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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 237 - 31/01/2013

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

Railfuture News Snippets 237 - 31/01/2013



Greater Anglia is introducing a new ticket called "DUO". It gives 25% off Super Off-Peak Day Return tickets for couples travelling at the weekend from stations between Manningtree and the TravelCard boundary. No further discounts are available. See http://www.greateranglia.co.uk/tickets-fares/discounts/duo-tickets.

The consultation on Cambridge Science Park station (a key Railfuture campaign for more than 15 years) that was carried out in November 2012 had an overwhelming response with nearly 1300 responses.

There was a demonstration that Network Rail had not forgotten about the March-Wisbech line on Wednesday 9th January when NR staff we spotted doing some maintenance work adjacent to Elm Road AHB LC (the first LC out of March).

On Friday 8th February at 20:30 David Horne, the Managing Director of East Midlands, will be giving a talk to the Cambridge University Railway Club. The venue is the William Thatcher Room at Fitzwilliam College. Open to the public, free admission.

In was confirmed in mid-January that Stansted Airport will be sold to Manchester Airports Group (itself owned by Manchester City Council [55% share] with each of the other nine Metropolitan District Councils [5% share each], which owns Manchester, East Midlands and Bournemouth airports) for £1.5bn. It is currently owned by Heathrow Airport Holdings, formerly known as BAA.

The Whitwell and Reepham Preservation Trust had 364 people on its 2012 Santa Specials, of which 179 were children. This was an increase of 15% on 2011 figures. Each train has approximately 12-13 children on it which can potentially mean one hundred children on the weekend nearest to Christmas.

Another behind-the-scenes series on the railways will being on Tuesday 12 February on BBC-2. Each of the six editrions of "The Railway - Keeping Britain On Track" will be broadcast between 21:00 and 22:00. It was filmed over a year across Britain and the first edition is based at King's Cross.

An e-petition has been set-up to retain a cap on the compensation that the small charter trains operators pay if their train causes disruption, for example if it breaks down blocking a line. The ORR has proposed abolishing the £5,000 cap (Network Rail picks up the bill for the rest) making charter operators take out very expensive insurance instead. It is feared that charter services could reduce in future if this goes ahead. The petition to the UK Government can be signed at https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/44358.


RAIL ROUTES
Greater Anglia agrees to reinstate train connections at Maningtree for Harwich branch trains

Keywords: [HarwichBranch]

On 7th January (without any consultation with passengers, and without announcing its decision) Greater Anglia changed its policy on holding connections for late-running mainline trains so that trains bound for Harwich (along the "Mayflower Line") would not wait at Manningtree for passengers transferring from trains that had just come from London or Norwich. Passengers would then have to wait up to an hour until the next train to Harwich departed, putting the operation of trains (avoiding financial penalties for late running trains) before the needs of the passengers. Greater Anglia has now agreed that the Harwich trains can wait up to five minutes for the delayed mainline trains. Local rail user groups, such as the Manningtree Rail Users Association, have claimed this U-turn as a victory.

Eighty "excited" people attend "very positive" East West Rail presentation in Winslow

Keywords: [EastWestRail]

On Friday 25th January about 80 people attended a meeting at the Winslow Centre to hear a presentation by Patrick O'Sullivan of the East West Rail Consortium, who was invited to speak by the Winslow Local Area Forum (LAF). Mr O'Sullivan gave an overview of the project According to County Councillor David Rowlands, who chairs the LAF, it was "a very positive meeting. A lot of the public were really excited what was going to happen to Winslow in the not-too-distant future. We're delighted with the response from the public."

An update was given on progress for the western section (linking Oxford to Bedford and Aylesbury to Milton Keynes, and electrify Oxford ot Bedford), which the Department for Transport confirmed funding in July 2012. Those present heard about a new station at Winslow and the rebuilding of Bicester Town station. Much improved services between Oxford and Bicester should be running by 2016 (slipped from 2015 because of the Transport & Works Act process being delayed) with services from Bicester to Bletchley and Aylesbury to Milton Keynes running by December 2017. It was stated that although the route will go through Steeple Claydon there is no plan for a station in the village. The public consultation run by Network Rail should commence in summer 2013."


STATIONS
Greater Anglia seeks views before launching its bus service between Saffron Walden and Audley End station

Keywords: [AudleyEndStation]

One of Greater Anglia's franchise commitments was to introduce a trial bus service between Saffron Walden (which was served by rail until the 1960s) and its nearest railway station, Audley End (which is served by Cross Country trains between Stansted and Birmingham, as well as the Greater Anglia services between Cambridge and London). The operator has held discussions with bus operators, local authorities and public transport user representatives to identify a number of options. It is now seeking views from the public on what type of bus service should be provided. On 28th January it commenced surveys at Audley End station, on board local buses to the station and in the town centre. Greater Anglia hopes to finalise its proposals in March, and to implement the improved services in the spring of 2013.


ROLLING STOCK
Eversholt Rail awards £13 million contract to Railcare to overhaul FCC's Class 365 trains

Keywords: [FirstCapitalConnect] [Class365]

Railcare, which has works at Wolverton near to Milton Keynes, has been awarded a £13m contract to undertake the 'C6X' overhaul of the entire fleet of Class 365 'Networker' trains operated by First Capital Connect - 160 carriages in total. The work should take two years from spring 2013. Railcare had previously conducted the same overhaul on the third-rail Class 465 'Networker' fleet, which is also owned by Eversholt Rail.

This work will not lead to any improvements to passengers, other than improved reliability and perhaps better ride quality. However, there are options in the contract to bring the vehicles up to new PRM (passengers with reduced mobility) standards and to undertake 'refresh' work.


RAIL FRANCHISES
Railfuture attends First Capital Connect stakeholder meeting on 31st January

Keywords: [FirstCapitalConnect]

First Capital Connect held a stakeholder meeting on Thursday 31st January in London. After a presentation by First Group's head of rail Vernon Baker, FCC managing director Neal Lawson and members of his team spoke.

Earlier that day the DfT had confirmed that FCC's franchise would be extended by seven 4-week periods using the extension option in the current contract and the DfT would negotiate with FCC on a "single tender awards" for a further two years. After that the DfT intended, based on the recommendation from the Richard Brown report into franchising, to award a seven-year management contract.

FCC listed some of their achievements since taking over the franchise on 1st April 2006:

  • 2007 - £16.3m was invested in trains, stations and staff
  • 2009 - 5,000 more seats provided on Great Northern route as 12-car trains introduced (first 12-car DOO in Britain); also 5,000 extra seats on Thameslink route
  • 2010 - 6,500 extra seats on the Great Northern route; £1.5m spent refurbishing class 319 trains
  • 2011 - 30+ new drivers started; £6m spent on driver recruitment; first 12-car trains on Thameslink from December 2011
  • 2012 - 790,000 extra seats provided for the Olympics and 260,000 for the Paralympics.

In the autumn 2012 National Passenger Survey conducted by Passenger Focus 81% of FCC passengers were satisfied, 13% were neutral and 6% were dissatisfied.

Fleet reliability statistics (moving annual average to period 9 of 2012/13) put the class 365 used on outer services firmly at the top with 19,649 miles per casualty, followed by class 313 at 11,323, class 377 at 14,604, class 321 at 13,334, class 319 at 14,617 and at the bottom class 317 at 11,832.

DfT to extend First Capotial Connect contract by 28 weeks followed by a "direct award" if terms can be agreed

The Government 'paused' the franchise bidding process when the West Coast franchise debacle was announced in October 2012. This affected several franchises around the country including some in East Anglia. The timetable was kick-started when the Brown review essentially recommended resuming the franchise system virtually unchanged. The DfT will start negotiations with First Capital Connect (and other such as c2c and First Great Western) to extend their contract under a "direct award" as an interim prior to the franchise being re-tendered as a seven-year contract. The DfT has confirmed that it will exercise its option with FCC for a 28-week extension (from 15th September 2013) prior to the direct award to extend it up to two years more (with Directly Operated Railways being on stand-by if terms cannot be agreed) until the new "Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern" franchise begins.


GUIDED BUSWAY
Freedom of Information Act request reveals 50 "emergencies" occurred on Cambridgeshire Guided Busway in just six months

Many critics of the guided busway predicted incidents because the scheme was seen as experimental" with few safety measures put in place. The Cambridge News used a Freedom of Information request to discover that there were 56 occasions when emergency measures were activated on the guided busway between June and December 2012. Twenty of these were motorists driving onto the track (most occurring at the junction with Station Road and Harrison Way in St Ives), and 12 required a closure of a section of the track and diversion of buses. There were 11 traffic light failures and three bus breakdowns. Other incidents included collisions with animals. There was only one incident that damaged the busway. That happened when a bus came off the tracks at Longstanton. The county council claimed that all incidents were "sorted out quickly without causing undue delay to services or disruption for passengers."

Cambridgeshire council tax payers forking out £2m interest on £64m loans to cover construction of guided busway

Interest on a £64.2m loan to cover the cost overruns on the guided busway (£150m spent versus £87m contract), plus the shortfall in developer funding, is now costing taxpayers around £l2.2m a year, a total of more than £6m over the last five years the 2011/12 interest bill was £2 million, up from £1.7 million the year before).

The interest bill was not published by the council, which is no doubt eager to hide its embarrassment, but was obtained from the council by Councillor Kilian Bourke, leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition. He said: "The £64.2 million borrowed gives an idea of the sheer amount of local money at risk in the forthcoming court case [with BAM Nuttall]." The council will attempt to make BAM Nuttall pay its interest costs on the overrun, assuming it wins the case, and the gives it the right to charge a higher interest rate than it has been paying.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 237 - 31/01/2013

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