My speech at Norfolk County Council today re Norfolk’s railway system, thanks to everyone that commented on the thread last week
Thank-you Chair.
I am passionate about public transport in Norfolk and I am frustrated that the services that we all need and want to see being delivered are still so far away.
In many ways, we’re fortunate in Thetford that we have a train station, increasingly people want to travel by train whether its commuting to Norwich or Cambridge or elsewhere for work, or, off to the coast for the day or other leisure related trips. Recently however, Thetford ranked first in Norfolk on the rail -performance tracking site ‘On Time Trains’ for delayed services, with just 15% of services on time – ranking within the bottom 100 out of 2,621 stations across the UK.
In anticipation of speaking today I asked residents in Thetford about the train service and how it was impacting them. There were more than 50 replies on social media.
As Thetford resident Glenn pointed out, it’s bad enough that there are delays, but in Thetford’s case, after 1.30pm weekdays there’s no waiting room and no toilet available, and nothing at all on Sundays. Recently I travelled to Leeds by train, my train was an hour late, I spent the whole hour on the platform wishing I’d had just driven as the cost would have worked out roughly the same given the price of the train ticket.
Another Thetford resident, Hilary, said She would like to use the trains more for environmental reasons, but they are just too expensive. And Ellie said; “I used the trains last year when I started working at Norwich Hospital. I got the earliest train as the later one was always delayed, then had to get 2 buses when I got to the city – the whole journey took 2 hours.
Whilst issues with trains in my part of the County is proving frustrating, I do sympathise with residents in North Norfolk who have been experiencing almost daily problems with the Norwich to Sheringham route with bus replacements services now more frequent than trains itself it seems.
No part of the rail system in Norfolk is immune from the problems. West Norfolk has had investment delayed and yet, like everywhere else passengers face fare rises and disruption.
Tha main focus has been to the east of the county and given the huge investment in new rolling stock that’s hardly surprising. But much of that rolling stock is idle because of problems, put simply, because of compatibility issues. Ever tried to load a new app on an old computer? It just can’t handle it and likewise we have known for years the infrastructure along the Great Eastern line was inadequate.
The report by Atkins (a top UK and international consulting authority on transport) produced ten years ago for EEDA and councils down the line including Norfolk, Norwich and Shaping Norfolk’s Future that preceded the LEP made it clear that investment on rolling stock and the infrastructure the trains used was essential if we were to gain the £3.7 billion in benefits to businesses and commuters in the East of England. Yes, £3.7bn over the 60 year projections used, and that used 2002 prices. We’re talking big numbers and long term benefit.
Of course in the past ten years climate change has climbed the agenda and the substantial reduction in car journeys a much improved rail service would lead to has gained in significance too.
Currently rail investment is agreed in five year periods called control periods.
Sadly, although there is a considerable amount being invested in some aspects of the service in the current control period that runs until 2024 much pf it is at the London end to facilitate Crossrail. Critical infrastructure improvements like the swing bridge at Trowse is not mentioned and along with other projects there is no time to mention has no priority and no timescale. Even if it made it into 2024-29 it could mean up to a decade before we see the speed, reliability, frequency, environmental and economic benefit that could result. Without it the few Norwich in 90 services will continue to be cancelled, new rolling stock won’t meet their potential, there can be no increases in services and bottleneck delayes will continue.
Last week, after the motion was tabled, the consultation on the Norfolk Rail Prospectus was launched.
In the light of that it is premature to press this motion today. Instead let me put on the agenda front and centre the need for Norfolk to have a reliable, frequent, fast, affordable rail service serving as many parts of the county as we can. So far there has been little attention drawn to this consultation so I hope this motion will encourage members to think carefully about what rail can mean to the county and encourage the public to respond to the consultation.
Having drawn councils attention to the issue I withdraw the motion but hope we can return to something similar after the consultation to get Norfolk behind coming together to fight for the rail system we need.'
