News archive February 2004

National Network
Heritage, Narrow-Gauge and Miniature
Away from the tracks

National Network

NX bags Greater Anglia - but says “no new trains”
Months of speculation ended on December 22 when National Express emerged as the SRA’s preferred bidder for the Greater Anglia franchise. NX, whose other franchises include Central Trains, c2c and Scotrail, beat off bids by Arriva Trains and GB Railways. After detailed negotiations, the SRA and NX signed the franchise agreement on January 30.

Under a name still to be decided, NX will operate all the present Anglia, Great Eastern and West Anglia trains - in other words all the regular services out of London Liverpool Street including Stansted Express, as well as local services within East Anglia. The new regime will begin in April 2004 and will run for seven years, with three more years added if “performance and quality” targets are met. However there will be no brand-new trains. Class 90s will continue on the London-Norwich route, and coaches will be replaced with refurbished Mk3 stock. Elsewhere there will be large-scale renovation programmes for multiple-units. A NX spokeswoman was quoted as saying, "New trains cost an awful lot of money and refurbished trains are just as good."

London-based NX will have to work hard to persuade local people of its commitment to East Anglian communities, and in particular to the region’s loss-making branch lines. Many in Norfolk were surprised by NX’s win as GB Railways, Anglia Railways’ parent, was considered the front-runner with its consistent record of service improvements and passenger-centred initiatives. The news delivers a second blow for FirstGroup. First was left off the shortlist of three in April, but then clambered back in the race by buying GB.

Local disquiet has also been aroused by the news that the SRA's is likely to receive around £500,000 in “franchise premium receipts” over the seven years. Many feel that the surplus should be invested in local trains and stations instead of subsidising other TOCs and paying for network-wide repairs.


Sunday journeys delayed until May
The interrupted journeys which Sunday travellers between Norwich, Ipswich and London endured in November and December are continuing for the duration of the current timetable. Network Rail's major track renewal programme means that on Sundays from January 4 until May 16 Anglia Railways' main line trains travel no further than Witham, with coaches operating the Witham - Liverpool Street leg. The Norwich - Witham trains call at Diss, Stowmarket, Ipswich and Colchester in each direction, with some also calling at Manningtree. As a result journey times between Norwich and London are extended by 50-55 minutes.

Weekend track work near Norwich also affected Anglia Railways' local trains from January 18 to February 8. On Sunday mornings replacement buses ran between Norwich and Sheringham, while on the Wherry Lines coast-bound trains terminated at Brundall, from where buses plied to and from Yarmouth and Lowestoft.


Norwich family is one in a billion
2003 was the first year since 1961 that the number of journeys on the national rail network reached the magic "billion" figure. On December 29, a Norwich family arrived at Liverpool Street to discover they had been chosen as the symbolic billionth passengers. Transport minister Tony McNulty presented solicitor Lynn O'Malley, husband Steve Setford, and their eight-month-old son James with a year's free rail travel.


Limestone switched to Snetterton
Difficulties caused at Wymondham by Freightliner trains of limestone aggregate ( NRS Newsletter December 03 ) led to the operation being cancelled after the third train. From December the trains were diverted to the Snetterton private siding, near Eccles Road, where the aggregate is stored as a “virtual quarry”.


Swing bridge spat to end in court?
The Broads Authority is threatening legal action against Network Rail for failing to ensure that navigable bridges at Trowse, Reedham and Somerleyton can open to allow the free passage of vessels.

Last year owners of tall craft were unable to get through Trowse swing bridge because the company had welded the rail lines together ( NRS Newsletter December 03 ). However the authority claims that the real reason why Network Rail refused to open the bridge is that it would have incurred penalties for delaying trains.


Three out of four on time - does that deserve top place?
Run just three-quarters of your InterCity trains on time, and you lead the pack. That's the depressing message from the SRA's latest punctuality tables. At the top of the long-distance operators' league for the June-September 2003 quarter was Anglia Railways' Intercity service. But only 76.6pc arrived on time, 2.5pc worse than the previous quarter. ARs' local trains put in a much better showing as usual: 88.1pc were punctual, pushing it up to third-placed regional TOC (out of 11).

West Anglia Great Northern (‘London & S-E operators’) returned average results for both peak (82.5pc) and off-peak (79.5pc) services, but Central Trains’ improvement - from 71.3% last year to 72.9% this - was not enough to lift it from the bottom of the regional TOCs’ table.

Punctual means ‘up to 10 mins late’ for long-distance operators; for the other operators mentioned here it signifies ‘up to 5 mins late’.


Rail travel costs more
Rail fares went up on January 4, with regulated fares rising by an average of 4.1pc. In our region the biggest rises - up to 6% - were faced by passengers travelling on the WAGN route to and from King's Lynn. Central Trains put up fares between 3.1% and 4.1%, but on Anglia Railways only main line season tickets increased, by a modest 0.7% - 3.2%.


All change at Thetford
What Norfolk County council describes as a "high-quality transport interchange" is to be created at Thetford station. Money for the scheme will come from the Council’s 2004-05 Local Transport Plan allocation.


Thumbs down for East Suffolk loop plan
The long campaign by East Suffolk Travellers' Association for a passing loop which could improve the train service between Beccles and Lowestoft has been dashed once more. To ESTA’s dismay, the SRA announced in December that it has put the £600,000 plans ‘on hold’ for financial reasons. ESTA chairman Trevor Garrod, who claims that the loop would enable trains to run hourly from Beccles to Ipswich, has written for support to the five MPs in the area served by the line.


Local stations to change hands
Central Trains is to hand over to Anglia Railways the operating leases of its twelve stations east of Peterborough. The move will take effect in February and is a preliminary stage in the SRA’s aim to put all East Anglian train services in the hands of a single operator.

The stations are Whittlesea, March, Manea, Shippea Hill, Lakenheath, Brandon, Thetford, Harling Rd, Eccles Rd, Attleborough, Spooner Row and Wymondham. They will be operated by Anglia Railways until the Greater Anglia franchise comes into effect. The handover will not alter Central’s Citylink services to and from Norwich and Stansted Airport.

Heritage, Narrow-Gauge and Miniature

Green Arrow to replace Oliver Cromwell at Bressingham
After 35 years in Norfolk, BR Britannia class 4-6-2 no. 70013 Oliver Cromwell is to leave Bressingham Steam Centre and return to the main line. The NRM-owned loco is to be a star exhibit at this summer's Railfest exhibition in York, following which it will undergo a three-year £100,000 restoration to main-line condition in the Loughborough workshops of the GCR.

As compensation, the NRM is to make a series of temporary loans to Bressingham. The first will be LNER V2 2-6-2 no. 60800 Green Arrow.


Mid-Norfolk's mid-week treat
Four trains a day on Wednesdays and Thursdays - that's what the Mid-Norfolk Railway has in store this summer. The MNR's recently-published 2004 timetable shows no fewer than four return journeys between Dereham and Wymondham every Wednesday and Thursday between July 21 and August 26 inclusive, with the first leaving Dereham at the unusually early time of 10.00. Other running days - broadly speaking weekends from March to October and Wednesdays from mid-May to mid-September - will see the traditional three trains a day running.


Trippers flock to the Bure Valley
Thanks to a sell-out Santa special season, the Bure Valley Railway carried a record 127,906 passengers in 2003, an increase of nearly 4% on the previous year. The BVR, which already employs eight full time staff, is currently advertising an extra seasonal operation/maintenance post.


Little Barford to return to Brockford
0-4-0ST Little Barford, which in 2003 deputised at the last minute for the NNR-based J15 0-6-0, will again visit the Mid-Suffolk Railway this summer. Little Barford will be in steam on every Sunday in August, and on August 30 (Bank Holiday Monday). A further steaming will take place on the weekend of September 18/19, when the centenary of the first trains on the “Middy” will be commemorated.


Museum cash for Holt and Sheringham
The North Norfolk Railway has been awarded a grant of £178,000 to improve its museums. Part of Holt goods shed will be fitted out as a museum and the railway will recruit two part-time staff. Displays in Sheringham signal box and ladies' waiting room will also be improved. The money comes as part of a £7m windfall of European and lottery finding to be shared by eleven Norfolk heritage sites between now and March 2007.

The NNR is also to receive £152,500 from the European Union, which will go towards extending Weybourne sheds and buying two bicycle-carrying vans.


We don't want the railway either, says Blythburgh
Showing solidarity with their Southwold neighbours (NRS Newsletter August , and October 03 ), Blythburgh residents have come down firmly against a £6.5 million scheme to rebuild the Southwold Railway. Despite an amendment which would move the park-and-ride interchange from Blythburgh to Henham, a public meeting called by the parish council saw the railway’s opponents prevail with a decisive 336-8 vote.

Equally vocal in their opposition are residents of the Larks Rise estate at Halesworth. "Trains would be passing slowly by our houses," said a spokesman, “...they would be a great intrusion into our privacy"


Bigger boiler for Hero?
With the Wells & Walsingham Light Railway’s mainstay locomotive, 2-6-0+0-6-2 Garratt Norfolk Hero, having experienced boiler tube failures this year, construction of a new, larger, boiler is under consideration.

Although it was well attended, the WWLR’s Steam Gala in September was not judged a success and the event will not be repeated next year.


Work begins on new Holt platform
Contractors have started building a new three-coach platform at the North Norfolk Railway's Holt station, as well as the 'skeleton' of an extension to accommodate three more coaches. It is hoped that the full-length platform will open in 2005. During the work trains will continue to use Holt's existing platform.

Away from the tracks

East Suffolk line history launched at Ipswich station
Recently published by Ian Allan is An Illustrated History of the East Suffolk Railway by John Brodribb. The book contains 450 illustrations and a foreword by Anglia Railways' managing director Tim Clarke. It was launched at Ipswich station on December 13 when the author signed copies in the booking hall.


Keen bidding for N&SJ signs
Artefacts from the diminutive Norfolk & Suffolk Joint Railway continue to surface. At a Surrey auction late last year £750 was paid to secure a N&SJ cast-iron “Firebuckets” notice, while at Sheffield Railwayana Auctions on December 6 this rare cast-iron notice made £350. The N&SJ was owned by the GER and the M&GN and consisted of two distinct sections: a line between North Walsham and Cromer via Mundesley, and a coastal route running from Gorleston to Lowestoft. Neither has survived apart from a 11/2-mile stretch just south of Cromer which forms part of today’s Bittern Line.

Also in the Sheffield sale were BR enamel totem signs from King’s Lynn and Haddiscoe which realised £3,100 and £1,600 respectively, as well as more Norfolk signalling items from the superb collection described in the October 03 NRS Newsletter .


Great Western or Great Eastern?
The Mid-Norfolk Railway came to the rescue in January when Norwich's Maddermarket Theatre put on The Ghost Train. Even though the comedy-thriller takes place in a Cornish station, and the windows on the stage set were duly inscribed “G.W.R.”, stage props were supplied by the MNR, and the production designer based his set on County School station.

The Ghost Train was written in 1925 by Arnold Ridley, who later made his name as Private Godfrey in TV’s Dad’s Army.





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