Congestion At Ipswich Station
Ipswich station suffers from too much traffic and not enough platforms
This set of pictures was taken as I changed trains for Felixstowe, at around 12:00
In the short time, I was there, I saw the following trains go through the station.
- A Norwich to London Express.
- A London to Norwich Express
- A very long freight train.
- A train arrive from Lowestoft and wait in Platform 1.
- My train arrived from Felixstowe.
What made matters worse was a light engine sitting on the avoiding line between the two main lines.
I took these pictures later on my return from Felixstowe.
The two sets of pictures illustrate some of the problems at Ipswich station.
- There is a large number of freight and passenger trains, that go through the station.
- The platforms available for services to Cambridge, Felixstowe, Lowestoft, Norwich and Peterborough is limited.
- Trains sometimes have to terminate in the Through Up Platform 2.
- Two long passenger trains per hour between London and Norwich, go through in each direction.
Unfortunately, 3 and 4 interact badly with each other and this interaction will get worse with the new Flirt trains, which are longer than the current trains.
One solution would be a second bay platform, alongside the current Platform 1.
The new Greater Anglia Franchise has also had a sort out of services through Ipswich. The two most important ones that will be implemented are.
- Peterborough-Ipswich will be hourly and continues to Colchester. So Colchester has the problem of turning the train.
- The hourly Liverpool Street to Ipswich service will be extended to Norwich, to increase the Liverpool Street to Norwich frequency to three trains per hour.
These two changes reduce the amount of platform space needed, as these services will stop and hopefully be quickly on their way!
A Good Look At Platform 1 At Ipswich Station And The Work On The Far Side
In Curious Rail Construction At Ipswich Station, I wondered what was happening on the far side of Platform 1 in the station.
This morning although there was congestion later, that I wrote about in Congestion At Ipswich Station, the platform was empty long enough for me to take these pictures.
Note that in the pictures and this reasoning, I refer to the construction as Platform 0, but it could be just a ramp so that drivers can access their freight locomotives.
Consider.
- Platform 1 would accommodate a five-car train and it could be lengthened to perhaps six-cars.
- Platform 0 would accommodate a one-car Class 163 train or possibly a two-car train.
- It might be possible to extend Platform 0 towards the main part of the station, by digging out the corner of the car park and moving a few steel girders.
- The end supports for the catenary would need replacing with a longer Platform 0, but that is not difficult electrification.
- An extended Platform 0, wouldn’t need moving of the free bicycle parking and the waiting room.
- If Platform 0 and 1 were for Felixstowe and Lowestoft, interchange between the two lines and London trains would be easy.
- Changing from trains from London to trains at Platforms 0 and 1 would be by using the nearby recently-built step-free bridge.
With two bay platforms 0 and 1, there would be no need to use Platform 2 as a terminus, as my Felixstowe train did today.
The curious point, is that except for the Express London to Norwich services, there are no current or planned electric passenger services to Norfolk or the West from Ipswich.
So why are the wires in Platform 1 and the area that could become platform 0, so comprehensive?
I believe that Greater Anglia might be thinking of running electric trains with on-board energy storage from the station.
Felixstowe is the most likely possibility, as the other routes could be too long.
So could we see a five-car Aventra with on-board energy storage shuttling along the Felixstowe branch?
It’s all a bit different from the Class 105 train, that I rode on the route in the early-1960s
As I said a few days ago, it’s all very curious.
The Anonymous Widower 