Tuesday 31 August 2010

Negligent Anglia Rail Crossing Inspector Sacked

Network Rail has sacked a maintenance worker for failing to inspect level crossings in the Anglia area.  The employee was sacked for deliberately falsifying records regarding the inspection of railway level crossings.  Network Rail have confirmed that several crossings were involved but did not say where.  A number of crossings in the Anglia area, which includes Essex, had not been inspected when they should have been.

Thursday 26 August 2010

National Stations Improvement Programme

As part of the National Stations Improvement Programme, National Express East Anglia (NXEA) will be carrying out significant building work at four local stations, Billericay, Colchester, Marks Tey and Brentwood, in the coming months.  Leaflets explaining the work will be distributed shortly and NXEA will also be holding a series of local briefings with stakeholders and customers including a 'Meet the Manager' session at each station as follows:

  • Billericay - 1st September
  • Colchester - 2nd September
  • Marks Tey - 7th September
  • Brentwood - 14th September

Precise timings of these events will be advertised locally.

Tuesday 24 August 2010

Extra Trains For Clacton Airshow

National Express East Anglia (NXEA) is providing extra train services to the Clacton Airshow on Thursday 26 and Friday 27 August. Extra trains will run on both days of this year’s Airshow between Colchester and all stations to Clacton-on-Sea. In addition, a special train service will also operate between Walton-on-the-Naze and Clacton-on-Sea.

Some services between Colchester and Walton-on-the-Naze will be diverted to run to Clacton, passengers for stations on the Walton branch should change at Thorpe-le-Soken. For full details see the NXEA website.

Thursday 19 August 2010

Normal Service Resumes Between Sudbury and Marks Tey

National Express East Anglia has confirmed that a normal timetabled service between Sudbury and Marks Tey will resume on Friday 20th August.

Wednesday 18 August 2010

Extra Services for V Festival

National Express East Anglia will be providing extra services for this weekend's V Festival 2010 as follows: 

Travelling to Chelmsford – Saturday 21 August
Additional train services will call at Chelmsford.  For details go to the NXEA Website

Travelling from Chelmsford – Saturday 21 August 
Additional services will operate to London, Colchester, Clacton and Ipswich. For details go to the NXEA Website

The last trains will depart:

• to London at 01.30 on Sunday morning,
• to Colchester at 01.33 on Sunday morning
• to Southend at 01.30 on Sunday morning (changing at Shenfield)
• to Ipswich at 01.00 on Sunday morning
• to Clacton-on-Sea at 23.53.

Travelling to Chelmsford – Sunday 22 August
Many additional train services will call at Chelmsford throughout the day
Additional services will operate from Liverpool Street to Chelmsford from 10.15 to 15.15.

Travelling from Chelmsford – Sunday 22 August
Additional train services will operate from Chelmsford to Liverpool Street from 19.45 until 01.30.
Additional services will also operate to Colchester, Clacton and Ipswich.

The last trains will depart:

• to London at 01.30 on Monday morning
• to Colchester at 01.33 on Monday morning
• to Southend at 01.30 on Monday morning (changing at Shenfield)
• to Ipswich at 01.03 on Monday morning.
• to Clacton-on-Sea at 00.13 on Monday morning

Bus Replacement Service Between Marks Tey And Sudbury

Following yesterday's accident near Sudbury National Express East Anglia are running a replacement bus service between Sudbury and Marks Tey.  Details of timings can be found here

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Freight Takes A Step Closer to Avoiding London

Network Rail has agreed to install double track on the new curve being installed north of East Suffolk Junction near Ipswich.  This new track will allow freight from Felixstowe to reach the Midlands and north of England without having to travel via London, along the Great Eastern mainline.  Quite apart from freeing up space on the line to London it is estimated that by 2030 the new cross country route will be taking 750,000 lorry journeys off the busy A14 each year.

Monday 16 August 2010

Possible 8% Fare Increases

Following on from our earlier item dated 19th July suggesting possible 10% fare increases, the Daily Telegraph is today suggesting rises of 8% are on the cards.  Currently most fares are capped at the July Retail Price Index (RPI) + 1 but the Telegraph is claiming that the formula could be changed to RPI + 2 or 3.  With the RPI figure for July expected to be 5% this would mean a possible increase of 8%.

Whether the rises are 8% or 10%, this is still a significant increase that is likely to make rail travel less attractive to many.

'Bread And Buffers' Campaign Gathers Pace At Billericay Station

A petition to save the shop at Billericay station now has over 2,000 signatures. 'Bread and Buffers' has been threatened with closure by National Express East Anglia (NXEA) as part of the redevelopment of Billericay station.  Local MP John Barron last month presented a petition to the Secretary of State for Transport with 1,000 signatures calling for the popular shop to stay, and another thousand signatures have been added since then.

Hugh and Nadia McMahon have run 'Bread and Buffers' for 18 years and have made it a popular and integral part of Billericay station and it is hoped that NXEA will reconsider their decision as soon as possible.

Wednesday 4 August 2010

NXEA Awards Contract For Provision of Onboard WiFi

National Express East Anglia (NXEA) has awarded the contract for installing and maintaining internet connectivity on London - Norwich intercity services to public transport vendor Icomera.  As previously reported here this initiative has been partly funded by a £346,000 grant from the East of England Development Agency and Norfolk and Suffolk County Councils.

It is expected that Vodafone and Orange will provide the cellular backhaul with each network being capable of download speeds of up to 7.2 megabits per second.  It is not clear at this stage how the service, which is due to be up and running by the end of 2010, will be accessed by customers.  For example there has been no mention of whether there will be a charge or whether the likely service provision by Vodafone and Orange precludes users of other service providers from using the service.