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Other Bits and Pieces:
TravelWatch East Midlands
Community rail status bestowed on Crewe to Derby line. The rail service on the North Staffordshire
Line, between Crewe and Derby, has been designated as a community rail service, Transport Minister Andrew Adonis has announced. The designated service allows for a
more flexible approach to be adopted by the train operating company (East Midlands Trains) working alongside the local community rail partnership. This
enables them to manage the service with greater emphasis on meeting local needs. Together they will continue to look for ways to increase patronage and improve the service.
Source ACT 10th November 2008.
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East Midlands Trains opens new head office building in Nottingham. Train operator East Midlands Trains has opened the first of two brand new head office buildings in
the East Midlands in Nottingham. The premises in Waterfront House on Station Street, adjacent to Nottingham railway station, will be home to some of the company’s senior team including customer service and customer relations. In December this year the company will be opening additional new offices on Pride Park in Derby where operations, safety, engineering, commercial, major projects
and finance will be located.
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Stephen Abbott secretary TWEM, writes: On 31 October East Midlands Trains unveiled the first refurbished two-car Class 158 train at DeltaRail, Derby, where the work has been carried out. The interior has been completely revamped with new seating and toilet modules. The number of seats has been increased from 138 to 146, plus 11 tip-up seats, with good leg
room. There are eight priority seats and five sets of four seats facing tables in each car, the remaining seats have drop down tables with pull-put extensions
for supporting laptop computers and similar items. All seats have a window view. One car has a standard toilet and space for bikes and bulky luggage, the
other a disabled toilet and wheelchair space.
Lighting and air-conditioning have been improved and CCTV and a passenger counting system installed. The train, and 24 similar units to be refurbished progressively by April 2010, will be used principally on the Liverpool-Nottingham-Norwich route,
providing a much-needed increase in capacity and an improved travelling environment. Shown seated in the picture below,
inside the train are Anna Matthews CEO of DeltaRail and Tim Shoveller MD of
East Midlands Trains. Also a general interior view of the Class 158.
Photos courtesy Stephen Abbott.
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Corby station is to miss its scheduled 12th December opening date because there are no trains available to operate the new service. It
seems that the Pioneer sets which are to be cascaded from Hull Trains will be delayed and hence will not be available to East Midlands Trains yet.
Source ACT 31 October 2008.
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A MAJOR track and signal improvement to Nottingham railway station has been approved by the Office of Rail Regulation. An application for £14m was given the
go ahead this morning, after strong government lobbying by Notts County Council, Nottingham City Council, Network Rail and East Midlands Trains when it was initially turned down in a draft
determination in June. They have been given £9.8m which the ORR says should be enough to complete all the work
Network Rail wants. The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) says will mean an end to trains stopping outside the station and a seventh platform will be built at the station.
The ORR today (30/10/20080 also confirmed its earlier indication that it would approve £55m for improvements to the Midland Main Line to reduce the
Nottingham to London journey times to 90 minutes.
Source ORR 30 October 2008.
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The Northern Rail service will begin on December 14th which will link Nottingham and Leeds on a frequent basis.
The BBC web-site has some more information on this.
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East Midlands Trains has issued details of the new timetable and services which will be starting on 14th December.
See EMT/Stagecoach news release of 21/10/2008 for more information.
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East Midlands Trains secures new power car
East Midlands Trains (EMT) has announced that it has been able to secure an additional
power car for its HST fleet. Power car 43089, on lease from Porterbrook, will be joining the
East Midlands Trains fleet at the start of December. EMT says that the additional power car will improve reliability and flexibility. EMT are also in the process of installing new engines in the HSTs, and
will be embarking on a range of interior improvements to the coaches early in the new year.
This will become the 26th power car in the EMT fleet.
It is also reported that the new East Midlands Parkway Station will open at the end of January 2009.
information from East Midlands Trains Press release of 17/10/2008.
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TravelWatch East Midlands congratulates the winners of the Nottingham Big
Wheel Business Club Awards for their travel initiatives which were announced on 14th October:
- E.ON for Best Business with 250+ employees
- The Sherwood Press Group for Best Business with less than 250 employees
- Experian for Most Ambitious Travel Plan
- East Midlands Airport for Best Regional Travel Plan
Well done to them all.
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East Midlands MP, Geoff Hoon succeeds Ruth Kelly as transport secretary. Geoff Hoon has
been appointed Secretary of State for Transport by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a
Cabinet reshuffle. Previously Chief Whip, Geoff Hoon succeeds transport secretary Ruth Kelly who says she intends
to leave Parliament to spend more time with her family.
Geoff Hoon is Member of Parliament for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, a constituency he has
represented since 1992.
Source Government Office.
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The ATOC Station Travel Plan website is now online here. Also
see and complete their short survey.
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University Buses: SMART Thinking, Uni-linking!
Buses to the University of Nottingham have got bigger, better and more frequent thanks to service improvements introduced by NCT today (22nd September 2008).
Unilink 34 is one of NCT’s Top 10 Growth routes, carrying nearly 100,000 more passengers in the last financial year, an increase of nearly 46% compared to the previous year.
Unilink service 34, running between the City Centre and University Park has:
* increased from every 12 minutes to every 10 minutes
* increased in bus size to operate with full size single deck buses
* has a brand new, eye-catching external look
* continues to offer coverage of the City Centre, serving Maid Marian Way, Broad Marsh (for bus and railway station), the Victoria Centre area and Old Market
Square
* a new experimental winter vacation service, thanks to University of Nottingham support.
...and New Unilink 31 will start running between the City Centre and Jubilee Campus Grounds, with the following features:
An NCT service running into the Jubilee Campus Grounds for the first time
buses running every 20 mins between 8am & 6pm on Monday to Friday, term times
low floor, easy access buses branded in a distinctive pink livery
direct links to the Victoria Centre and Upper Parliament Street
The Unilink improvements are supported by the University of Nottingham as part of their commitment to encourage more staff and students to use sustainable ways of getting to and from the campus.
information from Nottingham City Transport.
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The Great Train Robbery. TWEM was on the telly recently. To see it, have
a look at this video clip. Courtesy BBC News.
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NEW START FOR BIRMINGHAM NEW STREET UNVEILED. Just outside our area but of interest. Passengers and the people of Birmingham and the West Midlands have been
shown visionary new designs for New Street station. The striking concept designs, clad in shimmering, reflective metal,
will create a bold, modern gateway to the city for the millions of people using the station each
year says Network Rail. See full Network Rail press release for more details.
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It is rumoured that East Midlands Trains are looking at Beeston (Nottingham) again and are thinking of doing some passenger counting. There may be nothing they can do about the December 2008 timetable as it being already fixed,
even if East Midlands Parkway doesn't open. Local groups have been campaigning for a decent and improving service for Beeston and for the retention of the service which many commuters rely on.
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The Secretary of State for Transport Ruth Kelly has launched the Station Travel
Plan initiative for England and Wales at Derby Station. The project is a multi-stakeholder
initiative developed by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) and has involved close
co-operation with train companies, local authorities, Network Rail, Passenger Focus, the Rail
Safety and Standards Board and the Campaign for Better Transport. See ATOC web site for full story.
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Nottingham City Transport (NCT) will be paying particular attention to the rising
cost of petrol and diesel and encouraging families to use their services at a time when household
budgets are getting tighter. This will be followed this up in the autumn with campaigns directed at commuters, drawing
comparisons between fuel prices and bus travel costs and how switching to
NCT can save money.
It is expected that this activity will encourage lapsed passengers to reuse
NCT services and encourage new customers. Source NCT web site.
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Congratulations to The North Staffordshire Community Rail Partnership which has been shortlisted in
the national Community Rail Awards 2008. The Community Rail Awards, presented by the Association
of Community Rail Partnerships (ACoRP), are awarded each year to recognise outstanding achievement
and best practice in community rail development. The North Staffordshire Partnership, which works
with East Midlands Trains to promote and develop the local Crewe, Stoke-on-Trent to Derby service.
See ACoRP web site for
more information.
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Corby railway station construction gets underway
Building contractor Dean & Dyball has begun construction of Corby's new £10.22m railway station.
Workers from the Balfour Beatty subsidiary have been setting up on site since Tuesday 29 July. The project is being funded by the East Midlands
Development Agency, which is injecting £5m into the scheme, with contributions from Network Rail,
East Midlands Trains, English Partnerships and North Northants Development Company making up the balance.
Corby is currently the largest town in Britain without a railway station. East Midlands Trains
will manage the station when it opens on 14th December this year.
The single-platform station will feature a modular building design.
Source Network Rail.
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Passengers using Nottingham’s tram system are overwhelmingly satisfied
with it and want it to be expanded, according to a new survey. A customer satisfaction showed that 93% of people using the
system are satisfied with it and 81% favour additional tram routes. They said the
system should be expanded to improve ease of use and convenience, help tackle
congestion and reduce cars on the roads and other environmental benefits. The year 2007 saw a 2.3% growth in use. (Source Nottingham City Council)
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Farewell to the Valenta engine - special train to York and Scarborough
East Midlands Trains has confirmed that it plans to run an additional special train to
Scarborough from Leicester, via Derby, Chesterfield, Sheffield and York and on Saturday 26 July
to celebrate the last of the ‘Paxman Valenta’ high speed train engines in use on its route before
they leave service later this year.
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Network Rail has announced that it will commission a strategic review into the case for building
new rail lines across Great Britain. The review will look at five routes to the north and
west of London - Chiltern, East Coast, West Coast, Great Western and Midland Main Lines -
and will consider a range of options including 186mph high speed rail services.
information from Network Rail.
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From 16th June 2008, Nottingham City Council is introducing more Shoplink Buses to make shopping easier for residents in Nottingham. See
Nottingham City Council web-site for details.
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LONDON RAIL LINK UPGRADE
According to the BBC News web site train times between the East Midlands and London
are set to be cut by 20% after a £55m plan was approved.
See BBC News web site.
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£40 MILLION TO KEEP RAILWAYS MOVING IN NUNEATON
Network Rail has announced plans to invest more than £40 million to build a new rail
freight link in Nuneaton. Known as the Nuneaton North Chord, the new line – approximately
one mile long – will allow freight to cross from Peterborough to the West Coast Main Line
without disrupting passenger services.
This is a vital investment to help increase the amount of freight carried by rail in Britain
and is funded from the Department for Transport’s ‘Transport Innovation Fund’. Building the
chord could take as many as 225,000 lorries a year off the road and will also improve the
performance and reliability of passenger services locally and as far away as
London. More details available from Network Rail.
From Network Rail News Release of 06/05/2008.
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DEAL SIGNED TO REFURBISH HIGH SPEED TRAIN CARRIAGES
The multi-million pound contract to refurbish 40 High Speed Train (HST) carriages
for use on CrossCountry services has been awarded to Wabtec Rail, which
will carry out the work at its workshops in Doncaster.
The carriages will receive a complete overhaul, power sockets in every carriage,
WiFi and a catering home base from which an at-seat service of food and drink will be offered. They will be used on the
Edinburgh to Plymouth route to provide much needed extra capacity.
All the carriages will be repainted into CrossCountry’s distinctive livery
before being introduced to service, with the work scheduled to be completed
in time for the December 2008 timetable change. Each of the five HSTs will
provide some 550 seats. In service each train will run with two power cars
and eight carriages.
From Cross Country Trains News release of 22nd April 2008.
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Sunday service gets the green light for Robin Hood Line.
The Robin Hood Line train service, which runs from Nottingham to Worksop via Mansfield, will be
running on Sundays for the first time from this December.
See EMT news release of 08/04/2008.
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East Midlands Trains has unveiled the first of its re-branded Class 156
trains. The company will be re-branding all 11 of its Class 156 trains into
the new East Midlands Trains livery.
Commenting Tim Shoveller, Managing Director of East Midlands Trains said:
“Our priority for the start of the franchise was to ensure a smooth transition and to get punctuality and reliability off
to a good start. Now we’re confident these things have been achieved, it’s time to start focusing on the refurbishment of our trains, both inside and out."
The Meridian 222 fleet will follow the Class 156 re-branding.
In addition to the improvements listed above, the first of East Midlands Trains HST fleet is currently being re-painted at the company’s Neville Hill Depot in Leeds, and the contract is being finalised for the full refurbishment of the Class 158 fleet, which is due to start in the Summer.
From East Midlands Trains News release of 4th April 2008.
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Network Rail’s East Midlands Control Centre (EMCC) in Derby, a key element in providing control of train services in the East Midlands has been opened. The £250m, six-year investment programme to provide renewed signalling across the region, was
officially opened by Rt Hon Ruth Kelly MP, Secretary of State for Transport. See Network Rail
Press Release. Used with permission of Network Rail.
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Interesting Speculation! Glasgow Trains is a proposal by Renaissance Trains to operate passenger services between Glasgow and Liverpool, and Glasgow and Nottingham, from 2008. It would re-introduce direct services between these cities which were lost in the years after rail privatisation.
In October 2006 Renaissance Trains submitted a briefing note to the Office of Rail Regulation
concerning the Glasgow Trains proposal. See Renaissance Trains website from where this is copied.
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..and more interesting speculation! A new high speed East Coast mainline could pass through Nottingham,
according to a new report from Atkins consultancy.
See Atkins Press Release on this. (Used with permission of Atkins). More on the BBC news website
here. (BBC news website acknowledged.)
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A government minister has said the
possibility of reopening the trans-Pennine rail route through the Woodhead tunnel was being
considered. See BBC News website from where this is
copied & acknowledged. Although strictly speaking not in our area, it could have an impact on the East Midlands and would be much welcomed by TWEM.
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The Leicester Mercury published
this relating to our autumn 2007
"Charging or Choice Conference". (Used with permission of The Leicester Mercury).
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The DFT response to the
Local Transport Bill can
be found
here.
This concerns "our patch" among other things.
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