News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 276 - 31/03/2016
- RAIL ROUTES [all issues]
- Network Rail announces preferred corridor for East West Rail link between Bedford and Cambridge
- Local Government Secretary of State buoyant about prospects for Wisbech and its essential railway link
- STATIONS [all issues]
- RAIL FREIGHT [all issues]
- PRESERVED RAILWAYS [all issues]
Railfuture's response (written 23rd March 2016) to the 'Transport Strategy for East Cambridgeshire' can be read at www.railfuture.org,uk/east/docs/Railfuture-East-Anglia-2016-03-23-Transport-Strategy-for-East-Cambridgeshire.pdf. It mentions Railfutre's proposal for the curve at Newmarket to be reinstated to allow trains to/form Ely to call at Newmarket station. The response includes a map showing the curve and a possible track layout at the station designed for maximum flexibility.
On 24th March Network Rail published its 124-page Anglia Route Study, which looks at demand for services and planned upgrades in the future. Read it at www.networkrail.co.uk/Anglia-Route-Study.pdf.
The Ely-Peterborough line will be closed on four Sundays in April 2016 for complete switching and crossing replacement at March East Junction. At the same time there will be external renovation of March Station footbridge, which requires scaffolding to be erected over the running lines. The footbridge will remain closed until mid-June 2016.
The result of the Crossrail 2 consultation is at http://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/crossrail2/october2015/. It doesn't acknowledge any contributions from north of Harlow (indeed, only those from London Boroughs are analysed), and says nothing about the effect on Cambridge/Stansted to Liverpool Street/Stratford routes.
As briefly reported in [Snippets 275], on Friday 25th March 2016 Railfuture conducted an audit of the three adjacent unstaffed stations south of Cambridge (Foxton, Shepreth and Meldreth) to consider what type of improvements could cost-effectively be introduced to better serve passengers, thanks to a small amount of local authority money that is available. A 20-page document has been produced, which can be read HERE.
The Abellio Greater Anglia Rail User Group Forum will be held on Tuesday 19 April 2016 at One Stratford Place, Stratford.
Lindsay Durham, Head of Rail Strategy at Freightliner Ltd (i.e. Intermodal), will be talking to the Cambridge University Railway Club on Wednesday 20th April about the operations and history of Freightliner group, which celebrated its 50th anniversary recently. The talk is from 20:30 in the William Thatcher Room in Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. Future talks will be by Wednesday 11th May Jonathan Roberts, a freelance consultant who has been commissioned by Railfuture to produce studies (his talk is entitled Turning South London Orange), Dennis Lovett from Bachmann on Wednesday 25th May and on Wednesday 1st June the speaker will be Alex Hynes, MD of Arriva Rail North.
An investigation has found that the 22nd February 2016 accident on the southern section of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway that injured five bus passengers (as reported in [Snippets 275]) was caused by the bus driver according to a report on the BBC website (www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-35841300). He was found to have driven the bus at 53mph, when the speed limit was 30mph, as the bus was entering the double-track section. He drove it further to the left than it should have been and collided with part of the concrete guide, which caused the guide-wheel on that side to break off.
The Leigh guided busway (near Manchester) will open on Sunday 3rd April 2016. It is the "flagship" part of Transport for Greater Manchester's £122m bus priority investment. At a total length of 14 miles, of which just 4.5 miles are guided, it is costing more per mile than the Cambridgesihre Guided Busway build-cost contracted back in 2006. Who said busways were cheap?
RAIL ROUTES
Network Rail announces preferred corridor for East West Rail link between Bedford and Cambridge
Keywords: [EastWestRail]
Plans for the East West Rail link between Bedford and Cambridge had been narrowed down to two "corridors" - one somewhere near Hitchin and the other somewhere near Sandy. The two towns on the East Coast Mainline are about 25km apart. In late March Network Rail announced that it had settled on the "Sandy corridor" and will only re-consider the Hitchin corridor again if it cannot get a route in the Sandy corridor).
There is no implication that it will actually go through Sandy as the corridor is about 15km north or south of Sandy. For example, the Railfuture proposal is for Bedford to St Neots (i.e. quite far north of Sandy) to Cambourne to Addenbrooke's Hospital station to Cambridge (Central) station. The benefits for doing so, including a shorter route from Cambridge to Peterborough, are shown on page eight of http://www.railfuture.org.uk/east/docs/East-West-Rail-Routes-from-Cambridge-Sept2013.pdf. The so-called "Sandy corridor" is perfectly compatible with the Railfuture proposal, as St Neots is just under 15 km north of Sandy.
Local Government Secretary of State buoyant about prospects for Wisbech and its essential railway link
Keywords: [WisbechBranch]
On 30th March the Local Government Secretary of State, Greg Clark, visited Wisbech and pledged that support for garden town status and the re-opening the rail line from March (described as "a nationally important project") did not depend on Cambridgeshire signing up to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's devolution deal. He said the reopened railway would "make more jobs available, a greater choice of jobs, higher paid jobs, and would help people who may want to work in Cambridge [where there is a housing shortage] to live in Wisbech."
STATIONS
Covered connecting walkway from Harwich International station onto ferries set to reopen after refurbishment
Keywords: [HarwichInternationalStation]
At Harwich International Port and at Hoek van Holland Haven the infrastructure is ideal for seamless transfer between train and ferry, and has been so for over 120 years. In fact, in the 1990s it was actually improved. However, for more than twelve months the covered walkway from Harwich International station on to the ferry has been out of action and all foot passengers have been taken on a little bus in and out of the hold of the vessel. This process takes longer and is much less convenient. Car and lorry drivers, of course, are not affected.
The General Manager of Harwich International Port has confirmed that a contract for the design, construction and erection of a new passenger boarding bridge (which will need to comply with all the latest regulations and safety recommendations and so a number of design changes have been necessary) was placed in August 2015 and is expected to be fully installed and operational by the end of June 2016. The General Manager says he is "confident the new bridge and refurbished connecting walkways will promote the right image for international travel in the future."
RAIL FREIGHT
Network Rail's East Midlands Route Study proposes extra tracks, grade separation and resignalling to allow more freight
Keywords: [Felixstowe2Nuneaton]
At the end of March Network Rail published its route study for the East Midlands. The study was primarily concerned with managing increased passenger demand (passenger numbers are estimated to increase by 31-40% by 2023 and by 53-114% by 2043) but also for increasing rail-freight, which is relevant to East Anglia, since an increasing number of freight trains from and to Felixstowe port will be passing through the region. Only 18 freight trains per day (in both directions) can go via the North London Line, so with the current 33 trains from Felixstowe (each way) means 15 tpd each way are going cross country via the East Midlands, and eventually (following an upgrade to the Felixstowe branch) that will increase by another ten freight trains per day (each way). Network Rail's study estimates that freight tonne kilometres will increase by 65% by 2023 and 350% by 2043.
The study recommends improving capacity, especially to allow increased Felixstowe to West Midlands freight services by 2023, with more running lines between Syston and Kilby Bridge Junction, grade separation of Wigston Junction, improvements to the Syston North and South Chords and resignalling between Syston and Peterborough. On the passenger side it suggests lengthening trains on the Birmingham - Leicester - Stansted Airport/Cambridge and Norwich - Nottingham - Sheffield - Liverpool services.
News: http://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Rail-News/nr-publishes-east-midlands-route-study.
PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Bid to restore historic rail track at Leiston is approved by Suffolk Coastal Council
Keywords: [LeistonWorksRailway]
Suffolk Coastal Council has approved an application by Leiston Works Railway to re-lay track and erect fences and gates for a railway line between Buller Road and Main Street in Leiston to connect with the award-winning Leiston Long Shop Museum, which was once the home to the foundries of Richard Garrett & Sons Limited. The aim is to allow visitors to experience an industrial railway.
Financial contributions to the project have been made by Leiston Town Council, which believes the new rail line could become an attraction that boosts the town's economy, and local businesses.
News: www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/bid_to_restore_historic_rail_track_at_leiston_is_approved_1_4477053.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 276 - 31/03/2016
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