News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 290 - 31/05/2017
Greater Anglia is the latest operator (Cross Country was first) that it will allow passengers to purchase 'advance' tickets on the day of travel. Cross Country had allowed passengers to buy advance fares (which includes seat reservations) just 10 minutes before the train departed from their particular station, which upset passengers who were forced to move seats. GA has confirmed that it will only sell such tickers before the train leaves its originating station and there will not be any seat reservations.
STATIONS
Cambridge North station opens two years late
People: [Jamie Burles]
At the start of the summer timetable on Sunday 21st May 2017 the new £50m Cambridge North station opened - two years later than had been intended, but not quite as late as the Cambridgeshire Guided busway - with little fanfare because it was during the 'purdah' period before the General Election on Thursday 8th June. The official opening, provisionally by the Secretary of State for Transport, will take place in the summer.
Because the work to complete the station (700,000 hours of labour in total and 11 possessions - including work to fit around the freight yard) and make it fully ready for passengers was completed very close to opening day (despite the substantial delays already incurred, mainly because of the planning process), station operator Greater Anglia had, naturally, been reluctant to promote the station until it was certain that it would open on time. In fact there was much more promotion of the station from the likes of Railfuture and the Cambridge News than by the rail industry in total. Railfuture was on board the first train from Cambridge to Cambridge North, but there were not many others, nor people waiting on the platform to see it. This is in strong contrast to the several hundred people who saw the first train at Ilkeston six weeks earlier, admittedly the return of the railway to the town rather than a second station two miles north of the existing one.
Unfortunately the initial service is not great. The Fen Line trains, which stop at Waterbeach, will not be stopping at the station (other than a couple a day), although this will change when the timetable is revised. There are currently no direct trains to King's Cross, so a change at Cambridge is required. This will also change in the future. However, Cross Country has shown no interest in calling at the station. Railfuture visited the station several times during the first couple of weeks to count the number of passengers on the platform, cars parked and cycles in the 120-space cycle park. Car park usage has been very low but more than a hundred cycles have been counted.
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, which is based less than a kilometre away, featured the station heavily on its breakfast show on the Monday morning, when commuters first used the station. Greater Anglia's MD Jamie Burles was there all day, for a total of about 14 hours, giving interviews, chatting to passengers and supporting the staff. Railfuture raised several issues with him, some of which were very quick wins such as improved signage and asking to train drivers to stop close to the footbridge stairs rather than the end of the platform.
Railfuture is disappointed that there are no retail outlets open. The inability to buy a coffee, especially as the large station is currently in a brownfield desert, is a major disappointing. Apparently there are various issues with the handover from Network Rail to Greater Anglia, which has prevented them signing leases to retailers. No date can be given when any outlets will open.
There is an excellent blog at http://www.theinclusivehome.co.uk/a-21st-century-train-station/ which copmlains about the fact that the £50m station has only a 'disabled toilet' (desinged for wheelchair users who can walk a little) rather than a 'changing places toilet' (for people who cannot). Railfuture agrees that this is an unfortunate decision given the freedom to provide the full facilities when designing the station. We have also complained to Greater Anglia that the national rail website page for the station, which they replicate at https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/travel-information/station-information/cmb had inaccurate information for weeks prior to the opening.
Great Northern started running its air-conditioned Class 387 trains north of Cambridge - to King's Lynn - on the same day, generally ceasing to use its 22-year-old Class 365s to King's Lynn. It also introduced a half-hourly service to Ely throughout the day, with the trains calling at Cambridge North, although not Waterbeach.
Greater Anglia looks at future of barely-used ticket offices but denies RMT scaremongering
Following its response to the consultation, as mentioned in [Snippets 289], Railfuture East Anglia has met Transport Focus and Greater Anglia management to discuss its proposed changes to seven stations where the ticket office has minimal usage. Six of these are on the Tendring Line; the other one is Great Chesterford on the West Anglia line. GA launched a public consultation on its proposals to close the ticket offices at these stations, using the staff differently at those stations or redeploying them at other stations or on-board trains. GA intends to introduce ticket machines (TVMs) at stations currently without them.
The RMT seized on the (initially, at least) very modest proposed change to claim that Greater Anglia's ultimate intention was to close all bar seven of its 64 ticket offices (they currently exist at just under half of its 133 stations) by the time its franchise ends 2015, something that Greater Anglia management has denied. GA has also promised that none of the 358 ticket office jobs will be lost.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 290 - 31/05/2017
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