Trial by Train

'Sudbury Flyer' waiting at Marks Tey

Our train service to and from London seems to be getting worse and worse. Returning from Liverpool Street last week I sat outside Stratford station for half an hour while signal problems were sorted out.  I was lucky because the Sudbury Flyer was held up until the London train arrived, and so I was not as late as I might have been. I suspect however that this meant that others were inconvenienced.

In November we suffered the total suspension of services (and their replacement with an unreliable and spasmodic bus service) between Sudbury and Marks Tey for over a week.  Apparently this chaos was due to damage to the track and to trains caused by autumn leaves on the line!  Those in the know believe that the train operator made no attempt to pre-empt this problem by using special equipment designed to clear the leaves.  In addition much of this can be avoided if trees close to the line are cut back and/or removed as part of general maintenance. Clearly this was not done.

At the council meeting last Thursday a motion was debated drawing attention to this state of affairs.  This was proposed by Guy McGregor and seconded by Graham Newman, both of whom know a huge amount about our railways.  Stating that the withdrawal of services in Suffolk last month was unacceptable, (the lines affected included trains between Ipswich and Felixstowe and Ipswich and Peterborough as well as the Sudbury line) they called for a Government inquiry into the situation and also for assurances that the problem would not recur.

During the debate I learned that rail passengers in Suffolk are getting a particularly raw deal.  Last month we experienced 106 train cancellations in one day due to ‘leaf damage’.  This compares with just 12 cancellations on South West Rail, for example, where there is far more track and far more trees too!

Our train operator, Abelio, seems to be a total disaster.  Apparently the company does not maintain the rolling stock properly, and do not invest in their business either.   I seem to remember that one of the reasons that they won the franchise in the first place was their promise of nice shiny new trains but these have simply not materialised.

The franchise is up for renewal in the next year or so.  Abelio it seems were intending to bid for a further term in partnership with Stagecoach.  Recently we heard that Stagecoach have withdrawn from the deal, a move which may reflect Abelio’s recent shortcomings.   Given the anger generated by their recent performance I would have thought that the likelihood of Abelio winning the bid for the next contract is not high.