Will The Felixstowe Branch Be Electrified?
In the previous post on diesel-hauled freight trains on the Overground, I mentioned Network Rail’s Anglia Route Study.
This study says two things about the Felixstowe Branch.
There will be more double track to increase capacity and it is an aspiration to have two trains per hour on all branch lines from the Great Eastern Main Line.
If the latter is implemented on the Felixstowe branch, it will be a good thing, but it would need another train and the increased frequency would probably be opposed by the port.
If the line were to be electrified, the finding of a reasonable Class 313/315/317 train to work the branch shouldn’t be difficult and it would be faster and with better acceleration than the current Class 153, so it could keep out of the way of the freight trains.
As a lot of the line is to be double tracked, I wouldn’t be surprised if this work, at least makes electrification possible.
I sometimes think, that I can remember reports from the 1950s, saying that London to Ipswich and Norwich together with the Felixstowe branch would be electrified by 1964.
Ipswich To Felixstowe Has Improved
Over the last few months, I’ve travelled half a dozen times between Ipswich and Felixstowe by train.
I can’t remember a train being late at all, since the Bacon Factory Curve has been opened.
And here’s why!
A Freight Train Waiting On The Bacon Factory Curve
Note the freight train waiting for our one-coach Class 153 to pass. Before the curve opened the freight train would have had to go into Ipswich yard and the locomotive would have had to run-round to the other end, causing all sorts of disruption to the Great Eastern Main Line and especially the Felixstowe Branch.
Also now I noticed that trains coming out of Felixstowe and going South towards London, now sometimes seem to get their diesel locomotive changed for a Class 90 electric one.
The next improvement will come when more of the Felixstowe branch line is double-tracked and the whole branch is electrified.
It’s all a far cry from when I lived in Felixstowe in the 1960s, where the most reliable way to get between the two towns was to cycle along the A45 or A14 as it is now! There were only a handful of trains every day.
How many other places on the UK network need smaller improvements like the Bacon Factory Curve to be implemented?
First Class On Greater Anglia
I needed to go to my dentist in Felixstowe and then on to the evening’s match at Portman Road, so I took one of Greater Anglia’s Mark 3 services in mid-morning.
The coaches don’t have the style of the new First Great Western First Class, but I did get a large table to lay out my paper, unlike on Saturday’s Virgin to Manchester.
The trolley also came round twice and I had a welcoming cup of tea.
Incidentally, I had bought the First Class Off Peak Return at Dalston Junction from the ticket machine, the previous evening for £35.40.
That is the same as the best Internet price from Greater Anglia’s website. The return half has a validity of a month too, so you get the best value, if perhaps you’re going away for a few days.
We need ticket machines, like the ones on the London Overground all over London and the rest of the UK.
Travelling With Michael Palin
The Class 153 train, that shuttled me to Felixstowe was named after Michael Palin.
Travelling With Michael Palin
I wonder how many other trains have been named after comedians?
A Game Of Four Odd Goals
Yesterday, I went to the football at Ipswich on a very cold evening.
As I needed to go to the dentist in Felixstowe at lunchtime, I went early. This meant that as the cost of my dentist in Felixstowe is so much lower than one in London, I effectively was able to buy a First Class ticket on the saving, thus avoiding the need to pay rush hour prices to get to the match.
The idea was then to come back to Ipswich and waste time by going to a museum, watching a film, exploring the shops and having a pizza in Pizza Express.
All I did was have the pizza and get very cold, as Ipswich shut down virtually completely around five, giving me nearly three hours to find something to do. Since, I worked in the town, all my friends there have either moved away or now live way out of the town.
The biggest disappointment was that the first showing in the cinema was 19:30, whereas in Cambridge today several films start at around four. I could have walked to the multiplex, but I wanted to go to the cinema in the Corn Exchange, where C and myself had so many happy memories.
Even Debenhams and Starbucks shut at six, whereas John Lewis in Cambridge and Norwich shut yesterday at seven.
No wonder the town centre was as dead as a doornail.
But then the crowd at the football was less than fifteen thousand, which is very low for Portman Road.
The game was a pretty good one and memorable for four rather odd goals.
Luke Hyam and Carlos Edwards seemed to stumble over the ball before they put it in the net and Jordan Rhodes, for Blackburn, got the best of the Ipswich keeper in a rush for the ball.
And then to seal the match, Frank Nouble, thundered in on the Blackburn keeper and stole the ball, before slotting it in the net. Mick McCarthy, summed it up as follows on the BBC report.
He is a handful and a frightening prospect when he is bearing down on you.
He certainly scared the goalkeeper. For a big man, Nouble’s pace is astounding.
At least the train was warm, going home, even if it wasn’t a Class 90 and Mark Three coaches.
Felixstowe v. London Gateway
With London Gateway receiving its first ship in November, the war of words between the port and its rivals is hotting up.
There’s a report here from the Daily Telegraph, which says that Felixstowe will be a cheaper port to use. But it was produced by the port’s owners, so we should probably add a shovel of sea salt.
As a man of Suffolk, who has seen Felixstowe rise from a small dock to the giant port it is today, London Gateway should probably look at the lessons of history, where Suffolk has a proud record of taking on invaders. Boadicea’s descendents will give London Gateway a very strong and probably dirty fight.
london Gateway makes a lot about having the land for a large logistics park by the port, but then you’ve still got to get the containers to the market and can London’s roads, the M25 and the railways cope with getting the boxes away? The Gospel Oak to Barking line may be being electrified, but will the residents of North London put up with container trains at all hours? Felixstowe is at the end of the line and electrifying the line to Peterborough and beyond, with a certain amount of double-tracking would help that port cut costs further.
We live in interesting times!
It Wasn’t A Good Trip!
The objective was simple, which was to get to Felixstowe from Liverpool Street in time for a dental appointment at 14:10. I worked out I’d leave on the 11:30 from London and then I had fifteen minutes at Ipswich to change onto the 12:58 to Felixstowe. I would arrive at 13:24, which gave me plenty of time. Coming back, I had plenty of time to catch the 15:28 after my appointment and after a change at Ipswich I’d be back in London for 17:19
But things didn’t work out as expected! The train crawled out of London and we were thirteen minutes late at Colchester, so I felt I’d miss my connection. But that was late too, so I caught it easily!
But I don’t like being late.
After my appointment, I walked back to the station and as the train appeared to be on time and it was only15:00, I walked back to the bar in Felixstowe station to see if they had a nice glass of cider.
But they didn’t so after fiddling about, I walked back to the platform and sat and read my paper for a bit.
There was then a bit of commotion and on checking the display I found that my train to Ipswich had been cancelled just a few minutes before it was due to arrive.
I thought about taking the bus into Ipswich, but then I realised I’d have to get from wherever the bus dropped me to the station.
I did think about waiting for the 16:28, but who was there any guarantee that wouldn’t be cancelled as well. After all, as I went to Felixstowe, a driver had told me one train had already been cancelled in the morning.
So I walked back to the taxi rank opposite Tesco and took one to Ipswich station for £25.
I eventually got back into London at about 17:30 and was dropped right in the middle of the rush hour.
Not one of those inconvenienced by this cancellation heard any advice from Greater Anglia.
Discussing it all with the taxi driver, who took me to Ipswich, he said it happens all the time, because they give the freight trains priority. Let’s hope that when the Bacon Factory Curve is completed, things get a bit better. However, it would help if more of the line from Ipswich to Felixstowe was double-tracked, as the Docks said they would be.
This line sets a bad precedent for the row that will happen between London Overground and the freight operators, who want to use the North London and Gospel Oak to Barking Lines to and from London Gateway. I think we’ll see one hell of a row over that conflict, especially when Class 66s thunder through all night keeping the residents awake.
Is It Cheaper To Use An Out Of London Dentist?
I’ve gone to the same dentist in Felixstowe off and on for nearly thirty years. I don’t have any specific problems, but I felt that because of this long and excellent experience, that it would be best for me to return, as my previous dentist in London has sold his business and retired.
Today it cost me £33.25 for the First Class ticket to Felixstowe and the private check-up was £18. That was all I spent, although when I visited my London dentist, I usually treated myself to lunch in Carluccio’s round the corner from his surgery.
Progress On The Bacon Factory Curve
I went to Felixstowe today, to see my dentist. After changing at Ipswich, I was able to get some pictures of work on the new chord allowing freight trains leaving the Felixstowe branch to go straight towards Stowmarket, Ely and Cambridge. More details are given here.
I must say the pictures were better than last time I tried as the Class 153; Benjamin Britten, seemed to have had its windows cleaned.
The Anonymous Widower 