New Greater Anglia Franchise in 2011

[Pyromaniac]

If that's the National Rail Inquiries Live Departure boards, it's a website, not a gadget. From personal experience, I'd have to say it's far from being 100% accurate...

Ash

See the thing on the top right...

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/5972/desktoplb.png

Cheers

PT

[eastern]

will class 321 operate sometimes to Norwich in new Greater Anglia franchise ?

[Pyromaniac]

No, although i have heard rumours that the Intercity stock may be replaced by 442/444-esque stock in the future.

Cheers

PT

[eastern]

I fancy class 444 EMU on Norwich service in the future. will be 344 or 444? I know 444 are dc rail and 344 are AC overhead if 344 similar class 360.

[GlennMitchell]

The SWT 444s aren't all that great. There is no luggage space for suitcases which, in my opinion, is sub-standard for an "intercity" train. Especially one that goes to places like Portsmouth (Ferries,) Southampton (Ferries/Cruises/Airport,) Bournemouth, Poole, and Weymouth (Holiday destinations.) That said, They are (just about ) comfy enough and they do serve the purpose of carrying immense numbers of commuters from places like Woking, Guildford and Basingstoke to and from London every day.

Glenn

[eastern]

The Norwich to Ninety campaign aims to persuade the Department for Transport to include a range of improvements to the Norwich to London line as part of the new Greater Anglia franchise specification.

Whatever is included in the new franchise will be the service that is delivered for rail passengers on the Great Eastern Main Line for the next decade.

We want:

• A ninety-minute journey time between Norwich and London.

• More reliable services, improving upon recent performance.

• New Inter-City style trains including features such as wi-fi.

• More train capacity - but without down-grading the Norwich to London service to commuter-style carriages.

• Station improvements, including better car parking and facilities for waiting passengers.

We will also be campaigning for other improvements including:
• Cleanliness and comfort
• On-board facilities such as wi-fi and catering
• Measures introduced to reduce engineering disruption
• Improvements to rural lines

The Norwich to London line is a crucial economic artery, linking Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex to London. Investment is essential to bring it into the 21st century and to allow these counties to remain competitive.

For example the 115 mile journey from London to Norwich takes around 1hr 50mins, yet Birmingham (118 miles) can be reached in only 1hr 23 mins and York (180 miles) in 1 hr 59mins.


I ask what is commuter-style carriages what units??

[Pyromaniac]

I thought there was an Ipswich in 90 minutes campaign?

Anyway i am part of a fantasy transport management sim seperate of UKTS and i am the Managing Director/Dictator of what in real life is c2c and National Express East Anglia, and a regular user of both in real life so here are my thoughts on the Great Eastern Main Line...

The major problem will always be the limited track space with the line only double track from Shenfield to Norwich. This limited trackspace is then filled up 6 passengers trains per hour all of which have a vastly different stopping patterns to serve all the stations on the GEML and all of which end up at different terminii, this itself produces odd headways between trains and one oddity is the calling pattern at Marks Tey for example. Into this we have to throw quite a few freight trains and in the event of a line problem, trains stack up very quickly. Another factor with the Intercity trains is their long stop time at stations compared to the other units on the line.

There is no quick fix that i can see and although i have gathered a few thoughts i have yet to sit down and actually see how in the heck these would actually work!

Thats my thoughts anyway .

Cheers

PT

[ChrisSargeant]

Just my input as a regular commuter from both Colchester and Shenfield to Liverpool Street.

The Liv St.-Norwich Trains InterCity Mk3 Stock/Class 90 Locos should be wholly replaced by new Class 377/5 Electrostar in 12 coach formations, as used on the London-Brighton line. They are comfortable and have quick loading and unloading times due to fairly numerous power doors. They would need a trolley buffet service though.

The Class 360's are disappointing. The passenger environment, whilst air conditioned isn't that good - noisy fans all of the time and, a too upright seating rake. The Class 357 Electrostars used on the C2C line are much superior in all respects. (Why the Clacton commuters don't protest more since the rest of their journeys are provided by tired Class 321's - a long way from Class 309's!)

The freight traffic has increased over the last year or so. Whilst this is good for the envuironment, since it's Class 66 diesel hauled they are slow to get moving and don't go much over 60 mph. (What happened to Class 86, etc. Electric loco haulage?) They should be restricted to moving at off peak times only - preferably during the night which would make better overall utilisation of the route.

Colchester - Colchester Town should be provided with a 15 minute shuttle all day since, the latter station is more convenient for the shops, as it's so named. Also, there is much new housing on that side of Colchester that needs to be served, especially as the bus services using the inefficient road network and hilly terrain take too long to cross from one side of the town to the other.

The Shenfield-Colchester two-track section is a bottleneck - it could be improved by using the passing loops at Witham more also, reinstating a bi-directional third line between the platforms at Chelmsford, which could be used for overtaking fast trains in the the morning and evening peaks up and down respectively. More prioritising of faster services over the whole route between Liverpool St. and Colchester, especially when there are delays - i.e., use the loops at Stratford, Shenfield, Mountnessing (nr. Ingatestone), etc. Cannot the signalmen be more creative? It seems a computer program is running sticking to the order of services as per timetable without any flexibility.

[kieranhardy]

The Class 360's are disappointing. The passenger environment, whilst air conditioned isn't that good - noisy fans all of the time and, a too upright seating rake. The Class 357 Electrostars used on the C2C line are much superior in all respects. (Why the Clacton commuters don't protest more since the rest of their journeys are provided by tired Class 321's - a long way from Class 309's!)

I rarely use the 321's but in the few times i have been on one i've wanted to get off them very quickly. They feel dirty and are generally unpleasant units to sit in, their only upside is i've felt the 'cushioned' seats are better than those on the 360's. I don't mind the 360's as they are quite spacious but i do agree with the loud air condition fans. I've fallen asleep on many of them when i come back from my travels so they must have a degree of comfort!

I do like the stock used on the norwich - london runs though, while not always spotless they are quite comfy. I also have to mention the DMU's that are often running the sudbury/sheringham runs. Usually filthy but quite comfy, problem is the newer the trains the uncomfier the seating gets.

[eastern]

NXEA class 360s will run ipswich to Norwich in december 2010 timetable see network rail's at

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20d ... notice.pdf

[danielw2599]

Ok just a couple of points...

The freight traffic has increased over the last year or so. Whilst this is good for the envuironment, since it's Class 66 diesel hauled they are slow to get moving and don't go much over 60 mph. (What happened to Class 86, etc. Electric loco haulage?) They should be restricted to moving at off peak times only - preferably during the night which would make better overall utilisation of the route.

The problem with freight is not getting up to speed but rather maintaning it. The average speed of a class 4 freight is alot higher than a class 1 passenger that stops at nearly every station but the freight still takes lower priority. Electric freight traction is still used on the GE but only by Freightliner on certain services, DBS nor GBRF have the resources or facilities to use electric locos. Even so, electric locos bring their own issues, these being the frequent engine swaps needed at Ipswich which uses more resources (time, train crew etc etc) and is more fallable to problems with the OHLE.

Most freight services along the GE are booked off peak or during the night, but during the night is where most of the engineering work takes places which limits capacity considerably.

It seems a computer program is running sticking to the order of services as per timetable without any flexibility

Rightly or wrongly that is exactly how the railway is operated, to a booked path and a booked timetable....it reduces all sorts of problems such as overall delay and stock or train crew displacement.

[eastern]

I wonder if new december 2010 new nxea timetable

London liverpool street to Ipswich : calling at chelmsford, colchester, manningtree, ipswich or Liverpool street to Ipswich calling at stratford, shenfield, chelmsford, witham, colchester, manningtree, ipswich

Liverpool street to clacton calling at straford, shenfield, chelmsford, witham, marks tey, colchester, wivenhoe, thorpe le soken, clacton.

[craftsmaster]

The Greater Anglia franchise provides local, suburban and express train services from London Liverpool Street to north and east Greater London, Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk. Greater Anglia combined train services previously operated by Anglia Railways, First Great Eastern and the West Anglia part of the WAGN (West Anglia and Great Northern) operation, including the Stansted Express in April 2004.