News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 349 - 30/04/2022
In 19th April 2022 tickets went on sale for the Great British Rail Sale, offering "more than 1 million tickets" for reduced fares" (up to 50% off on off-peak weekday fares that are eligible for rail card discounts) over a period of five weeks between 25th April and 27th May excluding the 2nd May bank holiday. The sale lasts until 2nd May and tickets must be booked online. Essentially they are only useful for leisure travellers. Many will find it very disapointing that these are primarily limited to advanced fares except for operators that do not sell advance fares (such as Great Northern), where flexible fares may be available. Greater Anglia said it would have 90,000 tickets available. Reviewers summed it up as being quite limited, and focused at times of very low demand - see BBC News story and a similar article in the Guardian. Following the sale announcement, Railfuture spokespeople were interviewed across Britain. East Anglia branch vice-chair Chris Burton spoke to BBC Radio Cambridgeshire - listen at here (7 minutes).
On 21st April 2022, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) announced that Angie Doll had been permanently appointed as GTR's new Chief Operating Officer, having held the role of Interim COO for GTR for the past six months. She had been Managing Director of its Southern and Gatwick Express brands since 2018, having been the Passenger Services Director since 2014.
The annual general meeting of the East Suffolk Travel Association (ESTA) will be held at Beccles station on 21st May 2022 at 14:00. Those present will be addressed by Waveney MP Peter Aldous. ESTA continues to campaign for services on the East Suffolk Line to go to and from London Liverpool Street station. The linbe had a single through train to and from London until 1984 (when much of the line was singled) and a few through trains were introduced in the early 2000s - but passengers have had to change at Ipswich for several years now.
In early April 2022, Chris Stokes wrote an interesting blog about East West Rail, calling into question the sense of a syandalone operation. Click [HERE] to read it.
Watchdog Transport Focus (TF) announced in early April 2022 that its passenger survey found that customers using Great Northern are Britain's most satisfied with the cleanliness of their trains. Of the passengers interviewed for TF's national survey over the previous 12 weeks, 91 per cent of those using Great Northern said they were satisfied with how clean the interior of their train was – 12 percentage points above the national figure of 79 per cent.
On Tuesday 26 April 2022 the final class 365 train left for Sims metral recycling, meaning bar the three carriages at East Kent Railway, the class is now extinct.
The East West Railway Company has announced that Beth West will become the company's CEO, effective from 1st April 2022. The current CEO, Simon Blanchflower, will be retiring on 31 March 2022. Accorindg to the EWRCo announcemrnt, Beth brings experience in construction in transport and infrastructure plus experience of working together with communities and strategic partners.
On Wednesday 4th May at 18:00, Anthony Dewar, Network Rail Technical Head of Buildings and Architecture, will give a talk to the Cambridge University Railway Club (CURC) in the Castlereagh Room, Fisher Building, St John's College. Doors open at 17:45. He will speak about the decarbonisation of Network Rail buildings and stations, preservation of heritage buildings, and the provision of the transition to GBR.
Like nearly all heritage railways, the Mid Norfolk Railway (MNR) does not run public trains in winter as patronage would be low and the volunteers need that time to undertake maintenance and repairs on the railway. The MNR resumed running trains on 30th April 2022. On low-patronage days the railway will use its Class 142 Pacer unit, 142061, which has undergone a deep-clean on the interior with particular attention to the seats (they have been stripped, treated for rust and then repainted) and and floors (they have been deep-cleaned removing decades of dirt). The railway has a brake van, which dates back to 1941 and is in regular use on weed killing trains, and the MNR hopes to offer passenger rides in it in the future. The MNR will be operating steam engines in the summer. On certain dates, there will also be special trains serving afternoon tea and for the early evenings Breckland Fryer fish and chip trains.
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Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 349 - 30/04/2022
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