The national signallers' strike planned for 21st/22nd July and 27th-29th July has been suspended following an improved pay and hours offer by Network Rail which would see a 35-hour week introduced this August. All Train Operators expect to operate a normal service on these dates. Had the strike action gone ahead train operators had agreed that tickets could be used one day earlier or one day later with APEX used as close to the original time of day as possible.

ESTA's autumn meeting will be on Saturday 7th October in St Mary’s Church Hall, Market Hill, Woodbridge starting at 14:30. From the rail station, go up Quay Street, and continue until you bear right on to the Market Hill. The hall is then on your left.

Dates for forthcoming Wisbech-March Bramley Line public meetings are as follows:
* 26th July - Upstairs at St. Peter's Church Hall, near the old Council Offices, Wisbech. Same venue on 27th September, 25th October, 29th November, 31st January 2007 and 28th February. There will be no December meeting, and the AGM will be on 28th March 2007.

The 2006 Rail Users' Conference will be held in Reading on Saturday 4th November 2006. More details will be given with the next issue of Railwatch.

ESTA has produced a new public transport leaflet for the Beccles area, partly funded by a grant from Beccles Town Council. A paper on the subject of bus/rail integration is due out at the end of July, and copies of ESTA’s booklet "East Suffolk Railway – A Vision for the Future" are available at £2 including postage. See http://www.eastsuffolktravel.org.uk.

BRTA's Autumn Conference "Rails for Cambridge" planned for Saturday 28th October has been cancelled.

Anyone waiting for the new Eastern Region edition of the Quail track diagrams (now in colour with computer generated diagrams) should be aware that it is unlikely to be available before September 2006. See http://www.trackmaps.co.uk/news.htm for an update.

Mike Lamport, Head of Communications for Londonlines, was one of the appointees to the Railway Heritage Committee announced by the government in June.

STATIONS

St Neots station improvements could be funded by new housing development

According to the Hunts Post newspaper, the building of 1,250 homes east of ECML at St.Neots could deliver £30m of "planning gain" contributions from developers Gallagher Estates, who are also behind Northstowe new town. Of this, £2million might be found for improvements at St Neots railway station including a new footbridge with lifts to the station platforms. At the moment wheelchair users cannot reach the platforms because access is via steps. The proposals would also include better ticket facilities, extra cycle parking and a bus interchange.

Development will commence in later 2006 with the first homes being ready for occupation by the end of 2007, when the station improvement work will start.

Proposal to move Lowestoft station further from town centre generates criticism

A report into the regeneration of Lowestoft by consultants Halcrow and regeneration company First East has resurrected the old idea of moving the rail station westwards 400 yards with Station Square becoming a shopping centre known as Peto Square after the 1847-built station's designer Sir Morton Peto.

In its newsletter ESTA asked "Would the regeneration company ever consider re-siting car parks the same distance to achieve its aims?" and said "The company appears to have no qualms in expecting mothers with young children or the elderly with shopping or luggage to struggle for a quarter of a mile to and from trains." Clive Morris, Rural Services Manager of 'One', said at the ESTA AGM "The whole railway industry is opposed to moving Lowestoft station. It's the one station I have that is in precisely the right place."

Railfuture also opposes the re-siting of Lowestoft station and asks whether provision would be made for freight sidings. It is also concerned that re-siting could mean the end of loco hauled trains.

Waveney District Council is due to debate all the recommendations on 26th July.

Friends of Brandon Station officially adopt the station

Two members of the Friends of Brandon station (www.brandonstationfriends.com) spoke at the Railfuture East Anglia branch meeting in June. They explained that the group was formed in January 2006 and have joined the Station Adoption scheme organised by 'one'. Every day of the week a volunteer visits the station, which has been unstaffed since 1967, and reports incidents of graffiti or damage.

Various projects to enhance the station such as flower planters, a new passenger shelter and information boards are in hand. An application for listed building status is being considered. It is hoped that a permanent tenant will be found for the station building, which has been empty since 2004 and is currently for let. The aim is to restore the building inside and out and have part of it open for community use.

The Friends scored a great coup when they arranged for the Fenman steam train, which was passing on 1st May, to stop at the station. It was the first to do so since the 1960's and attracted well over a hundred people to the station.

Attempt to get listed water tower at Maningtree station cleaned up

The Essex and South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership are looking to get the water tower on the approach to Manningtree station - a listed structure - cleaned up. Any Railfuture members interested in helping with this project should contact Bryan Harker at bryan.harker@essexcc.gov.uk.

RAIL FARES

First Capital Connect's evening peak restrictions causes passengers to protest

On 20th July regular travellers from Cambridge to King's Cross protested outside Cambridge railway station following First Capital Connect's imposition in June of restrictions between 16:30 and 19:01 for passengers using CDRs and Off-Peak TravelCards. People making two or three trips a week to London are badly affected. FCC claims the new rules are designed to reduce overcrowding but is according to London Mayor Ken Livingstone a "cynical revenue-raising exercise designed to maximise profits” and to meet its premium payments to the treasury.

One protestor complained that fares have effectively increased by 45% if they wish to travel back in the peak. An online petition (http://www.sanetrains.com/p has been set-up to force FCC to reverse the change. Over 250 people have signed the petition.

FCC managing director Elaine Holt says that a change in the terms of the Peak Day Travelcard to allow holders of all Railcards to purchase a Peak Day Travelcard after 9.30am (or after 10am for the Network Card) at a discounted price are proposed. This would still be substantially more expensive than previously. There are also plans to trial an off-peak carnet of tickets (five return journeys within three months) to help those to who travel semi-regularly into London and would not benefit from a weekly season ticket. Unfortunately the initial trial will only be from St.Albans to London.

Some passengers have discovered workarounds to the restrictions. Within a month of their introduction First withdrew restrictions affecting stations on the Hertford loop and on the ECML up to Knebworth. However, London TravelWatch says the easing of restrictions didn’t go far enough, saying "there are still many passengers who are paying considerably more to travel to London than previously and we simply do not believe that pricing people off the railway is the best way to deal with problems of overcrowding."

CEN report: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2006/07/20/4f210c77-88ca-4cc0-8e90-c2be73870810.lpf
FCC revisions: http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/pages/about-us/news/display/default.aspx?id=25.

'one' Railway criticised by passengers as poor value for money

In June it was reported that the national survey of 26,000 people by Passenger Focus identified that passengers felt 'one' offered "poor value for money" with fewer than 30% of 'one' passengers believing tickets gave good value against an average of 41% nationally. Neighbouring c2c scored 40%.

BBC report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/5073470.stm.

EAST WEST RAIL LINK

Willington Rowing Lake is approved - former Bedford-Sandy track bed will be severed

On Thursday 20th July the planning application to build a rowing lake at Willington across the former Bedford-Sandy railway trackbed was approved as expected. Bedfordshire County Council members voted 7-4 in favour, with many members abstaining. BBC Look East interviewed Andrew Rowe and Olympic-medal winning rower Tim Foster representing the rowing lake interests plus Richard Pill of BRTA, which had spearheaded the fight against the proposal.

The reinstatement of a Bedford-Sandy/ECML railway is still possible, but will be now more expensive. Derek Monnery or the Essex Rail Users Federation has written to the county council saying "Your decision will make the restoration of the rail link unaffordable, as you have not asked the promoters of the rowing lake to consider the impact of reopening the railway in their plans. Do you really think your residents would prefer a rowing lake to being isolated from the rest of the UK transport network? Are gold medals more important than communities? Your decision will be known in future years as one of the biggest failures in local government decision making this decade."

Bedford rowing lake web-site: http://www.bedford-rowing-lake.com.

East West Rail Consortium keeps up the pressure

A briefing session for all MPs along the line of route was held in London on 19th July 2006. The consortium brought them up to speed on current progress in order to get their continuing support for the project. The new chair of the Consortium has recently written to all constituent members urging them to 'remain on board" as 2006 may prove the turning point for real progress at the western section and ultimately the project as a whole.

ST.IVES RAILWAY LINE

Government agrees to fund £92.5m of £116m guided busway - Cambs County Council votes to proceed

On 30th June it was announced that the cost of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway had now risen to £116.2m (against an estimate of only £55m by the CHUMMS study in 2000) and that the government would pay £92.5m of it, as a 100% grant. In December 2003 it had offered £65m towards the then £73m cost made up of a 50% grant and 50% loan. The remaining £23.7m will come from Section 106 agreements mainly from Gallaghers, the developers of Northstowe.

In its press release CAST.IRON said it was "staggered" at the amount of money that the busway would now cost (more than twice that envisaged by CHUMMS in 2000 [£55m], and more than CHUMMS estimated a railway all the way to Huntingdon [£109m]) and criticised the unlevel playing field where MerseyTram's funding was withdrawn when its costs exceeded 40% but CGB has gone ahead.

On 18th July the 34 members of the Conservative-controlled 69-seat Cambridgeshire County Council voted in favour (less than 50% of members). These were Tories and a few Labour member. However, 17 Lib Dems voted against, meaning that only 2/3rds of members present voted in favour. 18 members did not vote.

The busway is now a certainty, with the railway lost forever, although CAST.IRON will remain in existence to provide the independent scrutiny of the county council scheme that many deem essential.

Site clearance will begin in January 2007 (to avoid the bird nesting season) and the section of Guided Busway from Longstanton to Cambridge will be constructed first. There will be a new factory producing pre-cast concrete sections for the route. Cement and aggregates will be brought in using the new Longstanton bypass. Both parallel guideways will be simultaneously laid at the rate of 100 metres per day. Services will start to carry passengers in late 2008.

Four bus companies are close to agreement to running over the guideway - Stagecoach, Huntingdon and District, Whippet and Suffolk-based Burtons, which now runs the Addenbrooke's shuttle in Cambridge. Passengers from St.Ives eastwards are promised a minimum of six buses an hour in each direction, initially for five years. The guideway has capacity for up to 24 buses an hour, the target for 2016. Cambridgeshire County Council will charge for track access and insist on "all-operator" fare but individual fares, frequencies and timetables will be left to the market.

CCC Press Release: http://www2.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/db/pressrel.nsf/
6fcbd4565a583c6480256b52004254fd/fe987da65cec3d7f8025719d0036bb5b?OpenDocument

EAST OF ENGLAND PLAN

Inspector issues report on the East of England Spatial Strategy

In 2005 the Railfuture East Anglia branch, and particularly secretary Nick Dibben, spent a lot of time responding to and appearing at the Examination in Public for the Eastern England Spatial Strategy.

In late June the inspector issued his report from the inquiry. The report can be found on the Go-East and the EERA websites.

The inspector agreed with the SRA and DfT that the Bedford-Cambridge corridor is not a priority for heavy rail investment, and suggested that the strategy does not require a route to be safeguarded at this time.

Railfuture has contacted EERA about the inspector's report and commented that:
* Freight gauge enhancements are important;
* The East-West Rail Link between Bedford and Cambridge should remain within the strategy as a long-term objective with a safeguarded route. Railfuture strongly believes that long-distance coaches are unlikely to get people out of cars and therefore the 'express coach' proposal does not comply with key objectives of modal shift and reduced traffic.

Report: http://www.goeast.gov.uk/planning/regional_planning/?a=42496.

RAIL SERVICES

Passengers on Ipswich-Lowestoft line entitled to road transportation if train is cancelled

ESTA reports that that an easement has been agreed so that replacement road transport (bus or taxi) will be provided within 70 minutes of a cancelled train service or missed connection (as was the case under Anglia Railways) instead of the former 90-minute threshold introduced by 'one'. This is good news for East Suffolk Line passengers but doesn't help where there is an hourly service (e.g. Lowestoft to Norwich).

In its submission to the Lowestoft/Great Yarmouth regeneration study Railfuture called for a passing loop at Beccles to allow hourly services on the East Suffolk Line, amongst other proposals such as restoration of through Summer Saturday services from East Midlands to Great Yarmouth.

RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE

Network Rail's plans for re-signalling March for Whitemoor become clearer

Earlier in 2006 Network Rail announced that signals would be reintroduced on the triangle junction at March to improve the efficiency with which incoming trains can be accepted into Whitemoor Yard, hence vacate more quickly. Departing trains from Whitemoor can be dropped down to new, protecting signals at the two main line junctions, where over-run trap points will be introduced. This will allow the trains to be more readily slotted in behind passenger services, without causing "knock on" delays further along their journey.

It is now apparent that the new colour light signals will be controlled from March East signal box, adjacent to the station. The remaining semaphore running signals on the main line towards March South will be converted to colour light type. However, neither signal box will close. The Wisbech branch will be reduced to "siding" status with shunt signals provided for moves on and off the branch. However, these are likely to be signed out of use once they are commissioned. May Gurney are managing the alterations to the signalling, with Halcrow subcontracted to manage the associated testing and commissioning.

Railfuture's priorities for Network Rail's investment plans for Control Period 4

In early July Network Rail announced that it would reduce costs by £4,000 during the five years from 2009 to 2014 known as 'Control Period 4', but would require an extra £7,800m to fund enhancements.

Railfuture's priorities for East Anglia, which were covered on the front page of the Eastern Daily Press on 4th July, are the Beccles Loop (Lowestoft-Ipswich line), capacity between Colchester and Shenfield an the East-West rail link.

CAR PARKING

Railfuture East Anglia branch concerned about massive car parking charge increases

Railfuture has issued a press release about the high cost of car parking at many railway stations in the East Anglia branch area.

GNER is perhaps the worst culprit having increased the day charge at Peterborough to £10. However, Cambridge and Ipswich are now £6 and Norwich is £6.50. Railfuture is concerned that: * High charges deter people from using the train
* For short journeys parking could be more than the train fare
* high charges will lead to more people being dropped off at stations rather than parking so leading to more car traffic.

Railfuture is calling for charges to be capped and increases linked to car park improvements such as CCTV. At the moment parking charges are not capped unlike some fares and are an easy target for train operators to either increase profits or meet their premium requirements. Railfuture also wants but fares to be cheaper and early morning/late evening bus services to be improved. This would encourage some people to travel by bus to the station although it appears that many people would still not use the bus.

OVERCROWDING AND CAPACITY

First Capital Connect meets stakeholders to discuss capacity issues

At the First Capital Connect stakeholders meeting on 18th July, which Railfuture attended, it was stated that Arup will undertake a study to identify ways of resolving overcrowding on peak hour trains in the short term, around 5 years, and its results will be an input into the East Coast Route Utilisation Study. The following ideas are being considered: * investigate possibility of extra power supply and new electric units
* Introduce 2+3 seating – not be liked by passengers and is increasingly difficult as people become more overweight
* Convert some first class seating to standard class
* Changes stopping patterns
* Make increased use of the Hertford Loop
* Introduce short workings to get two trips per peak period
* Use diesel trains in existing paths to allow electric units to strengthen other services
* Use more GNER diesels in peak to allow more FCC electric units

The FCC Cambridge 'fast' services at peak and shoulder-peak currently have 100% of seats filled with the Peterborough fast and stopping peak services between 80% and 100% apart from the Peterborough stopping evening peak which is also over 100%.

Overcrowding is going to become an increasing problem for FCC as traffic is growing because of new housing development and it is possible that some GNER passengers from Peterborough may switch to cheaper FCC to offset the cost of higher parking charges at Peterborough.

Network Rail finds 20 spare paths on the ECML to support Grand Central, Hull Trains and GNER

It is well-known that GNER agreed a 10-year franchise with the SRA relying on new paths between London and Leeds that Network Rail had not confirmed existed. The situation was made worse when the Office of Rail Regulation awarded the last remaining paths to Grand Central and Hull Trains. This led to GNER launching a judicial review, which began in July. However, Grand Central had always claimed that many extra paths existed its consultants confirmed this, as managing director Ian Yeowart confirmed at the Railfuture Campaigners' Conference in Stoke-on-Trent on 1st July. On 6th July Network Rail revealed that it had found that up to 20 new paths, 10 in each direction, which will allow GNER to operate six additional services between Leeds and King's Cross.

GNER has welcomed the announcement, but still insists that ORR's decision to allow Grand Central access is "discriminatory, amounts to an unlawful grant of state aid, is a distortion of competition and is in contravention of European Community and national law".

Meanwhile there are rumours GNERs' financially-crippled parent Sea Containers is preparing to sell-off the profitable train company foe up to £200m to avoid bankruptcy proceedings.

NR press release: http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/Content/Detail.asp?
ReleaseID=2050&NewsAreaID=2&SearchCategoryID=2
GNER sell-off rumour: http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/item.do?newsId=34982508704302.

RAIL FREIGHT

Railfuture calls for more railfreight to Great Yarmouth

In its submission to the Yarmouth/Lowestoft regeneration study conducted by Halcrow, Railfuture called for the retention of the freight terminal at Yarmouth (Vauxhall), which is a major asset to the town with its significant local authority and private (non rail company) investment. Railfuture says it will be essential if Eastport goes ahead. However, the BRB (Residual) Ltd is currently offering the land for sale.

Railfuture also believes that the tramway (Vauxhall Station to Outer Harbour) needs reinstatement. In accordance with schemes already drafted by the County Council it would not follow the original route in its entirety but would require reinstatement along South Quay and a new bridge over the River Bure. It would also need an alignment across part of the ASDA car park to follow the river bank to Haven Bridge thereby avoiding conflict with traffic on North Quay. Two earlier studies when the Outer Harbour was first envisaged showed this to be sound in engineering terms.

PRESERVED RAILWAYS

Mid-Norfolk Railway's aim to go northwards reaches new milestone

On Saturday 3rd June the Mid-Norfolk Railway's northward push eventually reaching County School saw a works train reach as far as Northall Green bridge no. 1695, just over a mile from Dereham station. It's thought to be the first time a loco has ventured this far along the line since 1989. It was part used to transport 101 new wooden sleepers, which were changed that weekend. The process from digging out, to replacing and backfilling has been carried out by a team of MNR, Bramley Line and CAST.IRON members on the first Sunday of each month. The condition of the sleepers greatly improves beyond Northall Green cutting although there is then another bad patch over the next half a mile at the end of the cutting with 170 sleepers to change in two distinct areas. In total there are 263 sleepers to change to get a train up to Hoe. Once completed, the MNR will be able to operate, but there are around another 150 which are in better condition, but will require changing in the next few years before they restore passenger services.

The final total raised from their 2006 sponsored walk was £2008 - the highest ever. This figure just met their target of £2,000 as British Sugar, makers of Silver Spoon and the only UK beet sugar producer, had agreed to match funding up to this limit. The £4,008 raised will be put towards transporting, re-erecting and restoring the former Halesworth signal box at County School station.

Bramley Line closer to taking over March-Wisbech line after receiving licence to inspect track

On 8th May Network Rail granted a 6-month-long licence to the Bramley Line to examine the railway prior to the completing its Business Case. On Sunday 25th June the media were invited to Coldham level crossing to see the volunteers clear vegetation. Weekly work parties have been held every Sunday since 9th July, with volunteers meeting at 10am at Coldham level crossing All volunteers have had to complete Network Rail forms and work within the terms of the method statement.

On Monday 17th July three members of the Bramley Line attended a meeting with NR in London to discuss leasing the line.

The Bramley Line has recently completely revamped its http://www.bramleyline.org.uk web-site. There is also a supporters' web-site http://www.freewebs.com/bramleylinesupporters as well as the somewhat critical http://www.bramleyline.com Friends of the Bramley Line web-site.

North Norfolk Railway benefits from donation of track renewal and maintenance machine by Balfour Beatty

Rail infraco Balfour Beatty Rail Plant has donated a 10-year-old TRAMM (Track Renewal and Maintenance Machine, which recently retired from work on Network Rail's infrastructure, to the North Norfolk Railway. The TRAMM will substantially ease the work of the volunteers who maintain the track from Sheringham to Holt.

WEB-SITES

TheTrainLine.Com now allows tickets to be printed on own computer

TheTrainLine.Com has introduced a new web-site http://www.printtraintickets.com to allow APEX tickets to be purchased and printed by your own computer. Tickets are generated in PDF format. It is necessary to register for the "Print@Home" service, even if you're already registered with TheTrainline.

At the moment only Midland Mainline tickets are available although it will be introduced on 'one' in late July 2006. The facility cannot currently be used to purchase walk-on tickets (e.g. Savers, Standard Open Returns etc.) perhaps because there is a risk of fraudulent use especially as PDF files can be edited.

The Print@Home is another shift towards APEX tickets. On 3rd July the megatrain.com service, introduced by Stagecoach on SWT in November 2005, commence its £1+ fares on Virgin Trains services.