the [£46m 7km] dualling, but now it appears to need all the track space it can get, including the passenger service. I believe Suffolk Coastal District Council has a lot to explain regarding its short-sighted decision (not least its lack of vision) to allow the port the delay the dualling by five years. How can a growing town the size of Felixstowe with a population of 30,000+ support a reduced passenger service? As footfall would diminish so would the quality of service reduces it would become a forerunner to a complete closure. With plans for housing development, a new Tesco store and a Health Centre on the drawing board plus work has already started on a new school academy a reduction of the passenger service would be a completely retrograde step."

Reopening of Marylebone-Oxford "Evergreen 3" public inquiry will not delay opening of western section of East-West link

Keywords: [EastWestRail]

The Secretary of State for Transport, Justine Greening, has ordered the reopening of the public inquiry into the new Marylebone-Oxford rail link (the final part of Chiltern Railways' Evergreen 3 project) to deal with objectors on environmental matters. Although Chiltern has reached agreement with Natural England regarding issues such as the bat habitat in Wolvercote tunnel, there are still concerns over, or example, the discharge of fumes from trains as they pass sedge grasses, which the inquiry will deal with. The inquiry will resume on 29th May in Oxford with the same Inspector.

Although the London-Oxford service will now be delayed until at least 2014, Patrick O'Sullivan of the East West Rail Consortium does not believe that the 2017 opening date for the western section of the East West Rail Link, which is relying upon Chiltern's scheme being delivered, will be affected.

Work on Beccles loop finally commences as part of East Suffolk line resignalling project

Keywords: [BecclesLoop]

On Friday 30th March a ceremony took place at Beccles station to mark the start of work on the £4m "Beccles loop" scheme. Three MPs, the leader of Suffolk County Council and representatives from Network Rail and Greater Anglia were present.

The 16-mile stretch of single track between Halesworth and Oulton Broad, which severely limits capacity on the line, will be broken by the new passing loop at Beccles station. The second platform which has been disused since the 1980s will be brought back into use. The installation of the loop has been made cost-effective by coinciding with the £21m re-signalling of the East Suffolk line, replacing the life-expired RETB system with conventional signalling. The work should be complete by October to allow the new hourly service to start with the December timetable when the current hourly Ipswich-Saxmundham service will be extended to Lowestoft. Greater Anglia are claiming that this will probably be the best service frequency there has ever been on the line.

Work starts on two passing freight loops east of Ely station

Keywords: [ElyStation]

The 6-mile single track section of line between Ely and Soham is starting to become a pinch point as more freight trains travel between Felixstowe and Nuneaton via Ely. Network Rail already had funded plans in place to provide two passing loops freight trains immediately east of the station, although it was unclear if the government's approval for doubling of the entire section by 2016 (announced in December - see [Snippets 224]) would make the loops redundant. In fact network Rail intends the loops to become part of the second track, so the loops will be delivered to the original timescale.

Work commenced on the two 775-metre loops on 1st March and should be complete by summer 2013. This effectively doubles the first mile of the route between Ely and Soham.


RAIL FREIGHT
Haven Gateway Partnership offers financial incentive to switch containers from road to rail

In March The Haven Gateway Partnership announced a new incentive scheme to move up to 30,000 freight containers the Port of Felixstowe off the road and on to the railway. Companies could receive up to £75 per container.

At the moment around 750,000 (25%) of the 3.4 million standard containers a year from the port are moved by rail.


GUIDED BUSWAY
Government funding to be used to add further bus routes using the busway

Cambridgeshire County Council intends to use some of the $1.7 million recently received from government to add new guided busway services. On the northern section it is intended to trial services to Ramsey, Chatteris and Peterborough.

The bus operators have agreed to modify the guided bus carnet smartcard to allow ten journeys to be spread over a period of two months rather than 30 days, which has been heavily criticised. Meanwhile Stagecoach has announced that its fares are to increase by 5% in April, which is above the recent RPI rate.


PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Rail magazine reports that the Whitwell and Reepham Railway has been donated track from King's Lynn

Keywords: [WhitwellReepham]

According to a recent report in Rail magazine railway track that has been lifted at the former Campbell's factory in King's Lynn has been donated to the Whitwell and Reepham Railway. It was not stated whether the track would be laid in the yard or beyond its boundary on the former railway line, which is now Marriott's Way. The http://www.whitwellstation.com website has not reported this news.

Epping Ongar Railway to reopen after years spent on refurbishment and improvements

Keywords: [EppingOngarRailway]

East Anglia has several successful heritage railways, in contrast to closer to London where there are few despite the higher population. Just outside the Railfuture East Anglia branch area, the Epping Ongar Railway, which is located at the eastern end of the Central line, is the longest heritage railway in Essex. It briefly opened from 2004, despite having just a single DMU and minimal facilities for the public. A decision was taken in 2008 to suspend passenger operations so that the line could be improved to allow steam operations with a passing loop at North Weald and much improved station facilities.

The railway has just announced that it will resume steam and heritage diesel-hauled passenger trains on the branch with a reopening weekend from Friday 25th May. Regular services will run every weekend and Bank Holidays through the summer, then daily during the Olympics at nearby Stratford.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 227 - 30/03/2012

[Prev Issue (226)] [Snippets Issues] [Next Issue (228)] [Category List] [Keyword List] [People List] [Story List] [Branch Dashboard]