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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 277 - 30/04/2016

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

Railfuture News Snippets 277 - 30/04/2016



On 6th April Steve Wilkinson, former national chairman of Railfuture who lived close to Cambridge, died. Steve was a prominent member of Railfuture for many years, in many positions, earning the respect of a very large number of people across the rail industry. A short biography can be read at www.railfuture.org.uk/Steve+Wilkinson. A week later another long-standing Railfuture East Anglia member died. He was Prof Sir David MacKay, a government adviser. He was also involved in running CAST.IRON (the organisation set-up to buy and reopen the then mothballed Cambridge-St Ives railway line) in its early days.

Following television appearances and radio interviews in March, Railfuture East Anglia has continued its media presence during April with RAIL EAST newsletter editor Chris Burton's appearing on BBC Look East on 8th April to talk about East West Rail.

On 4th April rail minister Claire Perry visited Cambridge station for a photo opportunity to promote smartcards for season ticket holders.

Railfuture has written an article about the East West Rail central section between Bedford and Cambridge. Read it at www.railfuture.org.uk/article1669-East-West-double-boost.

In early April at Ely station the new refreshment facility on platform two was opened and the waiting room on platform 1 was reopened. Railfuture had complained about the extended length of time passengers were denied these facilities.

The new purpose-built aggregates unloading facilities for both DB Cargo (formerly DB Schenker) and Freightliner Heavy Haul at what is still known as Chesterton Redland Siding (adjacent to the new Cambridge North station) came into use in the last month, when the regular DB Cargo-hauled aggregates workings to/from Mountsorrel resumed. There had been a long hiatus whilst the new unloading facilities were under construction plus new track/signalling installed and commissioned.

On the evening of 23rd April the first of the brand new Class 700 trains visited the Great Northern railway, going to Hornsey depot from Three Bridges depot. It went via the North London Line, rather than the Canal Tunnel link between the Thameslink and GN routes. It will initially be seen on the Hertford Loop, where it will be used for testing the ERTMS signalling systems on the test site between (roughly) Langley Junction and Hertford North.

On 15th April Peter Meades of Abellio Greater Anglia retired. His last job was Media Manager. He was one of the main public faces of the local railway for decades, working for National Express East Anglia and Anglia Railways in the past. He had spoken at Railfuture East Anglia meetings on several occasions.

Railfuture East Anglia will be hosting the National AGM in Peterborough on Saturday 20 May 2017. The venue will be the John Clare Theatre at the Central Library. Speakers are now being identified.

The next Felixstowe Travel Watch public meeting (their AGM) will be on at 19:30 Tuesday 17th May 2016 at the Salvation Army Church, Cobbold Road in Felixstowe. The next meeting after that, at the same venue, will be at 14:30 on Tuesday 18th October 2016, which is a couple of days after the new rail franchise commences.

Chris Austin, Railfuture's Head of Infrastructure and Networks, has been providing some background and facts and figures from his book "Disconnected!" to Rob Gifford of the Economist who has put together an article on railway reopenings for their edition published on 15th April 2016. It is positive and sets out he economic benefits of reopening very well. It is written around Wisbech as the example, which was been heavily pushed by Railfuture - see article.


STATIONS
Waterbeach station urgently needs car park expansion to cope with demand

Keywords: [WaterbeachStation]

The Cambridge News reported concern by residents in Waterbeach (just north of Cambridge) that station users were parking their cars on the grass verges along the road close to the level crossing because the car park is full, and are calling for it to be expanded.

There are only around 76 parking spaces, of which four are for disabled users and some others are for 'premium' customers. The station sees patronage of around 400,000 a year, which is more than 1,000 a day. Whilst a lot of those users live in the village and walk to the station, it is obvious that 76 spaces is insufficient. Some commentators believe that Cambridgeshire County Council (which owns the car park) and GoVia Thameslink Railway (which runs the majority of the trains and also manages the car park for the council) are waiting to see what impact the opening of Cambridge North station has on usage of Waterbeach station and demand for the car park. However, it is incredibly unlikely that sufficient people will transfer to the new station (which will have parking for 450 cars) to free up spaces at Waterbeach and even more unlikely that new users will not immediately fill them.

Because of the risk of flooding the council is reluctant to expand the car park into adjoining fields. The former goods yard between the car park and the up platform would be ideal. However, the entrance is too close to level crossing so it could not be used. Therefore a route from inside the car park would need to be created but this is not helped by the level of the goods yard being significantly higher than the car park.

Network Rail and Cambridgeshire County Council reach agreement on pedestrian/cycle route for Cambridge North station

Keywords: [CambridgeNorthStation]

On 1st April the Cambridge News joined city MP Daniel Zeichner, Network Rail officials and top councillors for a tour of the construction of Cambridge North station, which started in 2015. As well as laying connections for the freight sidings, to allow freight trains to co-exist with passenger trains, new overhead wire structures have been erected and modular units for the platforms have been installed.

Railfuture understands that Network Rail and Cambridgeshire County Council have reached agreement on the liability for maintenance of the proposed pedestrian/cycle route to Cambridge North station that will be built on the disused access road running along the North side of Cambridge Business Park. This has been holding up the signing of the S106 agreement, which had restricted the works that Network Rail was able to undertake. Cambridge North Station is now scheduled to open on 21st May 2017 - two years after the original publicised date.

Addenbrooke's station looking increasingly likely

Keywords: [CambridgeSouthStation]

The Cambridge News reported City Deal board chairman and city council leader Cllr Lewis Herbert saying "The project team between Cambs County Council and Network Rail are reporting back good news. Hopefully there will be a station at Addenbrooke's, not on the [£50m] scale of Cambridge North, but one which will enable trains to stop near the equally busy location, particularly with the rate of jobs growth at the Biomedical Campus." He hoped that there would be an announcement on Addenbrooke's station in summer 2016. A new station at Addenbrooke's was named in Network Rail's Anglia Route study in March 2016.

Railfuture has performed an analysis on the total number of employees and visitors at the Addenbrooke's campus in the future and having used various levels of 'rail capture' all of the calculations showed that the station will attract at least than 2m journeys annually. By comparison, Cambridgeshire County Council's business case for Cambridge North back in 2009 predicted a mere 800,000 passengers a year - a figure now considered exceedingly pessimistic.


RAIL ROUTES
Chair of Rail Haverhill campaign group urges MPs to back campaign to link Haverhill to the railway network

Keywords: [Haverhill]

Heike Sowa, chair of Rail Haverhill, a non-political campaign group affiliated to Railfuture, has written to all three MPs whose constituencies lie along the route proposed for the rail link (West Suffolk MP Matthew Hancock, as well as South East Cambridgeshire MP Lucy Frazer and South Cambridgeshire MP Heidi Allen). The main aim of sending the letter was to promote co-operation across county borders, as Haverhill lies in the corner of Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire. Rail Haverhill has amassed a petition signed by 3,500 people across Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Essex to provide a rail link. Railfuture East Anglia has provided financial assistance for their campaigning leaflets.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 277 - 30/04/2016

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