The Anonymous Widower

Ranging Around Suffolk And Norfolk

I took the 09:30 Mark 3 express out of Liverpool Street station to Ipswich, buying a Day Ranger ticket for East Anglia north of Ipswich and Cambridge on the way from the conductor on the train for £11.40.

I hadn’t really decided on a route, but I started by taking the single coach Class 153 to Felixstowe and back.

The service between Ipswich and Felixstowe is now nearly twenty trains each way in the day and it seems to be more reliable since the Bacon Factory Curve has opened, which means that the service doesn’t have to thread its way through freight movements in Ipswich yard. Hopefully incidents like the one I suffered here, will happen less often.

When I lived in the town in the early 1960s, there were just a handful of services each way. It did wonders for a teenager’s social life when you didn’t have a car. The train I took wasn’t full, but it was pretty busy, with lots of families and tourists with buggies and bikes.

I wonder how long it will be, before the Felixstowe branch will be generating enough traffic for a two-car train? As it is, because of the length of the line, where a journey takes just twenty-five minutes or so, it means that an hourly service can be achieved with just one train.

There have been calls to reopen Felixstowe Beach station, but this simple schedule would be broken and two trains and some clever train operating would be required. So I’d be surprised, if it ever opened. It would probably be a lot cheaper to fund a bus, that met the train and distributed and collected the passengers all over Felixstowe.

The only way it will open, is if they electrify the line and the Port of Felixstowe encourages staff to come to work by train to a rebuilt Felixstowe Beach/Port station. But again, a bus from Felixstowe station would probably be better and more affordable.

Unfortunately, from Felixstowe I had to return to Ipswich to get the train to Lowestoft, as there is no easy train connection at Westerfield any more between the Lowestoft and Felixstowe branches .

At Ipswich, I was treated to a passing through of one of Mark 3 expresses in Greater Anglia’s new livery. These coaches just refuse to go quietly.

On the trip to Lowestoft, I used the new disabled toilet, that as I reported had been recently installed in the Class 156. The most remarkable thing about using the toilet was that I didn’t realise it was the new design. It was different and slightly more compact, but you didn’t have to think about how you used the door or the flush. But then that is the test of good design. If your target users don’t immediately know how to use something, then it is a bad design.

At Lowestoft I walked across the platforms to take another Class 156 on the Wherry Line to Norwich, where I stayed on the train to take the Bittern Line to Sheringham, where I intended to have lunch.

I did make a mistake in that my train back from Sheringham to Norwich, didn’t connect with a direct Cambridge train, as many do.  So I had to go to Ely on a Nottingham service, before buying a ticket from there to London on First Capital Connect. My Ranger ticket covered the journey to Ely and I spent another £12.50 to get home.

Greater Anglia’s scheduling of the trains I took was excellent, as I didn’t wait more than a few minutes at either change of train or service. Looking at the timetables, it would appear that some journeys like say Beccles to Sheringham use these quick changes to minimise journey times. With a few more trains, it might even be possible to tie all these services together on an hourly basis. After all, if you knew that if you turned up at Lowestoft, Ipswich or Norwich and that in a few minutes your next train would be leaving, it would be a great incentive to travel by train.

Judging by the people, I saw on these busy trains, Greater Anglia will find that their services around Norfolk and Suffolk will see an increasing patronage.

June 21, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Norfolk, Suffolk, Trains