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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 235 - 28/11/2012

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

Railfuture News Snippets 235 - 28/11/2012



A reminder that Richard Eccles of Network Rail will be speaking to the Railfuture branch meeting in Cambridge on 8th December at 14:00 in the Cambridge Central Library - see flier.

The hourly train between Norwich and Sheringham/Cromer now has competition from the hourly 'konectbus' which runs from Norwich to Cromer and Sheringham. The new bus will also be in competition with incumbent Sanders, which runs every 30 minutes from Norwich to Aylsham, Cromer and Sheringham with alternate (hourly) buses routed through Horsham St. Faith.

The 11th issue company magazine of the Port of Felixstowe has a strong focus on the rail links from the port. See pages 5 and 15-18 of http://www.portoffelixstowe.co.uk/common/publications/documents/ship2shore/issue11.pdf.

Greater Anglia are introducing new posters at stations to inform passengers about the most crowded trains and encourage the to try lighter-loaded trains. The first of the posters, which should out "is there a less busy train?" and offer a colour coding (denoting many seats, some seats, few seats) for peak-time trains, will be displayed at Broxbourne station.

First Capital Connect has recently improved its http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk website to allow travellers to easily identify the lowest fare for a journey. It also allows them to choose a fare range and find out when they can travel for that amount.

On 14th November Simon Burns MP, Minister of State for Transport, visited Peterborough station to officially open the new station concourse, which cost £3.3m and has been used by the public since spring 2012.

A new disabled toilet is being built at March station, in a disused office on platform 1. It is due to open by 8th December, in time for the start of the Winter timetable.

From Thursday 6th to Saturday 8th December money can be donated to allow the purchase of a mile of land between the North Norfolk Railway's current terminus at High Kelling, on the outskirts of Holt and only easily accessible by car, along the wide by-pass verge to a new station, close to the original site, in Holt town. This would bring seaside tourists into Holt, giving the town much needed income, and provide a public service to the people of Holt to visit Sheringham and beyond to Cromer and Norwich. During the three-day 'frenzy' donations will be topped up by the Reed Foundation's 'Big Give' Christmas Challenge. The track extension project is being driven forward by the Melton Constable Trust, which is the registered charity of the Norfolk Orbital Railway. See http://www.norfolk-orbital-railway.co.uk/. Agreements have been reached to buy the land, and some design work has been done. Further funding will be required in the future to pay for the rebuilding of the railway, which will then be used by the North Norfolk Railway. It has not been publicly confirmed whether the NNR would then take ownership of the extension or if they would pay access fees to the trust.

On 27th November planning permission was granted to build 3,600 homes and various facilities in the Beaulieu Park area located to the north east of Chelmsford. The permission includes the new Beaulieu Park station on the Great Eastern mainline, which will serve the development although no completion date has been published.

First Capital Connect has announced that the fees it received from the production company filming The World's End at Letchworth Garden City station will be spent improving the station after passengers have been asked what improvements they would like to see.

A new rail travel series featuring Chris Tarrant begins on Channel 5 at 21:00 on Wednesday 5th December. See http://www.channel5.com/shows/chris-tarrant-extreme-railways/episodes/episode-1-482.

The first edition of a two-part programme about heritage railways entitled The Golden Age of Steam Railways will be on Monday 10th December at 21:00 on BBC-4. The programmes feature the pioneers of railway preservation, told through archive footage, looking at narrow gauge and standard gauge in respective episodes.


RAIL SERVICES
King's Lynn to have best ever train service to Cambridge and London all-day half-hourly trains

Transport Minister Simon burns has told the region's MPs on 30th October that he will instruct Network Rail to make the necessary infrastructure changes on the Ely-King's Lynn line to support a half-hourly train service during the next franchise period. Apart from removing the 'single lead' at Ely North Junction, which is already planned and funded, it is not known what other works are required, as no-one is expecting NR to re-double the line between Littleport and Downham Market, despite it being need to provide a highly-resilient service.

Despite Railfuture and FLUA calling for a half-hourly service for many years - a campaign now supported strongly by local MPs - this is the first time that the government has announced it support, and willingness to include it in the franchise specification. The bad news is that trains are likely only to call at the larger (manned) stations, with Watlington, Littleport and Waterbeach remaining hourly, although the latter may be reconsidered.

Great Northern passengers will benefit from new timetable from December

The December 2012 timetable will see 12-car trains on the Peterborough line (using the extended platforms at Sandy, Biggleswade, Arlesey and Finsbury Park), and new platforms opening at Finsbury Park station, allowing more Peterborough trains to call there but not Cambridge trains. This infrastructure enhancement allows the completion of FCC's "More Seats For You" campaign that commenced in May 2009 to address considerable overcrowding on the Great Northern route.

The 06:32, and 07:32 services from Peterborough will now become 12-carriage trains using carriages from the 06:40 service from Huntingdon, which will be withdrawn. In the evenings, the 17:44 and 18:14 services from King's Cross will now have 12 carriages. On the Cambridge to London route the first off-peak service of the day, which leaves at 09:20, will be lengthened from eight to 12 carriages. The 08:15 King's Cross to Cambridge will become a 12-carriage train, as will the popular 17:15 Cambridge to King's Cross.

At its AGM in King's Lynn on Saturday 17th November, FLUA expressed its delighted that the 23:15 King's Cross to Ely service will be extended through to King's Lynn on Thursdays as well as Fridays, thanks to an agreement with Network Rail about the maintenance window. FCC would like to do this between Monday and Wednesday as well but the early morning sand train from Middleton Towers requires overnight maintenance to start earlier. If the train were retimed to run later, after the first passenger train, then late-night trains would be possible. However, it is not clear what a retiming might do to other parts of the railway network.


RAIL ROUTES
Hitchin Flyover is four months ahead of schedule

Keywords: [HitchinFlyover]

Most railway projects these days are being brought in on time and within budget. Costs for the Hitchin flyover have been reduced by several million pounds and construction work is currently about four month ahead of schedule, with work having commenced less than ten months ago. Progress has been so impressive that Hochtief and Network Rail held an open day on Saturday 24th November from 11:00 to 15:00 with minibus tours around the site operating every 15 minutes to cope with the large numbers having leafleted the area around the works and put up a notice at Hitchin station.

On the morning of Sunday 25th November during as 27-hour possession the new Hitchin East junction between the new line and the Cambridge line was installed, with a 90-metre section of old track on the down line being cut out and the prepared points and track panels lifted in. The new Hitchin North Junction between the ECML and the new line will be installed during a 54-hour possession in late December. The existing junction that crosses the oncoming tracks will still be called Cambridge junction and Hitchin South Junction remains the name of the existing junctions south of the station. The track and sleepers will be laid by a track-laying machine in February over the period of a week or so, and the OHLE will be completed in March, ready for the 50mph line to be used by public trains in June. Driver training will be done using simulators.

It has recently been confirmed that, contrary to original intentions, freight trains will be able to use the flyover, which has a 1:70 climb, although heavier loads may need to be double-headed.

Stansted Airport management launch 'vision' for rail that includes a link to the Great Eastern Main Line

On 23rd November the management of Stansted Airport, London's third-biggest airport, launched a 'vision' for rail that includes plans for a 30-minute journey time from London, effectively extending Crossrail to Stansted, with more frequent trains to Cambridge, East Anglia and beyond. This could attract another 1.4 million passengers per year to the airport, which processed 17 million travellers in 2011 and is only half full. Its long-term aim is to become the best connected air-rail hub in the UK. With 50% of passengers using train, bus and coach to travel to and from Stansted it is the leading major UK airport for public transport use. Disappointingly to rail campaigners, Ryanair, the largest operator at Stansted, said that it "hopes the new owner of Stansted airport will significantly slash prices ? rather than worrying about rail lines ? in order to stimulate rapid traffic growth."

According to passenger data gathered by the Civil Aviation Authority, about a third of travellers using Stansted started or finished their journeys in central London, with another third coming from or going to the east of England. The Stansted service advertises an average journey time of 47 minutes to Liverpool Street, and s 35 minutes to Tottenham Hale.

Immediately after the vision was launched Railfuture contacted Stansted Airport to ask for a copy of the full report to enable the Branch to comment and also to influence them. This is now being reviewed. A link between Stansted and the Great Eastern Mainline via Braintree (as mentioned in the vision) is a long-term Railfuture aspiration, and it organised a conference in Colchester on 22nd September 1999 to promote it.


STATIONS
Local authorities work with Network Rail to produce case for reopening Soham station

Keywords: [SohamStation]

East Cambridgeshire District Council (ECDC) and Cambridgeshire County Council have been working with Network Rail over the last 18 months about reopening Soham station, which Network Rail has estimated will cost around £6 million. A document was presented to the latest ECDC development and transport committee meeting, which showed plans are moving forward. The local authorities will soon be meeting the DfT and Greater Anglia to discuss the studies already completed and the principles of how to make a financially positive business case.


RAIL AWARDS
Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton Rail User Group is the outstanding winner at the inaugural RUG Awards

The small and quite young Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton Rail User Group, which supports three village stations in South Cambridgeshire villages , entered all of the categories at the first-ever national Rail User Group Awards and came away by winning three awards. They won the 'best new group', the gold award for 'best website' and its chair Susan van de Ven received the award for best campaigner. Se said: "We are absolutely delighted. We have some very hard-working and dedicated people in the group and all the issues we deal with are very meaningful, we aim to keep local stations open and healthy." Railfuture's inaugural awards were announced at the national Rail Users' Conference in Birmingham on Saturday 3rd November and presented by the president of Railfuture, Christian Wolmar.


GUIDED BUSWAY
Guided bus comes off the tracks causing closure of busway

On Tuesday 20th November at around 15:00 a Stagecoach guided bus travelling towards St. Ives came off the tracks near Station Road in Longstanton. It appears that the driver misjudged the busway entrance having crossed the former level crossing (on the B1050). He approached the guide-in point too far to the left and then either he overcompensated, or the guide-wheel did, taking the bus to far to the right. The single-desk bus would have then leaned over to the left whilst swerving to the right, presumably lifting the right front wheel off the road, whereby it went over the guideway kerb and started crossing over into the Cambridge-bound track (the left wheels soon followed). Here it hit some of the tramsomes, damaging them, and various parts of the bus underside scraped against the kerbway. The bus was left tilting at a 45-degree angle.

There is a simple technique to get into the funnel, which is a major part of the training and is not regarded as difficult. When the buses enter the guided section is for drivers to first touch against the right-hand guide-bar(which is aligned directly with the main guideway) and hardly touch the left-hand angled guide-in until they get to the narrow bit proper. This leads to passengers feeling a slight jolt to the left but not to the right. (Thanks to Stephen Lawrence for some of the above information.)

The bus was in service and emergency services attended the scene but no-one was reported to be injured. However, the bus driver was suffering from shock and was taken to hospital. Both busway tracks were blocked and buses were diverted onto roads between Longstanton and Swavesey in both directions. The infrastructure was damaged and a speed restriction was placed on the short damaged section, with full repair expected over the weekend. To observers it appeared that the damage occurred along a length of five beams, with concrete being scrapped off the centre of the kerb-edge of the central beams. However, three transomes (crossbars) were also damaged: one received minor damage exposing steel reinforcing bars (rebar); one was almost completely smashed, and the third was twisted so that one of the tie rods (which fix the track together) was broken.

One occasional passenger writing to newsgroup said "This seems to have been an accident waiting to happen. I was travelling on the busway from Addenbrooke's Hospital to Trumpington Park and Ride when the rear offside wheel half mounted the guide track and then fell back into the guideway. This happened when the bus turned right from the new Addenbrooke's Road to rejoin the busway at the foot of the new bridge." Others have accused bus drivers of vastly exceeding speed limits.

Put into context, in the 15 months of busway operations the buses fitted with guide-wheels the total passengers carried is the same as the railway in a single day (not all of those journeys involve the actual guided busway). However, this first significant incident puts its accident rate at far higher than the railway, although it will take longer before an unskewed figure can be calculated.

There was also a bus collision with a bike at the Orchard Camp junction on Wednesday 14th November at around 17:45.

Busway repairs to southern section undertaken after little more than a year in use

As mentioned in [Snippets 234] proper repairs were needed to part of the southern section to the busway, despite being the least used part of the busway, operating only six days a week and not in the evenings. The work took place on a section of the track between the Trumpington Park and Ride site and the Addenbrooke's Spur from 21:00 on Saturday 3rd November to 05:30 on Monday 5th November. No passenger services run during that period, but cyclists and pedestrians were unable to use the maintenance track, which was needed by the construction team.

Work commences on doubling of St Ives park and ride

Cambridgeshire County Council had planned to double the size of the busway car park at St Ives from 500 to 1,000 at some stage. Construction work began in early November with the £2m cost being paid for by the government (yet another hidden busway cost) to relieve traffic on the A14. However, a significant number of people are currently using the free busway car park rather than pay and display car parks in St Ives. The work will be complete in March 2013, and busway services should not be affected.

Despite this large sum being spent on the busway the operators are unwilling to provide audible announcements on buses to tell visually-impaired travellers the next stop. The county council claim that such announcements would annoy passengers, but passengers on national and underground trains (where such announcements are common) have shown no objection to short messages just before arrival. Complaints about the lack of this vital facility, and small bus stop signs (unlit at night) that even sighted passengers cannot read, have been published in the Cambridge News recently and Cambridge MP Julian Huppert has taken up their case.

Busway "could be considered" for new Waterbeach housing development

It was inevitable that if the busway was seen as a success then promoters of housing schemes would mention a busway as a way of gaining support within the buswasy-obsessed county council. A busway has been suggested from Waterbeach barracks where a giant house scheme is proposed, along the A10 to link up with the northern busway. Lib Dem county councillor Michael Williamson, who represents Waterbeach, said: "I really don't see how a busway would fit ? they would have to buy a lot of land to do that." A larger station in Waterbeach is another one of the options.

A reader posting on the Cambridge News website wrote: "There is an existing railway with a station in Waterbeach, there's going to be a new railway station in the north of Cambridge. Rail seems the obvious choice if you want guided transport from Waterbeach to north Cambridge. Even building a new railway station at Waterbeach will cost less than a busway. Who are these idiots who insist on a busway just for the sake of building a busway?"


WEBSITES
New website for largest ever railway rebuild in Britain - the Waverley Route

The new http://www.bordersrailway.co.uk/ website allows people following the progress of the borders rail construction to find out the latest news. For example, on Friday 16th November it reported: "The first sleepers for the new Borders Railway have been delivered. These will be laid around the summer of 2014 once the trackbed is ready." Visitors can sign up to receive a newsletter.

Website offers simple view of all fares and restrictions for a journey between two stations

The http://www.brfares.com website shows a list of all single and return fares (plus seasons) between two stations in a simple-to-read format. It even shows route information (including restrictions) and which TOC sets the fare, and flow information can be shown if 'expert mode' is selected.


PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Mid-Norfolk Railway volunteers suggest many way that it can grow income

Keywords: [MidNorfolkRailway]

The MNR has achieved a great deal in the last few years, and has generated income in many new ways. For example, in the last six years it has earned money from:

  • Railhead treatment trains for maintenance for several years
  • Trackwork training days
  • Balfour Beatty machine training
  • MOD trains
  • Stoneblower training over many many weeks
  • Various charters
  • Hiring out of a spare coach at Christmas 2013
  • Working on a major emergency services exercise next year
  • Movement of vehicles to and from Crown point
  • Mainline moves using its loading ramp
  • Various huge galas that have really put the MNR on the map as far as preserved railways go
  • Launch of the annual beer festival
  • Other major successful events such as the Multiple Matters weekend which got television coverage
  • An increased steam presence with a couple of major galas.

The MNR still needs to raise funds to continue its astonishing run of progress of the last decade. Volunteers have recently contributed a wealth of ideas on how to increase its income and these have been passed onto the Trust Council for consideration and possibly taking forward. They include:

  • Operating the Sunday lunch train more often, as much as the market will sustain (probably one train a month)
  • Opening the tea room at County School more often - but volunteers need to be found to do this
  • Selling fruit grown in the County School orchard, such as apples
  • Operating trans to take school kids from Wymondam to Dereham for swimming and bowling during the summer holidays in a deal with the adjacent leisure centre
  • Selling food and drink on Dereham platform during galas - a tray of 100 hot bacon rolls wrapped in silver foil or a tray of 20 coffees in plastic cups; cool-bag with ice creams
  • Using the station cafe area a a meeting venue by small social clubs in the evening
  • Inviting a pensioners' club to have lunch at Dereham station cafe one day a week throughout the year
  • Refocusing the home page of the website to appeal to families and improved signage at Dereham station to invite the public in
  • Selling a wider range of refreshments at Wymondham Abbey station and adding signage to attract passers-by to buy drinks and ice creams
  • Continuing to sell logs as firewood from the large number of tress cut-down on the route
  • Investigating opportunities for utilities to locate equipment along the route, such as masts and turbines (mobile masts have been explored and ruled out).

The MNR has various schemes for donating including Sponsor a Sleeper and its Shed Appeal.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 235 - 28/11/2012

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