News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 373 - 30/04/2024
In April 2024, the Labour Party (finally) announced its plans for the railway in Britain, beyond simply saying that it would bring the railway into public ownership — it is already under public control, of course. Under its proposals, Transport Focus will cease to be involved in the railway, with its work put into new Passenger Standards Authority, likewise Rail Ombudsman goes; ORR will lose consumer law role, complaint monitoring, regulation of passenger assistance and information, but it will keep safety regulation. A review set for the RSSB's role.
On 24th April 2024, Network Rail released a video showing recent construction of Cambridge South stqiotnbm whci includes the station building on the western side and lift shaft on the eastern slde. Click here to watch it.
At the beginning of April 2024, the lead story on the BBC Look East regional news programme was the completion of the safety fence along part of the southern section of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway. The son and brother of Steve Moir, who was killed in September 2018 by a bus, were interviewed and understandably believed that the fence should have been built before the busway opened.
The Greater Anglia Rail Users' Forum was held in London on 22nd April.
On 25th April 2024, Railfuture Chair Chris Page spoke about Railfuture's 'Rail Action Plan' for the next government at the Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Forum webinar 'Next steps for the UK's rail network'.
New research by the Rail Delivery Group shows rail is up to 17 times greener than flying, for business travel across Britain. From city centre to city centre it's often faster and cheaper too (because of the cost of transit between the city and the airport).
Beth West, the Interim Chief Executive Officer of the East West Rail company, has announced she will be leaving at the end of her contract in spring 2024. The permanent Chief Executive will be announced in due course. Meanwhile, the company's Accessibility Advisory Panel (AAP) has set out the top priorities for disabled passengers on Britain's rail network, which includes accessible toilets on trains and at stations, step-free access to and through stations, unassisted level boarding and space on trains for two wheelchair users to travel together (see news story).
In a move that Railfuture thoroughly supports, Greater Anglia will runn additional services for racegoers attending Newmarket Races 2000 Guineas Day on Saturday 4th May.
There has been criticism of the recently realigned car parking spaces at Huntingdon station as the space for each car is too narrow to allow some people to enter or exit their car. It is claimed that the bays are smaller than the recommended government guidelines. According to the British Parking Association, parking spaces should be 2.4 metres wide by 4.8 metres lon, but some are 2.1m wide by 4.27m long (see news story).
Peterborough-Ely-Norwich Rail Users Group (PENRUG) will be holding its 2024 Annual General Meeting in Thetford Methodist Church on Saturday 11th May at 10:30.
ESTA's Annual General Meeting will take place in St Mary's Church, Halesworth on Saturday 18th May from 14.00. The guest speaker will be Alan Neville, Greater Anglia's Stakeholder, Customer & Community Engagement Manager. He wil provide an update and answer questions about East Anglia's rail services.
ESTA will be contacting candidates in the forthcoming elections and wil ask their views or support on six matters, which includes direct trains from the East Suffolk Line to and from London; investment in the local rail infrastructure to increase speeds, capacity or reliability; whether trains and buses/coaches compete or be better integrated?
A programme of electrical upgrades will be carried out at Whittlesford Parkway station. The installation of solar panels will make the station geener, whilst LEDs, new variable controls, automatic settings for the lighting and more efficient car park and footbridge lighting will reduce energy consumption. Facilities for passengers will be improved by the installion of electric vehicle charging points. The work is due to be completed by summer 2024.Planning permission has been given by the government for the redevelopment of the former rail sidings at Cambidge North station (see news story), which will provide a great boost to patronage at the station. This will see the station's ground-level 228-space car park replaced by a 650-space multi-story car park, the constrduction of five commercial buildings, including laboratiories, plus one-, two- and three-bedroom dwellings, totalling 425 homes. Construction will take five years. Sven Topel, CEO at Brookgate, which is behind the scheme (in partnership with Network Rail), said: "The delivery of high-quality workspace, including laboratory, technology and office will make this development at Cambridge North an integral part of the city's aims to become a life science superpower, in line with the Government's own ambitions for the region and country."
The Cambridge University Railway Club (CURC) has only one rail industry sepaker for its Easter term: Scott Brightwell, Train Operations Manager at Southeastern, on Tuesday 7th May at 18:00. Rhe talk will be in the Bowett Room in Queens' College with doors opening at 17:45.
The Campaign for Better Transport (CfBT) has been calling on the rail industry to extend the 12-week booking horizon out to a minumum of 16 weeks, which would stil be a lot shorter tha airlines but a bit clsoer to Eurostar. CfBT says that only eight out of 20 train operators in Britain sell tickets more than 12 weeks ahead of travel, and that passengers need not worry about timetable changes as bookings can still be changed once timetables are confirmed.
STATIONS
Contractor sought to design and build the new Waterbeach railway station
Keywords: [WaterbeachStation]
Cambridgeshire County Council is seeking a contractor to design and build the new Waterbeach railway station (to be located around 2.4km north of the existing station) at a cost of £35m. The contract would cover construction of two new platforms, an accessible footbridge, a 200-space car park (the current station has approximately 78 spaces), a public realm and a new access road from Cody Road for the new station. The cost includes the decommissioning and demolition of the existing Waterbeach railway station, with all work taking two years to complete. The deadline for expressing an interest is 10th May 2024, and a maximum of five invitations to tender will be offered. Although the county council has issued the tender notice, the scheme itself is being taken forward by the council delivery body, the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP), which is now targetting 2026 for opening the new station.
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Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 373 - 30/04/2024
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