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East Anglia Branch News - Snippets Issue 84 - 16/02/2002

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

Railfuture News Snippets 84 - 16/02/2002



A reminder that the Railfuture East Anglia branch AGM is at the Bury St Edmunds library in Sergeants Walk on 23rd February. Location: http://www.suffolkcc.gov.uk/libraries/locations/burystedmunds-library.html. Nick Dibben requires nominations for committee members by 20th February.


RAIL DISRUPTION
WAGN route disrupted by two derailments in one week

Keywords: [WAGN]

On 11th February, all four carriages of the 13:19 Liverpool St to Cambridge service carrying 200 passengers, derailed at low speed while slowing down to stop at Cheshunt station, but stayed upright 150 yards south of the platform. Up to 300 yards of track and points had to be repaired. It is understood that a signalman made an error, by allowing the train to proceed after the signal had turned to red following automatic fault detection when the points failed.

The WAGN route was further disrupted later in the week when a train of five GNER mark IV coaches being taken back to Bounds Green depot derailed at Hornsey. Four of the coaches stayed on the two-way goods line but the fifth derailed foul of the up slow line causing disruption to WAGN and GNER services as all trains had to use the up fast line.


GUIDED BUSWAY
County Councillor criticises Hunts Post "Boot out the Bus" campaign as "mis-guided"

  Cambridgeshire country councillor Shona Johnstone, cabinet member for environment and transport, labelled the Hunts Post "Boot out the bus campaign" (which it claims has "widespread support") as "ill-informed and mis-guided" in an interview in the newspaper.

Mrs Johnstone, who has clearly been fed-up with strong criticism of the proposed guided busway for over a year, claimed that the CHUMMS recommendations, endorsed by Transport Minister Sally Keeble are "The best package of transport options for the benefit of the area...Freight transport issues are not key to this problem." Cllr Johnstone said the public transport system had to be up and running before the Government would release money for A14 improvements. She expected the guided bus would be in operation by 2008 - over four years later than a rail service!

Mrs Johnstone confirmed that it was unlikely the buses would run on a guided busway between St.Ives and Huntingdon. This lends weight to accusations that the whole guided busway idea is simply an excuse for Railtrack to sell the trackbed, and would never have been suggested had the railway line not existed.

In the interview the Hunts Posts fired the following criticisms at Councillor Johnstone:
* Public consultation was seriously flawed and the guided bus was heavily criticised in public meetings in the district
* No public transport expert thinks it's the best solution; the inventor says it will not work in Cambridge
* Guided buses will not solve the freight transport problems on the A14
* The technology is largely unproven
* Over a long period, light or heavy rail would work out cheaper
* The busway has removed the chance for Huntingdon to become the hub of an improved transport network between Cambridge and Peterborough


BICYCLES ON TRAINS
WAGN ease cycle restrictions on peak time train

Keywords: [WAGN]

WAGN have decided that cycles can now be carried on the 08:24 from Cambridge to Royston, with immediate effect. WAGN staff should therefore allow passengers with cycles to be transported on this train between those two points and intermediate stations. WAGN have not yet updated the "travel tips" page on their http://www.wagn.co.uk website which lists cycle restrictions.


RAIL ROUTES
Norfolk Orbital Railway engineering study completed

Keywords: [NorfolkOrbitalRailway]

  The Engineering Study on the Norfolk Orbital Railway has been completed. The 300-page report has been sent to the Mid Norfolk and North Norfolk railways. The Holt, Melton Constable and Fakenham Railway Company are preparing a statement to go to the railway press and to the national press in the near future.
The study calculated that £30m is required to restore the line between Holt and Fakenham, once the Mid Norfolk Railway has reinstated its line to Fakenham. This is broken down as:
* £3.4m to link North Norfolk Railways Holt terminus with a new station in the centre of Holt
* £13.7m from Holt "Central" station to Melton Constable, with a new station on the site of the former West Junction
* £12.9m from Melton Constable to Spa Wood Junction to link with the Mid Norfolk Railway

Added to this would be the cost of reinstating the level crossing at Sheringham, which was costed around £5m by a study from Ove Arup, plus the Mid Norfolk's own plans to extend to Fakenham. To provide a quality passenger service, the line speed on the preserved lines would need to be raised, and safety systems, such as TPWS, would be required.


RAIL DISRUPTION
WAGN tell passengers trains will be cancelled, then reinstate services

Keywords: [WAGN]

WAGN had warned commuters that three services, which stop at Meldreth, Shepreth, Foxton and Cambridge between 07:00 and 08:00 were to be cut because of a driver shortage. However, after reshuffling driver's rotas the services will not now be lost. The change of heart may have occurred as WAGN apparently gave less than 7 days notice of their intention, as required by the SRA.

WAGN says it still does not have enough drivers but many trainees will start work in the summer. WAGN spokesman Graham Bashford said to the Cambridge Evening News: "We now have masses of drivers in training, although they are all at different stages of their training. In the last four-week period for services into Cambridge, we had 97 per cent of the trains running commpared to 65,4% in the preceeding four weeks."


RAIL NEWS OUTSIDE EAST ANGLIA BRANCH AREA
Arriva Trains Northern reinstate nearly all trains as new drivers come on stream

Some good news for Britain's railway at last. Arriva Trains Northern have announced that from Monday 25th February they will run 97% of trains in their original winter timetable. By early June all services should have been reinstated.

Midland Mainline's order for new trains confirmed

In Snippets 83, it was speculated that Midland Mainline would be replacing their 3.5 year old Turbostar trains which would then be cascaded to sister company Central Trains. MML have confirmed a £160m order for 23 new class 222 Meridian 125mph high speed trains, capable of 0 to 90mph in two mins. These should be in use by January 2005. However, it has not been confirmed what will happen to the Turbostars, which are now too small to handle the 56% passenger increase experienced in the last five years.


WEBSITES
New rail freight website for Freight on Rail

Freight on Rail, which is a partnership between the transport trade unions, the Rail Freight Group, Railtrack, Transport 2000 and the rail freight operating companies, has recently launched a new website at http://www.freightonrail.org.uk. This appears to supersede the pages on the TSSA website http://www.tssa.org.uk/camp/freight/.

Railtrack's new rail freight sites databank

Railtrack has recently launched http://www.railfreightsites.co.uk/ which is a databank of Railtrack sites across Great Britain. It claims to include all potential rail freight sites available subject to planning and gives details, plans and photographs especially designed to help local authorities in drawing up rail freight strategies.

Although the Railtrack "databank" includes the disused Wisbech branch, King's Lynn dock and the Bletchley-Bicester route, it does not show the Cambridge-St.Ives line. It is not known whether the latter is owned by Railtrack PLC (in administration) or Railtrack Group.

Disused lines owned by the SRA, such as Luton-Dunstable, and heritage lines with freight use, such as Wymondham-Dereham, are not shown.


Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 84 - 16/02/2002

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