RAIL EAST The Newsletter of the East Anglian Branch of RailFuture

Number 114 November 2001 Price 40p

WANTED - A NATIONAL RAIL POLICY

The plans to turn Railtrack railways? There is a large After the General Election into a ‘not for profit’ trust element of predict and provide in June, the Prime Minister following the collapse of the in plans for new high speed said the Government had a company will have pleased routes or double deck trains clear mandate to deliver better many people. There are how- and new tunnels under London public services including trans- ever many key questions that for commuters. On the other port. So what progress will be the Government needs to hand, an hourly train service made on the above schemes by answer if progress is to be between Ipswich and Cam- the time of the next election? made. For example, reports on bridge and other branch lines RailFuture considers it is not Railtrack performance high- is about providing basic access unreasonable to expect the new lighted the lack of engineering for local people and trying to services including East-West expertise at senior level within encourage modal shift away phase 1 to be in-place and the company. How will this be from cars. Another example is construction work well under addressed? There appear to be the new stations being built in way on the infrastructure few ministers or senior civil Liverpool, which have enabled projects. Our concern is that servants with engineering ex- people in some of the most much time and money will be perience. If passenger train run-down areas to gain access wasted waiting for Ministers operators are asked to take to jobs. Which schemes are to decide if they want short or over the track, is this compat- more important? Without a long franchises, sorting out ible with short-term franchises proper policy, there is a risk new contacts etc. Action is and how do the rail freight that all the money will go on needed now! operators fit in? There is also high profile projects with little concern that the private sector for local schemes that could will not want to invest in the have a major impact on peo- WAGN News railways any more. The list ple's lives. goes on. What needs to be done for Ticketing Although the talk in the East Anglia on the railways? WAGN have announced media about which parts of the There are a number of schemes that from Monday 15th Octo- industry should be scrapped or that have general support from ber, European rail travel tickets merged may be interesting, councils, rail users groups and will cease to be available from they ignore one simple fact that industry. On rail services, there station. has contributed to the present is a need for new trains for the Refurbishment problems - this country does London to Norwich service, WAGN repaint class 317s not have consistent a long term and hourly services on all the in new livery. WAGN Railway transport policy. Government branch lines. On infrastructure, have started repainting its reports talk about reducing the there is support for the East- older Class 317 electric units need for travel and the end of West rail link, more capacity that were originally built for "predict and provide" where for freight from Felixstowe the Bedford - St.Pancras elec- extra capacity was provided to and other ports, and upgrading trification scheme in WAGN's meet future demand. Recent the West Anglia route. The new purple livery. The interior plans for massive road build- upgrade of the East Coast has also been refurbished. Unit ing tend to contradict that. Route is the only project where 317312 appears to be the first How does this affect the the scope is subject to debate. so treated. RAIL EAST

More services for Anglia? Stations

Following the introduction of extra services between Ipswich Ipswich Car Park and Cambridge this year, is putting together a The new multi-storey car RPP bid to increase the service to hourly. At this stage it is not park, built at a cost of £3 clear if the extra services will be all stations or limited stop in million in conjunction with an attempt to encourage people out of their cars. This is very Railtrack and Ipswich Bor- welcome news as extra services on this route have been a key ough Council, has been com- Branch campaign. pleted on time and was opens Anglia have confirmed that their new Cambridge-Norwich on 8th October 2001. service to be introduced next year will include stops at There are 435 parking Attleborough. A new draft timetable is being circulated and spaces - an increase of 190 includes an early train to Cambridge and a return journey that spaces - with CCTV monitor- gets to Norwich before 08.45. It has not been possible to provide ing, regular patrols from An- clock-face departures. Progress is being made on the order of 4 glia Railways staff and new Class 170 diesel trains for this service, the trains could customer service help points include first class seats. around the parking area. Exec- The Norwich to Great Yarmouth multi-modal study has utive parking is also available backed plans for a half-hourly service between the two towns. which includes valet parking. The study also includes station improvements and new local Cycle parking is being in- feeder buses. It has not backed total dualling of the A47 road, creased to 120 places at the there will however be local improvements. More details are on same time. the study web-site: www.a47study.co.uk Members are asked to back the report by writing to car park County Council MMS, Planning and Transportation Department, The SRA has announced that FREEPOST NC22093/8 Norwich NR1 2BR. The deadline is 21 it will be contributing November 2001. £92,000 to fund an extension of the car park at Waterbeach. It currently has 40 parking SRA at Branch Meeting spaces, and there were plans to increase it to 60, but now a At the Branch’s Ipswich meeting on 29th September Richard further 38 spaces will be Stuart from the Strategic Rail Authority spoke to around 20 added making 78 in all. Railfuture members. Briefly, the SRA: CCTV, disabled parking and * hope to have a package of ideas for the West Anglia Route further cycle parking will also Modernisation (WARM) by end of the year. be added. * recognise merit in East-West link, but says that Bedford- Bletchley service RPP bid was not very good. New trains pushed it over the limit. Braintree Branch * says East-West must serve Milton Keynes but there are path- ing issues on the West Coast Mainline. A further RPP application * are currently looking at key junction capacities on Felixstowe has been submitted by Essex - Nuneaton route. Ely is not a big problem, but single track sec- County Council to upgrade the tion at Soham is. TPWS will enable some of the present signal- Braintree branch. £8.63m will ling restrictions to be removed increasing capacity. provide a passing loop at * are waiting instructions from Stephen Byers on Franchise Cressing and extended plat- replacement/extension for East Anglia. forms at other stations. This There was then a discussion with questions from the floor. will enable longer trains and a After the vote of thanks to Mr Stuart, there was a short business more frequent service to be meeting dealing with Branch matters. provided. RAIL EAST

Rail Safety Great Eastern news Cyclemark 2001

Improvements planned for Bargain offer Anglia Railways has been level crossings in Great Shel- are named 'Best Train Operator' in ford. Railtrack have pledged offering “Fabulous Fiver” the 2001 CycleMark Awards to improve safety at the level tickets to the over 60s. For £5 sponsored by the Strategic Rail crossing in Hinton Way, Great they will be able to travel to Authority and managed by the Shelford, following a claim by anywhere after 1000 on GE cycling pressure group 'Bike the Shelford Parish Council services but not from Liver- Rail'. Additionally, Jonathan that it is dangerous. Vice- pool Street between 1645 and Denby, Anglia Railways' cor- chairman Charles Nightingale 1915. The tickets can be porate affairs director (who said: "The crossing includes bought at any staffed FGE spoke at Railfuture's Norwich steps which people could station on the day of travel and 2001 branch meeting) has been easily trip over, plus rubber are valid for one day. The offer commended in the 'Best Indi- matting which is slippery in ends on 23rd November. vidual' category for his positive the winter and when it rains. attitude and work as a strong The passenger gates on to the Guide dogs advocate of cycle-rail integra- station platform have also been A young puppy which will tion. The awards were pre- tied back and if you stood there be trained as a Guide Dog sented by The Rt. Hon. John with your child they would needs to be become accus- Spellar MP, Minister for only have to run about 10ft and tomed to being in many differ- Transport. they would be on the railway ent environments. As many line." blind people travel on trains it A Railtrack spokeswoman is very important for guide Rail literature said "We are planning to put dogs to be able to help their down a non-slip surface and owners with this. First Great The Rail forum have up- are making sure the surface is Eastern is giving the puppy dated their useful 16-page level so there are no tripping walkers who look after the "Facts and figures" booklet hazards. With the gates to the young dogs for the Guide Dogs which gives lots of statistics station we are replacing them for the Blind the opportunity about how successful conven- with a new, self-closing gate. for them to take the young dogs tional and light rail is in the There is no timetable but we on trains by donating free United Kingdom. The booklet are working on the plans now." travel. includes projections of growth. "Whistle boards" have been put up at the village's other crossing at Granhams Road Dates for your diary asking train drivers to sound their horns to warn people Saturday 17th November - Branch meeting in Cam- when trains are approaching bridge - Little St Mary's Church Hall, Trumpington the crossing at night. Railtrack Street, starting at 1400. had been told by the HSE to Saturday 24th November - Peterborough & Nor- place them at all level cross- wich Rail Users Annual General Meeting - The Malt- ings. ings, Ely at 1115. Saturday 24th November - Fen Line Users Associa- The Branch welcomes con- tion Annual General Meeting - The Maltings, Ely at tributions to Rail East. Short 1400. articles are particularly wel- Saturday 27th April 2002 - National RailFuture An- come. Material for the next nual General Meeting in Cardiff. edition should reach Nick Dibben by 5th January 2002. RAIL EAST

YOUR help is urgently needed

Branch Chairman Peter Wakefield is standing down from the post at the next AGM. Peter intends to spend some time teaching in South Africa. Nominations for the post of Chairman are therefore invited. In addition to chairing the Branch committee and public meetings, the role also involves writing letters on rail subjects, dealing with the local media and representing the Branch at various functions. We also need a new Press Officer. This involves keeping an updated list of media contacts and the issue of press releases and posters for Branch meetings. Anyone interested should contact Nick Dibben for further details. Access to e-mail is considered essential for both positions. Railtrack re-organises Anglia parcels service Railtrack is to create a new Eastern Region. Railtrack, in a change to an area management structure, that is to merge the Anglia Railways and GOf- Anglia & London North Eastern Zones to create an "Eastern ers Logistics Management Region", essentially a re-creation of the old Eastern have joined forces to provide Region! There will be 4 areas within this region, each with their a same-day delivery service. own maintenance contracts: The new service will provide * East Coast Mainline GOfers customers with station * London North Eastern Central (presumably lines in Lincoln- to station and door to door shire, Yorkshire, County Durham and the Tyne & Wear area) delivery services. Initially it * Thameside, West Anglia & North London lines will be available on trains from * Anglia, Great Eastern & lines. Norwich to London Liverpool Street, including Diss, Stow- As a footnote to this story, there is expected to be a delay to market, Ipswich and Colches- the establishment of the not-for-profit company favoured by the ter. It is planned to extend this Government. When the company is finally established there may service across the rest of be further changes. Anglia Railways network.

BRANCH OFFICERS Chairman: Peter Wakefield 7 Hollymount St Matthew’s Street, CAMBRIDGE, CB1 1QD Vice Chairman: Ivan Ivanovitch 3 Elm Drive, Offord Cluny, ST NEOTS PE18 9RN Secretary: Nick Dibben 24 Bure Close, ST IVES, Cambs PE17 4FR Tel: 01480 495101 Treasurer: Lewis Buckingham 25 Drury Road, COLCHESTER CO2 7UY Sales: Chris Milne 25 Thetford Way, South Wootton, KINGS LYNN PE30 3TG Press Officer: Ken Burton 23 Abbeygate, THETFORD Norfolk Membership Secretary: Clara Zilahi 31 Wimsbotsham Road, , Norfolk, PE38 9PE Editor of Rail East: Tony Albert Hunterswood, Ipswich Road, Holbrook, IPSWICH IP9 2QT Email: [email protected]

Published by the East Anglian Branch of RailFuture