The Anonymous Widower

To Norwich in the Snow

The train from Dullingham to Cambridge was a few minutes late but for once in the last few weeks, it was actually two coaches, so it was fairly comfortable.  The Cambridge to Norwich train was a three coach, Class 170. It has been promised that the two coach version of this train will be used on the Ipswich Cambridge line after December 12th.  But hopefully, I’ll have moved before I need to use one. 

The train sped through the snow, as this picture shows. 

Through the Snow to Norwich

It reminds me off the old joke about the old lady who’d been on a train journey on a very snowy day and asked the conductor, “How does the driver know where he’s going, when he can’t see the rails.” 

Norwich incidentally, is the only town in East Anglia with a proper railway station, with enough platforms laid out so that trains can be despatched efficiently. 

Inside Norwich Station

But is it not to be expected that East Anglia, the forgotten part of the UK, has such awful stations, as there are always more important places to buy votes, especially when Labour is in power.  Norwich station seems to have slipped through the financial net or it could be that it is East Anglia’s only terminal station and was built properly in the first place.

But think of the others.

Bury St. Edmunds is best described as a building in keeping with the ruins of the Abbey.

Cambridge is effectively one long platform, which is the third longest in England, where trains are shunted, coupled and decoupled to try to run an effcient service. At least it is going to be upgraded with a new long platform.  Hopefully, this will allow, Ipswich, Norwich and services to and past Peterborough to be expanded.

Ely is a busy junction station that works, but it is not the best place to connect between north-south and east-west services.  It could do with a proper bridge and/or  lifts so that passengers can transfer easier and a lot more car parking.

Felixstowe is a halt in the car park of a shopping centre.

Great Yarmouth is a low cost industrial building with a few facilities.

Ipswich is really a two platform halt on the main London to Norwich line, with additional platforms for the branches tucked along the sides.

Newmarket is a single platform with a shelter

November 28, 2010 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Cambridge, Great Yarmouth, Ipswich, Norwich, Trains