The MRUA Has Now Ceased

 The MRUA has now ceased.  Thank you for your support 

UPDATE

New trains

After the long hiatus in getting our new trains to work reliably, new class 720 suburban trains are being introduced into passenger service.   At the time of writing, six units were being used at any one time, formed into pairs, and were reaching Southend, Southminster, and Braintree.  A two unit, 10-car train is the same length as a 12-car set of old stock and holds many more passengers.  They should be reaching Ipswich in early Spring, with over 50 units constructed with most stored, waiting for installation of the latest software and for sufficient drivers to be trained.

The relatively modern class 360 (blue) trains have been rapidly phased out, and by the time you read this, all will be gone.  They are going to a new home at Kettering and will be used on the newly electrified St. Pancras to Bedford, Kettering, and Corby lines. They have been uprated to run at 110mph, not possible on the GE main line due to the frequency of stops.  They will be refurbished soon, with the new electric service starting in May.

The remaining old trains are of classes 321 and 322 and are in varying states of repair.  All are around thirty years old, and some of them are unlikely to be used again after they leave our lines.  The unmodified ones are draughty and basic and were called “dusty bins” when they were built.

All the new Stadler trains are in service with electric versions running from London to Norwich and Stansted Airport, and bi-modes (diesel and electric) being used on all non-electrified branch lines including Marks Tey to Sudbury.  

December 2021 timetable changes

The new trains have faster acceleration and braking, so can achieve faster point to point journey times.  So, it makes sense for the train timetables to be revised to reflect this.  The new one comes in next December and is currently out for consultation, with feedback needed by 12^th February.  If you have any particular issues that need addressing, please contact us.  What I do know is that the current pattern of two Norwich trains and a “stopper” to Ipswich will be maintained.  The “Norwich in 90” express trains will be retimed, and the current plan is to run them in the paths of our current 0853 and 0953 to London.  I have said that we would need substitute 0845 and 0945 trains from Ipswich which should still give us trains to London at the same time (the fast trains would go through earlier than this).  We also need a later last train back from London.  It was in 1988 that I first became involved in checking timetables, when Rosemary Smith and I managed to persuade BR to retain the Manningtree stop for Norwich trains.  Incredibly, Manningtree could have had just had one hourly slow train to London off peak. 

Engineering works

At the risk of repeating myself, if you need to travel by train at weekends, please check to ensure your trains are running.  Most Sunday services are being replaced by buses for part of the journey, adding an hour to journey times. I understand that there are still Crossrail works to be completed at Romford and Ilford that cannot be done while trains are running.  Another Crossrail related project is the extension of platforms 16 and 17 at Liverpool Street station so that full length 9-car trains can run rather than the current shortened 7-car ones.  

Greater Anglia Stakeholders Advisory Board

Part of the franchise commitment for the Greater Anglia rail franchise was the setting up of a Stakeholders Advisory Board to provide consumer feedback on rail issues.  I was invited to join the Board a couple of years ago and have found it very useful for keeping rail managers “on their toes”.   I have the dubious reputation for being quite vocal there, but it is all very measured, and we do get things done that benefit rail users throughout the area.  An issue that is top of the agenda is getting targeted investment to improve our rail infrastructure.

Haughley and Ely infrastructure improvements

Many of you will have noticed long trains of shipping containers on the Great Eastern main line crossing the Stour at Cattawade. These head up to London before returning north to the Midlands and North of England.   However, there is a direct route via Bury St. Edmunds and Peterborough that parallels the A14, but this is so constricted that few container trains can use it.  The pinch points are Haughley Junction (north of Stowmarket), Soham (a long stretch of single track) and Ely North (a three-way major junction).  At both Haughley and Ely resignalling schemes desogned in the 1980s have left key junctions with stretches of single track that prevent frequent train services.   Ideally this cross-country route should be double track and electrified throughout to provide a low carbon direct alternative to the A14 trunk road.  Each of these container trains can take 70 HGVs off the A14, a big CO₂ saving. 

Upgrading this line should be the highest priority if this government’s climate change commitments are to be met, but controversial road schemes still get the money first (for example the £1.5 billion A303 Stonehenge by-pass).

Derek Monnery

AGM - Rescheduled

The rescheduled AGM will now be held at 7:30pm on Wednesday 22nd May in the Station Buffet.

2019 AGM

The 2019 Manningtree Rail Users Association AGM will be held in the Station Buffet on the 8th April at 7:30pm.  All welcome.

15 Minute Delay Repay

Press Release from Greater Anglia dated 12th March 2019

IMPROVED COMPENSATION BOOST FOR GREATER ANGLIA PASSENGERS

Passengers on Greater Anglia are set to benefit from improved compensation thanks to a new deal signed between the operator and the Department for Transport (DfT).  From 1 April 2019, they will be able to claim compensation for journeys delayed between 15 and 29 minutes under the Delay Repay 15 (DR15) scheme.

This means that passengers, who take over 80 million journeys a year on the Greater Anglia network, will be able to claim back 25% of the single fare, irrespective of the cause of the delay. Existing  compensation arrangements already exist for delays of 30 minutes or over.  

Greater Anglia was determined to introduce DR15 as soon as possible after Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Transport, announced in October 2016 that DR15 should be rolled out to all rail franchises.

In recent years, the company has also taken positive steps to increase awareness of the customer compensation options available, make the claims process simpler and give customers more choice in the ways that they can receive their compensation.  Customers can now claim compensation online, by email or by hard copy form. Compensation can be transferred directly into your bank account, as a credit on your credit card, by voucher, Paypal or alternatively as a charitable donation. This latter option was introduced by Greater Anglia last summer, following feedback from customers and stakeholders, and has already raised over £8,000 for the Samaritans charity.  

Rail Minister Andrew Jones said:

“Our top priority is ensuring passengers see the reliable and punctual services they expect, but when things do go wrong, it’s only right that they are compensated fairly and quickly. This is why the launch of DR15 on Greater Anglia is important news for passengers, providing them with better compensation if their services are delayed.”

Commenting on the introduction of Delay Repay 15 for Greater Anglia customers, Jamie Burles, Managing Director for Greater Anglia said :

“We’re delighted to be able to provide better compensation, with the launch of Delay Repay 15 from next month and we are sure it will be welcomed by our customers. We’ve worked in close partnership with the Department for Transport to offer this significant benefit during the existing franchise as soon as possible, meeting our customers’ aspirations to see this upgrade earlier than expected.

It’s all part of a wider transformation of train service standards in East Anglia that sees us bringing in a complete fleet of brand-new trains across our entire network over the next two years, with the first new trains due in service later this year.  We’re fully focused on improving punctuality and reliability, in collaboration with Network Rail, but customers will now be able to claim compensation for any delays of 15 minutes and over, when things do go wrong.”

Greater Anglia Rail Prospects for 2019

Introduction

The area has seen a disappointing rail service with delayed, cancelled and short formed trains leading to a poor customer experience.  This, coupled with rail fares that increase in price regardless of service quality, has led to increasing customer dissatisfaction, especially at peak travel times.  

Rail fares

Regulated rail fares continue to rise every year in accordance with the retail prices index, which gives a higher rate of increase than other indices.  Compared with other European countries fares are ridiculously high, being three times those of Germany and France, and ten times those of Italy.   Since 2010, fuel price duty has been frozen, with no increases, so a 25% differential has been created.  This has made car commuting, even for a sole driver, a far more attractive proposition.

Trains

The existing rail fleet will be entirely replaced during the next two years.  Meanwhile the old fleet is worked hard.  Some trains are becoming quite tatty, and all are becoming less reliable.  Failing units lead to short formed trains, which can be a real problem during peak periods, as trains become severely overcrowded.   This sort of travel experience hardly encourages a productive day at work.  New trains have started to arrive, with four new bi-mode trains for country branch lines now delivered for testing and driver training; the first of these should enter service in May 2019.

Infrastructure

Replacement of old overhead wires is nearly complete so issues relating to sagging wires in hot weather should now be history.   However, other infrastructure issues such as power failures, signal failures and defective track have been far more frequent in 2018 than they should have been. 

Freight Trains

Most freight trains from Felixstowe are carrying containers bound for the north of England, yet repeated delays in improving the cross-country rail route mean that most of these trains use the main line between Ipswich and Stratford, where they transfer to the North London line.  It is at this point (Stratford) that these trains cause chaos to our train services. Often the trains are forced to queue up to enter the north London line (which is very congested), and in transiting they block the main line for three or four minutes, as the trains are long (30 wagons) and must negotiate a 20mph speed limit at this point.   On numerous occasions the writer has been on main line trains that have been held up for a freight train for several minutes, enough time for all the train connections to be missed.   As most connecting trains only run hourly, the inconvenience to rail travellers is very real and a strong discouragement to train travel.  Recent upgrades to the Felixstowe branch will make this problem much worse, as more of these trains will be running throughout the day.

Summary

Until the government sets aside funds for strategic rail upgrades needed to divert freight away from the Great Eastern main line, it will be very difficult to run a reliable train service.   Also, Network Rail needs to instigate a series of measures to make the infrastructure more reliable.   So although new trains will arrive during 2019, they will continue to provide an unreliable train service.

Derek Monnery

Chairman, Essex Rail Users Federation

January 2019

Manningtree Station To Gain 220 More Parking Spaces

Manningtree station car park is to be extended by 220 spaces.  NCP has announced that the work will be completed by September 2019.  The extension will be achieved by extending the surface area - to be completed by the summer - and then extending the decking.

Work is due to start in February 2019.