"West Anglia" May/Decmber 2011 consultation

[jopsuk]

NXEA are consulting on changes with the introduction of the Class 379.

The "easy" changes:

West Anglia and Stansted Express improvements

With the introduction of new rolling stock we will:-

• provide additional train service capacity into London Liverpool Street on a weekday morning capable of accommodating an additional 16000 (11000 seats and 5000 standing) passengers from the West Anglia and Great Eastern routes in the three hour peak and an additional 5,000 passengers in the high peak by December 31 2011;
• introduce 120 new electric vehicles to be deployed primarily on the Stansted Express route, but also on some Cambridge – London services;
• cascade the majority of the displaced Class 317 vehicles, currently deployed on Stansted Express services, onto other West Anglia services;
• extend a number of peak London Liverpool Street to Cambridge services to 12 carriages (from 8 now)
• extend a number of other peak West Anglia services to 8 carriages (from 4 now) on the lines to Enfield, Chingford, Hertford and Bishop’s Stortford
  

This is all very welcome- but is just "more units means longer trains". The actual changes are in this bit:

Issue on which your views would be welcomed

We have developed some new ideas to deliver even more improvements for passengers following the introduction of the new trains. We would, therefore, appreciate your comments on the following proposals:

• To introduce a faster, hourly off peak service between Cambridge and London, using the new class 379 trains, which calls only at Whittlesford, Audley End, Bishop’s Stortford and Tottenham Hale.
• To switch the hourly Stratford to Stansted Airport service to a twice an hour Bishops Stortford to Stratford service with connections to Stansted Airport (except for special services during the Olympics and Paralympics period)
• To reduce Stansted Express journey times by looping the Hertford East service at Broxbourne to allow a Stansted Express service to pass it (this will add around 3 to 4 minutes into the journey time of the Hertford East service)
• To run, in the morning peak, 3 x 12 car services with new trains from Cambridge to London or, alternatively use the same new trains to run 2 x 12 car services from Cambridge and 1 x 12 car service from Stansted Airport
• To introduce a new service from Cambridge or Ely to Stansted Airport on the opposite half hour to the Cross Country service.
  
  

The extra "fast" off-peak Cambridge-London is interesting- the current "semi-fast" services serve in addition Harlow Town, Sawbridgeworth, Broxbourne and Chesunt. I wonder if this will reach Liverpool Street in under an hour?

Presumably cutting back the Stratford-Stansted to Bishops Stortford is tied to the Cambridge-Stansted proposal?

 

[dk1]

So NXEA are still holding on to that Stansted path released by the Stratford to run a much needed half-hourly service from Cambridge. I know they will do anything rather than hand it over to XC, but lets look at extending the Norwich rather than just start Ely/Cambridge. No doubt they will give lack of dmu's as a reply.

 

[jopsuk]

If they start at Ely, that would give interchange with the EMT and NXEA services from Norwich- not ideal, but better than nothing. Lack of DMUs would be a valid answer- and part of the point would be to utilise 317s released by the 379s. I'd hope that it would be an "all stops" service- the current XC only serves (between Cambridge and the airport) Audley End.

The plan would result in a considerable increase in trains on the Cambridge-Stansted junction north stretch. At the moment there's three/hour each way off peak, this would be five. There's a lot of level crossings, including two ones with busy traffic at Shelford.

 

[TheBigD]

I would imagine that the main obstacle with extending the Norwich DMU's is the fact that they would have to use platform 2 at Stansted. That's already occupied for 40 minutes each hour with XC services.

 

[Flywaver]

To be honest. Audley End is a complete waste of time off peak. Its always dead. Coleshill even fairs better! XC only stop there as its Grandfather rights or political....
Platform 2 has only just got the go ahead to allow 4 car 170s next year.
Although i cant see those running due to lost revenue. Would mean a Voyager can creep across if there is a unit shortage like they use on the odd local Leicester.
If London Midland got the 172s ontime then XC might of been able to bid to half hourly with extra 170s....

 

[cle]

I always wondered what was so special about Audley End, being a compulsory stop. Some landowner nonsense, surely they can get out of that somehow? Stockport Viaduct was similarly circumvented.

Surely a fast Cambridge train could just call at Bishops Stortford and Tottenham Hale? Or how about Stansted, and Tottenham - reversing at the airport? Would cover the Cambridge - airport journey well too.

Then again, maybe a local Cambridge - Stansted journey would be good for local traffic.

Ideally, that tunnel needs to be doubled. With the new Cambridge platforms too, this route could handle some decent improvements. The journey time from Tottenham to Liverpool St is also quite painful, and Tottenham - Chueshunt could be better too!

 

[jopsuk]

Audley End is essentially Saffron Walden Parkway- Walden is a reasonable sized town (about 15,000 people) but at best has only ever had a branch line serve it directly.

 

[Electrostar]

I think CLE is correct. I've heard that when the railway was built the landowner would only allow the line to pass through his land on the understanding that every future passenger train stops there. (I've heard of other quirks like this existing around the country, including landowners who allowed the railways to pass but forbid the building of engine sheds, depots or goods yards in a bid to encourage a higher class of people to the area!)

Saffron Walden is still a fair distance away but as Jopsuk mentions it's a sizable market town which probably should have its own station - but I guess that's historical development for you!