Activists Briefing - Issue 12

18th March 2006

IN THE NEWS

On Saturday, 25 February 2006 our President Peter Lawrence was guest speaker at the annual dinner of the Cambridge University Railway Club. Peter gave a history of the Railfuture organisation together with some Railfuture views on the current local rail scene around the Cambridge and surrounding areas.

On 11th March Peter was the guest speaker at Railfuture East Midlands AGM.

NEWS FROM RAILFUTURE BRANCHES

Railfuture Yorkshire’s ‘Yorkshire Rail Review 2005’ featured prominently in the Yorkshire Post on 10th March. A feature on p.2, brief reference on p.1 and Editorial. Focus was on the threat of closures.

Following the serious reduction in branch line services in the draft Greater Western December 2006 timetable, Railfuture Devon and Cornwall have campaigned to ensure that objections were sent in before the deadline of 8th March.

The efforts of Railfuture Wessex in helping with The Rail Ale Trail have been recognised in the Heart of Wessex Rail Partnership Annual Progress Report December 2005. At the recent Wessex AGM Alan Shotter was elected Chairman, replacing David Stevenson who had stood down. Mike Perkins was elected Secretary.

After being Chairman for 19 years Brain Hastings did not seek re-election at the Railfuture Lincs AGM. Alan Waddington was elected unopposed to replace Brian.

RAILFUTURE WEBSITE

There are various new items on the Railfuture website including:
 Railfuture's contribution to Sir Rod Eddington's study into the future of transport:
http://www.railfuture.org.uk/tiki-index.php?page=Future+of+Transport
 Transport activists' position paper on road pricing: http://www.railfuture.org.uk/tiki-index.php?page=Road+pricing

RAILFUTURE 2006 CONFERENCES

Bookings for the Campaigners' Conference in Stoke-on-Trent on 1st July are going well. There are still a few places available for anyone wishing to book accommodation (incl. breakfast) at the venue for £25 on either Friday or Saturday and £45 for both nights. For more info, or to book accommodation, contact Jerry Alderson at 32 The Oaks, Milton, Cambridge, CB4 6ZG (email: jerry.alderson at virgin.net).

The 2006 Rail Users' conference will be held in Reading on Saturday 4th November 2006 and NOT on 11th November as mentioned in Railwatch 107.

RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY LTD AGM

A reminder that if you wish to partake of the buffet lunch at the AGM you must book in advance. Motions for debate are to be sent to Mike Crowhurst by 22nd April.

MEMBERSHIP OF SPECIALIST COMMITTEES AFTER MAY 2006

In accordance with usual practice the Board will review the membership of specialist committees at their May meeting. Committee Chairmen will be asking existing members if they wish to remain on the committee. If anyone else feels they have something to contribute to the work of any committee and would like to join it please advise Mike Crowhurst before the AGM.

JOHN LEE

As many readers will already be aware John Lee will be leaving the employment of Railfuture at the end of March. I am sure that everyone who has had contact with John over the past 7 years will agree that we owe him our sincere thanks for his diligent and conscientious work on behalf of Railfuture.

ADMINISTRATIVE ARRANGEMENTS FROM 31ST MARCH 2006

Pending the finalising of new administrative arrangements all expenses claims and invoices will be paid by our acting treasurer, David Harby, to whom all claims etc should be sent. If all goes well we anticipate having a new treasurer in place shortly and details of new payment arrangements will be then be announced.

RECENT DFT PUBLICATIONS

Below is a round up of some publications recently made available on the DfT website:

 FREIGHT USER BENEFITS STUDY - a two volume report on Freight Benefits that was prepared by Booz Allen and Hamilton for the SRA in June-August 2003. The report is in two volumes.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_railways/documents/page/dft_railways_611116.pdf
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_railways/documents/page/dft_railways_611117.pdf

 TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AND AIR QUALITY RESEARCH PROGRAMME (final report - Jan 06)
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_roads/documents/pdf/dft_roads_pdf_611173.pdf

 CONGESTION ON THE STRATEGIC ROAD NETWORK: 2004/05 TARGET BASELINE FIGURE AND METHODOLOGY
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_transstats/documents/downloadable/dft_transstats_611157.pdf

 APPRAISAL GUIDANCE FOR NETWORK RAIL DISCRETIONARY FUND SCHEMES
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_railways/documents/pdf/dft_railways_pdf_611192.pdf

 EASTERN REGIONAL PLANNING ASSESSMENT FOR THE RAILWAY: (COVERING NORTH & EAST LONDON AND THE EAST OF ENGLAND).
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_railways/documents/downloadable/dft_railways_611208.pdf

 CROSSRAIL EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT : PROJECT & POLICY ASSESSMENT REPORT
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_railways/documents/divisionhomepage/611016.hcsp

 TRANSPORT INNOVATION FUND : GUIDANCE, JANUARY 2006.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_about/documents/page/dft_about_611056.hcsp

 FELIXSTOWE SOUTH TERMINAL : INSPECTOR`S REPORT.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_shipping/documents/pdf/dft_shipping_pdf_611103.pdf

 MEDIA ANALYSIS REPORT: REVIEW OF UK TRANSPORT COVERAGE IN THE NATIONAL PRESS / prepared by Simon Hughes.
These monthly reports are worth a look to see a round up of how the press cover transport stories.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_about/documents/divisionhomepage/610943.hcsp

SPEECH BY ALISTAIR DARLING TO THE NATIONAL RAIL CONFERENCE

Readers will no doubt have heard about Alistair Darling’s speech on 15th March 2006. There was not a lot new in the speech except that alongside the High Level Output Specification next year a long-term strategy will be published.

In the London area he is predicting significant growth, “perhaps 30% or more over the next 20 years,” but in a different part of the speech he only predicts 1.3 billion passengers within 20 years. This is actually only a growth of around 1.3% per annum so there seems to be another lack of joined up thinking somewhere. Given that recent new franchises need higher growth rates than 1.3% to meet the premium payments is he expecting a big loss of passengers in other areas due to line closures? Or are we going back to solving overcrowding by pricing people off those trains?

The comment that “we cannot be in the business of carting fresh air around the country” is repeated again so we must expect some service reductions. These are justified by saying, “it frees up trains and resources for where they are needed to meet the real demands of a growing network.”

There are hints as to how they will plan and respond to the growth demands. Double decker trains are mentioned but probably of more significance is a comment that the response “includes how we intend to work with changing structures of local governance, such as the proposed city regions.” “Decisions on road, rail, bus and tram need to be looked at together by the same people, so that sensible choices can be made and priorities decided on. The present structures don’t help to do that in many places.”

Learning from and building on the experience of Transport for London and Scotland is mentioned so do we read this as another reorganisation of transport responsibilities within local government?

Whilst the national media picked up on the old story of new HST’s I have not seen any of them mention his emphasis on the need for HST2 to meet tighter environmental specifications. Alistair Darling points out that European rolling stock has been getting heavier. Every seat in a Pendolino, for example, is equivalent to half a Landrover Discovery. Apart from the energy needed to run such heavy trains they cause a lot of track wear. It is pointed out that Japanese trains are down to under 500kg per passenger and falling. Is this a strong hint to European suppliers that they will have to offer something exceptional or we will be seeing HST2 built by Hitachi?

Finally he is only going to examine the merits of High Speed Lines, which is something that has already been done repeatedly in one form or another ever since the railways were first constructed. He then mentions the Eddington study on transport in the long term so we are likely to get no decision on a High Speed Line until after Eddington has reported.

The full text of the speech is on the DfT website at: http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_railways/documents/pdf/dft_railways_pdf_611336.pdf

SENSITIVE LORRY MILES

From what we gather, it seems likely that DfT will begin a review of Sensitive Lorry Miles (SLMs) in the not-too-distant future. At the Freight Committee meeting on 11 March, it was agreed that Philip Bisatt would write to DfT on this issue. He will also be preparing an article for 'Railwatch'.

Railfuture needs to lobby for more of the motorway network to be classified as 'high congestion' where higher rates of Freight Facilities Grant would be available (that is, when freight grants are actually being paid out - in England the scheme is currently suspended, but will resume in April 2007.) The SLM scheme also needs to include an explicit allowance for reductions in CO2 emissions where goods are transferred from road to rail. The absence of congestion has been used as a reason for offering a low rate of grant, but lorries emit CO2 whether the motorway is congested or not!

If you have any views as to where changes might be justified, please let Philip know philip@brackenedge.wanadoo.co.uk so that he can quote examples as necessary. As an example, a crawler lane for lorries is currently being added to part of the M5 between Clevedon and Avonmouth, yet on the SLM motorway map congestion is classified as being 'low'!

The SLM map is available on the DfT site http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_freight/documents/divisionhomepage/039740.hcsp

LIB-DEM RESHUFFLE

The new Lib-Dem leader, Sir Menzies Campbell CBE QC MP, has appointed Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, as the Party's shadow secretary for Transport. Details at http://www.libdems.org.uk/party/people/mr-alistair-carmichael.html

DATES FOR 2006-7 RDS BOARD MEETINGS

RDS Ltd Board meetings have been arranged for 20 May 2006 (Birmingham), 2nd September 2006 (Peterborough), 9th December 2006 (Birmingham and 3rd March 2007 (Leicester). 15th July 2006 is being kept free for an extra meeting in London if needed.


FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Saturday 25th March
Railfuture Scottish Branch AGM Royal Overseas League, 100 Princes Street, Edinburgh 14.00 - 17:00. Guest Speaker will be James King (Scottish Member of the Rail Passenger Council).
Railfuture Severnside branch AGM, staff Club, Bristol Temple Meads Station
Railfuture Passenger Committee, London
Railfuture International Committee
Railfuture North East branch, Brunswick Methodist Church, Central Newcastle 2pm Chris Leech (Northern Train) Youth Crime - A TOC's Perspective

Saturday 8th April
Railfuture South West AGM

Thursday 20th April
Railfuture London & South East AGM, London Welsh Centre, 157 Grays Inn Rd, London (opposite Calthorpe Arms) 19:00hrs

Saturday 22nd April
BRTA Conference “Community Railways”, Best Western Moore Place Hotel, Aspley Guise, MK17 8DW. Details from BRTA http://www.brta.org.uk/index.html Tel: 01243 300815.

Saturday 6th May
RDS Ltd AGM Swindon

Tuesday 17th May 2006
Railfuture North East branch, County Hall, Durham, 7pm. Alan James (UK Ultraspeed) 500 km/h ground transport for Britain. A look at a travel system of the future

Saturday 20th May
Railfuture Board Meeting Birmingham

Saturday 3rd June
Railfuture Passenger Committee, Birmingham

Saturday 10th June
Railfuture Network Development committee

Saturday 24th June
Railfuture Policy, Lobby & Campaigns committee

Saturday 1st July
Railfuture summer conference on theme of Campaigns. Stoke-on-Trent

Saturday 4th November
Rail Users’ conference, Reading