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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 238 - 01/03/2013

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

Railfuture News Snippets 238 - 01/03/2013



Network Rail has said that the Hitchin Flyover (known to signallers as the Cambridge Down Flyover) is due to be commissioned on Sunday 23rd June.

First Capital Connect has approached the Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton Rail User Group to explore the possibility of setting up a Community Rail Partnership for the route between Cambridge and Royston. The RUG hopes this could lead to improvements at the three stations, including improved disabled access at Meldreth Station (where it recently organised a 'tidy up' of the gardens). The group has its next meeting (for members and the public) on 13th March at 19:30 at Meldreth Manor School.

The Holt, Melton Constable and Fakenham Railway will be giving a presentation at the Holt Town Councils' Annual Town Meeting at Holt Community Centre, Kerridge Way, Holt, NR25 6DN on Monday 25th March at 19:00.

Greater Anglia is introducing a free rail ticket scheme for jobseekers called "Job Track". It is aimed at helping the unemployed by offering free tickets to get to and from interviews and a free pass for their first two months in work. The scheme makes long-term financial sense to the operator if it encourages people to consider employment opportunities outside their immediate local area. People who join the scheme will receive a maximum of six day return tickets to attend job interviews at locations within Greater Anglia's network and on securing work can request an initial two-month season ticket free-of-charge. See http://www.greateranglia.co.uk/jobtrack.

Greater Anglia has recently finished installing help point telephones at various stations where they did not previously exist. This includes Diss, Spooner Row, Sheringham, Acle, Great Yarmouth, Halesworth, Saxmundham, Woodbridge, Oulton Broad South, Stansted, Bishops Stortford, Buckenham, Shelford, Whittlesford Parkway, Great Chesterford, Elsenham, Sawbridgeworth and Harwich International. Those at Oulton Broad South and Great Chesterford also include a small screen to provide real-time train running information.

Directly Operated Railways has been told to draw up a five-year plan for its East Coast operations. Some observers interpreted this as an intention to to keep East Coast state-owned indefinitely, but it is understood the government's plan (which is due to be revealed in March) is to sell-off the operation as a going concern with management team and business plan in place. By 31st March 2013, which is the end of its financial year, 2013, East Coast will have returned £640m in premium payments to the Government since it began operations in November 2009.

Neal Lawson, who has resigned as Managing Director of First Capital Connect has been appointed Director, Maintenance and Operations Services at Network Rail. The new post is intended to give Network Rail a more joined-up, strategic view across the organisation so that it can manage the routes more efficiently and effectively. He will also be involved in the implementation of the ETCS train management system. Much of his career has involved fleet management.

This year's FLUA AGM will be held on Saturday 16th November 2013 at 14:00 in King's Lynn.

After the success of previous Volunteers' Open Days, the nine-mile-long not-for-profit Bure Valley Railway will be hosting a Volunteers' Open Weekend on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd March 2013. This event is for anyone interested in volunteering on Norfolk's longest narrow-gauge railway (which carries 100,000 passengers each year) and gives the opportunity to meet existing staff and volunteers and see behind the scenes, including a chance to drive a steam engine. See http://www.bvrw.co.uk.

On Wednesday 6th March at 22:00 BBC-2 will broadcast a a Culture Show special commemorating the 150th anniversary of the London Underground called "Going Underground". Alastair Sooke presents a cultural history of the oldest tube network in the world."


RAIL ROUTES
New £15m bridge at Kings Dyke, Whittlesey, could be open within three years

Keywords: [ElyPeterboroughLine] [KingsDyke]

Cambridgeshire County Council has announced that it will contribute two thirds of the money to close a level crossing on the Ely-Peterborough line, with Network Rail paying the other third. A £15m bridge over the railway at Kings Dyke, Whittlesey, could open by 2016. Network Rail's concern is safety but the county council is also aware that severe delays on the A605 road can occur when the barriers are down (especially during the winter months when the alternative route to Peterborough via the B1040 is closed because of flooding). Delays at the level crossing (passed by 11,000 vehicles a day) will become worse as the 100 trains a day use the line could increase to 244 trains daily as more freight traffic uses the cross-country route.

Network Rail organises 'drop-in session' to allow residents near to the Ipswich Chord location to understand the project

Keywords: [IpswichChord]

In an example of being a good neighbour Network Rail held a drop-in session on Thursday 28th February at Ipswich Town Hall Galleries to explain to residents about the reasons for building the 1km-long Ipswich Chord (which links the East Suffolk line and Great Eastern main line on part of the site of the former Harris meat factory), and how construction will take place.

Preparatory work has begun with piling work being carried out during the early stages. The main work will take place between March 2013 and April 2014. It includes installing a brand new bridge next to the existing rail bridge that goes over Sproughton Road, building a new bridge over the river Gipping as part of the new chord, and reconstructing the existing railway bridge on the East Suffolk line travelling over the river Gipping. The chord will remove the need for freight trains to travel into Ipswich yard to reverse, and will therefore significantly reduce the journey time of freight trains, making railfreight even more economical compared to going by road.

Preparatory work on East West route for London-Marylebone service takes place prior to outcome of 'Evergreen 3' judicial review

The judicial review into the Transport & Works Act order approved by government in 2012 (due to be heard in March, possibly taking up to three weeks) is holding up the construction work into building the new Bicester chord (just south of Bicester North station) and upgrading of the Bicester-Oxford route for faster and more frequent trains. However, preparatory work under the railway's normal operational processes is being undertake so that the construction can begin in earnest once the legal issues are resolved.

More than 50 per cent of the route between Bicester and Islip has now been cleared to expose the track bed and embankments that will allow engineers to see what work will need to be done when the line comes to be rebuilt.

Railfuture's online petition to reopen the Wisbech line for frequent services to Cambridge attracts substantial support

In February Railfuture East Anglia branch launch the http://wisbechrail.org.uk website to promote the reopening of the mothballed railway libe between March and Wisbech, which was included in ATOC's Connecting Communities report as a key cost-effective reopening opportunity. The website contains an online petition that asks for name, email address and postcode. Railfuture is promoting the campaign with a leaflet drop (at its expense) to around 12,000 homes. Within a week almost 300 people had signed the petition. Interviewed by the Wisbech Standard newspaper, Peter Wakefield, Railfuture East Anglia branch chairman, said: "The recent Wisbech 2020 Vision document produced by councillors shows there is growing awareness of the benefits of the new rail route. I am calling on all residents to get behind the campaign to help make it happen." Railfuture hopes that its petition will give Cambridgeshire County Council confidence when carrying out feasibility studies into the scheme, and will present it to the county council in July.


ROAD BUILDING
Concept of Cambridge underground system for buses raised yet again

Every few years the idea of a "Cambridge underground" system (which with a council obsessed by buses has come to mean bus-based rather than rail-based transport) is raised. Prof Robert Mair, a civil engineering professor at Cambridge University who was involved with the Channel Tunnel, Crossrail and the Jubilee Line extension of the London Underground recently told the Cambridge News: "I believe there's a need for radical solutions to Cambridge's traffic problems" envisaging a network of tunnels for buses across the city with a possible railway station link, although he did concede that buses were not the only option. The revival has been sparked by the possibility of obtaining funds the government as part of a "city deal".


RAIL FRANCHISES
First Capital Connect unhappy with Which? report into passenger satisfaction

Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]

The consumer organisation Which? has published a report into how satisfied passengers are with the rail service that they are paying for. First Capital Connect came bottom of the survey, although this position probably reflects the poor quality of its Thameslink service rather than the Great Northern service that runs into East Anglia. In the independent survey, which is not linked to the official National Passenger Servey conducted face-to-face (and audited by the Office of National Statistics) that is conducted by the government-funded and government-appointed Passenger Focus, passengers complained that they saw few improvements for their above-inflation fare increases. However, First Capital Connect dismissed the report as only 461 people took part in the (online) survey comps red to the 170,000 who travel each day, ignoring the fact that political pollsters survey only 1,000 people for the 40 million voters, and are generally accurate. This is the second annual train satisfaction survey conducted by Which? and asked the views of 7,500 regular train users across Britain.

Greater Anglia wins Train Operator of the Year award at the national Rail Business Awards

Despite commencing its franchise in February 2012, Greater Anglia (owned by Dutch company Abellio) has won the Train Operator of the Year award at the national Rail Business Awards. It was commended for improvements in punctuality, customer service standards, customer engagement, ticketing, integrated transport improvements plus station upgrades and reduced weekend service disruption for passengers (although the latter is down to an agreement with Network Rail to put passengers first).

Greater Anglia has played a leading role in the development and delivery of the East Anglian Rail Prospectus, working pro-actively with regional stakeholders to make the case for greater investment in rail services in the region.


GUIDED BUSWAY
Yet another driver gets their car wedged in the guided busway tracks

A car driver managed to drive along the guides busway all the way from Cambridge railway station to Long Road bridge before realising the error and trying to turn around. Perhaps the driver should have kept going as the manoeuvre failed and the car became stuck blocking buses coming in both directions. The southern section of the busway was closed until a recovery vehicle could remove the vehicle, which took about three hours after being discovered. Stagecoach said "We were able to temporarily divert buses onto the roads and the service was not affected." Critics immediately responded that it the service was not affected then what is the point of the busway if using normal roads is no worse than using the busway.

Cyclists give up on flooded 'maintenance track' and ride on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway instead

Cambridgeshire County Council has accused cyclists of risking their lives by riding along the guided busway track because the adjacent cycle track has been underwater for several weeks and so deeply flooded that it cannot be used. Concerns about the section between St Ives and Swavesey had been raised at the public inquiry for the guided busway but their public inspector dismissed them (along with nearly every other criticism of the scheme). Bus drivers are having to keep a look-out for cyclists and are driving slower - yet another dent in the promise that the buses would offer "reliability, reliability, reliability".

More money to be spent on Cambridgeshire Guided Busway 'maintenance track' to make it fit for purpose

The total bill for the guided busway keeps on creeping up as more money is spent doing things that should have been part of the original design, but which the public inspector did not make a requirement despite objectors' demands. An example is the so-called maintenance track, which is now a heavily used cycle route and bridleway. Solar-powered stud lights are now being fitted along the guided busway between Orchard Park and St Ives, as well as two linked off-busway routes between Oakington and Girton, and between Longstanton park and ride and Longstanton village. cyclists had complained that it was not easy to see where they were going at night-time or early in the morning. The work should be completed by the end of March.


PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Norfolk Orbital Railway chiarman gives presentation to Railfuture about scheme link to North Norfolk Railway

Keywords: [NorfolkOrbitalRailway]

On Saturday 23rd February 2013, Derek Haynes of the Holt, Melton Constable and Fakenham Railway, which promotes the 55-mile-long Norfolk Orbital Railway scheme spoke to Railfuture members in Bury St Edmunds.

He gave some history to the project listing some of the funders, and mentioned that £30,000 had been spent on a report from WS Atkins, which was several hundred pages long, into the full orbital scheme from the current North Norfolk Railway terminus at High Kelling, which it calls "Holt", to the Mid-Norfolk Railway's long-term aspiration for a terminus at Fakenham. The cost of the gap between the two heritage railways was estimated at about £40m. The cost was low for such a scheme as all of the route was in tact apart from through Holt and also a single house built on the trackbed elsewhere.

The first part of the scheme was to rebuild the level crossing at Sheringham to reconnect the North Norfolk Railway with the national network. That was opened in March 2010. The second part is to extend the North Norfolk Railway into Holt, which will be a great benefit to it and the town. It will increase tourism in the Georgian town and also provide public transport to residents. First they needed to acquire the land, much of which was owned by the county council (who were willing to sell it) with one crucial piece owned by a private landowner (who had signed a deal to sell it). The intention was to build the railway adjacent to Holt bypass on the north side. The south side was also an option but WS Atkins recommended the north side.

The NNR terminus at High Kelling would not require remodelling as it is far enough away from the road. The track would be extended into Holt via a new 1-in-200 embankment that would cross Cromer Road, which would need to be lowered a little. A new station could be built close to the original at Station Road but as the strip of land is narrow it would not be possible to run round trains. It would be better to have a larger station on the west side of Holt with a large park an ride near to Valley Road. At Norwich Road (between Station Road and Valley Lane) there would be a cut-and-cover tunnel. The Holt area presented the only significant challenges on the scheme. It is a pity that the first stages are the most difficult.

Opening ceremony after Nene Valley Railway bought Fletton Link for £40,000 from British Railways Board (Residuary)

Keywords: [NeneValleyRailway]

On Friday 1st March the Nene Valley Railway held a ceremony (with the Mayor of Peterborough George Simons making a toast) to officially confirm its ownership of the Fletton Branch, which provides a link between its line and the East Coast mainline. The NVR had previously leased the branch line that linked it with the mainline and used it very occasionally. However, with the government's 'burning of the quangos' has led to the abolition of its previous owner, the British Railways Board (Residuary) finally giving the railway the chance to buy the link for £40,000. The railway can now invite charter to the line as well engineering companies wanting to train their staff, test vehicles or use the railway's inspection pits at Wansford and other facilities. All of these opportunities should bring important income to the preserved railway.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 238 - 01/03/2013

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