Norwich In 90

In case you haven't seen it there is a very good article in the latest Rail magazine (issue 779) about the Norwich in 90 Campaign. Worth a look.

MRUA Meeting with AGA and Bernard Jenkin MP

The MRUA has met with Jamie Burles, MD of Abellio Greater Anglia and Bernard Jenkin MP.  Subjects discussed were many a varied but included:

• Train Reliability
• Fares
• Communication
• Car parking
• Station Approach at Manningtree
• A137 Underpass
• Rail track funding issues
• Mark 3 (Inter City)  coach refurbishment
• New Franchise
• New Trains
• Crossrail Ticketing
• GE Mainline Capacity
• Freight Loops

Can You Help...?

A lady living in Capel St Mary is looking for somebody who might be able to offer her a lift to the station.  She usually travels between 7:30am and 8:00 Monday to Friday but due to an injured foot cannot currently drive to the station.  If you think you might be able to help then please let us know and we'll put you in touch.

Refurbished Inter City Carriages

The first of the refurbished Inter City carriages has now entered service.  The pics below look quite encouraging - let us know what you think.

Lifts For Manningtree

Things are suddenly gaining pace in getting lifts installed at Manningtree station that could well see them installed before the end of this franchise (Oct 2016).  Watch this space for more information....

Footfall At Manningtree Station

Firstly, apologies for the lack of content recently but things have been a tad hectic.  But do remember that our Twitter account - @ManningtreeRUA - is another source of information.

Interesting statistics released recently confirm the extraordinary rise in passenger numbers at Manningtree Station.  Never quite sure how they measure such things but apparently 1,154,294 journeys were made from Manningtree in 2014.  This is an increase of 5.6% over the previous year and a staggering 38.4% increase from 2009.

You may be aware that there are plans to build a significant number of new houses in the area in the coming years.  If you know of anybody who might be thinking of moving to the area based on the claims of the developers that London is only an hour's commute away, you might like to point out a few facts to ensure they know what they're committing to.  For example, if you're travelling after 6:30am you're going to struggle to get a seat, especially on Inter-City Services.  For the occasional traveller, car parking is all but non existent after 9am. And so on...

East Anglia Rail Franchise Consultation

As you may be aware the current rail franchise run by Abellio Greater Anglia ends of 16th October 2016.  The Department for Transport has launched a consultation process to ensure that the views of interested parties are taken into account when deciding the specification of the new franchise.  This is an opportunity therefore to make our case for a better service.

Details of the consultation can be found here and we strongly urge you to respond.