News and Views

Reducing the cost of operating rail services and meeting the government's zero carbon objectives for transport require a sustainable electrification programme for Britain’s railways using a mix of technologies including overhead wiring, third rail, battery and hydrogen. Tyne and Wear Metro battery electric locomotive running under the wires at Whitley Bay.

Better value fares, new ticketing options and aggressive marketing initiatives are needed to attract passengers back to rail after COVID-19. South Western Railway passenger won £5,500 in Touch Smartcard prize draw. Image by South Western Railway.

Jane Ann Liston, Secretary, Railfuture Scotland explains why we must attract people back to rail after COVID-19. ScotRail covers train faces to encourage passengers to do the same.

Flight Free UK is passionate about low carbon travel. Flying less (and using the train instead) is one of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint. Could you pledge to be flight free in 2020?
Anna Hughes is Director of Flight Free UK.

Have our railways suffered another collective nervous breakdown with such strong messages so openly discouraging sustainable travel - by train? Since the DfT is funding all the franchises, has it lost all faith in its own services? The messaging is negative and inconsistent, even contradictory, not conditional encouragement – in sharp contrast to all other modes. Passengers may feel unwelcome or unsafe, and may be unable to travel. The comparison with air travel is stark.

The country may be in dire straits at the moment, but fortunately the government is pressing ahead with its Restoring Your Railway initiative by announcing the ten successful bids in the first round of the Ideas Fund on 23 May 2020. A common factor of the successful bids, if delivered, is that they will connect significant numbers of people to the rail network. Ilkeston Station was successfully reopened in 2017 – after 40 years of Ilkeston being the largest town in England without any train service. Image by Ilkeston Advertiser.

The Castlefield Corridor – a great opportunity for freight, and a way to enable reliable passenger services across Manchester. A Trafford Park to Southampton Western Docks freight train approaches Platform 13 at Manchester Piccadilly. To the left is the rear of a train to Trafford Park from London Gateway. Without these two trains, four more passenger trains could cross Manchester every hour.

Railfuture’s European Passenger Group is structured to understand international best practice and use it to advance our argument that railway development can help address economic, social and environmental concerns and opportunities in Britain. Light rail is a case in point where Britain has not exactly been a world leader. A Tram Train about to leave Sheffield Cathedral Station (left) for Meadowhall on the Supertram network then onto Network Rail tracks to Rotherham (the only example in Britain so far) and Britain’s first modern light rail line, Metrolink to Bury from Manchester (right).

Go and Compare: Eurostar 25 years on, a Tale of Two Cities with new Rail/Air links, and how rail connections for foreign travel can help the environment. The British Royal Eurostar meets the French Presidential Eurostar nose to nose for the opening ceremony at Calais on 6th May 1994. Ours got there first!

A Railfuture scheme to encourage further investment in making stations user friendly for all, initiated by our East Anglia branch. The new waiting room at Audley End station, our category 1 winner.

The East West Rail Central Section route was announced on 30 January 2020. This is a huge step forward for the Railfuture campaign, but there is still a long way to go. Central Section Preferred Route Option taken from the East West Railway Company website.

The Hundred of Hoo branch that last saw services pre-Beeching in 1961 is set to see new services introduced to the Hoo Peninsula, a victory for this Railfuture campaign in North Kent, with £67m funding awarded. Reinstatement of passenger services is justified by major growth in housing and industry as part of the Medway Unitary authorities Local Plan (2012-2035) in 2024.
The original Sharnal Street station, where the fields and lack of passengers show why it was closed, but that will all change - image Wikipedia.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has stated that he will take action on the Northern franchise, but will not decide until end January 2020 exactly what that action will be - either an Operator of Last Resort or a direct contract. Railfuture analyses the causes of Northern’s poor performance and recommends what action the Transport Secretary should take. Insufficient time was allowed between letting the franchise and the PRM compliance deadline for procurement, delivery and testing of new trains such as these class 195 units. Image by Geof Sheppard under CC by SA 4.0.

Our 10 year manifesto for the new government and the rail industry represents a distillation of the electorate’s wishes, published manifesto commitments and expectations for a developing railway for the UK. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, pictured (left) launching the extension of Oyster and contactless cards to Potters Bar and Radlett, has the job of delivering these expectations. Image oliverdowden.com.

In promoting a bigger and better railway, Railfuture issued a 10 point challenge to the rail industry and government for 2019 to rebuild public trust in its service delivery. Here is our end of year report on how well we think the rail industry performed as a whole in 2019. Did the rail industry rise to Railfuture’s challenge? Christmas is traditionally the time when the railway undertakes major remodelling projects such as at King's Cross throat – image Network Rail.

Ian Brown, Railfuture’s Policy Director, explains the purpose of the HS2 Review commissioned by the new government, and Railfuture’s position.

The snap general election is with us as expected and we have to wait until afterwards to find out what the recommendations of the Williams and Oakervee reviews of franchising and HS2 will be – as amended to make them acceptable to the new government. Enter our competition to propose a new name for HS2 which will capture the public imagination. Image HS2 Ltd.

This is Railfuture’s guide to the 2019 election manifestos. Transport commitments are quoted verbatim in red italics. A commentary is provided in black, non-italics giving Railfuture’s position or observation on each. Our analysis includes other modes, both to illustrate emphasis but also to ascertain how changes to other modes may benefit railways, such as integrated travel. The most important issue to be tackled by the next government is to provide capacity for double the number of passengers, both to resolve the overcrowding (despite new trains) illustrated at Manchester and Euston, and to address climate change by modal shift from road to rail.