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Great Yarmouth - Reedham to close for six months

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Meerkat

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The ‘upgrade’ of the Berney route is limited to a handful of signals!

But could have taken the points out and simplified layouts if it was closed.
It is an anachronism that would be more tourist use as a cycle path, with the money spent on improving the Acle route service.
 
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yorksrob

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But could have taken the points out and simplified layouts if it was closed.
It is an anachronism that would be more tourist use as a cycle path, with the money spent on improving the Acle route service.

If that were true, it would have been done long before now.
 

Meerkat

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It isn’t done because it costs too much to close a line, and you get a hugely disproportionate popular uproar.
“I know no one uses it and I have no intention of ever using it but I am OUTRAGED!”
 

Meole

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So the semaphores are gone and the signal boxes removed ? The end for them everywhere is fast approaching. Used Berney Arms last year on a final look around, doesn't really count though as my discretion not an essential visit.
 

yorksrob

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It isn’t done because it costs too much to close a line, and you get a hugely disproportionate popular uproar.
“I know no one uses it and I have no intention of ever using it but I am OUTRAGED!”

We all know how much new infrastructure costs. Yarmouth is of a size where it's too big to be at the end of a single track branch (it requires a regular interval service and still attracts some special traffic), yet you probably wouldn't want to spend millions remodelling the single track line via Acle.

The Berney line effectively gives Yarmouth something closer to the capacity of a double track line, which is adequate for the route.
 

dk1

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So the semaphores are gone and the signal boxes removed ? The end for them everywhere is fast approaching. Used Berney Arms last year on a final look around, doesn't really count though as my discretion not an essential visit.
Signal boxes & just about all semaphores remain until the final phase in April or possibly now October.
 

duffield

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So the semaphores are gone and the signal boxes removed ? The end for them everywhere is fast approaching....
I wouldn't say that. I saw a summary resignalling plan (which I believe was a sort of master plan for getting everything into the Regional Control Centres - i.e. the end of signal boxes) a couple of years ago and there were quite a few locations marked as "after 2050" if I remember correctly...
The last National Rail semaphores may well be gone before then (but not the boxes).
 

Esker-pades

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Berney Arms is closed for the duration of the works. No replacement transport is being provided. (Source: Greater Anglia Timetables.)
upload_2018-12-19_18-0-11-png.56894
 

dk1

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Yes, sorry. I missed the coverage (despite searching) until I'd posted this. :oops:
No worries mate. Thankfully the pub is empty so no residents out there at all. Rumours abound of an overrun until possibly October that will upset the Summer walking types but nothing confirmed as yet.
 

daodao

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There *should* be a railway that connects them in any sensible world. However back in 1970 sense was something that was in short supply. It really was a strange closure considering the efficiency savings that had been made to the route.
I recall using the route in 1969 when on a family holiday in Corton, to travel both to Lowestoft and to Yarmouth. It had been turned into a long siding with 1 dmu per hour operating as a Paytrain. South Beach station in Yarmouth was virtually derelict. The guard, in conversation with my Dad, stated that he expected the line to close imminently with the expectation that he would lose his job.
 
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The project has been delayed...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-46829212

A major railway upgrade project has been delayed, meaning a Norfolk branch line will go longer without a service.

Network Rail is spending £68m to replace Victorian signalling equipment with a computer-based system between Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft .

The project was due to be complete by 31 March, but the deadline will now be pushed back to allow for more testing.

It means the line from Reedham to Great Yarmouth via Berney Arms, closed since October, will remain shut.

No expected reopening date given.
 

dk1

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LAX54

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Cannot believe it's taken so long to make this public. The delay has been known about for months now.

Before Christmas wasn't it ?

I did hear that there maybe a 'One train in Steam' type working for a couple of trains to and from Berney form the Yarmouth end during the Summer,

Of course even the smallest of delays in getting the kit in, will cause a bigger commissioning delay, as there are only so many testers in the Country, and they are 'booked up' months and months in advance.

Are there not another couple of similar schemes in the Country that have the same 'problem' ?
 

LAX54

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Well before mate. The rumours where rife too. Wonder if some sort of NR/DfT funded Scud shuttle will be initiated from Vauxhall to Berney?
someone said it was a 'contractual requirement' to the owners of the land, how true that is, I dont have a clue !
But would be easy to set up I would have thought.

Still at least no rush for the 755's ! :)
 

LAX54

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But could have taken the points out and simplified layouts if it was closed.
It is an anachronism that would be more tourist use as a cycle path, with the money spent on improving the Acle route service.
Berney line is still very useful, and even more so in the Summer, cant see it closing all together for many a year yet !
 

dk1

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Berney line is still very useful, and even more so in the Summer, cant see it closing all together for many a year yet !
Far too expensive to even talk about closing a line nowadays than actually close it. Long may that be the case.
 

Class 170101

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You would severely limit the service to / from Great Yarmouth if the route were to close - even if Berney Arms station did close.
 

hooverboy

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someone said it was a 'contractual requirement' to the owners of the land, how true that is, I dont have a clue !
But would be easy to set up I would have thought.

Still at least no rush for the 755's ! :)
thre would appear to be no particular rush to get any new stock online anywhere. same with marston vale...i saw the realtime trains schedule and there seems to be a dearth of operations outside standard working hours.

seems to me either staff or ToC are not
in a hurry.had this been a private sector project it would have been quite customary to have several project managers breathing down your neck and plenty of late testing sessions to make sure deadlines were not missed.

berney arms stretch is what...5 miles?
 

Essexman

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The contractual requirement to stop at Berney Arms goes back to 1860 but I would imagine that the agreement is no longer in operation!

The answer is that like a number of our remote stations, it was part of a deal with the landowner to allow the railway to pass through their property. The more southerly of the two lines from Norwich to Great Yarmouth, it opened in May 1844, gaining the distinction of being the first railway in Norfolk. Thomas Trench Berney had sold the land to the Great Eastern Railway but few passengers used Berney Arms Halt, which they’d built to honour the agreement. Then the company realised that the deal was for a station and not for trains to actually call there, so they stopped serving the halt. A legal battle ensued which the company must have expected to lose, as in 1855 they started stopping trains here again, although the court didn’t issue its findings until 1860. Agreement was then reached for one train each way to stop on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and for Mr Berney to be paid £200 in compensation, a not inconsiderable sum in those days.
 

Tio Terry

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thre would appear to be no particular rush to get any new stock online anywhere. same with marston vale...i saw the realtime trains schedule and there seems to be a dearth of operations outside standard working hours.

seems to me either staff or ToC are not
in a hurry.had this been a private sector project it would have been quite customary to have several project managers breathing down your neck and plenty of late testing sessions to make sure deadlines were not missed.

berney arms stretch is what...5 miles?

Late testing sessions?

Check out the Clapham Junction Accident report and the recommendations that came from it, especially those revolving around working hours for Safety Critical staff, and the resultant requirements for adequate rest periods.
 

dk1

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Late testing sessions?

Check out the Clapham Junction Accident report and the recommendations that came from it, especially those revolving around working hours for Safety Critical staff, and the resultant requirements for adequate rest periods.
I don't think working in excess of 12hrs, 72hrs per-week or more than 13/14 consecutive days has been commonplace on UKs rail network since I helped input it into the rosters back in the early 90s let alone today unless it cannot be helped.
 

LAX54

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I don't think working in excess of 12hrs, 72hrs per-week or more than 13/14 consecutive days has been commonplace on UKs rail network since I helped input it into the rosters back in the early 90s let alone today unless it cannot be helped.
working right up to those limits, at certain times of the year, is common place now, and in my view need looking at again, it is quite a few years since that recommendation was made, the service is now a vastly different beast, and recent 'incidents' seem to bear witness to the strain.
 
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