Activists Briefing - Issue 8

16th November 2005

IN THE NEWS

Railfuture Chairman, Mike Crowhurst, has been interviewed by BBC Radio Leeds about the complicated range of tickets that are available. Peter Davies, Chairman Railfuture Yorkshire, has been interviewed by BBC Radio 4 Westminster Hour about the same issue.

The Sunday Express contacted Railfuture President, Peter Lawrence, about Alastair Darling’s plans to launch a new security scanning process for rail passengers using Heathrow Express as a test bed. The reporter sought Peter’s views on possible plans to extend this idea nationwide to the UK rail system and was concerned how staff would deal with say two trains arriving at the same time at a station with 600 passengers each. Peter’s view was that any idea which would increase passenger safety should be examined but this idea would be hugely expensive if applied to the entire rail system. In any case how could this new scanning process be applied at unstaffed stations? A terrorist with a bomb could easily board a train at one. Stations with a large through put of passengers in peak hours would require large numbers of security staff to process passengers quickly.

The Evening Star (Ipswich) contacted Peter concerning the recent increase in freight from Felixstowe Docks, in particular extra traffic to Daventry. He said the Railfuture view would be to welcome this news and look forward to further expansion of rail container traffic from the port.

The Eastern Daily Press telephoned Peter to ask his opinion on the proposal by "one" to increase fare restrictions on travel from Liverpool Street during peak hours. His opinion was that any further restrictions on peak hour travel could deter people from travelling by rail.

Metro Radio (Newcastle) telephoned to ask how to contact Railfuture North East. It appears Grand Central Railways wish to run a London to Sunderland and Teeside service. Peter passed on contact details.

BBC Birmingham telephoned Peter to say that Grand Central Railways were proposing a new radical fares structure. Peter passed them on to the Railfuture Passenger Committee.

On 11 November Peter had a telephone call from Ben Webster at the Times asking for comments about the closure of the only test track in the UK (Asfordby, Leics). Neither Network rail nor the TOCs are interested in taking it over. Peter’s view was that this is a backward step meaning future testing of trains will have to be carried out on the continent and not under UK track conditions.

NEWS FROM RAILFUTURE BRANCHES

Railfuture London and South East chairman, Keith Dyall, has had complaints about lack of seating on modern stock with complaints from people who say they have to stand regularly because the few seats provided have taken before the train starts it's journey. For example he has been told that trains starting from Sevenoaks have no free seats when they leave so even at the next station people have to stand for quite long journeys. There are proposals that Thameslink 2000 stock will have fewer seats and wider doors. Some T2000 journeys will be quite long and it is ridiculous to expect people to stand for up to an hour in some cases. The principle reason is that the SRA or DfT did not want to spend money on extra platforms at St Pancras or Blackfriars so loading and unloading times are increased and there are less seats. Keith wants to know how strong feeling is amongst people who use these trains as he is considering making a campaign over this. Comments please to Keith at keith.dyall at tesco.net.

MAINDEE LOOP

The RPC has now published its report on the proposed Maindee Loop Closure (withdrawal of passenger services) between Penzance and the north west of England operating over the Maindee Loop, outside Newport, South Wales. This would see withdrawal of through passenger services between Cornwall and Manchester by ATW. The report concludes that the withdrawal of these services will lead to passenger hardship.

Passenger counts carried out by the RPC's consultants in August were double those quoted by ATW for January. Many passengers were found to be choosing this service because it avoided a change of train. Sadly the RPC's analysis is weak on the key issue of alternative fare options (via Birmingham) when the service is withdrawn. It also appears that the RPC was not able to confirm that the paths would be available should either ATW or another operator wish to run an equivalent service next summer.

Source: RPC press release http://www.railpassengers.org.uk/site/News/RPCPressReleases/2005_102105_01 and comment from Railfuture West Midlands.

ARCHIVIST WANTED

We are looking for a volunteer to help set up an archive of Railfuture/RDS material. In the early stages it is envisaged that the main task will be scanning in old documents and transferring them to CD. Further details and offers of help to Jerry Alderson jerry.alderson at virgin.net. If anyone has old material, especially from the early days of RDS or even the earlier days of the Railway Invigoration Society and the Railway Development Association, then Jerry would like to hear from them.

RAILFUTURE SUMMER CONFERENCE 2006

The conference next summer will be based on a theme of “Campaigns”. It is to be held at Staffordshire University, Stoke on Saturday 1st July. There will be an optional evening session for activists with B&B accommodation at a reasonable rate also available. It is hoped to include a flyer giving more details with the December Railwatch.

2006 BRANCH AGM’S

Some Branch AGM’s are listed in Forthcoming Events. Could other branches please let me have details as soon as the dates have been fixed.

HIGH SPEED RAIL CONFERENCE

The Railway Forum and the Scottish Association for Passenger Transport will be hosting Fasttrack: High speed rail for Scotland - a seminar to make the case for a UK high speed railway on 9 December at the Teachers Building, St Enoch Square, Glasgow. There is no attendance fee. Speakers include Richard Brown Chief Executive Officer, Eurostar; Chris Green Chairman of the Railway Forum, Jim Steer Senior Partner at Steer Davies Gleave and formerly Director, Strategic Planning at the SRA; Alistair Watson Chair, Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority. Details from The Railway Forum website http://www.railwayforum.com/events.php

SLEEPER CAMPAIGNERS LAUNCH SUPPORT GROUP AT EDEN PROJECT

Save Our Sleeper are organising a public meeting at the Eden Project at 14:30 on Sunday 27 November. Amongst those attending and speaking will be Christian Wolmar of Rail Magazine. Stuart Walker, Secretary Railfuture South West, has been promised a spot to talk about Cornwall's other rail services – the successes and threats. Although it is a Sunday (apparently the only time Eden can accommodate SOS) please try to attend if you can.

If you’d like to show your support, go down to Eden and make a day of it. Or why not travel to Cornwall on the sleeper and make a weekend of it – The Eden Project (http://www.edenproject.com/) is an excellent day out. If you can let the organisers know beforehand at andrew at saveoursleeper.com, or on 07973 155109 if you’re going, that’ll mean they can ensure there’s enough seats for everyone!

SOUTH WEST MAIN LINE ROUTE UTILISATION STUDY

On 3 November 2005 Network Rail unveiled a series of options for meeting the growing demand on the busy lines into London’s Waterloo station.

The draft Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) presents, for consultation, 27 options that could accommodate greater passenger and freight demand in this part of the country, which is forecast to see passenger kilometres increase by 20% and freight traffic increase by 15-20% over the next 10 years.

The consultation identifies the present day pinch-points and invites stakeholders to consider a variety of potential solutions. Some suggestions are:
 Additional services – for example, a significant increase in capacity could be delivered by increasing services arriving at Waterloo between 7am and 8am from the present 46 (but passengers would need to be incentivised to travel at this time and additional rolling stock would be required)
 Longer trains and platforms – conversion of some suburban services (e.g. Waterloo-Reading) from 8 to 10 carriages would deliver 25% increase in capacity
 ‘Peak management’ – incentivising travel during the hours either side of the morning peak hour (between 8am and 9am)
 Redevelopment of Waterloo
o Short-term – relocate retail units on the concourse to free up space
o Medium-term – use the international station for domestic services post 2007
o Long-term – complete redevelopment including a new, larger concourse with extra facilities, longer platforms and a new track layout
 Remodel platforms 7 & 8 at Clapham Junction including lengthening platforms to take 12 carriages
 A flyover or underpass at Woking would relieve this key pinch-point enabling more stopping and non-stopping services through this bottleneck
 Encourage more freight off road onto rail by enhancing the rail infrastructure on the Southampton-Reading line to enable ‘big-box’ containers (9’6”) to operate (W10 gauge enhancement)

The consultation includes the usual caveat that further rigorous analysis and appraisal will be done on the options to ensure that only those passing strict value for money and affordability tests are included in the final strategy.

Responses must be submitted by 6th January 2006

Source: Network Rail press release http://www.networkrail.co.uk/Documents/News%20release%20-%2003.11.05%20-%20SWML%20RUS%20launch.doc

Railfuture Devon and Cornwall point out:

 Whilst they welcome RUS recognition that there is a need for more double track sections west of Salisbury they criticise DfT for stating in the SWT Franchise consultation documents that this must be funded by a 'third party' unlike major road improvement schemes being undertaken by the Highways Agency in the region.
 The SWT Franchise Consultation proposes loss of services Waterloo to Paignton and Plymouth. Withdraws all but the one (GW) through train from Paignton to London, and together with Greater Western franchise will leave Ivybridge with only three trains per day in each direction - none towards Plymouth after 1600.

TRANSPORT-WATCH UK ADVERTS

Readers will no doubt recall we mentioned in Railway Cuttings issue 82 (18 January 2005) a series of advertisements from Transport-Watch UK that had appeared in Private Eye and New Statesman. Railfuture, the Railway Forum and members of the public lodged objections to these adverts with the Advertising Standards Authority. We are pleased to announce that, after a prolonged series of ‘discussions’, the ASA announced on 2nd November that they had upheld our objections. The ASA adjudication can be found on the ASA website at http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/non_broadcast/Adjudication+Details.htm?Adjudication_id=40464

ACORP COMMUNITY RAIL FEST 2006

After a successful Community Rail Fest in Norwich in late September 2005 ACoRP have announced they are planning an event centred on Darlington over the period 21st – 24th September 2006. Railfuture East Anglia had a stand at the 2005 event which succeeded in recruiting some new members. We hope to have a presence at the 2006 event building on our 2005 experience.

THE SHEILA MCKECHNIE AWARDS

Before her death from cancer in January 2004, at the young age of 55, Sheila McKechnie had a well-earned reputation as an effective campaigner. She worked as Director of Shelter and then of the Consumers’ Association. In memory of the immense contribution she made to campaigning in the UK The Sheila McKechnie Foundation was set up this year.

The Foundation has launched the Sheila McKechnie Awards to offer training fellowships to emerging campaigners through identifying people with outstanding vision and potential. They believe they can help individuals to achieve greater impact by awarding a 10-day package of bespoke training and advice. One of the award categories is transport. Details can be obtained from their website at http://www.sheilamckechnie.org.uk/

WILL THERE BE ENOUGH AVIATION FUEL FOR THE PLANNED AIR EXPANSION?

John Busby has written a thought provoking paper on the future of air transport against an ongoing trend towards heavier and sourer supplies of crude oil as refinery feedstock. He concludes that it's unlikely that sufficient high quality aviation fuel can be provided in future to power such expansion. The paper is located here (select Chapter 9): http://www.after-oil.co.uk/ . Chapter 7 (Rail Transport). and much of the rest of Busby's paper may also interest you. Yet more evidence that we need to substantially reduce and, later phase out, domestic and short haul flights and replace same by a combination of rail and reduced needs for travel.