Media centre

Wednesday 5 Nov 2014

Have your say on rail industry plans for growth in the east of England

Region & Route:

| Eastern: Anglia

| Eastern

Plans to make sure the railway in the east of England can continue to accommodate the huge growth in demand from passengers and freight over the next thirty years have been published by Network Rail – and members of the public are being encouraged to have their say on the proposals.

The company’s Anglia route study looks at the main lines from London Liverpool Street to Norwich and Cambridge and their respective branch lines, as well as the lines from London Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness and Felixstowe to Peterborough via Ely.

Forecasts show that, within a decade, demand for rail travel on the Great Eastern Main Line into Liverpool Street from stations in Essex is expected to grow by 52%, with demand from stations in Suffolk and Norfolk expected to grow by 32%. Over the same period, demand from stations on the West Anglia Main Line, which runs from Cambridge to Liverpool Street, is expected to grow by at least 18% depending on housing growth. Forecasts show that freight demand is expected to grow by an annual average of 2.9% in the next three decades.

The study looks at how to build upon improvements already planned for the coming years, including the completion of Crossrail, the rebuilding of key junctions, renewed overhead lines and upgraded signalling.

Richard Schofield, Network Rail route managing director, said: “The lines out of Liverpool Street are already benefitting from a significant programme of investment over the next five years, but there is more we will need to do to keep up with the continuing growth in demand for rail travel.

“Over the last twenty years the industry has been able to massively increase the frequency of services, but we’re fast approaching the point where there simply isn’t any more space for more trains on the busiest parts of the network. We have to look at ways of increasing the capacity of our network further, including new technology to allow more trains to run on existing tracks, and perhaps building new tracks in key locations. It is fantastic that more and more people want to travel by train and we want to provide the railway to take them where they are going.”

Among the potential options for the Great Eastern main line identified in the study are:

• To support the Great Eastern Main Line Taskforce's aspiration to reduce journey times between London and Norwich to 90 minutes, work is proposed to increase the line speed between Shenfield to Norwich to 110mph by upgrading track, signalling and overhead line equipment. Network Rail will also continue its work to close level crossings where it can to make the railway safer and increase linespeeds.
• Additional platforms at Liverpool Street to increase capacity
• Further upgrading signalling technology which means more trains can run on the existing network
• Doubling of Trowse swing bridge – this would help towards increasing capacity from Norwich to London as well as from Norwich to Cambridge
• Installing a loop (new track) at Haughley Junction and Witham to separate passenger and freight services to help achieve faster journey times between London and Norwich
• Further doubling of the Felixstowe branch line to accommodate the forecast increase in freight services

Among the potential options for the West Anglia main line identified in the study are:

• Longer trains on the West Anglia Main Line. This would require platform extensions across this part of the network
• Journey time improvements on the West Anglia Main Line
• Other options include, adding two extra tracks to the West Anglia Main Line south of Broxbourne to increase capacity and doubling the single line tunnel to Stansted Airport

Among the potential options for the line from Fenchurch Street identified in the study are:

• Adding extra carriages to existing services to meet passenger demand
• Further upgrades at Fenchurch Street station to cope with passenger demand

The Anglia route study also looks at potential options to increase capacity on the North London Line and the line from Gospel Oak to Barking. These include additional platforms at either Gospel Oak or Barking and running longer trains on the North London line.

The study says that these options, if implemented, should provide enough capacity to cope with the expected growth in the next decade. The study also considers how the railway should meet more long-term demand and looks at options to increase capacity up to 2043 – the limit of the report.

Consultation on the draft Anglia Route Study is open until February 3 2015. After the conclusion of the formal consultation phase, the Anglia Route Study Working Group will consider further work that may be required to conclude the study, prior to publication of the final document in the summer of 2015. The study will then be used to inform the Department for Transport’s strategy for the industry’s next funding period from 2019 through to 2024.