News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 284 - 30/11/2016
Railfuture had a productive 30-minute high-level meeting with Rail Minister Paul Maynard MP on Monday 28th November 2016. Rather than promoting specific campaigns the aim was to demonstrate to the minister the credibility of Railfuture and why the government should engage further with it. The government had already, in 2016, asked Railfuture to attend its review of train tickets.
Railfuture will be holding a public meeting at Sawston Village College on Monday 19th December 2016 at 19:30 to look at setting-up a Rail User Group for Whittlesford Parkway station, which is the closest station to Sawston.
Network Rail will be holding a public consultation meeting on Wednesday 14 December, between 14:00 and 19:00 at Foxton Village Hall regarding their proposal to close the Barrington Road pedestrian crossing gate at Foxton Level Crossing (an interim measure to make it a safer place to ride and walk). This does not affect the passenger crossing or the main road, although ultimately people want to see a road bridge across the railway."
In October 2016 Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) was instructed by the DfT to expand its Delay Repay scheme to pay 25% for journeys delayed by between 15 and 29 minutes. GTR has quickly put this into place and it will commence from Sunday 11th December 2016. The DfT intends to roll-out the threshold to all new franchises and is considering introducing it on some existing ones as well, if agreement can be reached with the relevant TOCs.
GTR has revealed in correspondence to Huntingdon MP Jonathan Djanogly, who had complained about the number of cancelled Great Northern train services because of a shortage of drivers, that it has a target establishment level of 381 Great Northern drivers and aims to have 40 in excess of that target in 2017 in order to make the service very robust and cater for drivers being taken away from passenger train duties in order to learn about the new rolling stock.
The remaining part of phase 1 of the western section of East West Rail will open on Sunday 11 December 2016 when trains will run between Oxford Parkway and Oxford stations. This means that the full London Marylebone to Oxford service will finally be in operation. The track, which was previously used by an hourly Oxford-Bicester Town (now called Oxford Village) service has been out of public use since February 2014 so that it could be completely rebuilt. This is the western end of what will become the Oxford-Cambridge route.
ESTA will hold its 'Spring Meeting' at 14:00 on Saturday 18th February 2017 in the large meeting room at Beccles Railway Station. ESTA has invited train operator Greater Anglia to send a speaker so that Abellio can talk about its plans over its nine-year franchise.
On Monday 12th December 2016 will be holding their next public meeting in The Studio, Town Hall Arts Centre, Haverhill starting at 19:00. There is car parking adjacent to the bus station. From Cambridge there are Stagecoach X13/13/13A services to Haverhill bus station, then a short walk uphill past the now-closed Co-op store into the town centre and turn left. The Town Hall is on your right. Most of its meetings are held in the same venue. Meeting dates can be found at www.railhaverhill.org.uk/.
RAIL ROUTES
National Infrastructure Commission urges the Government to open East West Rail western section by 2024
Keywords: [EastWestRail]
In its 62-page interim report issued on 15th November 2016 the newly-created National Infrastructure Commission, which is chaired by former Secretary of State for Transport Lord Adonis, urged the Government to ensure that the western section of the East West Rail (Oxford to Bedford, with links to Aylesbury and Milton Keynes) is delivered by 2024 (the end of Network Rail's Control Period 6). This delayed date would be five years later than the 2019 opening announced by the government back in 2012 when it agreed to fund the scheme. The delays have been a result of several set-backs, including the legal objections to Chiltern Railways' upgrade project for the London Marylebone-Oxford link, the discovery that a Transport and Works Act Order would be required and Network Rail's inability to manage its large number of enhancement projects. The NIC called for £100m of funding to be brought forward so that work could start as soon as possible providing a "once in a generation opportunity" to create Britain's own Silicon Valley. The NIC had been asked in March 2016 to consider how to maximise the economic potential of the Cambridge-Oxford corridor. Its support for the rail link (along with an 'Expressway' road) is part of a connected strategy linking housing, jobs and infrastructure. Cambridge and Oxford were recently found to be two of the least affordable cities in the UK, but there is little point in building more houses without transport links.
The NIC called on the project to integrate construction of the East West Rail western section with work on HS2, and it also recommended that the government should invest in developing as soon as possible detailed plans for the link from Bedford to Cambridge, with the aim of securing tens of thousands of new homes in the corridor.
It was clear on Monday 7th November 2016 that the government is keen to press ahead with East West Rail (EWR) when the Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, addressed local authority leaders at the County Councils National Conference. He described EWR as exactly the type of project that is needed to support the government's growth plans. A day later East Anglia's MPs gathered to discuss the West Anglia Taskforce report. Rail minister Paul Maynard MP, who was present at the meeting of MPs, confirmed that the Department for Transport would be working closely with Cambridgeshire County Council to deliver improvements, including Addenbrooke's railway station "as soon as we can." He said that "the detailed study of the viability of the new station is being undertaken with the county council and I hope to have more news soon."
The NIC clearly has the ear of the government as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, confirmed in his Autumn Statement delivered on 23rd November that he would fund the £100m as requested. This sum includes enabling works so that East West Rail can co-exist with HS2 at the point the two routes cross in Buckinghamshire. This is necessary to allow EWR to be developed in advance of HS2 rather than wait for it to be constructed. Mr Hammond also awarded £10 to continue developing the Bedford-Cambridge scheme.
EWR Consortium response: http://www.eastwestrail.org.uk/2016/11/24/autumn-statement-2016-110-million-investment-in-east-west-rail/.
ROLLING STOCK
Campaign success for Railfuture as DfT announces retrofitting of seat-back tables and Wi-Fi to new Class 700 trains
Keywords: [Class700]
Several years ago Railfuture (amongst other organisations) was invited by the DfT to Germany to see a mock-up of the new Siemens Class 700 trains for Thameslink and Great Northern routes. Whilst welcoming the new trains and some of the features (such as the CIS), Railfuture was critical of several aspects: in particular the lack of any tables for coffee (the class 365s have small seat-back pull-down tables and a small fixed table in the groups of four seats) and the lack of Wi-Fi or power-points. Rail User Groups and others also complained about these deficiencies. The DfT flatly refused to change the specification but Railfuture has kept up the pressure on it (Govia Thameslink Railway, which operates as a management concession, is not in a position to invest in these features). The good news (apparently first revealed at Thameslink Partnership Stakeholder meeting on 27th September 2016, which seems to have gone unreported, and repeated by Stuart Cheshire, the GTR Customer Service Manager for Thameslink, at the AGM of the Bedford Commuters Association on 31st October 2016) is that the DfT has agreed to fund the retrofitting of seat back trays and Wi-Fi to all class 700 units. In fairness, Wi-Fi should not be a surprise has the DfT has made free Wi-Fi in all carriages a mandatory requirement for all new franchises.
Wi-Fi equipment and seat trays will be retro-fitted to the class 700s when there are enough trains in service to allow them to be cycled through a depot. Apparently other small modifications will be undertaken at the same time. However, the main issue on the trains for the time being relates to software that needs updating. Unfortunately Railfuture's wish for power-points to be fitted will not happen as there is no spare power cabling provided in the carriages and modifying floors, walls and seats is claimed to be impractical without redesign. This does seem a poor excuse when Siemens has not yet finished constructing the fleet and power-points are included in the Class 717 trains - a close variant - that will be used on the 'inners' trains to/from Moorgate.
Apparently the first Class 700 to visit Cambridge station in daylight was on 17th October 2016 when a train arrived from Three Bridges to Cambridge and then returned south to Cricklewood. This was for a gauge-clearance exercise and it was not in passenger service. The dual-voltage train lost its third-rail shoe-gear on one side between Shepreth Junction and Foxton, reportedly because of a high ballast 'shoulder', which caused a similar problem when a Class 700 visited Peterborough the previous week.
GUIDED BUSWAY
Independent investigation into Cambridgeshire Guided Busway track faults decides BAM Nuttall should pay to fix problems
Cambridgeshire County Council had identified that there are serious track problems on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, which opened in 2011, that would need to be fixed urgently to prevent the situation getting worse. It calculated that it would cost £36m if done straight away but much more if deferred. The problems result in bumpy ride for passengers because the joints between busway beams have started to resemble steps as a result of slippage in the bearing pads that the guideway beams rest on. The relationship between the council and BAM Nuttall, which built the busway, has not been good to say the least. BAM Nuttall agreed to pay compensation to the council for late delivery following a protracted legal battle, although the council did not cover all of its legal costs. Subsequent legal action looked likely for these repairs as well - the council claims to have spent £3.07 million on legal fees in three years.
Both sides agreed that there would be an investigation into the alleged faults on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway track as well as a joint programme of monitoring. The independent investigation by Capita has been published by the council and has decided that BAM Nuttall should pay to fix problems. BAM has, according to the Cambridge News, agreed that it would fix anything wrong with the route. However, its statement to the newspaper is more nuanced, promising to fix problems that it is responsible for. There is no indication in BAM's statement that it accepts any of Capita's findings. This saga is bound to continue for some time to come. What has become clear is that Cambridgeshire County Council has no intention of building another kerb-guided busway, as shown by the bus link to the new Cambridge North station (and a possible busway to Cambourne) being conventional bus-only roads.
News: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/if-anything-wrong-put-right-12212251?.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 284 - 30/11/2016
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