The Railfuture East Anglia branch AGM on Saturday 21st February looked at issues affecting railways in the
branch area over the next year, focusing on changes brought about by the Greater [East] Anglia franchise,
and how to oppose the guided busway proposal for the St.Ives line (see below).
Railwatch is being dispatched around 12th March. Volunteers to help stuff the envelopes at the London office
(after 10am) are sought. Both travelling expenses and lunch are provided. Contact Robert on
info@railfuture.org.uk.
Mr Blair's Big Conversation is an excellent opportunity to feed directly into the policy making (budget
allocating) process. Snippets readers may wish to mention the East West Rail link in responding to the
request at: http://www.bigconversation.org.uk/index.php?id=682.
March and Wisbech Bramley Line group are holding their next meeting on at 7.30pm on Wednesday 31st March
at St Peter's Church Hall in Wisbech. This embryonic group now has around 20 members, and is seeking to raise
£1,000 to begin the Network Rail's process for evaluating the Wisbech line's potential.
CAST.IRON have their next members' meeting (non-members welcome) at 7.45pm on Monday 8th March at Histon
Baptist church hall, when objecting to the guided busway TWA will be discussed.
RAIL FRANCHISES
National Express make further announcements about Greater Anglia franchise
Following on from the announcement that Tim Clarke will be the managing director of London Eastern Railways,
Ian Rogers, aged 49, has been appointed its finance director. He has been with National Express Group trains
division for three years and was involved in negotiations for Central Trains' two-year franchise extension.
More information about the franchise on http://www.nationalexpressgroup.com/greateranglia/,
which includes a leaflet - http://www.investis.com/nx/downloads/NXprogress_report.pdf.
EAST WEST RAIL LINK
East West Rail consortium produce glossy new leaflet
The East West Rail consortium have produced a new four-page glossy leaflet promoting their scheme, and
focusing on the western end (as far east as Bedford). A copy can be found on their web-site:
http://www.eastwestrail.org/docs/ewrail_leaflet.pdf.
They estimate a capital cost of £65m to reopen the Bletchley to Claydon Junction route, and a new spur to
Aylesbury, along with other track upgrades to passenger standard as well as a new platform at Bicester Town and
a new station at Winslow. The western end of the scheme has an average benefit-cost ratio of 1.9. The consortium
hopes for an initial allocation of £1.5m to proceed with the detailed design assessment.
East West Rail web-site: http://www.eastwestrail.org.
ST.IVES LINE
Cambridgeshire County Council submits guided busway application triggering objection period
On 19th February Cambridgeshire County Council submitted its guided busway TWA order application to government,
triggering a 43-day objection period that ends on Friday 2nd April. There will be eight manned touring
exhibitions, and several static ones, explaining the proposals. Details can be found from
http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk.
Railfuture members - even those not living in Cambridgeshire - are strongly encouraged to write a letter
objecting to the scheme. Address is: Secretary of State for Transport, Department for Transport, TWA Orders
Unit, Zone 3/11, Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DR. A confirmation letter will be sent,
which must be replied to within three weeks if you wish to appear at the public inquiry (or to ask someone else
to appear on your behalf). It is important that objectors do ask to appear at the inquiry. If invited, please
contact either Railfuture branch or CAST.IRON, both organisations being willing to help objectors.
Lots of objections are important: they also worry councillors. Cambridgeshire County Council still need to
hold another vote, probably in May. Objectors should be aware that facts count more than opinions. Saying "I
don't believe enough buses will use the busway" (opinion) is better phrased as "The County Council have not
provided evidence to show that any bus operator will use the busway or agree to add 10% onto their fares"
(fact).
The public inspector will weigh up the busway benefits against the cost of the scheme. Rail promoters
clearly need to show that the costs to be more than the benefits by giving evidence that:
* there are few benefits of their scheme (consistent journey time whilst on the busway - only)
* what benefits there are could be better provided in other ways (e.g. express bus services, heavily discounted
bus fares)
* the costs of their scheme (e.g. financial, environmental, loss of rail line) are high
* they have not adequately considered alternative ways of providing these benefits.
Rail versus busway debate live on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
On Friday 13th February, before the busway application was submitted, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire had a head-to-head
confrontation between CAST.IRON rail promoter, Tim Phillips, and County Council busway advocate, Shona Johnstone.
This and previous radio broadcasts can be heard on http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.lawton.
CAST.IRON mount publicity drive to encourage objections to guided busway application
CAST.IRON held an all-day exhibition on the main platform at Cambridge station on Friday 27th February, and
will have another on Friday 12th March at Huntingdon station. Permission from WAGN and National Express helps
to demonstrate that the rail industry is supportive of the reopening of the St.Ives line to passenger trains.
CAST.IRON is mounting a series of static displays at libraries in and around Cambridge. Two week-long displays,
in Cambridge and Histon, have already taken place.
"No mis-guided bus" A4-sized posters have started appearing in house and shop windows in Cambridge roads where
an increased number of buses is being resisted. CAST.IRON have also produced 2,000 smaller car window stickers.
CAST.IRON have also produced 20,000 leaflets explaining why the guided busway is wrong. These will be delivered
through letterboxes along the railway route. Copies can be found on the CAST.IRON web-site:
* A14 traffic reduction by just 2% -
http://www.castiron.blueprojects.co.uk/docs/SpotTheDifference.pdf
* Why rail is better than guided bus -
http://www.castiron.blueprojects.co.uk/docs/manifesto.pdf.
Visit http://www.castiron.org.uk/TWAobjections.php
for information on how to object to the guided busway application.
CAST.IRON web-site: http://www.castiron.org.uk.
RAIL DEPOTS
GB Railfreight is preferred bidder to run Network Rail's Whitemoor depot
GBRf is set to become the operator and manager of Network Rail's new Whitemoor depot in March, and will be
the first train operator to run all aspects of a local distribution centre for infrastructure materials. The
five-year contract will put GBRF in overall control of all of the activities there: operating the yard, loading
and unloading trains and, with partners, manage the ballast stockpiles and market reprocessed ballast. GBRf
has contracted aggregates experts M Dickerson Ltd to sort, recycle and selling used ballast.
This announcement coincided with Network Rail asking GBRf to move more infrastructure trains in its East
Anglia Region.
RAIL AWARDS
Outgoing Anglia Railways wins Train Operator of the Year Award again
Anglia Railways has won the Train Operator of the Year Award at the national Rail Business Awards 2003, having
previously won this top top prize at the Rail Business Awards in 2000. The award reflected comprehensive service
improvement, and tangible upgrades experienced by passengers such as the Norwich to Cambridge service (with
revenue over 80% ahead of budget), late trains on the Bittern line, giving the line its best-ever service.
Anglia press release: http://www.angliarailways.co.uk/latest-information/news-detail.asp?id=547
BBC News item: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/england/norfolk/3493808.stm.
WEB SITES
WayToGo web-site calls for a government transport policy that puts the environment first
Railfuture is just one of more than 25 organisations who have launched the Way To Go initiative - see
http://www.waytogo.org.uk/ - to influence Government transport policy,
particularly through the Spending Review and Ten Year Transport Plan Review, due in July 2004.
MerseyRail has new web-site to promote services and improvements to the railway
MerseyRail has a new web-site: http://www.merseyrail.org. It includes
a journey planner, and a news paper which lists "improvements" to the system, such as the installation of
ticket barriers.
New web-site for Nottingham Express Transit giving tram times
There's now a web-site http://www.thetram.net to promote the new tram
system in Nottingham, which opens to the public on Tuesday 9th March 2004.
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