Life On RailsListen to this first episode of Greater Anglia’s new podcast to discover some interesting nuggets about life on rails. Find out how trains are made, how they’re kept clean and sanitised, and why leaves on the line are like black ice on the road. Discover which destination we recommend to YouTuber Geoff Marshall, and how you can get the cheapest fares.
We’d love to hear from you, please tweet us at @GreateAngliaPr #LifeOnRails. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast as well, and visit www.greateranglia.co.uk/podcast to discover more.
Hello, I'm Juliet Maxim.
And I'm Lucy Wright. And this is Life on Rails.
We both work at Greater Anglia, which means that we are able to go behind the scenes at one of the UK's biggest train companies.
And in this podcast, we'll be talking to drivers, managers, cleaners, and everyone in between, including some of the celebs of East Anglia and the train world.
We've got a great first episode lined up. Join us as we speak to our resident fares guru, Ken Strong.
Especially on lightly loaded trains where the number of tickets sold is not generally that high, there will still be fairly cheap fares available, and it'll still work out a lot cheaper.
Environment managers, Steph Evans.
There's a lot of stories at the moment on things we can can do, and I think if everyone does their own little bit, then we can all help to make a difference.
Nadia O'Brien, who's in charge of train cleaning.
The train still needed to be cleaned, and during the pandemic, it needed to be cleaned even more so. Even when we had calls of people going into self isolation or COVID symptoms, the team then shrunk down a little bit, but they worked even harder.
And Steve Mitchell, project manager on the biggest new trains order in UK history.
I mean, if we look at the date that some of those trains are built, back in the mid 70s, and you looked at the cars on the road at the time, if we were all still driving around in those cars, we'd all want to change.
To kick things off, though, we are going to chat with Jeff Marshall. One of the biggest transport YouTubers around.
This is travel surgery, where Lucy and I choose a destination on our network for a special guest. Today, we're joined by video editor and producer Jeff Marshall. He's been in the Guinness World Book of Records twice for traveling to all of the London underground Stations in the fastest time possible. And in 2017, he visited all 2, 563 national rail stations in Great Britain, including the best, those at Greater Anglia.
Hi Jeff, thanks for coming on our podcast and being one of our first guests.
Hello, thanks for having me. Nice to be here.
Can you just explain a bit about your job, just for anyone who doesn't know what you do.
Well, as a middle aged man in his 40s, I'm reticent towards using the phrase YouTuber, because for that, you have to be half my age and sat in your bedroom. And I do venture out mainly onto the railway network with my video camera and proceed to create short films, entertaining videos, vlogs, as I believe sometimes is the phrase used to just highlight transport and stations and travel around Britain and sometimes outside of Britain as well.
We love your videos, of course. Why the railway? When did you first become interested in the railway?
That's a great question. I always remember my granddad, he'd have a bookshelf full of maps, OS maps, and an A to Z collection going back many years. And on the back of every London A to Z was always a copy of that year's additions tube map. And as a small boy, I would always look at the tube map and notice the differences over time, how things have grown and changed. And I took an interest in thinking what is at the end of the lines? What is at Upminster and what is it Epping. And I think that stayed with me. Came a young adult with an actual job and actual money, I remember that there was all those places from years ago, and it was time to head out and explore the network.
How did you cope over the past year or so? I mean, the pandemic at the start, it was essential travel only. How did you cope?
I did a whole bunch of walking videos. I went into did a whole series of walking old, abandoned, and disused railways around London. I did a series of 16 videos which kept me very occupied for two months during January, February, March, April time. And then for March, April this year things slowly returned a little bit back to normal.
So you enjoy walking. That's an interesting thing to know. So what does the railway mean to you?
The story I always like to tell is of my friend Roland. I used to work with many years ago and I used to work at the BBC and we did that Monday to Friday office job. And he was from Newcastle. He was down in London and he spent five years down here and he got the tube every day. I think two stops from the end of the Northern line, Colliers Wood up into Central London. And when it got to his last week and he is leaving to go back up Newcastle, he got married and went home and stuff, and he was like, he had to get that that Northern line train every blooming day. And I was like, " Well, at least you got to see like the sunny sites of Morden," I said rather flippantly, because in Morden it's just like a supermarket. And he was like, he said, "You know what, Jeff, in all the five years I've been doing it, I've never actually gone two stops south and gone to Morden." And I was like, " What, did you ever just get the urge to stay on the train one evening and just see what was beyond your stop?" And he went, " No." And I was aghast. People just get stuck in that world of like, " I get on at my home station and I go to this station and that's it." And I just have this bug inside of me that says, " No, well why don't you just go a stop further or why not get out at a different stop?"
So be less Roland, be more Jeff, go out and have an adventure. What's it like sharing your journeys with the world? What kind of feedback do you get? Have you inspired people to get out and see more? Not just Roland.
It's strange. Occasionally I get like a tweet or an email. I think my favorite recently was... I did that whole lost railways series beginning of this year, like episode five, I walked across Staines Moor in Southwest London to follow the path of the old railway there. And I got this hilarious message saying, " Jeff, just to let you know, I'm a 38 year old with a four year old son. And he insisted, insisted that we went to Staines Moor last Saturday, and I had to walk across and I wish I'd taken my Wellington boots." So it's nice when people see you do something and then they go and do the same thing, which is something that I do as well, because I watch other people. So I'm genuinely inspired myself, and then that inspiration is passed on to others as well.
And that's the purpose of this interview. We want to inspire you. Yes, you've been to all of our stations, but we want to inspire you to go beyond the station. We just want to find out what would be the perfect destination for you? So you clearly like walking, you like going by train. Our community rail partnerships published booklets of walks and I've been trying them out because I love going by train and I love walking and there's one I think might be right up your street. If you're not scared of walking maybe 10 miles, is that too much, 10, 12 miles? I
I'd like to get in my 10, 000 steps a day anyway. That's always it. That's about 5k.
This would be perfect then. So it's the Debon and coast walk and it's in the East Suffolk line walks booklet, and it's basically between Trimleigh and Felixstowe stations, but it's not direct. It takes you across some marshes and then along the river Debon and along the coast. And some of it is really empty, you can see nobody, and then you get to Felixstowe ferry and into Felixstowe. So there we are. I think that is the perfect little trip for you to make, and I just recommend to you getting the community rail partnership booklets, and then they'll tell you about the different sites along the way. That's it. Thank you very much.
No, thank you very much. Thanks for having me on. Is this the first ever one?
It is the first ever one. You are first ever travel surgery guest, and we really hope you enjoy our recommendation to you.
Thank you. All right. Juliet, Lucy. Thank you.
So we are on location today. We are at Norwich, we're at Norwich station, and we're recording today with Nadia O'Brien, who's our presentation ops manager. Hi Nadia, thanks for being on our podcast.
Hi, thank you for having me.
So can you just talk me through your role? What it is you do? Where you're based? That kind of thing.
Yeah, of course. So I'm based out of Norwich station and I work with the presentation team cleaning the trains out of, like I said, Norwich, also Crown Point depot, also Ipswitch, Clacton, Colchester, and also Harwich International as well. So a typical day is the train will come into Norwich, the guys are ready to get on the train, clean. So we litter pick, make sure the soap in the toilet is completely full. Also make sure there's toilet roll and a spare and just make sure everything is clean and tidy. And then during the night we do more of a enhanced clean. So we do a stabled clean as we call it, which is more of an in depth clean than a half an hour turnaround clean, where we go through, we mop, hoover inside out, and also we carpet clean as well. So the trains overnight have got their carpets all cleaned.
So over the pandemic we have invested over half a million pounds in some of the new equipment, the fogging guns, the ATP machines and so on, the backpack vacs. Have they been well received? People like using them?
Oh, massively, yeah. The whole team, they've just really just stuck in and got on with it. And also we've had people going, " Oh, I want to do that job," because it's also something different. It's changed their routine up a little bit. So they are very interested and very well received equipment.
But now I'm going to look at how a fogging gun works. So what's the point of a fogging gun, Nadia?
Okay, so the fogging gun produces a very fine mist of a chemical and it will sanitize in the nooks and crannies that the cleaners can't actually get to, and it will kill bacteria and it will remain there for a while, and it's a lot safer and cleaner then just going in and cleaning with a chemical and a microfiber cloth, which we do both, but just double protection.
And I can see that we've got a fogging gun with us.
Yes we have.
In the room where we're recording. So would you like to just show me how it works?
Of course, yeah. So you've got a small tank that sits on the bottom and you put your chemical in the small tank, screw it on, and then just press a button and then the fine mist will come out. So if I just screw that on there and then all you do is press a button and then it just sprays a fine mist everywhere. And as you can see, it goes quite far.
And we also invested in the backpack vacuum cleaners. They're quite handy aren't they, because they're quite lightweight, but they don't only clean the floors.
No. So they actually clean the air whilst we are hoovering as well.
Should we have a look at one?
Yes, definitely.
So these are worn literally like a backpack.
Yes, so worn on your back, so there's no lifting up a Hoover and trying to carry that down the aisle. They just wear it on their back, looking like a Ghostbuster, and then yeah, just hoovering. So it's a lot easier. They're really light as well. And also you can take off the end as well, so you can just take it off if you see something on a chair, you can just hoover it up quickly.
And they filter the air as well.
They do filter the air.
Let's have a look.
Okay, excellent.
So just going back, it's been a strange 18 months, as we've all talked about, but at the start of the pandemic, we were still running a service for key workers. And our staff themselves were key workers. So what happened there?
So, like you say, obviously we were running a service, the trains still needed to be cleaned, and during the pandemic it needed to be cleaned even more so. So the team they (inaudible) , they came in every single shift during the night, during the day. And obviously COVID affected everybody, so it also affected our workforce all the colleagues downstairs and in their personal lives as well. Even when we had calls of people going into self isolation or COVID symptoms, the team then shrunk down a little bit, but they worked even harder.
And they completely went above and beyond.
They did.
We received so many nice tweets as well. So thank you if you're one of the customers who sends one of those lovely tweets about our team. They do get passed on and just want to say huge thank you to you, your team, your colleagues, and the wider colleagues across the network, because it has been a really, really difficult job. So thank you to them and to you.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Everyone has pulled together and worked as a team throughout the pandemic, which has just been fantastic. So thank you.
In October 2016 Greater Anglia ordered a fleet of 191 new trains, the biggest whole scale replacement of new trains in franchising history. Today I'm sitting down with Steve Mitchell, project manager for the new trains program for part of it, to discuss how the project is going. So Steve, hello.
Hello Juliet.
Tell me about your involvement in getting new trains.
So my involvement was as the joint project manager for the Stadler fleet of trains, which is 58 of those new trains that you've mentioned. That's part of the wider new trains program, which is about changing every single train that Greater Anglia was operating.
Why did we do it? What was wrong with our old trains? All the train enthusiasts loved them.
They've served us well for a very long time, but they're dated. I mean, if we look at the date that some of those trains are built, back in the mid 70s, and you'd looked at the cars on the road at the time, if we're all still driving around in those cars, we'd all want to have modern facilities. And in fact, the Stadler fleet, which I was fortuitous enough to be involved in buying, is probably one of the significant steps forward in that, that the UK's had in a long time. The height of the train compared to the platforms has been altered. There's not this automatic big step up that our old trains used to have. Now we even have a ramp that comes out to bridge that gap to make it easier to get on and off.
Yeah, they are absolutely brilliant. I love those trains. Look, it was 2016 when we put in the order for those trains. All the ones that you were responsible for, the Stadlers, are now in, but we're still waiting for the rest of the trains to come. They are trickling in. Why on Earth does it take so long?
Again, I'll use another analogy to the car industry, and actually people might see that they order their car and perhaps with a bit of a chip shortage at the moment that still might take three, four months to get your car. With a train, it's a bit different. That train is bespoke to the region. So we go through a design cycle and therefore the train has been effectively custom adapted and designed for our particular railway. That takes time, because you've got to get that right.
There's a large element of trains which are actually handmade aren't they? It really isn't like a car rolling off a production line.
Yeah, very much so. The actual chassis itself is what they call a monocoque chassis. It is aluminum welded together by very skilled welders that actually build that structure. And then once that structure's built, the rest of the train is then built around that chassis. Every wire, every part is hand assembled.
Were these trains made?
The trains were made all over Europe. The actual assembly of the trains took place in three main locations, Switzerland, where Stadler come from, in a place called Bussnang, in Poland, a place called Siedlce, and in Valencia in Spain. But the parts of the train that then go into the assembly come from lots of different countries. The camera system comes from a company called Petards based in Newcastle. The pantographs on the roof come from a company called Brecknall Willis based in Somerset. The door system comes from Austria, from a company in Austria, and the body shells themselves, some of them were actually made in Switzerland, and some of them were made in Hungary in a place called Szolnok.
That's incredible. What's so good about these new trains?
That's a really hard question. Just to pick one thing. I mean, they're faster accelerating. They help keep better time for our passengers. They're lighter. They're aluminum made trains, so they use less electricity to get from London to Norwich or London to Stanstead. And our bi- mode trains take full advantage of when they're underneath the pantograph, the wires, they can run on electric rather than using diesel. So they're actually got an environmental benefit as well. Whichever way we look at it, I think they're a significant improvement on what we've had before, and also very personally involved, I'm really proud. Shortly after the new trains came into service, I took my family to go and see a new train. We traveled from Norwich to Yarmouth, and as part of that trip, we saw the train in action. We saw the air conditioning, the space, the passenger information. And then at Yarmouth, we saw two wheelchair users self board onto the train as well, and take advantage of the low floor. We traveled back to Norwich, and having experienced that new train, we decided to go for some fish and chips in Croma. And of course at the time it was one of those one carriage trains, one five three, as we call it, and it was packed, it was hot, it was... Yeah, quite unpleasant, and actually it was really, really good to realize that the change was coming and that that will be a thing of the past and it is now a thing of the past for our all routes, because we've changed all of those trains.
Oh, that's just brilliant. A great story to end on. So thanks very much, Steve. Thanks for being a guest on this podcast and thanks for all your hard work on getting us new trains.
Well thank you for inviting me. Thank you Juliet.
In every episode, we'll dive into some seasonal MythBusters to get to the bottom of how the weather really impacts train travel. Autumn's coming up, and what challenges do you think that's likely to bring?
Lucy, traditionally in autumn the railway is pilloried and laughed at for leaves on the line, but we know leaves on the line are no joke. Leaves on the line are the equivalent of black ice on the roads. Leaves fall off the trees and they get compacted into this big slippery mess on the rails. And the worst case scenario, it causes the train wheels to either spin when the trains are accelerating or lock when the trains are braking. And we're working really hard with Network Rail, the people who run the signals, the tracks, the overhead lines, to really keep on top of autumn and the problems that it brings. Our trains have this fantastic new technology, and for all the engineers out there, we've got wheel slide protection, which is like ABS on cars. And that stops the train wheels from locking and skidding. And we've got this thing called... On our new trains, this is, called dynamic traction control, which stops the train wheels from spinning when they're accelerating. And do you know what else we've got on our trains? This is really quite incredible. We have sand stored on the train, and the drivers, if they feel that the track's getting a little bit slippery or they look out the window and they see that conditions look bad, they can release the sand onto the track, and that gives them more grip as well. Just imagine if you had cars with grit on board and you could release grit whenever you're on black ice. But we've got it on our trains. Just incredible.
So that's everything that we are doing on the new trains, which sounds brilliant, but obviously we don't manage and maintain the track. So what are our colleagues at Network Rail doing this autumn?
Autumn is a big time of year for Network Rail. You're quite right. They have these special trains, they're called railhead treatment trains, and they go around the network blasting the leaves off the tracks, and then they put this special gel on the tracks which helps the train wheels grip the track. It's like gritting again. And they apparently, at Network Rail, they have all of this intelligence about the network. They monitor the leaves and the vegetation. They do chop some of it down, in an environmentally friendly way, obviously, but they send the railhead treatment trains to the areas which are worst affected by falling leaves. And there's lots of new technology coming up, which is being trialed in other parts of the country, because the railway as a whole, not just at Greater Anglia, we are determined to make our railway as punctual as possible because we know that's what our customers want. And last autumn, which was the first autumn where we had more new trains, was just incredible. Punctuality was great. And we are really hoping to do the same this year. Oh, and I must remind everybody to check before they travel, because the other thing we do is we retime six of our early morning intercity services, they're just a few minutes earlier and that's just to give ourselves a little bit of extra leeway to avoid delays. So as ever, check before you travel.
And is there anything that you'd recommend passengers doing in East Anglia in autumn?
We have got some really great places to go on our network where you can admire the changing colors of the leaves on the trees before they fall. Fetford forest, that's nearby. Do you know Christchurch park in Ipswich. That is such a beautiful park and they have some magnificent trees there. Also Cambridge Botanical Gardens. They're beautiful all year round, but autumn, it is magnificent, isn't it? Red, gold, yellow. The leaves do look wonderful. I love this time of year. Okay, Lucy, thanks for the grilling. It's your to turn next time.
It certainly is. In our next episode, we'll be talking about winter weather. So if you've got any questions about snow, winter travel, anything like that, please do get in touch. You can send us a tweet @ GreaterAngliaPR, and we'll be answering some of your questions about winter weather and snow in our next episode. Just a reminder that the autumn time table is now underway, so please do check before you travel. Some of the earlier inter city services are slightly re- timed. We're now joined by Ken Strong, Greater Anglia's resident fares guru. Hi Ken. Thanks for coming on our podcast.
Hi Lucy. Thanks very much for inviting me.
Ken, could you just describe your role to us please?
Well, I'm basically the pricing analyst and I work to the actual pricing manager, but I do the day to day nitty gritty of fares. And I also sort out reservations and quota management for the cheap advanced fares.
I think it's important just to say now that Ken doesn't decide every single fare in Greater Anglia. A lot of fares are regulated by the government. We don't set all of our fares. So if you're thinking, " Why does my fare cost this?" It's not Ken's fault. Ken doesn't make all those decision. So Ken, today we are going to be talking about advanced fares. Can you just explain what these are to anyone who doesn't know?
Well, advanced fares are by their name, you have to book them in advance and they are specific to a particular train. You have to travel on the train that you're booked on, but that is why they are cheaper by and large than tickets that you might buy on the day that are more flexible.
So it's a good value fare, quite cheap comparatively, and valid for a specific train. So how far in advance can people book these cheaper fares?
Normally the booking horizon as we call it is 12 weeks before departure of the train. But currently because of various COVID timetable amendments that we've been putting in, and the timetable's been changing, it's about six weeks. We're hoping to extend that over the next year or so back up to the 12 weeks. But basically as soon as they become available. The sooner you book, the cheaper you'll get a ticket.
And what type of journeys can people get an advanced fare for, because it's not just the longer journeys that we run. It's not just Norwich to London, is it?
It's not just Norwich to London. You can get a shorter journey as Colchester to London, and on our West Anglia route, you can get from (inaudible) and (inaudible) to various places between Cambridge and London. And you can also put them to non- London places. You don't have to be going to, or from London. You can buy them from Colchester, Great Yarmouth, or you can buy them indeed across the country to wherever you're going off the GA network.
What about the best times to travel? Are there quieter times, any time of day that people might be able to get a slightly cheaper ticket?
Mid morning, late morning, early afternoon. Trains are quite quiet, and we can put on quite a few cheap tickets to fill up the train. And then of course, as the afternoon goes on, leaving London in particular, we reduce the numbers that are available. Going towards London in the afternoon isn't the problem, because the trains are quiet. We keep them on there. And then in the evenings, again, they become available.
So we know that the cheapest way to travel is to buy tickets in advance. How can people sign up for alerts or know when the cheapest fares are available?
Well on the GA website, you can sign up to advanced ticket alerts where the cheap fares, as soon as they're released, you will get an email to advise you that the fairs for the particular day that you want to travel have been released, and then you can jump in and get them before anybody else does.
Brilliant. And if somebody does forget or it slips their mind at all, how far in advance can people book? I mean, is there any benefit in just booking in advance three days before travel, for example?
Oh, absolutely, especially on lightly loaded trains where the number of tickets sold is not generally that high, there will still be... Maybe not the very cheapest level, but there will still be fairly cheap fares available, and it'll still work out a lot cheaper than buying on the day tickets. One bit of advice I do have is if you are making a return journey, put in both ways at the one time when you're doing a search, and then if the on the day return ticket is cheaper, it will show that on your results and you can buy the off peak return, which isn't specific to a particular train. Most of the time advance will still be cheaper, but there are some cases, especially on slightly busier trains mid- morning or late- ish afternoon where the off peak ticket may work out cheaper. So that's a tip that you can bear in mind.
It's time now for greener Anglia, where we discuss the steps we are taking to create a way of traveling that's greener and more sustainable. I'm joined today by Steph Evans, our environment and energy manager. Hi Steph. We often say that rail travel is the most sustainable form of transport after walking and cycling. Why is that?
So the new trains also play a really key part of it, mainly because they've got a lot of features that are beneficial to the environment. So to give you a few examples, they're aerodynamic in their design, so that can help us to reduce energy in terms of how much energy they're using compared to the old ones. They've also got regenerative braking on them, which means that they harness energy as they brake, and previously that would've been wasted. They've also got energy meters on them, which means that we can then look to see trends, if certain trends are using more energy, if routes are using more energy, and will help us to make further reductions overall. We've also got a bi- mode train, and that means it has two power modes, diesel and electrics, if there are overhead line available, that can be utilized. To give you an example, so if you're traveling from Norwich to Cambridge, as you get to (inaudible) , the pantograph can be raised and it means it can then utilize the power from the overhead lines and use electricity rather than diesel. Previously that whole route would've been diesel usage.
That sounds really good. So is it just about the new trains then? Is that why we're greener?
No. So there's also lots of work being done with regards to station building. There's been a big program of LED installations for the lights to help reduce electricity consumption from those. I've also been installing a wireless energy management systems at over 30 stations, and these are basically a network of temperature sensors that help to regulate the temperatures in the station buildings, and that can then help to reduce energy consumption. And we've also installed water fountains at 12 stations, which means that passengers have the opportunity to fill up their water bottle, and that can help to reduce plastic waste, which is hugely beneficial. And I think that the last calculation we did, over 400, 000 bottles had been refilled, which means effectively we've prevented that amount of waste overall.
Wow, that's quite something isn't it. Also, we've installed lots of cycle spaces, haven't we, at stations. So I suppose we are encouraging people to come to the station by another sustainable form of transport.
Yeah, and I suppose that's the key thing as well. We don't want to just focus on traveling by train. It's also how do people get to the train station and want to make sure there's options out there to travel to the station sustainably as well?
What about passengers? How are we helping them to do their bit?
We've got a green Anglia page on the website and this can help passengers to decide whether their journey is greener by going by trains. There's a carbon calculator on there which can help passengers to assess options.
Yeah, good point. Good point. Because I think that greener Anglia hub also says how many cars are taken off the road if everybody travels on one of our intercity trains, for instance, and it's remarkable numbers. How did you know that this was the right role for you? You're doing so much to make Greater Anglia greener. Have you always been interested in green and sustainable issues?
So I was always interested in geography at school and I've always liked the outdoors and being outdoors, so I suppose I really do genuinely care about the environment. Although it is my job, it's something that I do as well as a hobby. It's just, I suppose, my personal life is what I do, and I think if everyone does their own little bit, then we can all help to make a difference.
That's it from us for this episode. We hope you've enjoyed listening and learned something new about Greater Anglia.
And as you might be realizing, the world of train travel is huge, and there's always more to discover.
Life on Rails releases quarterly with the change of seasons, so be sure to check back in December for episode two.
In the meantime though, follow or subscribe to the podcast for free so you never miss an episode. And visit our website at www. greateranglia. co. uk/ podcast for more information.
Thanks for joining us. Bye.
