The name FLUA may not be familiar to all readers of this magazine but for the last 35 years the Fen Line Users Association has been actively campaigning to improve services and facilities for passengers on the line between King’s Lynn and Cambridge. And that includes your station at Littleport which according to official figures was used by nearly 249,000 passengers in the year before the Covid 19 pandemic struck. Over the years FLUA has successfully lobbied for extra seats on both platforms, a larger hard-surfaced car park and rubbish bins and we now have all of these along with a safer, step-free route to Platform 1 and a new ticket machine on that side of the station too. And following the extension of Platform 2, longer 8-coach trains can now stop in both directions which has helped to resolve the chronic overcrowding of recent years. On the shorter southbound Platform 2 the doors still only open at the front of the train but if arriving from the King’s Lynn direction you can sit in any part of the train as long as you remember to walk through to the front 4 coaches to get off. (Unfortunately, trains arriving from Ely and the south still announce incorrectly that you need to be in the front 4 coaches too.) Currently on our wish list for Littleport are a shade over the new ticket machine on the southbound platform, where the position of the sun here can make it difficult to read the display, and a solution to the ongoing drainage issues in the underpass which still floods during periods of rain. Road signs at the station, which suggest the underpass is still open to traffic are confusing for motorists and we would like to see these removed, but at least as part of a general makeover the station finally has a brand-new name sign. However, our main commitment remains the same – that of a full half-hourly service on the line throughout the day. FLUA members receive 3 newsletters a year and can attend our AGM with the chance to speak directly with railway management.
For details, please see our website at www.flua.org.uk or have a look at our poster at the station. And as well as recruiting some more local members it would be great to have a Littleport resident or station user on our committee too. Contact us at: fluasecretary@flua.org.uk