West Norfolk Reopening? (Norwich - Dereham - Swaffham - Kings Lynn)

[Tobbes]

Evening all,

Was just thinking about projected growth in East Anglia and Altnabreac's famous yardstick for reopenings.

1. Population of 10,000+
2. 60 minutes (75 at a push) journey time of a major employment centre.
3. Extant or mainly unobstructed trackbed
4. Ability to extend an existing service so more terminal capacity is not required.

I was thinking about MNR to Dereham then a new line to Swaffham before connecting up to the Lynn line at Middleton Towers.

Dereham to Norwich via Wymondham is a straightforward commercial deal with the MNR, and adds 19000 population to the line, with Norwich 0 mins away.

Swaffham to Dereham adds 7,000 in Swaffham and probably <15 mins, meaning comfortably <60 to Norwich, and <40 to Lynn.

Thoughts?

 

[MarkRedon]

Evening all,

Was just thinking about projected growth in East Anglia and Altnabreac's famous yardstick for reopenings.

1. Population of 10,000+
2. 60 minutes (75 at a push) journey time of a major employment centre.
3. Extant or mainly unobstructed trackbed
4. Ability to extend an existing service so more terminal capacity is not required.

I was thinking about MNR to Dereham then a new line to Swaffham before connecting up to the Lynn line at Middleton Towers.

Dereham to Norwich via Wymondham is a straightforward commercial deal with the MNR, and adds 19000 population to the line, with Norwich 0 mins away.

Swaffham to Dereham adds 7,000 in Swaffham and probably <15 mins, meaning comfortably <60 to Norwich, and <40 to Lynn.

Thoughts?

, Yes, subject to the usual caveats about benefit to cost ratio! Are you also aware of the moderately serious proposal to reopen March to Wisbech as part of a Peterborough to Kings Lynn restored line? See: http://stevebarclay.net/could-wisbech-station-open-up-a-direct-kings-lynn-to-peterborough-rail-link/

If that all sounds rather fantastic and fantasist, bear in mind the potentially-huge benefits of what are sometimes called network effects: for example, alternative routing from Peterborough to Norwich.

 

[eastdyke]

Bearing in mind the rather indirect rail route Norwich - Derham via Wymondham even units with round wheels would struggle to improve upon the timings of the X1 / Konect 8 Buses.

The First Bus X1 is generally a half hourly service and the timings are approx.
(from Norwich centre - centre):

Dereham 38 mins
Swaffham 64 mins
Kings Lynn 99 mins

The Konect Bus 8 is also a half hourly service with approx timings (from Norwich centre - centre):

Dereham 35 mins

The NRW - Derham rail route would probably mean that this is a non-starter, sorry.

 

[Diplodicus]

As long as the stock runs in M&GN livery

 

[Tobbes]

Fair enough - many thanks to all.