Anglia Railways

Countdown begins for new Norwich - Cambridge train service
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date 18 October 2001
source Anglia Railways
type Press release

Anglia Railways' plans to develop a new direct train service between Norwich and Cambridge are progressing well with now less than 12 months to go before the start of the service in October 2002.

The draft timetable is under discussion with Railtrack and consultation with local authorities, the Rail Passenger's Committee and local rail user groups is underway. The calling pattern has now been confirmed and all trains will serve Norwich, Wymondham, Attleborough, Thetford, Ely and Cambridge. The journey time is expected to be a competitive 73 minutes between Norwich and Cambridge.

15 services in each direction will operate on weekdays, 14 on Saturdays and 11 on Sundays.

Initially, it appeared that it would not be possible to serve Attleborough because of train pathing issues. This matter has now been satisfactorily resolved and Attleborough residents can now look forward to enjoying a much more frequent train service from next autumn.

In addition to work on developing the timetable, Anglia Railways is also making progress in the following areas of planning the service:

o Driver route training has commenced

o A programme to recruit additional train drivers and on-train staff is underway. Anglia Railways expect to employ at least 20 extra staff as a result
The process to order four brand new diesel trains to operate the service is currently being finalised. Further details will be announced soon concerning the type of train and the passenger benefits the rolling stock will provide

o Arrangements for servicing and maintaining the trains at Norwich are also being developed

The additional spin-offs for Anglia's local train services - as a direct result of having a larger fleet of trains - are also being developed. This will provide an additional return service between Norwich and Lowestoft, Norwich and Great Yarmouth and Norwich and Sheringham. In Suffolk, an additional Ipswich to Felixstowe service will operate along with extra Saturday trains between Ipswich and Cambridge/Peterborough. These improvements will all commence in October 2002.

Commenting on the development of the new Norwich to Cambridge service, Tim Clarke, Anglia Railways' managing director said:

"With now less than twelve months to go before the start of the new Norwich to Cambridge service, anticipation is really building as we approach another major development in the renaissance of East Anglia's train services.

"At Anglia Railways, we are proud to play our part in delivering tangible improvements for rail passengers. 60% more mainline services between Norwich, Ipswich and London, the innovative London Crosslink service and through London services to destinations such as Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth is firm evidence of our commitment to the region we serve. The new Norwich to Cambridge service is the next logical step and I am delighted that we are making excellent progress in the planning for the service."

Railhub Archive ::: 2001-10-18 ANG-001