Greater Anglia Stansted services

[greataj]

Hey new here. Main question, would there be any possibility of Greater Anglia extending the timetabling of the Norwich-Cambridge service to Stansted Airport to all-day, or does peak timetabling prohibit this? Currently the extended service to Stansted Airport with calls at Whittlesford Parkway and Audley End runs off-peak only with usually nine services a day. I'm thinking once Cambridge South opens could this regular extension be more justified?

Also CrossCountry are currenly only running to Stansted usually every 2 hours off-peak. It used to be hourly all day. I can only assume the fairly recent addition of Norwich services to Stansted via Cambridge has impacted this. The end result though is the Stansted-Cambridge section is pretty poorly served, especially during evening peak where there can be around 90 minutes sometimes between services, and this is a busy time for airport traffic. Quite often it works out quicker to take one of the Stansted Express services to Stortford and change for a local service north-bound towards Cambridge.

I know the single track through the tunnel on the airport branch can be a limiting factor to increasing service frequency there but Stansted Airport station already takes up to 6tph anyway (2 northbound and 4 Stansted Express to Liverpool St), so extending that across more hours of the day shouldn't be an issue in itself.

I wonder if a more holistic approach would be for CrossCountry to terminate all services from Birmingham New St at Cambridge (or Cambridge South possibly in future) with no service to Stansted Airport, and instead Greater Anglia run their own Stansted Airport to Peterborough service. Most airport traffic won't extend much beyond Peterborough anyway and those that do could still interchange at Cambridge, Ely or Peterborough. That could run 1tph in place of the current 1/2tph from Ipswich-Peterborough which could either terminate at Ely or extend northwards to King's Lynn (currently only served hourly most of the time with Great Northern). That way you could also acheive increased service offering between Peterborough-Cambridge and from Ely-King's Lynn. I suspect that might require some modifications at the likes of Cambridge and Ely but would seem a fairly acheivable medium-term solution I would think.

In any case the airport will very much want to secure Cambride South for access to the biomedical campus as that's a big commercial sell for them.

 

[Magdalia]

Main question, would there be any possibility of Greater Anglia extending the timetabling of the Norwich-Cambridge service to Stansted Airport to all-day, or does peak timetabling prohibit this?

In peak hours the paths are taken by the fast trains between Liverpool Street and Cambridge/Ely. They were there first.

Also CrossCountry are currenly only running to Stansted usually every 2 hours off-peak. It used to be hourly all day. I can only assume the fairly recent addition of Norwich services to Stansted via Cambridge has impacted this.

This is mostly a post covid thing.

I know the single track through the tunnel on the airport branch can be a limiting factor to increasing service frequency there but Stansted Airport station already takes up to 6tph anyway (2 northbound and 4 Stansted Express to Liverpool St), so extending that across more hours of the day shouldn't be an issue in itself.

Another important capacity constraint is platform capacity at Stansted Airport, especially now that the Liverpool Street service is 4tph with 230m trains.

I wonder if a more holistic approach would be for CrossCountry to terminate all services from Birmingham New St at Cambridge (or Cambridge South possibly in future) with no service to Stansted Airport, and instead Greater Anglia run their own Stansted Airport to Peterborough service. Most airport traffic won't extend much beyond Peterborough anyway and those that do could still interchange at Cambridge, Ely or Peterborough. That could run 1tph in place of the current 1/2tph from Ipswich-Peterborough which could either terminate at Ely or extend northwards to King's Lynn (currently only served hourly most of the time with Great Northern). That way you could also acheive increased service offering between Peterborough-Cambridge and from Ely-King's Lynn. I suspect that might require some modifications at the likes of Cambridge and Ely but would seem a fairly acheivable medium-term solution I would think.

These are the sorts of changes that are only likely to come if capacity is increased at Ely. The main quick win is to get the Birmingham service back to hourly, and with longer trains. The Birmingham trains currently don't stop at Cambridge North because of capacity issues, and it is not clear whether they are going to stop at Cambridge South either.

 

[Alfie1014]

Hey new here. Main question, would there be any possibility of Greater Anglia extending the timetabling of the Norwich-Cambridge service to Stansted Airport to all-day, or does peak timetabling prohibit this? Currently the extended service to Stansted Airport with calls at Whittlesford Parkway and Audley End runs off-peak only with usually nine services a day. I'm thinking once Cambridge South opens could this regular extension be more justified?

Also CrossCountry are currenly only running to Stansted usually every 2 hours off-peak. It used to be hourly all day. I can only assume the fairly recent addition of Norwich services to Stansted via Cambridge has impacted this. The end result though is the Stansted-Cambridge section is pretty poorly served, especially during evening peak where there can be around 90 minutes sometimes between services, and this is a busy time for airport traffic. Quite often it works out quicker to take one of the Stansted Express services to Stortford and change for a local service north-bound towards Cambridge.

I know the single track through the tunnel on the airport branch can be a limiting factor to increasing service frequency there but Stansted Airport station already takes up to 6tph anyway (2 northbound and 4 Stansted Express to Liverpool St), so extending that across more hours of the day shouldn't be an issue in itself.

I wonder if a more holistic approach would be for CrossCountry to terminate all services from Birmingham New St at Cambridge (or Cambridge South possibly in future) with no service to Stansted Airport, and instead Greater Anglia run their own Stansted Airport to Peterborough service. Most airport traffic won't extend much beyond Peterborough anyway and those that do could still interchange at Cambridge, Ely or Peterborough. That could run 1tph in place of the current 1/2tph from Ipswich-Peterborough which could either terminate at Ely or extend northwards to King's Lynn (currently only served hourly most of the time with Great Northern). That way you could also acheive increased service offering between Peterborough-Cambridge and from Ely-King's Lynn. I suspect that might require some modifications at the likes of Cambridge and Ely but would seem a fairly acheivable medium-term solution I would think.

In any case the airport will very much want to secure Cambride South for access to the biomedical campus as that's a big commercial sell for them.

I think this was answered in the GA class 755 thread, it’s due to matching up the paths north and south of Cambridge it is hoped to improve this when the WA route timetable was (is) rewritten but as this is tied in with the ECML timetable which has been delayed yet again its still on hold.

 

[greataj]

Another important capacity constraint is platform capacity at Stansted Airport, especially now that the Liverpool Street service is 4tph with 230m trains.

Stansted Airport station can and does take up to 6tph already so you wouldn't increase above that, just extend the operating hours in which that happens. But point taken regarding the peak flow Ely/Cambridge to Liverpool St, that's the limiting factor by the sounds of it.

I beleive what often happens with the Norwich service is that it occupies the same platform as one of the Stansted Express services which blocks it in, so it is timed to arrive before and depart after that Express. That's even with the 12 carriage Express. Perhaps not ideal but it's workable.