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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 304 - 31/07/2018

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

Railfuture News Snippets 304 - 31/07/2018



During July Railfuture East Anglia held meetings with the lead members of all three preferred bidders for the East Midlands Railway franchise, spending up to two hours with each to discuss the improvements that Railfuture East Anglia wishes to see implemented.

The Costa Coffee kiosk at Cambridge North finally opened on Tuesday 3 July 2018. It is open between 05:30 and 19:30.

Greater Anglia (in conjunction with the Essex and South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership) will run 'Bucket and Spade' trains from Colchester to Walton-on-the-Naze at 09.56 on Thursday 16th and 30th August 2018. The tickets - priced at just £5 return for an adult and £3 return for a child - are only available online at www.esscrp.org.uk - and include a free bucket and spade for every child. The special Greater Anglia trains will be decked-out with a seaside theme and there will be lots of fun on board. Children will be given buckets and spades and treats for the journey.

Norwich City FC has agreed a new partnership with Greater Anglia (GA) in which its fans can obtain yet-to-be-announced discounts for rail travel on services to away matches in London. GA will be the match sponsors of the game against Ipswich Town at Carrow Road, and it will continue to run extra and longer trains for both East Anglian derby days.

The BBC has announced that the first episode of its six-part drama Bodyguard will be broadcast on Sunday 26 August 2018. Episode 1 will feature a 20-minute opening scene involving a terrorist incident upon a train, which was filmed at the Mid-Norfolk Railway's Dereham station in January and February 2018. Made by the same team as Line of Duty, writer Jed Mercurio has revealed that the opening sequence was originally going to be shot on a train about to depart Waterloo Station (where some of the Bourne Ultimatum was filmed). Howwever, permission was revoked and they had to reconceive the whole sequence to a new location (Dereham) with a completely rewritten chain of events.

The West Runton Station Adopters will be hosting a Tea Party event at the station on Saturday 25th August from 14:00 to 16:00. It will include a cake stall, book stall, and locally grown produce for sale, as well as a raffle, all in aid of the East Anglian Air Ambulance.


RAIL ROUTES
Government approves Network Rail's proposals for a dive under for freight trains at Werrington

Keywords: [EastCoastMainline]

On 24th July 2018 it was announced that the government has approved Network Rail's Transport and Works Act order application (submitted in 2016) for the Werrington grade separation (actually a dive under, which was felt to cause less noise to nearby residents) just north of Peterborough. This major scheme will consist of a new 3km two-track railway line, commencing between the two Stamford lines, which will be slewed apart. The route needs to be long because a shallow gradient is required for freight trains to travel at speed.

The justification for the dive under is to allow freight trains to avoid crossing other East Coast Mainline tracks when taking the route via Lincoln. Passenger trains will no longer need to slow down as they approach Werrington, which will allow more passenger services to run in the future, although this is dependent on other route improvements that are part of the Railway Upgrade Plan. Construction will commence in late summer 2018 with the route being open in early 2021. [Update: Although announced in July, the order was formally granted on 3rd August 2018]

A 3D video of the dive under can be viewed at www.networkrail.co.uk/werrington.

Network Rail submits TWA Order application for the second phase of the East West Rail link central section

Keywords: [EastWestRail]

As reported in advance in [Snippets 303], Network Rail submitted its TWA Order application on 27th July 2018 to complete the second phase of the western section of East West Rail. The project, which will cost around £1.1 billion, will see a total of 43 miles of route reopened or upgraded. The most expensive part will be reopening the 12 miles of mothballed route between Claydon Junction where more than 100 crossings need to be closed and replaced with bridges or detours to the next crossing. The 31 miles of upgraded route comprises Bicester to Claydon Junction 6 miles), Aylesbury Vale Parkway to Claydon Junction (9 miles) and Bletchley to Bedford (16 miles).

The statutory objection period will end 7th September 2018, during in supporters are urged to write in support of the scheme. The email address is [transportandworksact at dft.gsi.gov.uk].

Chairman of the East West Rail Consortium, Councillor Mark Shaw, said East West Rail will drastically reduce journey times within the region, bringing key economic and cultural centres within easy reach of each other. He was quoted: "After more than 20 years of campaigning, the submission of the TWAO is a hugely significant milestone, marking the final stage in acquiring permission to reopen the rail lines between Oxford and Bedford, and Aylesbury and Milton Keynes."


RAIL FRANCHISES
Government intervenes following May 2018 timetable chaos and prevents further changes in December 2018

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) is one of the train operators affected by the government's decision to postpone the improved train services due with the December 2018 timetable until May 2019. This follows the disastrous launch of the major timetable changes in May 2018 that affected GTR and Northern in particular. The government has lost confidence in the railway's ability to deliver major timetable changes without seriously disrupting passengers. The decision, caused by the failure of Network Rail's timetable planning responsibility and train operators' ability to train drivers, has significant implications for some franchises because they are required to deliver new services as part of their franchise agreement. As a management contract GTR is less affected financially.

Sir Peter Hendy, chair of Network Rail, said: "The railway industry has taken a long hard look at its plans for the next timetable change in December and, taking into account recent painful lessons, the industry has scaled back its ambition and tempered it with a more cautious, phased approach to introducing the new timetable. The majority of rail operators will introduce the December timetable while others will continue to use the May timetable, which is still undergoing improvement."

In East Anglia the main implication is that the second roll-out of enhancements for the Thameslink Programme will be delayed by a further six months. Greater Anglia had no changes planned in 2018 since its timetable changes will occur once its new fleet of trains are in service. The Crossrail services that are scheduled to start running through the Liverpool Street to Paddington tunnel section in December 2018, and are managed by TfL, will still go ahead.


ROLLING STOCK
Greater Anglia undertakes reliability overhaul for its entire Class 317 trains prior to new fleet entering service

Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]

Greater Anglia is undertaking an engineering overhaul for its entire Class 317 train fleet (mainly used between Cambridge and London Liverpool Street) to make them more reliable, primarily to prevent cancellations due to train faults, for which it has to pay severe penalties.

Work will focus on faulty doors and sealing air leaks, both of which are the main causes for trains being cancelled. By July 2018, 42 out of 58 trains had been overhauled at Arriva Train Care's depot in Cambridge. Greater Anglia's Engineering Director, Colin Dobson, said, "We are investing £5 million overall in improving the reliability of our existing train fleet, to keep on improving train performance for our passengers in advance of the arrival of our brand-new trains" in 2019.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 304 - 31/07/2018

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