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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 323 - 29/02/2020

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

Railfuture News Snippets 323 - 29/02/2020



Boris Johnson has reshuffled his cabinet and ministers. Grant Shapps has stayed in the role of Secretary of State for Transport. Chris Heaton-Harris remains, and is responsible for rail, East West Rail, Crossrail and Crossrail 2. Andrew Stephenson is responsible for HS2, Northern Powerhouse Rail and Transpennine route upgrade. Baroness Vere has light rail in her portfolio. Rachel Maclean and Kelly Tolhurst are also in Shapps' team. It is worth noting that 'accessibility', previously with Nus Ghani as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, is now with the Minister of State responsible for rail.

Greater Anglia has posted a blog on its website explaining why its new Stadler trains have experienced teething problems. See: https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/about-us/news-desk/blog-post/you-said-your-new-trains-would-be-more-reliable-%E2%80%93-whats-gone-wrong. It mentioned that "new trains have some teething problems or glitches, but once they bed in, reliability and performance go up" and promised that things would get better.

A new footpath/cycleway parallel to Cowley Road was built to serve Cambridge North station and was available when it opened in May 2017. However, it was closed in April 2019 in order to dig up the path and lay utility pipes for the new developments on the former railway land next to the new station. It was known that these would be built but the pipes were not laid at the time. The path and side gate to it from the Cambridge Business Park finally reopened on 4th February 2020, almost 10 months later (rather than the four months expected). During that time people working at the Business Park had to take a detour that was much longer in order to get to/from the station. Railfuture was in regular contact with the council and the company performing the work throughout that time.

An amateur film from 1968 capturing the Cambridge to St Ives Eastern Rail route prior to its closure can be viewed on the British Film Institute (BFI) website at https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-cambridge-st-ives-1968-online. Lasting 7 mins 35 seconds it covers the route (intermittently) from Cambridge station to St Ives station. Barnwell junction station platform is seen. It shows that the line had been singled from Swavesey station until the approaches to St Ives station, which was in a very sorry state.

The Mid-Norfolk Railway was delighted to report that The Polar Express™ Train Ride 2019 exceeded all of its expectations and the final number of passengers was 29,150, an increase of nearly 30% on 2018.


STATIONS
Government announces list of stations to receive Access for All funding

Keywords: [BuryStEdmundsStation] [ColchesterNorthStation] [NeedhamMarketStation]

On 26th February 2020 Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, and the DfT, announced the stations awarded money from the £20 million government fund for accessibility. This is the latest round of the Access for All programme that was launched in 2006 and has already made more than 200 stations step free, as well as delivered smaller scale accessibility improvements at more than 1,500 others. The new funding will be used to provide new lifts, accessible toilets and customer information screens at 124 stations in England and Wales (the DfT does not make such decisions in Scotland). Of those, 73 will have step-free routes. To be clear, this is not new money but is being drawn down from a £300 million package announced in 2019.

Only three stations in East Anglia have been selected. They were all access schemes submitted by Greater Anglia for Needham Market, Bury St Edmunds and Colchester North have all been successful.

Saxmundham station car park gets upgrade and expansion

Keywords: [SaxmundhamStation]

Work began in February 2020 to resurface the existing modestly sized car park at Saxmundham station and also expand it from 18 to 51 spaces (including disabled parking bays). The CCTV system will also be upgraded.

Following planning approval, as reported in [Snippets 220], for passengers there will be a remodelled single-storey building (necessary following a fire at the station in 2018). It will provide an air-conditioned waiting room with charging points and Wi-Fi plus an adjacent area for TVMs.

Greater Anglia reveals how rebuild of Sheringham station platform was achieved with lower carbon emissions

Keywords: [SheringhamStation]

The platform at Sheringham station dating form 1967 was completely rebuilt in 2019 (at a cost of £1m) to be twice as long (now 80 metres) and twice as wide. Never needing much of an excuse to issue a press release, Greater Anglia's public relations team explained in February 2020 that the work was achieved with lower carbon emissions by using a new design of coping stones on the platform that were half as heavily as normal ones, which typically weigh 312kg each. The 'innovative' slabs are built with a waffle-like profile underneath, creating a more hollowed effect, but still as strong as conventional ones. The lower weight meant that smaller machinery was needed to move the stones. They were produced locally in Sheringham, rather than from another site hundreds of miles away, meaning further emissions were saved when transporting them to the site.

Usage of Greater Anglia's water fountains at main stations has been very popular with travellers

Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]

Greater Anglia (GA) has gradually been introducing water fountains at its main stations since 2018 so that travellers can top up their water containers rather than buying new plastic bottles of water. As a result, GA estimates that the water fountains, which are now provided at 12 stations (including Ipswich, Cambridge, Norwich, Ely and Colchester) have saved more than a quarter of a million single-use plastic bottles from entering landfills and oceans in just over a year.


RAIL ROUTES
Transport and Works Act Order granted or East West Rail western section phase 2

Keywords: [EastWestRail]

On 4th February 2020 the Secretary of State for Transport approved Network Rail's application for a Transport & Works Act Order granting legal powers for work to begin on the Bicester to Bedford section of the East West Rail project — a key part of the Oxford to Cambridge railway — and includes updating the line from Aylesbury. The planned service would have two trains per hour each way between Oxford and Milton Keynes, stopping at Oxford Parkway, Bicester, Winslow and Bletchley. There would be one train per hour each way between Oxford and Bedford, calling at Oxford Parkway, Bicester, Winslow, Bletchley, Woburn Sands and Ridgmont, and one train per hour each way between Milton Keynes and Aylesbury calling at Bletchley, Winslow and Aylesbury Vale Parkway. The upgraded link between Oxford and Bicester had opened in 2016, under a separate TWA Order that was granted in 2012.

See DfT website for details of the granting of the TWA Order application.

This means that Network Rail should be able to ramp up progress on rebuilding the derelict route between Bicester and Bletchley. One of the first projects to be completed, which was not reliant up the TWA Order to perform, the work but rather to justify it, will be the 37-span Bletchley Flyover, which has structural issues known as "concrete cancer". The reinforced and prestressed concrete structure was opened in 1960 and was in good condition for its age but the bearings were life-expired and various parts of the concrete structure needed to be repaired or renewed. In early 2019 the overhead wires on the West Coast Main Line that runs underneath it were replaced with new structures to facilitate the flyover work, and the parapets were removed over August Bank Holiday 2019. A little-known fact is that the Bletchley flyover was built with every other support for the structure slightly wider, for OHLE to be installed at a later date!

By the time that the Oxford to Bedford service is running, an application should have bene submitted — and possibly approved — for the new route between Bedford and Cambridge, which is expected to include a station at Cambourne. In February 2020 the Mayor of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, James Palmer, confirmed that plans for a Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro would not be affected by the 'preferred route' announcement. He said: "We remain committed to bringing the CAM to Cambourne and on into the centre of St Neots. The CAM will deliver a world-class mass transit system that will complement the new rail link, serving the smaller communities that the heavy rail line will pass without stopping.

Wherry lines re-signalling completed and in use - at long last

Keywords: [WherryLines]

On 17th February 2020 the Norwich to Great Yarmouth line reopened after a possession since 1st February, and on 24th February the line to Lowestoft also opened. Both lines comprise the Wherry lines, which covers 42km of route. This complete the much-delayed re-signalling project. All of the 'first generation' life-expired mechanical signalling has now been replaced with digital equipment controlled from Colchester with six level crossings being upgraded to full barriers. According to Atkins, which performed the work, the project has seen the biggest deployment to date of a new, cutting edge signalling system that will help deliver a safe, efficient, reliable and future proof railway. The possession coincided with renewal of track between Beccles and Lowestoft on the East Suffolk line.

The line from Reedham to Yarmouth via Berney Arms, which had been closed since end of 2018, also reopened on 24th February.


RAIL PUNCTUALITY
Impressive performance figures on Bittern Line after dreadful month caused by signalling problems

Keywords: [GreaterAnglia]

Greater Anglia has announced that in early 2020 the Norwich to Sheringham ("Bittern") line has seen some of its best-ever performance figures, with 97.3% of trains running on time. This follows work to upgrade level crossings and remove speed restrictions to solve signalling issues when GA's new Class 755 trains approached crossings. In recent years passengers have also benefited from all year-round hourly Sunday services, new ticket vending machines and customer information points at stations.

COMMUNITY RAILWAYS AND PARTNERSHIPS
Hereward Line Community Rail Partnership achieves new national accreditation

Keywords: [HerewardLineCRP]

The Hereward railway line Community Rail Partnership, which is managed by Fenland District Council and aims to connect communities with the Hereward stations at Manea, March and Whittlesea and champion local railway improvements, has received official accredited status from the Department for Transport. This is essentially a new quality benchmark, which the DfT encourages CRPs to apply for to demonstrate that they operate to high standards and that their objectives and activities are supported by government, and opens further funding opportunities to develop projects that improve stations and better connect passengers.

The CRP, which was established in 2012 and is currently chaired by Paul Nelson, is funded by train operators Greater Anglia, Cross Country Trains, East Midlands Railway and London North Eastern Railway. It is helped to progress the Fenland Station Masterplans to deliver improvements at its three stations, holding consultations on options for platform lengthening at Manea and Whittlesea with new platform shelters due to be installed in April 2020.


RAIL FREIGHT
GB Railfreight invests £3 for Peterborough offices

Keywords: [GBRailfreight]

GB Railfreight, which was founded in 1999 and is now the third largest rail freight operator in Britain, is investing £3 million in a three-storey operational and training facility in Peterborough. The new building will house a control room (overlooking the East Coast mainline, three classrooms, a board room and staff welfare facilities. It will be located on brown field (previously owned by Network Rail) off Maskew Avenue, on the edge of the city centre and should be completed by November 2020. Currently their fleet management and control centre is located in Peterborough, with a resource centre in Doncaster and additional offices across Britain. The existing temporary office buildings will be demolished.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 323 - 29/02/2020

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