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?
Bacon Factory Curve At Work
I took this picture from an Ipswich to Cambridge train.
Freight Trains On The Bacon Factory Curve
It shows how the Bacon Factory Curve is working.
The train on the left is held on the curve itself, whilst the train on the right is proceeding towards Felixstowe.
In contrast to months ago, my train was not delayed and went straight past the junction.
A Good Score Draw For The Overground’s Ticket Machines
I wrote here about how I bought my ticket to Reading using the machine at Dalston Junction, rather than on the Internet.
Yesterday at about 17:00, I bought my ticket for Ipswich, that I used today.
And I paid the same price, as I would have done on the Internet.
But I didn’t have to go through the rigmarole of entering an 8-character code to get my tickets.
So I think the machine got a good score draw today.
Two Coeliacs At The Football
At the football last night, the stand wasn’t full and we could sit where we liked.
I ended up sitting next to this guy about my age and as one does we got talking.
It turned out he was another coeliac, who like me bad been diagnosed in later life. In his case, it had been twelve years ago at Ipswich hospital.
We swapped stories about bread and recipes, but what surprised me was that he’d never seen or heard of Nakd bars. So I gave him a piece of my half-time snack. Quite a few of my non-gluten-free friends in London eat them, as they tick so many boxes and they are pretty easy to find in most supermarkets.
East Suffolk Gets A Community Rail Partnership
The two East Suffolk Lines out of Ipswich to Felixstowe and Lowestoft are being proposed for a Community Rail Partnership. It’s reported in Modern Railways, but strangely not in the East Anglian Daily Times.
I have travelled these lines occasionally over the last few years and still go to my long-suffering dentist in Felixstowe. I have only been to Felixstowe once since the opening of the Bacon Factory Curve, but it does appear that this development has made trains on the East Suffolk Lines more reliable and better to time.
The Ipswich to Felixstowe branch, must have one of the simplest schedules anywhere on the UK rail network. A single Class 153, just trundles up and down the line every hour over a dozen times a day.
A Community Rail Partnership can only benefit the line.
So what enhancements would I like to see on the Felixstowe branch.
A two coach train should probably be used, as at times the line gets busy and increasingly there are passengers with bicycles.
But the line doesn’t necessarily need a train with a toilet, as Ipswich and Felixstowe stations both have excellent facilities.
One thing I’d like to see is better interfaces with the buses at Felixstowe, but as ever the information is as visitor-unfriendly as you will find. It should at least have a town circular that goes to all the important places in the small town, arriving and leaving at the station convenient for the trains.
It should also have bike hire.
So let’s hope the Community Rail Partnership improves the line.
One possibility that might happen is electrification to Felixstowe Port, which would completely transform this line, Then an old electric multiple unit with perhaps three coaches, could be saved from the scrapyard and given a well-deserved sprucing up and retirement on the Suffolk coast.
I don’t know the Lowestoft line as well, but properly looked after by a Community Rail Partnership, it could be a serious asset to the towns on the route.
One thing is missing from the services back to London from Lowestoft and Felixstowe is the lack of a late train to get back to Ipswich and on to London.
The last train from Lowestoft leaves after nine on most days and at 20:05 on Sundays, whereas the last train from Felixstowe leaves just before half past nine all the week.
It’ll be good to see how the rail services develop in this proud part of Suffolk.
Do Cats Like Mark 3 Carriages?
I took this picture of a smug cat in his cage on the train to Ipswich.
Do Cats Like Mark 3 Carriages?
I didn’t get a reply to my question.
The Bacon Factory Curve Opens
The BBC are reporting that the Bacon Factory Curve or the Ipswich Chord to give it its official name, is now open. Here’s the summary.
A new £59m railway giving the Port of Felixstowe a direct link to the Midlands is opening to freight.
Until now freight trains have had to travel in to Ipswich and then out again, adding a hour to journeys.
Hopefully, this small piece of track will improve timekeeping of trains that pass through or by the junction.
As I first posted about this curve in February 2013, construction has been pretty fast.
Have the government and Network Rail decided that lots of small projects can improve the efficiency of the railway significantly?
An Unusual Advert In The Times
There is an advert for the Cult Cafe in Ipswich in The Times today.
What is unusual about the advert is that it appears to have been paid for by Barclays.
So has your bank paid for you to have an advert in a national newspaper.
I have written to the cafe to see if they are making any difference to the gluten-free desert that is Ipswich.
More Progress On The Bacon Factory Curve
The Bacon Factory Curve at Ipswich is progressing well.
I should be going back to the dentist in the Spring, so it will be interesting to see the progress as it is slated from completion next year.
Freight Trains At Ipswich
On my trip to the dentist in Felixstowe yesterday, I changed trains at Ipswich. There was a wonderful example of the problems that the Bacon Factory Curve is designed to eliminate, as two freight trains going to and from London, passed through the station at the same time.
One thing that worries me, is that these trains were going through a busy station, where lots of people were waiting for trains like I was. Is this a good idea from a Health and Safety point of view?
Many of these trains, are routed by the North London and Gospel Oak to Barking lines to complete their journey.
When the curve is fully operational, they will go on a more direct route, via Stowmarket and Peterborough.
But will those who live on that line be complaining of very noisy Class 66 locomotives at all hours of the day and night?
Incidentally, as a lot less freight trains will be travelling to or from London, they should be able to use the direct line through Ipswich station, which is between the main lines used by passenger trains to stop at platforms 2 and 3. This will certainly make things less frightening and probably a lot safer.
The Anonymous Widower 