News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 317 - 31/08/2019
- PURCHASING TICKETS [all issues]
- ROLLING STOCK [all issues]
- RAIL ROUTES [all issues]
- Network Rail announces 23 days of engineering work to complete modernisation of Wherry lines in 2020
- National Grid failure leads to loss of frequency that causes GTR Siemens trains to shut down
- STATIONS [all issues]
On Sunday 18 August 2019 the Abellio-owned East Midlands Railway took over the East Midlands franchise from Stagecoach, which had operated the services for 11 years under the East Midlands Trains brand. This has little impact for East Anglia, other than the Norwich services that had been running to Liverpool will in future terminate in Nottingham at the insistence of the of the Department for Transport (DfT). Although the new franchise will see the "replacement of every train in the fleet", they will not all be new trains. East Midlands Railway, which does not operate any stations in East Anglia, will run until 21st August 2027 with the Department for Transport having an option for a two-year extension.
On Saturday 7th September 2019 the Friends of March Station will hold an event to mark their 10th Anniversary at March station (form 08:00-16:00, but TBC). The Hereward Community Rail Partnership will be present at the station during the day.
Community Rail Partnerships (CRPs) are now being 'accredited' rather than some community rail lines being 'designated'. East Anglia was one of the first regions in Britain to have CRPs. There are some interesting phrases used by the DfT about this. It says "Accreditation should provide assurance to others, including potential funders and partners, that the CRP:
- operates to high standards of governance and financial propriety
- adopts a collaborative approach
- is worthy of trust by others
- is a good representative of the local community.
On 1st August 2019 the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority Board approved £1.7 million, to add to the £1.3 from other sources, to set up the Partnership Board to manage development of the Outline Business Case (OBC) for the bus-based Cambridge Autonomous Metro system to serve Greater Cambridge and its surroundings. The Partnership Board will complete the OBC in 202 and free-up the Combined Authority to move forward other transport priorities. As reported in [Snippets 312], in March 2019, the Combined Authority approved the preparation work for the OBC, which included a strategy for procurement, a technical study of vehicle technology, and enhanced transport modelling. Work so far predicts that "every pound invested will be worth up to four to our region" according to CA Mayor James Palmer.
In an unprecedented move, the Department for Transport has taken ownership of the now 40-strong fleet of Class 365 EMUs, which spent much of their life operating between King's cross and King's Lynn / Peterborough. The reason is unique. British Rail had only leased the trains. Eventually ownership passed to Eversholt Rail, with the government guaranteeing lease payments, which are now insufficient as only 21 are in use with GTR with 20 in store (one was written off in the Hatfield crash).
The highly-controversial Cambridgeshire Guided Busway reached its eighth year of public service in August 2019. Not even its strongest critics envisaged as many mishaps, crashes, buses falling over, catching fire and deaths of pedestrians and cyclists hit by buses.
PURCHASING TICKETS
Greater Anglia allows passengers to top-up smart cards by touching it against their smartphone
Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]
Greater Anglia (GA) has been encouraging its season-ticket holders to replace their paper ticket with a plastic smartcard. This switch has been very successful with almost 95% of its annual season ticket holders now holding a Smart Card instead. As well as being longer-lasting the smart card season ticket, like an Oyster card or contactless bankcard used in London, is much quicker than the traditional paper ticket because it is simply touched against the smart card reader at the barriers, rather than being inserted into the mechanism and reappearing at the other end. This improves passenger flow at busy times.
An innovation by GA will save commuters time and reduce the queues at TVMs at stations (potentially reducing the number of TVMs required in the future). An upgrade to its smartphone app will allow holders of its season plastic smartcards to top-up (for both first use and existing smartcards) by paying online at greateranglia.co.uk or via their smartphone (Android only initially) and then holding smartcard against it. This can obviously be done anywhere at any time prior to using the smartcard. GA calls the facility 'Remote Ticket Download'. Railways in other countries have facilities whereby a smartcard charged device is plugged into laptop, but that requires the device to be purchased. GA's solution is much more flexible and comes at no additional cost.
In order to charge the smartcard, the 'Near Field Communication' (NFC) facility must be enabled on the phone. It can be turned off immediately afterwards.
News: https://www.railbusinessdaily.com/greater-anglia-saves-commuters-time-with-clever-app-upgrade/.
ROLLING STOCK
Greater Anglia's new bi-mode trains are rolled out to the Norwich-Cambridge route
Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]
As reported in [Snippets 316] the first of Greater Anglia's (GA) 38 new Class 755 bi-mode trains built by Swiss manufacturer Stadler entered passenger service on 29th July 2019 on the Norwich to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft routes. Just over a fortnight later, on Tuesday 13th August these "game-changing" trains commenced on the Norwich to Cambridge route as well.
There is no doubt that passengers noticed them - the streamlined design helped - and enjoyed the experience of travelling on them, and people with reduced mobility will have benefited from the trains being accessible, unlike some of the 1980s trains that often run on these routes, with the particular advantage of a retractable step at each door. Dominic Lund-Conlon, who became Head of Accessibility and Inclusion at the Rail Delivery Group in 2019 and before that had advised GA on the design of the accessible features, conducted an overnight test run to give his final feedback on the trains including the bespoke portable ramps, which are necessary where a wheelchair cannot bridge the gap between platform and train or at stations where there is a height difference between the two. Dominic, and the team at Greater Anglia, tested the step and ramp at every station on the Norwich to Cambridge line prior to the first public train running.
Railfuture's Nick Dibben rode on the new train from Norwich station to Cambridge. He said: "The station display screens at Norwich indicated that it was a four-coach train. As the doors open, a plate emerges reducing the gap between the train and platform. The plate is also nearly level with the platform, making access easy. The second thing you notice is the air-conditioning; it's effective and quiet. If you are used to travelling with other modern stock with an ironing board for a seat, the seats on the new trains are a pleasant surprise. They are curved and look like they might fit your body. The spacing between the seats is also good. However, as with other rolling stock, the leg room by the window is compromised by the large skirting designed as not to cook your legs in winter. The train departs quietly. The display was stuck showing Norwich for the journey. The public address when used has a lot of train movement background noise. A bit of adjustment or some staff training should sort this out. Once clear of the station, the acceleration is noticeable and much better than existing units, the ride quality is good. At some stations, waiting cyclists needed to be directed to the front of the train where the cycle space is located. Perhaps the location of the cycle spaces should be on the platform screens to assist loading and reduce station stop times."
Cyclists will benefit from the train being able to carry six bicycles rather than four, albeit all in one carriage at the end of the train, with the bikes being pushed against another bicycle, so not ideal if two others have to be removed to allow the third to be retrieved. The provision of sockets and USB ports at all seats will be welcomed by many travellers, once they become aware of them. Likewise, the Wi-Fi, which was very good when sampled by Railfuture possibly because few other travellers were aware of it. Even small, easy-to-implement, features such as coat hooks either side of the windows have been provided; it is surprising how few trains have these.
The accessible toilet meets all the requirements, but the standard toilet is quite small. One Railfuture member said that he could barely get in and out, so a large person could never use it.
The on-board customer information screens are some of the most easily read of any train in Britain. They are far superior to those on other Greater Anglia trains, but similar to those on GTR's Siemens-built Class 700 trains that operate as far north as Cambridge and Peterborough. On services that Railfuture tried they were only working on some trains, so this is something to be rectified. However, the level of information provided is poor compared to the brand new large, colourful screens at some of GA's stations, such as Ely and Bishop's Stortford, which have scheduled arrival times at each station on the route. The train screens ought to have real-time calculated estimated times of arrival for each remaining station - something that operators in other European countries have provided for several years, and is available to those passengers who have a smartphone app. The CIS ought to show a clock at all times (it is only present when the screen flips over to the route map display) and nice features such as the speed that the train is travelling at would be welcome as well. The CIS is a marketing tool and should sell the service as well as provide information. However, Transport Focus will be pleased that it mentions Delay Repay and shows the link to GA's website to make a claim. Interestingly, this is the only mention of GA on the CIS, which is devoid of any branding.
Greater Anglia will not be offering reservations on its bi-mode trains (this is nothing new on the rural routes) and therefore the specification given to Stadler would not have required any facilities to offer this either with overheard electronic indicators or slots in the top of seats for paper reservations. However, given that the trains are, in effect funded by taxpayers, and GA's franchise only covers the first six years of the trains' 35-year life, one might ask whether the DfT should require certain features to be included for possible future cascading to another area.
The trains are reviewed in RAIL EAST 183 by Chris Burton in his article 'Stadler trains start earning their keep'.
The bi-mode trains are currently only operating in diesel mode on passenger services. They have not yet been given approval to take power from the overhead wires, other than on the Great Eastern mainline where they have been tested. On other routes testing still needs to taking place during the night in controlled scenarios to ensure that any interference with signals and other equipment is within allowed tolerances and the potential to damage the wires has been ruled out. All passenger services run so far have used the diesel 'power pack' for traction. This doesn't seem to have worried any passengers, although Railfuture overhead a woman sitting next to the door to the 'power pack' segment of the train describe the noise as "like a washing machine on its last spin" when the connecting doors were opened. A Railfuture member said "The train gave a remarkably smooth ride and was very quiet. It also accelerated very powerfully - felt more like an emu."
It was good to see a Greater Anglia senior manager on board one of the services, with checklist to hand identifying any problems that needed rectifying, and also talking to passengers, answering questions and explaining the features of the new trains.
News: https://www.railbusinessdaily.com/specialist-helps-to-make-greater-anglias-new-game-changing-trains/.
RAIL ROUTES
Network Rail announces 23 days of engineering work to complete modernisation of Wherry lines in 2020
Keywords: [WherryLines]
The re-signalling (from first generation semaphores to digitally-enabled signalling that was first used at Old Oak Common depot in London) of the Norwich to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft "Wherry" Lines has suffered severe delays and feels like it has been going on for ages. But there is now light at the end of the tunnel as Network Rail has announced that the system will go live after the Wherry lines close for planned engineering works during February 2020. As well as replacing manually-operated level crossing with barriers, which potentially could reduce the amount of time that the road is blocked, a benefit for rail users will be better live passenger information (knowing more accurately where the train is) and quicker recovery if the system fails. It will be controlled from the Colchester Rail Operating Centre.
Network Rail will be carrying out work over 23 days during three phases starting on Saturday 1st February 2020 that will all affect passenger services. Anyone wishing to travel across these routes in February 2020 is advised to plan ahead and check their service with Greater Anglia before travelling. Rail replacement bus services will operate on the following routes:
- Saturday 1 February to Sunday 2 February — between Norwich and Great Yarmouth
- Monday 3 February to Sunday 16 February — between Norwich and Great Yarmouth, Norwich and Lowestoft and between Beccles and Lowestoft
- Monday 17 February to Sunday 23 February — between Norwich and Lowestoft
During the 23 days of phased works (Norwich to Yarmouth first, then all of Wherry Lines plus Beccles to Lowestoft on the East Suffolk Line and finally Norwich to Lowestoft), the signals will be switched on and six level crossings at Brundall, Cantley, Lingwood Chapel Road, Lingwood Station Road, Oulton Broad North and Strumpshaw will be upgraded to full barriers with remotely controlled CCTV. To avoid future inconvenience to travellers, Network Rail will make use of the closure periods to do other work, including a complete replacement of the life-expired bridge at Postwick (east of Norwich) with one that will last 120 years; track renewals at Lowestoft, Acle and Hassingham plus maintenance to the Reedham and Somerleyton swing bridges to upgrading the current detection systems that have been in use since the mid-1940s.
Once the work is complete, train services resume on the branch line between Reedham and Yarmouth (serving Berney Arms station), which has been closed since October 2018.
National Grid failure leads to loss of frequency that causes GTR Siemens trains to shut down
Keywords: [ThameslinkProgramme]
On Friday 9th August at 17:00 two power stations on the National Grid (one gas-fired, at Little Barford (just south of St Neots), and the other an off-shore wind farm (at Hornsea near Hull) went offline at the same time. This caused power cuts in many parts of England and Wales. It did not take long for additional power to kick in to resume supply. The problem when some of the power stations are lost is that the AC frequency of 50Hz cannot be maintained. On this occasion the frequency fell to 48.88Hz, which is far below the legal minimum of 49.5Hz. Can one really expect train manufacturers to design and test trains to operate in those circumstances?
The railway should not have been affected much. Signalling systems changed over to standby power supplies, although there were a number of Technical Signal Reversions (SPARs) as a result of the loss of supply. However, a far bigger problem was the impact to trains, particularly modern computer-controlled ones, such as the Siemens Class 700 trains, introduced in 2014, which operate on the Thameslink routes including services to Cambridge and Peterborough. Although the overhead wires remained live, the lower frequency caused a technical "panic" reaction. The Siemens computer systems at Three Bridges, which manages the MITRAC train control and management system and the Train Management System (TMS) sent an error message to the Siemens trains. Essentially it detected that the frequency of the power supply was too low and might cause damage to the trains, so they automatically shut down for safety reasons. Given that the low-frequency problem would have been across the network this caused all class 700 and 717 units running on AC mode (i.e. north of central London) to come to a stand, regardless of where they were at the time. About half of the 60 trains in service were able to restart when the power was restored to the correct frequency, but the other 30 trains required engineers to travel there to restart them. The problem was not just the travel time for engineers but that there were more stranded trains than there were engineers. As a consequence, it severely disrupted the affected routes as other trains could not overtake them.
Of course, the issue is how to get the trains started again. It should have been simple. On these trains the driver received an error message "traction issue 4QC failure in leading semi unit fault" and required the units to be shut-down and rebooted. A general call was sent to drivers requesting them to carry out the following process: Battery Off, Battery On, Pan Down, Pan Up' to reboot the units.
A Railfuture member was stationary on a Class 387 train near Baldock Station for five hours, because a Class 700 in front of it was unable to move. He said "Sitting for nearly five hours on stationary trains not knowing when they would move was not a pleasant experience." His journey to the south coast had to be abandoned and he returned to Cambridge, eventually, having crossed from one platform to the other to change trains.
When Railfuture contacted GTR they replied: "As you can imagine having most of our trains immobile during the height of the evening peak caused considerable operational challenges and with other train operators in a similar position, the situation became extremely difficult to resolve." They also confirmed that "Some trains had to be evacuated following our safety standard procedures, given the location of some trains, safe evacuation on to the track was the only option." BBC Radio 5 Live was devoted to the issues that night, including some phone-ins with people who were stuck on a train for about five hours, and eventually walked along the track. They were in full praise of the staff who evacuated them in a professional, friendly and safe manner.
Some stations suffered from lighting failures. BT Police were advised of possible overcrowding at stations and after a while they decided to lock shut King's Cross station concourse. Fortunately for travellers whose destination was in East Anglia, the London Underground continued to run (after initial problems on some lines caused by a power surge") so that trains from Liverpool Street (including to Cambridge) could be used. On the Radio 4 Today programme on 22nd August, a Siemens senior manager said that an inquiry was underway involving GTR, Network Rail and themselves. Meanwhile, on Monday 12th August passengers at King's Cross were approached by GTR staff and told of special compensation for the disruption on the Friday. The GTR representatives event advised people of the facility on the Delay Repay pages on the website for claims for taxis, hotels and replacing expired tickets.
News: https://www.railnews.co.uk/news/2019/08/12-inquiry-launched-into-power-cuts.html.
STATIONS
Likelihood of Beaulieu station looks promising
Keywords: [BeaulieuStation]
The long-awaited Beaulieu station, on the London-Norwich Great Eastern Main Line (GEML), is a step closer to being built following approval by the Government of £218m from the Housing Infrastructure Funds (IHF) towards the Essex County Council scheme for regeneration around Chelmsford. The new railway station would be constructed at the Beaulieu Park estate, along with a passing loop so that trains stopping at the new station do not hold up faster services, and also allow more flexibility in timetabling trains.
Another problem that the new station would help mitigate is to reduce overcrowding at Chelmsford station. It is the busiest two-platform station in Britain outside of London and reaching full capacity during peak periods with an estimated 8.5 million passenger trips per year. A new station at Beaulieu, which is needed to serve more than 10,000 new homes, would ease this congestion, providing at least four trains per hour towards London.
News: http://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Rail-News/chelmsford-beaulieu-railway-station/.
Fast completion of Waterbeach and Littleport platform extensions planned by Network Rail
Keywords: [FenLine]
Railfuture attended a public event held by Network Rail and its contractor Volker Fitzpatrick to answer questions about the imminent extension of platforms at Waterbeach and Littleport station to allow GTR's eight-car trains to call there (Greater Anglia pairs of five-car Aventra trains will be too long to stop there). Work to extend the Waterbeach platforms will begin in October 2019 and complete by the end of the year, whilst work at Littleport will begin at the same time but not be commissioned until April 2020. This would allow longer trains to call from the May 2020 timetable, but it is likely that they will not do so, on a regular basis, until December 2020. Construction of new sidings at King's Lynn, which is the final piece of work that brings the total price tag of £27m, will be completed last.
Because of the very poor land conditions at Waterbeach it will be necessary to pile deep into the ground. The machines to do this will require the overhead power to be turned off. The line will be closed. Railfuture asked whether trains would run as far as Cambridge North or if they would be curtailed at Cambridge. There was a great deal of uncertainty about this by the consultants, which is worrying given that the work was due to commence only a few weeks later, and they resorted to the National Rail Enquiries website to see where trains would be running. It showed a service to Cambridge North. Even if the power had to be cut north of Cambridge, Railfuture wanted to see diesel or bi-mode trains used as a shuttle between Cambridge and Cambridge North.
The following is a list of possessions for the Waterbeach and Littleport platform extensions, which overlap, with the Waterbeach work finishing in December:
- Sat 05/10/2019 23:50 to Mon 07/10/2019 at 04:50 [DOW-CMB] for platform extension piling works
- Sat 12/10/2019 23:50 to Mon 14/10/2019 at 04:50 [DOW-CMB] for platform extension overhead line works, piling and signalling installations
- Sat 30/11/2019 00:05 to Mon 02/12/2019 at 04:05 [KLN-ELY] for platform extension overhead line works, piling and signalling installations
- Wed 25/12/2019 00:05 to Fri 27/12/2019 at 04:50 for commissioning of Waterbeach platforms, plus work on Littleport
- Wed 01/01/2020 for Littleport platform extension
- Sat 22/02/2020 00:05 to Mon 24/02/2020 at 04:30 for platform commissioning
- Sat 29/02/2020 23:50 to Sun 01/03/2020 at 07:15 for platform extension works
- Sat 11/04/2020 23:50 to Tue 14/04/2020 at 04:50 for commissioning of Littleport platforms
Post-publication note: 26-27 October [ELY-CBG], 2-3 [KLN-ELY], 9-10 [ELY-CBG] and 23-24 November 2019 closures were announced to the public on 26th September in a reminder about the station works. However, these actually relate to track renewal works rather than for the platform extensions.
At the event Railfuture asked Volker Fitzpatrick why these extensions will be built so quickly compared to the similar stations at Foxton and Shepreth - which Volker Fitzpatrick also worked on - where the construction seemed to take about a year. Their answer was that the DfT has insisted that this work be done quickly to alleviate overcrowding north of Cambridge, whereas Network Rail had no such reason for the smaller stations south of Cambridge that are only served by stopping services.
Network Rail's secure depot at Waterbeach station will be used as a base for the works.
Bury St Edmunds station car park set to triple in size to have 75 spaces
Keywords: [BuryStEdmundsStation]
Despite being used by more than 500,000 passengers each year, Bury St Edmunds railway station car park at the station has just 23 spaces plus two disabled bays. Greater Anglia wants to increase capacity to 74, with associated work to improve facilities and interchange. Suffolk County Council, which is committed to seeing its county's railway stations improved, is supporting the scheme. Representatives of the Greater Anglia and Network Rail met with Jo Churchill MP, Suffolk County Council, West Suffolk Council, Bury Town Council, Bury Town Trust and "Our Bury St Edmunds" on 14th August 2019 to present its plans and answer questions.
Another priority for the railway is finding a new tenant for the restored station master's house, which was awarded a £192k grant by the Railway Heritage Trust earlier in 2019, to help secure its long-term future.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 317 - 31/08/2019
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