The Anonymous Widower

Could Greater Anglia Run A Comprehensive Service For East Anglia?

Consider.

• In the last fifty years, there have been direct trains between London Liverpool Street and Lowestoft stations.
• In the last forty years, there have been direct trains between London Liverpool Street and Peterborough stations.
• Greater Anglia currently run an hourly train between London Liverpool Street and Ipswich stations, with stops at Stratford, Shenfield, Chelmsford, Hatfield Peverel, Witham, Kelvedon, Marks Tey, Colchester and Manningtree
• Frequencies on both routes were not high and less than four trains per day (tpd), but they must have been a demand for these services.
• Greater Anglia promised to run a Lowestoft service, when they successfully reapplied for the franchise.
• Greater Anglia have 38 Class 755 trains, of which 14 are three-cars and 24 are four-cars.
• Class 755 trains can run in twoses and possibly threeses. (Suffolk dialect for twins and triplets!)

Could these elements be assembled to provide a comprehensive East Anglia service?

• A pair of Class 755 trains would leave Liverpool Street for Ipswich.
• They would takeover some of the paths of the hourly Liverpool Street and Ipswich service and run possibly about four or five tpd, according to demand.
• Between Liverpool Street and Ipswich the trains could stop at Stratford, Shenfield, Chelmsford, Hatfield Peverel, Witham, Kelvedon, Marks Tey, Colchester and Manningtree
• The services would splitgoing North and join going South at Ipswich
• One train would go to Peterborough with stops at Needham Market, Stowmarket, Elmswell, Thurston, Bury St. Edmunds, Soham, Ely, Manea, March and Whittlesea.
• The other would go to Lowestoft with stops at Woodbridge, Melton, Wickham Market, Saxmundham, Darsham, Halesworth, Brampton, Beccles and Oulton Broad South.

Note.

1. The Class 755 trains would use electricity, where electrification exists.
2. They would use diesel on lines without electrification.
3. They would be able to hold 100 mph, so wouldn’t delay other trains.
4. Seventeen towns would get new direct services to and from London.
5. A Class 745 train is 236.6 metres long, whereas a pair of four-car Class 755 trains is only 161.4 metres.
6. A three-train formation of Class 755 trains is only 5.5 metres longer than a single Class 745 train.

I am fairly sure no new substantial infrastructure would be required.

I have some further thoughts.

Example Timings

These timings to and from London are based on current timings of the Class 745 and 755 trains.

• Ipswich – 60 mins

• Stowmarket -70 mins
• Bury St. Edmunds – 88 mins
• Soham – 108 mins
• Ely – 117 mins
• March – 136 mins
• Peterborough – 158 mins

• Woodbridge – 75 mins
• Melton – 80 mins
• Wickham Market – 86 mins
• Saxmundham – 97 mins
• Darsham – 104 mins
• Halesworth – 113 mins
• Brampton – 119 mins
• Beccles – 128 mins
• Oulton Broad South – 138 mins
• Lowestoft – 146 mins

Notes.

1. Times to and from Ipswich are based on typical services at the current time.
2. I have assumed that there are no stops South of Ipswich.
3. Saxmundham is the closest station to Sizewell and could be important in bringing in construction workers for Sizewell C.

I think some of the times like those to and from Bury St. Edmunds, Ipswich, Lowestoft, Saxmundham and Woodbridge could create popular routes.

Battery-Electric Trains

Consider.

• I wrote about Stadler’s expertise with battery-electric trains in Stadler FLIRT Akku Battery Train Demonstrates 185km Range.
• 185 km. is 115 miles.
• The Class 756 trains for Transport for Wales are similar trains to the Class 755 trains fitted with batteries.
• In Battery Power Lined Up For ‘755s’, I wrote about plans to put batteries in the Class 755 trains.

These sections of lines are not electrified on the routes I have talked about.

• Haughley Junction and Ely – 38 miles
• Ely and Peterborough – 30.5 miles
• Westerfield and Lowestoft – 38 miles

As there is electrification at Ely, Haughley, Peterborough and Westerfield and South to London, I am fairly certain the route could be run by battery-electric trains.

Electrification To Sizewell C

In the January 2023 Edition of Modern Railways, there is an article, which is entitled Rail Set To Support Sizewell C Construction.

It details how sidings will be built to support the construction, with up to four trains per day (tpd), but the electrification word is not mentioned.

This is surprising to me, as increasingly, big construction projects are being managed to emit as small an amount of carbon as possible. High Speed Two is being built this way and I suspect Rolls-Royce’s SMR design will minimise carbon emissions during manufacture and construction. It will be very surprising if Sizewell C doesn’t follow High Speed Two’s example. After all, it may be an isolated site, but in Sizewell B, it’s got one of the UK’s biggest carbon-free electricity generators a couple of hundred metres away.

The writer of the Modern Railways article, thinks an opportunity is being missed.

I feel the following should be done.

• Improve and electrify the East Suffolk Line between Ipswich and Saxmundham Junction.
• Electrify the Aldeburgh Branch Line and the sidings to support the construction or agree to use battery-electric or hydrogen zero-carbon locomotives.

One of the collateral benefits of electrifying from Ipswich to Saxmundham Junction, is that it will make it easier for battery-electric Class 755 trains to work Ipswich and Lowestoft services.

• If the trains were to leave Saxmundham Junction going North with a full battery, they should be able to travel to Lowestoft and return.
• Battery-electric Class 755 trains could bring in workers from Ipswich or Lowestoft and further afield.
• It could even leave behind a zero-carbon branch line to Sizewell, Leiston and Aldeburgh, with two tph to Ipswich.

Sizewell C could be a superb demonstration project for low-carbon construction!

The Lowestoft-Great Yarmouth Conurbation

The Wikipedia entry for Lowestoft says this about the town.

The estimated population in the built-up area exceeds 70,000. Its development grew with the fishing industry and as a seaside resort with wide sandy beaches. As fishing declined, oil and gas exploitation in the North Sea in the 1960s took over. While these too have declined, Lowestoft is becoming a regional centre of the renewable energy industry.

Whilst the Wikipedia entry for Great Yarmouth says this about the town.

Great Yarmouth, often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located 20 miles (30 km) east of Norwich. A population of 38,693 in the 2011 Census made it Norfolk’s third most populous. Its fishing industry, mainly for herring, shrank after the mid-20th century and has all but ended.[3] North Sea oil from the 1960s supplied an oil-rig industry that services offshore natural gas rigs; more recently, offshore wind power and other renewable energy industries have ensued.

Wikipedia also said this about the population of the wider Great Yarmouth.

The wider Great Yarmouth borough had a population of around 92,500, which increased to 97,277 at the 2011 census.

Taken together they are one of the largest conurbations in East Anglia.

The main means of transport between the two towns is by road.

Surely, two towns of over 70,000 people, who are only a few miles apart need a rail connection.

Onward From Lowestoft To Great Yarmouth

If the comprehensive East Anglia service, I’m discussing is to be truly comprehensive, it must serve the Norfolk Broads and Great Yarmouth.

This would also improve the connectivity between two of the largest coastal towns in East Anglia, that I indicated in the last section.

This OpenRailwayMap shows a cunning plan proposed by Network Rail to connect Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth.

Note.

1. Great Yarmouth is in the North East corner of the map.
2. Two lines lead West from Great Yarmouth station, with the more Northerly route going direct to Norwich and the more Southerly one going to Norwich via Berney Arms and Reedham.
3. Lowestoft is in the South East corner of the map.
4. Two lines lead West from Lowestoft station, with the Northern route going to Norwich via Reedham and the Southern one going to Ipswich via Oulton Broad South.
5. The route of a coastal railway connecting the two towns is also shown.

Network Rail’s cunning plan is indicated on this second  nap from OpenRailwayMap.

Note.

1. Reedham station is in the North-West corner of the map on the line to Norwich.
2. To the East of the station is a triangular junction.
3. The track from the North-East corner of the junction is the line to Great Yarmouth.
4. The track from the Southern corner of the junction is the line to Lowestoft.
5. Unfortunately, the South-Eastern leg of the junction was removed in 1880.

In Norfolk Rail Line To Remain Closed As £68m Upgrade Project Overruns, I said this.

Network Rail are talking about reinstating the Reedham Chord to create a more direct route between East Anglia’s largest North-Eastern towns. This is said about the Reedham Chord in Direct Yarmouth Services in the Wikipedia entry for Lowestoft station.

In January 2015, a Network Rail study proposed the reintroduction of direct services between Lowestoft and Yarmouth by reinstating a spur at Reedham. Services could once again travel between two East Coast towns, with an estimated journey time of 33 minutes, via a reconstructed 34-chain (680 m) north-to-south arm of the former triangular junction at Reedham, which had been removed in c. 1880. The plans also involve relocating Reedham station nearer the junction, an idea which attracted criticism.

This sounds a good plan to me.

• It would allow direct services between Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth.
• It would allow direct services between Ipswich and Great Yarmouth with a reverse at Lowestoft in about two hours.
• With possible charging at Lowestoft and/or Great Yarmouth, a scenic route could be created between Ipswich and Norwich for battery-electric Class 755 trains. If that doesn’t get people out of their cars then nothing will!
• Various leisure, tourism and work-related opportunities  would be created.

Never in the field of railway engineering would such a small chord have given so much.

Sizewell C Issues

Sizewell C will be a massive project and I also suspect that like High Speed Two, it will be built in a manner that will be zero-carbon where possible.

We already know from the Modern Railways article, that four tpd will shuttle material to a number of sidings close to the site. This is a good start.

Since Sizewell A opened, trains have regularly served the Sizewell site to bring in and take out nuclear material. These occasional trains go via Ipswich and in the last couple of years have generally been hauled by Class 88 electro-diesel locomotives.

It would be reasonable to assume that the Sizewell C sidings will be served in the same manner.

But the route between Westerfield Junction and Ipswich station is becoming increasingly busy with the following services.

• Greater Anglia’s London and Norwich services
• Greater Anglia’s Ipswich and Cambridge services
• Greater Anglia’s Ipswich and Felixstowe services
• Greater Anglia’s Ipswich and Lowestoft services
• Greater Anglia’s Ipswich and Peterborough services
• Freight services serving the Port of Felixstowe, which are expected to increase significantly in forthcoming years.

But the Modern Railways article says this about Saxmundham junction.

Saxmundham junction, where the branch meets the main line, will be relaid on a slightly revised alignment, retaining the existing layout but with full signalling giving three routes from the junction protecting signal on the Down East Suffolk line and two in the Down direction on the bidirectional Up East Suffolk line. Trap points will be installed on the branch to protect the main line, with the exit signal having routes to both running lines.

Does the comprehensive signalling mean that a freight train can enter or leave the Sizewell sidings to or from either the busy Ipswich or the quieter Lowestoft direction in a very safe manner?

I’m no expert on signalling, but I think it does.

• A train coming from the Lowestoft direction needing to enter the sidings would go past Saxmundham junction  on the Up line. Once clear of the junction, it would stop and reverse into the branch.
• A train coming from the Ipswich direction needing to enter the sidings would approach in the wrong direction on the Up line and go straight into the branch.
• A train leaving the sidings in the Lowestoft direction would exit from the branch and take the Up line until it became single track. The train would then stop and reverse on to the Down line and take this all the way to Lowestoft.
• A train leaving the sidings in the Ipswich direction would exit from the branch and take the Up line  all the way to Ipswich.

There would need to be ability to move the locomotive from one end to the other inside the Sizewell site or perhaps these trains could be run with a locomotive on both ends.

The advantage of being able to run freight trains between Sizewell and Lowestoft becomes obvious, when you look at this Google Map, which shows the Port of Lowestoft.

Note.

1. The Inner Harbour of the Port of Lowestoft.
2. The East Suffolk Line running East-West to the North of the Inner Harbour.
3. Lowestoft station at the East side of the map.

I doubt it would be the most difficult or expensive of projects to build a small freight terminal on the North side of the Inner Harbour.

I suspect that the easiest way to bring the material needed to build the power station to Sizewell would be to do the following.

• Deliver it to the Port of Lowestoft by ship.
• Tranship to a suitable shuttle train for the journey to the Sizewell sidings.
• I estimate that the distance is only about 25 miles and a battery or hydrogen locomotive will surely be available in the UK in the next few years, that will be able to provide the motive power for the return journey.

In The TruckTrain, I wrote about a revolutionary freight concept, that could be ideal for the Sizewell freight shuttle.

Great Yarmouth Racecourse

Great Yarmouth Racecourse is one of my favourite racecourses and I believe it is one of the attractions in Great Yarmouth, that would benefit from an improved rail service between Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth, as it would almost double those with efficient public transport access to the racecourse.

The walking distance between Great Yarmouth station and the racecourse is walkable for many and I remember doing it since C died.

With the train connection to Lowestoft and perhaps a courtesy bus from the station, I wouldn’t be surprised to see that a Lowestoft-Yarmouth rail connection being very good for the racecourse. Especially as road traffic between the two towns can be not the best.

Finishing At Norwich

There are operational reasons to carry on to Norwich, where Crown Point, is the home base for the Class 755 trains.

But it would also link a lot of places that are dependant on tourism and are also heavily involved in East Anglia’s energy industry.

Onward From Peterborough To Lincoln

If the Lowestoft service can extend to Great Yarmouth, an extension of the Peterborough service to Lincoln via Spalding and Sleaford might be possible.

But with LNER also serving Lincoln from Kings Cross, I doubt the route would carry many passengers to and from London.

Conclusion

A service from London, that splits into two trains at Ipswich for Lowestoft and Peterborough has possibilities.

December 27, 2022 Posted by AnonW | Sport, Transport/Travel | Aldeburgh Branch Line, Class 755 Train, Class 756 Train, East Suffolk Line, Freight, Great Yarmouth, Greater Anglia, Ipswich Station, Lincoln Station, Liverpool Street Station, Low-Carbon Construction, Lowestoft Station, Network Rail, Norwich Station, Peterborough Station, Port of Felixstowe, Port Of Lowestoft, Reedham Station, Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station, Sizewell C Nuclear Power Station, Transport for Wales, TruckTrain | 9 Comments