May timetable change brings faster trains and higher prices - East Anglia

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

A train from Norwich that reached Ipswich in 30 minutes and London in 90 has achieved faster journey targets.

The train left Norwich at 09:00 BST and arrived in London at 10:28 - a trip that usually takes two hours.

Greater Anglia said the train made one stop, at Ipswich, and promised its new engines, soon to be introduced, would serve more stations.

Commuters welcomed the faster trains, but complained that some ticket prices had increased on the summer timetable.

One commuter said the new times to London, faster than the usual 120 minutes, were welcome "in theory" but he wanted to see the new trains in action.

and

A commuter travelling between Ipswich and Norwich on a day return said the fare had increased from £18.70 to £19.90.

The company replied it was allowed under its franchise to increase prices in January, May and September.

I've heard further comment that reduced station calls (some will come back as the new trains arrive) sound great, but will have a significant negative effect on a lot of journeys.

Further information Rail Magazine

[grahame]

From BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

A train from Norwich that reached Ipswich in 30 minutes and London in 90 has achieved faster journey targets.

It looks like "Norwich in 90" is more the target than what's being achieved in practise (yet??)

From the Eastern Daily News

The Norwich in 90 train service to London is frequently late, new figures show.

Figures reported by BBC Radio Norfolk show that none of the 62 7pm London to Norwich services arrived on time in the past three months.

The 11am service from London to Norwich had the worst reliability rate over the same period, with three in 10 trains cancelled.

Greater Anglia said there was "room for improvement" in the reliability of the services.

The launch of the Norwich in 90 service - which shaved 12 minutes off the previous fastest journey time between Norwich and the capital - came after a nine-year campaign for a faster route on the line.

I have heard concerns that whilst a speedup is welcome, that's not at the expense of leaving out very busy intermediate stations, nor at the expense of reliability of the service.   It also needs to run offers enough to make it useful or at high peak time as an extra train to shave the top off the mountain of end to end (or Ipswich) passengers to allow more space on the other trains for villages like Colchester. 

Video from "All the Stations" team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMTg7DOp2f0

[IndustryInsider]

The morning train the other way is far more punctual, recording 16 actual* on time or early arrivals over the same period.  When the slow accelerating and manual door fitted Class 90 Mark III's and DVT^‡(resolve) are fully replaced with the 12-car Class 745 Stadler units that should also help performance on the line in general.

* To-the-minute rather than the PPM^‡(resolve) 'On Time' figure

[CyclingSid]

I could imagine that

villages like Colchester

might cause some spluttering into coffee cups.