News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 257 - 30/09/2014
- RAIL ROUTES [all issues]
- Ely-Peterborough line level crossing at King's Dyke to be replaced by a bridge at a cost of £15m
- Fenland MP promotes possible Wisbech to King's Lynn rail link
- STATIONS [all issues]
- Passenger complaints continue as staff shortages at Ely Station are still not resolved
- Community group plans to restore and develop Wickham Market station buildings for community use
- New passenger lifts commissioned at Letchworth Garden City and Hitchin stations
- ROLLING STOCK [all issues]
- InterCity Express Class 800 trains undergoing testing in Japan
- Abellio Greater Anglia awards contract to overhaul London-Norwich intercity carriages
- RAIL FRANCHISES [all issues]
- GUIDED BUSWAY [all issues]
- Cambridgeshire Guided Busway fails to hit third year's patronage target
- Serious defects on the guided busway will require £30 million to fix
- Review into contract to build Cambridgeshire Guided Busway says it was "was appropriate for the time"
- Yet another incident on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway as German driver blindly follows sat-nav onto the tracks
- PRESERVED RAILWAYS [all issues]
The latest edition of RAIL East (issue 163) can be found at: http://www.railfuture.org.uk/east/rail-east/RailEast-163.pdf.
Railfuture is launching a campaign to reduce the impact on passengers when rail services are disrupted. It plans to spread the message of good practice on the railways and demand improvements for passengers. To do this it first needs to find out what kinds of problems that passengers are experiencing. Passengers can help by entering details of disruption they have experienced at www.railfuture.org.uk/disruption. A draft report will be produced in February 2015 and a final report in July 2015. Also in September, Passenger Focus published a report on the same subject entitled Passenger information when trains are disrupted.
The Office of Rail Regulation's latest station usage figures for the 2,535 stations on the network can be found at http://orr.gov.uk/statistics/published-stats/station-usage-estimates.
Cambridgeshire County Council has given permission to itself to build the 1.7km long Ely bypass (linking Angel Drove to Stuntney Causeway), following a decision by the government that it would not intervene in the process. This means that once the road is open the level crossing can be closed, allowing more trans to run. The underpass below the track will remain, and the station vehicular entrance will need to be moved further away for it.
Mark Pendlington, chairman of the New Anglia LEP, has publicly called for greater investment into the region's rail service. On the possible splitting of the Norwich-Liverpool direct service, which the DfT has floated in order to simply franchise areas, he told a meeting in Norwich: "We need to make it inconceivable that the government would ever think about withdrawing this service which provides an essential east-west link to the growing economies of the north and west and which provides direct access for over 300,000 students a year to our colleges and universities."
RAIL Magazine 757 dated 17th September is a 'must buy' issue for anyone interested in rail freight from Felixstowe. There is a two-page article and editorial about ports and freight, and naturally Felixstowe is mentioned. There are some surprising comments regarding 46 trains a day in the future and 'where will they go'. Editor Nigel Harris mentions how he had to wait 40 minutes on a freight train at Westerfield for an empty Class 153 passenger train to pass because of a lack of capacity on the line. Clemence Cheng CEO of the Port of Felixstowe remarks about 'Passenger trains always come first when there is a conflict (with freight)' in Britain (unlike other European countries). This is factually incorrect as passengers on the Felixstowe branch will point out. According to one regular traveller, if the Port of Felixstowe had not taken a short term decision in 2010 to delay the dualling capacity on the line it would have already be reaping the benefits of that investment. Instead there will be a further wait until 2017/18 and the passenger service suffers. However, the Ipswich Chord, third rail terminal at the port and the upgraded Ipswich Yard works may mitigate some of the acuteness in capacity and train delays.
Network Rail has confirmed that as part of its on-going project to improve safety at level crossings it will replace the half-barriers at two crossings south of Cambridge (one being Shepreth) with full gates. This will not be complete until 2018, as it is dependent on resignalling of part of the resignalling of the route.
Network Rail has also announced that its long-standing managing director of network operations, Robin Gisby, will be retiring in 2015. He will be replaced by Phil Hufton who joins from London Underground where he has been trying to refocus the operation to better serve customers.
One of the capacity problems facing Network Rail north of Peterborough is Werringon Junction on the East Coast Main Line, where freight trains using the 'Joint Line' cross the path of oncoming passenger trains. Although NR has been considering both a bridge and an underpass, it given no indication of its preferred solution. Surveyors have been spotted on the line in recent weeks and soil samples have been taken. Local public consultations took place for two days in June - see article on the Railfuture website.
The Cambridge University Railway Club has announced its list of rail industry speakers for CURC autumn 2014. They are Ian Yeowart of Alliance Rail (29th October), Andy Cooper of Arriva Cross Country (5th November), Nigel Holness of TfL (21st November) and Anthony Smith of Passenger Focus (26th November). All meetings are at the William Thatcher room, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. Details: www.curc.org.uk.
RAIL ROUTES
Ely-Peterborough line level crossing at King's Dyke to be replaced by a bridge at a cost of £15m
Keywords: [ElyPeterboroughLine] [KingsDyke]
The level crossing at King's Dyke, near Whittlesey, on the Ely-March railway line sees around 120 train movements a day. As mentioned in [Snippets 238], it is a serious bottleneck as the road is used by around 12,000 vehicles on a normal day and up to 17,000 vehicles when alternative roads are flooded. Funding for a £15m bridge over the railway to allow the level crossing to be closed has already been agreed, and now Cambridgeshire County Council has announced that a public consultation on three possible solutions (on the current route, or to the north or south of it) will take place in November 2014.
The details of the options can be found on the Cambs County Council's website at http://www2.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/CommitteeMinutes/Committees/AgendaItem.aspx?agendaItemID=10301.
The bridge isn't an entirely new idea. Around 30 years ago Peterborough Development Corporation proposed a dual carriageway Whittlesey bypass, including a bridge over the railway.
Fenland MP promotes possible Wisbech to King's Lynn rail link
In late September the MP for North East Cambridgeshire, Steve Barclay, who has been a strong supporter for reopening the March to Wisbech railway line gave publicity to an idea from a former British Rail Traffic Manager for a new link between Wisbech and King's Lynn. He proposed a new straight-line link rather than the old route via Watlington (aka Magdalen Road).
The Railfuture priority is to ensure that the March to Wisbech link goes ahead a soon as possible, because of the huge regenerative benefits that a link to the railway network would bring to Wisbech.
News item: http://stevebarclay.net/could-wisbech-station-open-up-a-direct-kings-lynn-to-peterborough-rail-link/
There is enormous pressure to rejuvenate Wisbech. In early September a conference for councillors, business leaders and community representatives was held at the Wisbech Boathouse conference centre for an update on the two year-old '2020 Vision' to revitalise the town. Cambs County Council confirmed that work was already under way on rail and road studies thanks to the £1 million awarded by the Government to the Local enterprise partnership earlier in the year. It was accepted that redundant brownfield land in Wisbech would be ripe for development it was within a short cycle ride or within walking distance of a railway station.
STATIONS
Passenger complaints continue as staff shortages at Ely Station are still not resolved
Keywords: [ElyStation]
Abellio Greater Anglia (AGA), which manages Ely station, apologised for the staff shortages that have caused the ticket office to be closed at peak times on numerous occasions over the last 18 months. This is one of the several issues that Railfuture has raised with AGA, which claims that it is interviewing staff, and has deployed staff with mobile ticket machines to help relieve queues.
Community group plans to restore and develop Wickham Market station buildings for community use
A charitable group called Station House Community Connections is attempting to restore and develop the station buildings at Wickham Market for community use. They have ambitious plans for the facilities at the East Suffolk Line station, which are described on their website www.stationhousecampseaashe.co.uk with the aid of some superb computer animation. If realised it would see a clean wall on the entire building, reinstated canopy, disable access, a cafe and meeting rooms.
New passenger lifts commissioned at Letchworth Garden City and Hitchin stations
In September the two new passenger lifts were commissioned and opened to the public. These had taken several months to construct. They have been built on the outside of the platforms to create as much space as possible. The downside is that the liftshaft has encroached on the land originally intended, when the station was first built, for additional tracks. This prevents a useful future enhancement of adding a track on the northern side to go directly into the carriage sidings without occupying the down platform.
At the nearby Hitchin station lifts that connect both platforms to the subway have been opened, which provides step-free access. The work cost £1.7 million, which was funded by the DfT's Access for All scheme.
ROLLING STOCK
InterCity Express Class 800 trains undergoing testing in Japan
Keywords: [Class800]
The new class 800 intercity express trains, which will operate on the East Coast and Great Western main lines will not be playing a main role in East Anglia but will call at Peterborough. The first three trains from this much-delayed project are currently being tested in Japan by their manufacturer Hitachi.
Abellio Greater Anglia awards contract to overhaul London-Norwich intercity carriages
Vossloh Kiepe has won a £9.4 million contract from Abellio Greater Anglia to overhaul its 111 Mark 3 carriages used on the inter-city service between London and Norwich. The interiors will be completely refurbished with new lights, seat covers, tables and so on. Controlled emission toilets will be installed. One of the most significant improvements for passengers will be the installation of power sockets for laptops and mobile devices. Work will start in January 2015 and the first carriages should be in service around March 2015 and the last in October 2016. The work will be carried out at the Crown Point depot in Norwich. The work will provide full disabled access to meet the latest specification except that the slam doors will remain. Although Chiltern Railways has successfully installed sliding doors on legacy carriages Abellio believes that new carriages are needed if the future franchise is to meet passenger expectations.
In a separate project Abellio is looking to rebuilt the restaurant cars rebuilding them as standard class carriages with a micro-buffet in order to increase the number of seats on each train.
RAIL FRANCHISES
Govia Thameslink Railway takes over from First Capital Connect after 8.5 years
Keywords: [FirstCapitalConnect]
In the early hours of Sunday 14th September Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR, the operator's brand name for the Thameslink Southern Great Northern [TSGN] concession) took over from First Capital Connect in a very low-key fashion. There was no obvious change to passengers. The www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk website was to remain available for another month to help passengers, but the home page pointed to the new GTR website at: www.thameslinkrailway.com. However, FCC's website has been reduced to a skeleton. This means that FCC investment in the website to add news features, some as recent as early August 2014 with its 'new interactive map for explorers' under the banner "There's more to explore by train this summer", has been lost.
GTR, which will operate for seven years until 2021, is retaining the route names Great Northern and Thameslink and has separate Twitter accounts for each: @GNRailUK and @TLRailUK.
FCC sent out its FCC Final Stakeholder News (PDF 3MB) on 11th September. It
gave a list of some of the things it was proud to have helped deliver during its tenure:
- 29% more peak seats on Thameslink route and 22% more on Great Northern
- 20-25% discount for weekend fares (super off-peak)
- £4m invested in website and better information
- New shelters and waiting rooms at over 25 stations
- 2.5 times more cycle parking spaces
- 37% crime cut through £1m a year police funding and new CCTV
- 66k followers on twitter
- 163 new ticket gates at 21 stations
- 12 more accessible stations
GTR is headed by its Chief Executive Officer, Charles Horton, and its Chief Operating Officer, Dyan Crowther, who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the railway and previously worked for Network rail. Although starting with the same network as FCC, in December 2014 GTR will take over a small number of services and stations that are currently operated by Southeastern. The next big change for the operator will be 27th July 2015 when it takes over the Southern franchise (which includes the Gatwick Express operation), although it should not be too significant in terms of management changes as that is also operated by Govia - an advantage compared to most of the unsuccessful bidders. Once the Southern services are merged the mega-franchise will represent 22% of all passenger rail journeys in Britain, and therefore the largest of any operator. However, GTR is a management contract, rather than a franchise, and it will pass the ticket revenues directly to the government.
GTR's role is really just to provide the services that the DfT requires since it has no incentive to grow the number of passengers using its trains. There will supposedly be £430m worth of investment (£50m on station improvements) but the main differences passengers will notice are the new train fleet (Class 700 trains from Siemens, which will operate on Great Northern to Cambridge and Peterborough) and the cross-London services once the Thameslink Programme is complete in 2018. Govia was only announced as the winner in May 2014, which was later than expected, so it had just three months to mobilise. One of five bidders, it beat First Group, Abellio, MTR and Stagecoach.
Commenting on the combination of the complete timetable change brought about by the Thameslink Progrmame, including on-going disruption at London Bridge, plus a major fleet change, Chief Executive Charles Horton said "There's no underestimating the challenge of the task ahead." His job may be exacerbated by union protests that GTR will implement the DfT's plans to move staff from behind the glass windows of ticket offices out onto the concourse and to move control of doors from the conductor to the driver once new trains are in service. GTR will keep all on-board staff but will utilise them in a solely passenger-service role. The latter will only affect trains south of London since all Great Northern and Thameslink trains have the driver solely in charge.
News item: http://www.rail.co/2012/07/26/national-express-profits-down-after-east-anglia-loss/
GUIDED BUSWAY
Cambridgeshire Guided Busway fails to hit third year's patronage target
At the guided busway public inquiry in autumn 2004 Cambridgeshire County Council said that the business case assumed 10,000 passengers each day prior and 20,000 a day once Northstowe development was complete and fully occupied. The predicted and actual figures for the first three years are as follows:
- Target: 1.8 million - exceeded by 40% - but this was a deliberately pessimistic figure, which is a common tactic for the first year
- Target: 2.7 million - exceeded by 15% - it was clear that passenger growth was slowing down
- Target: 3.6 million - achieved 3,455,000 - 145,000 short, which was 12,000 short per month averaged across the year.
It became obvious by May 2014 that the year three figure (year to 6th August 2014) could not possibly be achieved. At that point it was getting 290,000 per month, against the 300,000 averaged needed throughout the year, with the 12-month rolling figure at 3.38 million. Even so, it is remarkably close to target.
The patronage has clearly been flat-lining for some time. The extra buses laid on, and the extension from Huntingdon to Peterborough, have clearly had only limited effect. Everyone needs reminding that these figures are NOT the number of passenger journeys on the guided busway. In fact, far fewer people actually travel on the busway. This is because the passenger figures include everyone on a bus fitted with guide-wheels and diagrammed to use the busway at some point. Passengers travelling, for example, between Peterborough and Huntingdon, Huntingdon and St Ives, Cambridge Science Park to Cambridge City Centre and from there to Cambridge station should all be deducted, but the bus operators do not publish those figures. It's a reasonable estimate that 40% of passengers do not use the busway. Of course, this is completely different to the railway where all passengers use it. Moreover, unlike the railway, quite a few of the bus passengers would not have paid a penny as they'd be pensioners with free bus passes.
The patronage estimates date back to the public inquiry in 2004. Arguably the patronage achieved is not as successful as it should be since two unexpected things have happened to increase demand. Had they not occurred then the above targets would not have been met (even after including non-busway journeys). The first is that there was no nationwide free bus pass scheme, only local ones, and the expansion of the scheme was not known. Therefore greater patronage has occurred because people from outside the region have used the busway free of charge, e.g. on a leisure trip with family they are visiting. Secondly, despite the recession, growth continued in the busway corridor and in Cambridge. The population had grown beyond what was predicted. Therefore when the busway finally opened the number of potential travellers was higher than estimated. The original estimates have never been uplifted to reflect these changes.
Patronage for the northern section of the busway will pick up when Northstowe new town is built. They should also increase when Cambridge Science Park station opens in May 2016, as it will increase the number of people using the northern part of the busway. However, the number of people using the bus from Cambridge station to the Science Park will presumably decrease.
In the last twenty years only Britain has built guided busways. Their promoters used questionable arguments and tactics. The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway's popularity is not as bad as the Luton-Dunstable guided busway where ridership is only 43% of the prediction (it was claimed 3.4 million passengers would use the busway annually, but only 1.3 million used it in its first year) and the National Audit Office has been asked to investigate exaggerated figures supplied to the government by the promoters when seeking funding.
Serious defects on the guided busway will require £30 million to fix
As reported previously in [Snippets 256], severe defects on the busway infrastructure have been found, after spending £319,000 to undertake a thorough investigation. These relate to faults in the concrete beams and the foundations. Although not (yet) a safety risk they do reduce the ride quality and are shortening the life of the busway. The council's contractors have estimated that it would cost £30 million to fix everything. However, if this is not done, or is only done on a piecemeal basis the total cost might be £200 million, far more than the original construction cost (including the massive overrun). One of the problems is that bearings between the beams and their foundations have moved out of place causing the beam to drop and a step to appear in the track. This results in damage to the beams and cracks have been spotted on many of them. The council is blaming BAM Nuttall for the defects, arguing that it did not build according to the supplied specification or industry standards, and will not commence any repairs until BAM has confirmed that it will pay. However, BAM is not willing to do so and yet again the council seems to be heading for the courts.
Cambs County Council will be discussing the guided busway defects at its meeting on 7th October 2014. To view the papers for the meeting, see http://www2.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/CommitteeMinutes/Committees/AgendaItem.aspx?agendaItemID=10393 and it will list each of the documents (apart from Appendix D, which is confidential). The council seems to have been rather sneaky and changed the colour of the hyperlinks for the four documents to look like normal text and not links, but they can still be clicked. Appendix A, at 166 pages, has lots of photos showing the defects.
News item: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/30m-needed-bring-guided-busway-scratch/story-23020580-detail/story.html.
Review into contract to build Cambridgeshire Guided Busway says it was "was appropriate for the time"
Having faced heavy criticism for the delayed opening (more than two years late) and massive cost overrun, partly borne by council tax payers, Cambridgeshire County Council commissioned EC Harris Built Asset Consultancy to undertake a review. The outcome has now been published with the author saying that "the procurement process, the contract conditions and contract administration were appropriate for the time." However, the council faced criticism of its administration of the scheme, largely managed on its behalf by Atkins, for lack of "appropriately skilled and experienced staff." The reports says that it was now known "as a project that was delivered late and well over budget", which is something that critics will not dispute.
Yet another incident on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway as German driver blindly follows sat-nav onto the tracks
Keywords: [BuswayAccident]
At about 05:30 (in the dark) on Friday 26th September 2014 a German driver's car became firmly stuck on the concrete track at Histon after he had followed his sat-nav onto the busway having ignored two no entry signs, a red traffic light and writing on the road itself. Whilst he might not have understood English, the no entry and traffic light are the same in Germany as they are in the UK. Bus services had to be re-routed for about an hour until the vehicle was removed. The driver was unharmed.
News item: http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2014-09-30/mis-guided-german-in-bus-way-blunder/.
PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Belmond Royal Scotsman luxury train stays overnight at Dereham
Keywords: [MidNorfolkRailway]
The Mid-Norfolk Railway achieved another first in early September Royal Scotsman luxury train, which operated a four-day rail tour from Edinburgh to London visiting York, Ely and Cambridge was stabled overnight at the MNR's Dereham station. During the night MNR volunteers serviced the train. Many charter trains visit the MNR but only stay for a couple of hours.
MNR website: http://www.mnr.org.uk.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 257 - 30/09/2014
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