The resignalling scheme

Transcription

1 & Nottingham Resignalling scheme The resignalling scheme What work is being carried out? s well as redeveloping the station, Network Rail is rebuilding the rail infrastructure around the city. The 100m project to redesign, resignal and relay the tracks will improve reliability and reduce delays, as well as helping the railway to cope with the increasing numbers of passengers. More than six miles of track are being relayed as well as replacing all signals, remodelling three junctions, replacing two level crossings with footbridges (at Sneinton and Trent Lane), renewing equipment at two more crossings, building a new platform at Nottingham and changing track layout at the station to cut delays. This is a huge project which has been developed over three years of careful and detailed planning. Why is this work being done? This is the biggest transformation of the railway through Nottingham since the 1960s and will provide the city with the capacity to cope with growing demand for train travel. When the layout and signalling which is the way trains are controlled were designed in the late 1960s, the number of passenger trains was very low. Now with trains to London every half hour, and services to Mansfield, Worksop, Norwich, Liverpool, Leeds and others, the railway is congested and not able to operate as efficiently as it should. In addition, the station is designed as a through station, even though all but a few trains terminate there. This work will future-proof the station and will work in conjunction with the proposed line-speed improvements and the rebuilding of the station to offer a much improved journey for passengers. Similarly, the signalling equipment is life-expired and will be replaced with modern equivalents, offering much greater reliability and efficiency. Why is the work taking place during the summer period? Traditionally, services are quieter during the summer period with less commuters and business travellers. During the five weeks chosen for Network Rail s resignalling scheme, we would have expected services to be around 15% quieter than at other times of the year. We do recognise that many passengers use our services to travel between Nottingham and Skegness over the summer holidays, and we have worked hard to maintain the best possible service we can for our passengers on this route. Train services will continue to run between Grantham and Skegness and Newark and Lincoln at all times and on 23 out of the 37 days, we will be able to run direct train services from Nottingham to Skegness. Why is the work taking 37 days? This will enable Network Rail to carry out the work in the shortest time possible. If the work had been planned to take place over weekends, as is the case with a lot of engineering work, this would have taken around a year s worth of weekend closures in and around Nottingham to complete. The information contained was correct at the time of printing in pril 2013, but may be subject to change without prior notice.

2 Train services / rail replacement bus services What is happening with train services? Between 20 July and 25 ugust, there will be no trains running to the west of Nottingham station to locations including London, Leicester, Mansfield and Derby. There will be a period of 12 days between Monday 29 July and Friday 9 ugust when we cannot run any train services to the east of Nottingham to Newark or Grantham. dditionally, there will be no trains running from Nottingham to Newark or Grantham on the last weekend of the resignalling works (24 and 25 ugust) when the final commissioning will be done. substantial timetabled bus service will be provided to link with trains at a variety of rail heads the principal ones being East Midlands Parkway in the west and Newark and Grantham in the east. Other rail heads will include lfreton and Beeston, plus express buses from Derby to Nottingham. Passengers can still plan their journeys in the same way through eastmidlandstrains.co.uk. When will the timetables be available? Timetables for each route are already available to download at eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/ nottingham. Printed copies of the timetable will be available at each station at the end of June. When can tickets be booked? Tickets will be on sale from early May and all of our normal sales points (internet, station, ticket vending machines) will have information and advice for passengers travelling to/from Nottingham between 20 July and 25 ugust. What is the best station to use to travel to London? We are advising people to travel from East Midlands Parkway station, which is located on the 453 near to Radcliffe-on-Soar power station. There are three trains an hour to/from London from this station and journey times are around 1 hour and 34 minutes. Seven buses an hour will run between Nottingham and East Midlands Parkway, or alternatively passengers can use the 1,000 space car park for the discounted price of 6 per day. There is also free parking for disabled passengers at this station. How many replacement buses will you be operating? This project has been planned for more than three years and we have worked closely with Network Rail and Nottingham City Council to make things run as smoothly as possible. comprehensive bus timetable will see buses leaving from Station Street to the west and Trent Street (for destinations in the east), with bus arrival drop offs in Canal Street and ueens Road close to the station. We are also planning for customers arriving from the west and north to be dropped off in city centre locations. Nottingham City Council will be changing the traffic flows around the station for the duration of the work and we have also worked closely with the Highways gency, local authorities and the tram operator to try to ensure that conflicts with other major works taking place around Nottingham, for example the widening work on the 453, have been minimised to ensure that rail replacement buses will run as reliably as possible. This is not just rail replacement, but a military-style operation involving hundreds of extra staff to assist passengers and a comprehensive control system to keep things flowing efficiently. During May, we will be carrying out a full test exercise of the rail replacement services so that we can ensure everything is ready in terms of bus timings, passenger drop off and pick up points plus timing for loading and unloading passengers and luggage. This test exercise will be carried out in conjunction with the Nottingham City Council Transport planners. The information contained was correct at the time of printing in pril 2013, but may be subject to change without prior notice.

3 The planned number of buses operating on each route is as follows (please note: the number of buses will increase at peak periods): East Midlands Parkway to Nottingham (for connections to London and Liverpool-Norwich services) = 7 buses an hour Beeston to Nottingham = 3 buses an hour Derby to Nottingham = 4 buses an hour lfreton to Nottingham (for connections from Northern Rail services) = 2 buses an hour Mansfield to Nottingham = 4 buses an hour Worksop to Nottingham = 1 bus an hour Grantham to Nottingham = 2 buses an hour Grantham to East Midlands Parkway = 1 bus an hour Newark Castle to Nottingham = 2 buses an hour Newark Castle to East Midlands Parkway = 1 bus an hour How will you cater for disabled passengers and passengers with bikes? We would advise any passengers requiring assistance to book ahead using our ssisted Travel Line on ( daily) or by visiting eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/ information/contact-us. Bookings can be made between 12 weeks and 24 hours ahead of travel. We have worked hard to provide as many DD compliant buses as possible and we will have extra staff available and extra vehicles on standby to help carry passengers. Our ssisted Travel team will be able to provide advice on the best route and journey and ensure that we can continue to offer our usual high standard of service. ll routes will have limited bike capacity as per East Midlands Trains current bike policy. s per the normal restrictions on rail replacement bus services, alcohol and dogs (with the exception of guide dogs) will not be permitted. Will you be offering discounts for passengers travelling during this time? Whilst we have worked hard to minimise the impact on our passengers, we do recognise that there will be inconvenience and disruption to journeys over the summer. When rail replacement takes place anywhere in the UK, ticket prices remain the same for the rail replacement as normal. We are however currently looking at ways where we can consider taking the unique step of offering discounts for travel during this 37 day period. We should have more information on this over the coming weeks. In addition, we would look to be able to offer some form of discount to season ticket holders. gain, we hope to be able to provide more information over the coming weeks. How long will the replacement bus services take? Details of the replacement bus services and the approximate journey times are included in the timetable and these can be found on our website at eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/nottingham. The information contained was correct at the time of printing in pril 2013, but may be subject to change without prior notice.

4 Where will the replacement buses be leaving from? We have worked closely with Nottingham City Council to develop the best possible bus routes, with the most convenient drop off and pick up points. map showing each of the bus stops will be published at eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/nottingham in June. What other steps have you taken to provide a better service for passengers? We have invested in additional car parking spaces at East Midlands Parkway (150 spaces) and Beeston (100 spaces) for those passengers who choose to drive to these stations to connect in with services to London. Passengers who already hold a car parking season ticket for Nottingham can use this ticket to park at either East Midlands Parkway or Beeston. We have carried out extensive passenger research at Nottingham which has been built into our service plans to help us assess how many buses we require. We have worked closely with Nottingham City Council to develop the best possible bus routes, with the most convenient drop off and pick up points for passengers. We will have around 100 East Midlands Trains and Network Rail Managers providing extra assistance to our passengers at key locations throughout the duration of the resignalling scheme. We will be providing additional cycle storage facilities at Beeston, East Midlands Parkway, Newark Castle and Grantham stations. What advice would you offer to passengers? Continue to travel with us during the summer, we will keep passengers moving and will still get them to their destinations. Passengers need to be prepared, allow additional time for their journey and check in advance of travel at eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/nottingham How can passengers find out more information? Detailed information and timetables can be found at eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/ nottingham. There is also an option to register on the website for future updates about services over the summer. Will this affect all East Midlands Trains journeys? No. The rest of our network will operate a full and normal service throughout the summer. The routes that will operate as normal include: Sheffield, Chesterfield, Derby, East Midlands Parkway, Leicester, Market Harborough, Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Bedford and Luton to London Liverpool to Sheffield/Chesterfield Derby to Matlock Derby to Crewe Newark to Lincoln Grantham to Skegness round three quarters of our passengers will not be affected at all by the work at Nottingham. How are you communicating all the changes to passengers? We are carrying out a comprehensive communications campaign which includes information at stations and on trains, detailed information on a dedicated webpage (eastmidlandstrains. co.uk/nottingham), letters to season ticket holders, briefings for stakeholders and businesses in affected areas, information at sales points including ticket vending machines and ticket offices and working with regional media outlets to communicate information. The information contained was correct at the time of printing in pril 2013, but may be subject to change without prior notice.

5 What s the latest information on the station redevelopment? The multi-million pound Nottingham Hub project is working alongside the resignalling and rebuild of the railway to improve the station. This will include a new southern entrance, integrated tram station above the railway, a new ticket offices, new retail outlets, a bigger concourse, fresh glazing and a new canopy on platform 6. This project will be completed in early 2014, with the tram extension to Beeston and Chilwell later that year. The three projects go together to provide Nottingham with a fantastic hub that links all modes of transport in the city. The information contained was correct at the time of printing in pril 2013, but may be subject to change without prior notice.