Kate Tudor-Pole, Railfuture's marketing director, will be leaving Railfuture on Friday 7th March. A replacement
permanent member of staff is being sought.
The next Peterborough-Norwich Rail Community Partnership Meeting will be in Ely on Thursday 6th March at 10.30.
Information available from John Saunders.
On Monday 10th March, Dr Michael Caton, president of Railfuture, is expected to be interviewed on the BBC Radio 4
"Today" programme about the fears of Beeching Mark II. Possible broadcast time is 08:10.
On Wednesday 13th March, Malcolm Pheasey, Franchising Director of NEX will be speaking to the Cambridge University
Railway Club. Non-members are welcome. See http://www.cam.ac.uk/societies/curc
or e-mail secretary@curc.co.uk.
The Bedford to Bletchley Rail Users' Association, which promotes the line through which the East West Rail Link
would run, are holding their Annual General Meeting at 14:15 on Saturday 22nd March in the Freeman Memorial Church and
Hall, Buckinghamshire Road, Bletchley at 14:15. It is five minutes walk from the station and is open to non-members.
Special guest will be Dr. Phyllis Starkey MP (Milton Keynes South West), who has been a staunch supporter of EWRL. The
association will also be holding a rail day - from 10:30 to 16:30 in an adjacent room.
On Wednesday 30th April 2003 Nick Dibben, Railfuture East Anglia Branch Secretary, will be speaking to the Sandy
Transport Society about the East-West rail route.
The next the next RPC for Eastern England Meeting will also be held in the Westcliff Hotel, Southend on 1st
April (see http://www.railpassengers.org/Eastern/site/Eastern/Our_Work/RPCMeetings)
from 10:00 to 16:00. Directors of GNER, c2c and Network Rail will be speaking. The next two RPC national meetings are
at the Congress Centre on Wednesday 12th March from 10.30 to 16.00 (see http://www.railpassengers.org/Council/site/Council/Our_Work/RPCMeetings
and in Bristol on Wednesday 18th June.
RAIL SERVICES
Anglia Railways announce 20% increase in passengers on Cambridge-Norwich service
Within weeks of commencing the new Cambridge-Norwich service, Anglia was attracting 1,000 passengers per day. Growth
has been maintained through the winter season, with around 1,200 people travelling each day (Monday-Saturday). Loadings
are expected to increase further in the spring.
Anglia press release: http://www.angliarailways.co.uk/latest-information/news-detail.asp?id=401.
RAIL BARGAINS
Travel anywhere on Virgin trains for just £15
If you buy the launch (March) and April issues of "Railways Illustrated", which has replaced "Railway World", there
is a special offer that entitles you to a "Daytripper" ticket, valid for one day's unlimited travel anywhere on the
Virgin Trains network for just £15. Just cut out the token in each of the issues and send off together with a cheque
and enclosed application form.
The offer runs from 28th April to 22nd May inclusive, except 2nd-5th May (Bank Holiday weekend), and there are NO
time restrictions!
STATIONS
New station for Great Cornard proposed on 'Gainsborough' line
Developers behind 90 new homes at Great Cornard on the Marks Tey-Sudbury line are pushing for a new railway station
to be built to serve the new housing development and existing homes. Services would require some retimetabling of
mainline trains to provide good connections.
Anglia Railways launches 'Adopt-a-Station' scheme
Anglia Railways is encouraging passenger feedback about the station buildings and facilities by introducing an
'Adopt-a-Station' scheme. Anglia Railways is looking for 'community liaison' volunteers who are regular users of a
station to take an active role in keeping them up to date about any issues at the stations. Volunteers would receive
a complimentary travel pass in return for occasionally filling-in a station 'health-check' form, and perhaps tending
to flower beds, as is done by the Women's Institute at West Runton station. Where a group looks after a
station concessionary travel passes are not given to an individual; instead the group gets a day out once
a year.
Anglia press release: http://www.angliarailways.co.uk/latest-information/news-detail.asp?id=402.
RAIL FRANCHISES
SRA envisages announcing preferred bidder(s) for Greater [East] Anglia franchise by end of 2003
It is likely that the timescales for the Greater [East] Anglia franchise will be as follows:
* 17th February 2003 - Bidders will submit pre-qualification questionnaire
* 31st March 2003 - SRA will ask between three and five bidders to proceed
* July/August 2003 - All remaining bidders will submit a single full bid
* November/December 2003 - SRA will announce its preferred bidder(s).
The SRA will be specifying the initial timetable/services and rolling stock replacement for the successful bidder,
who may initially pay a premium to the SRA. However, because the Office of the Rail Regulator is carrying out a review
of funding for Network Rail, it is likely that track access charges will be increased, and the franchisee will then
receive a small subsidy.
FREIGHT
EWS launches new Felixstowe-Wakefield service
On Monday 3rd March EWS launched a new Monday-Friday container service from the Port of Felixstowe to Wakefield. The
outward train leaves Felixstowe at 03:00 to arrival at the Wakefield Freight Centre at 10:15, and leaves at 15:07
arriving back at Felixstowe at 23:30.
In the coming weeks, the train will be linked to a new Wakefield to Mossend (Glasgow) service, providing customers
with a new route from Felixstowe to Scotland.
EWS have also signed a seven-year contract with RMC Aggregates (NW) Limited to move 1.5 million tonnes of aggregates
a year by rail across Britain. One of the destinations will be the RMC terminal at Ely.
LOCAL PLANS
Peterborough Friends of the Earth calls for walkway from Peterborough station and creation of Crescent Link
Friends of the Earth and Railworld have called for Peterborough City Council's local plan for Peterborough to include
a walkway from the first floor of the railway station to Westgate, with an in-built shopping mall, and more ambitiously,
the Nene Valley Railway line extended to serve the main railway station and beyond. The so-called Crescent Link would
run from West Deeping, through Werrington, into Peterborough city centre, and take the NVR to the Ortons. Both
proposals have been backed by East of England MEP Andrew Duff, who is trying to secure EU funding.
POLITICAL PARTY TRANSPORT POLICIES
Conservative Party's policy document "The Right Track" available on web-site
The Conservative Party recently launched their first transport policy document of this parliament, and they have
chosen to focus on rail. Entitled "The Right Track - A stable future for Britain's railways" it accuses the current
government of failing to get a grip on transport, and makes lots of positive noises about rail. However, it is strong
on recent rail history but short on what the Tories will do. It doesn't promise to increase funding on rail or even
to maintain it. The 21-page document is now downloadable from the Conservative Party web-site.
Right Track document: http://www.conservatives.com/getfile.cfm?file=RightTrack&ref=POLICYDOCUMENT/1664&type=pdf.
WEB-SITES
Plus Bus rail add-on ticket concept has new web-site
The new http://www.plusbus.info web-site promotes the recently launched
PlusBus service that offers combined rail-bus ticketing, which is now available from more than 100 stations many
of which are in East Anglia.
Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine line reopening proposal has new web-site
A new web-site http://www.sakrailway.co.uk has been launched to promote
the Stirling - Alloa - Kincardine rail route re-opening project, which is one of the most important railway
infrastructure projects Scotland has seen in decades.
Ra'alloy web-site promotes their aluminium ramps and stands for railway stations
Ra'alloy design and manufacture modular railway platforms and shelters in aluminium for use either with passenger or
freight applications. Claiming success with companies such as EWS and Railtrack, they say their products can offer a
cost effective and low maintenance design for a variety of applications, either in a temporary or permanent format.
Anyone interested in costing a railway station might like to visit http://www.raalloy.com.
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