Activists Briefing - Issue 13

20th April 2006

IN THE NEWS

On 22 March 2006 Railfuture President, Peter Lawrence, was interviewed by BBC East TV on over-crowding of trains from London to Cambridge and Norwich. Also on the same day Peter was re elected as Chairman of the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership at the AGM of the partnership.

Following on from Alistair Darling's speech at the National Rail Conference on 15 March 2006 Railfuture issued a press release. We are quoted in the Transport Times Friday, 24 March 2006 as follows:

"Rail Future president Peter Lawrence welcomed the commitment to examine the feasibility of high speed rail, but said that further electrification on inter-city routes should be examined in the development of the HST replacement".

On 31st March, following some speculation in a couple of newspapers, Peter received enquiries from Eastern Evening News (Norwich) and The Journal (Newcastle) regarding possible increases in peak hour fares for commuters and reductions in off peak fares. Peter’s view was we would oppose increases in peak hour fares and support any reductions in off peak fares if by doing so extra passengers are attracted.

NEWS FROM RAILFUTURE BRANCHES

Following Stuart Walker’s decision to retire as Secretary of Railfuture Devon and Cornwall Branch, Peter Mulley has been elected Secretary. Thanks are due to Stuart for his efforts during 13 years service as Branch Secretary.

At the Severnside Branch AGM Nigel Bray was elected as Branch Secretary.

At Branch AGM’s there have been changes of personnel in a number of branches. To bring everyone up to date a Who’s Who for 2006/2007 listing all branch contacts will be circulated with the next Railwatch.

RAILFUTURE CAMPAIGNERS’ CONFERENCE

Additional speakers at the Campaigners' Conference in Stoke-on-Trent on 1st July include Carl Henderson, the inventor of the BladeRunner road-rail vehicle concept and Caspar Lucas MEng CEng MIMechE, Technical Services Director, JPM Parry & Associates Ltd. They will be taking part in a session entitled "Lightweight Suburban Railways - Technology for Revitalising and Reopening".

Ian Yeowart, chairman of Grand Central Trains, was announced as a speaker in a previous Briefing.

More speakers are being lined up and will be announced in the next Activists Briefing.

A 'Conference Update' will be sent in May to everyone who has registered. An accompanying letter will ask for the outstanding payment if accommodation has been requested. Organiser Jerry Alderson apologises for not responding earlier but he has been working in Germany for six weeks.

More than 30 people have registered so far. We hope than many more campaigners will attend. Staffordshire University still have rooms available. B&B is £25 for one night, with a second night at £20. It is also possible to stay on Thursday and Sunday. Please include this amount in your cheque if booking, as this will save Jerry asking for a second cheque.

Jerry requests that each branch secretary or chairman please contact him with an update of their campaigning activities by mid-June, and indicate whether they would like 5-10 minutes at the conference to talk about their campaigns. User groups are welcome to speak as well.

The evening session (5.30pm-8.30pm) will include sessions on the National Railcard and Guided Busways. If anyone would like to suggest a topic, please contact Jerry.

More information can be obtained from Jerry on jerry.alderson at virgin.net or 01223 527180 (from 2nd May).

RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY LTD AGM 2006

A reminder that if you wish to partake of the buffet lunch at the AGM you must book in advance. Bookings must be received by 28th April at the very latest. If you have lost your booking form it can be downloaded from the Railfuture website http://www.railfuture.org.uk/tiki-index.php?page=Annual%20General%20Meeting. Motions for debate are to be sent to Mike Crowhurst by 22nd April.

2007 AGM

A date and venue for the 2007 AGM will soon need to be arranged. If your branch would like to offer to host the event then please contact Mike Crowhurst.

RAILFUTURE PASSENGER COMMITTEE MEETING DATES FOR 2006/7

The Railfuture Passenger Committee has fixed its calendar for the next year or so as follows:
3 June 2006 - Birmingham, Carrs Lane Church Centre
30 September 2006 - London, Calthorpe Arms
2 December 2006 - Birmingham, venue to be arranged
24 March 2007 - London, venue to be arranged
30 June 2007 - Birmingham, venue to be arranged.

For the future, the Committee hopes to establish a pattern of meeting on the last Saturday of the 3rd, 6th and 9th month, and the first Saturday of the 12th month. When the last Saturday in March is in Easter weekend, the meeting will be held on the previous Saturday.

MEMBERSHIP OF SPECIALIST COMMITTEES AFTER MAY 2006

A reminder that 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.

RAILFUTURE ASPIRATIONS FOR THE NEW CROSS COUNTRY FRANCHISE

Railfuture Passenger Committee has produced a briefing note setting out Railfuture aspirations for the new Cross-Country franchise. Emailed copies can be obtained from david.harby at ntlworld.com.

BRANCH DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

Development strategies have been produced for some areas, such as the excellent Welsh publication, but we do not have strategies for all branches. Mike Crowhurst has suggested that it might be a good idea to fill in the gaps so that we have a countrywide strategy. Strategies would probably be based broadly on Government Office Regions so, in some cases, there would need to be co-operation between neighbouring branches. Each Regional Strategy could probably be issued as an A3 leaflet, with map, with all of them also being bought together into a national publication to complement the new issue of the A-Z of Rail Reopenings. How do branches feel about this idea?

IS YOUR EMAIL REALLY NECCESSARY?

Electronic communication has many benefits but a major downside is when one’s Inbox fills up with unwanted emails. I have received reports of complaints by members who are suffering from this problem and have found that unnecessary emails from other Railfuture members are contributing to the SPAM.

There is always a temptation to copy emails to multiple recipients just in case they might be interested in the contents. Before members do this can they please think twice and only include recipients who are actively involved in the issue under discussion. Sending copy emails to all and sundry can be counterproductive. If the recipient has got used to regularly deleting emails from the sender as unwanted SPAM the sender may well find that when an important email is sent this is also automatically deleted.

NETWORK RAIL BUSINESS PLAN 2006

Network Rail has published their Business Plan 2006. This has a detailed Area by Area description of current services and anticipated future requirements together with planned infrastructure investments. The appendices give a lot of useful information such as Route Classification and Availability, Freight Loading Gauges, speed limits, type of signalling, signalling headway’s and number of tracks for every route on the network. Plans for each Area can be downloaded individually from http://www.networkrail.co.uk/companyinformation/BusinessPlans/BusinessPlan2006.htm

INFORMATION FOR THE NEW A-Z OF RAIL REOPENINGS

On behalf of Railfuture Network Development Committee, Nick Dibben has asked all Railfuture branches to give him an updated list of proposed new stations and routes ready for the new A-Z of Rail Reopenings. The stations will be grouped into three categories:

 Nearly there – under construction or where detailed design work is underway and funding is being sought.
 High priority – schemes which are supported in Regional and Local Transport Strategies and where some development works may have been carried out. These are likely to happen in the next 5 – 10 years. Also included will be a limited number of other schemes which Railfuture thinks are important or where active local campaigns exist.
 Other suggested schemes, which could happen in the longer term, especially if funding rules, are changes.

Following the publication of Network Rail’s Business Plan, mentioned above, Nick requests that all branches check the Plan for stations in their area, as these will be considered High Priority.

DISTRIBUTION OF COMMITTEE MINUTES

There have been requests from branches to see copies of the Agenda’s and Minutes of Committees (Passenger, Freight, Network Development, PLC and International). The Board would like to accede to this request but are reluctant to put additional tasks on to Committee secretaries. If a volunteer can be found we would therefore like to set up an arrangement where all Agenda’s and Minutes are sent to one individual who then ensures they reach each branch. It is envisaged that this will be done by email.

Are there any volunteers? Offers of help to david.harby at ntlworld.com.

ENVELOPE RE-USE LABELS NOW BACK IN STOCK

We now have a supply of envelope re-use labels with the slogan “Join the campaign for a modern railway”. Until the Royal Mail pricing structure changes in August 2006 they are priced at £2.50 each (inclusive of postage) and can be ordered from David Harby, 6 Carral Close, Lincoln LN5 9BD. Cheques payable to ‘Railfuture’

RAILWAYS FOR ALL

The first ever accessibility strategy for UK railways, The Railways for All Strategy, was published by DfT on 23 March. Last year the Government announced £370 million of expenditure to improve access for disabled people and improve information. This expenditure is ring fenced and is a total expenditure to 2015. The funding is split into 2 parts with £35 million per year improving access to and within the busiest stations which are currently not step-free and up to £7 million per year for small schemes targeted at less busy or smaller stations. The DfT has invited bids from TOCs, local authorities and other parties prepared to sponsor these small schemes.

The Scottish Executive has an allocation, which it will be able to specify how this money will be spent in Scotland.

Source: http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_mobility/documents/page/dft_mobility_611416.hcsp

NORTHERN RAIL REVIEW

There has already been plenty of media comment on the Northern Rail Review, released on 21ST March, so I will not comment further. However the announcement by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Derek Twigg) can be read at http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_railways/documents/page/dft_railways_611381.hcsp and the Review can be downloaded from http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_railways/documents/page/dft_railways_611382.pdf

NATIONAL RAIL TRENDS OCT – DEC 2005

National Rail Trends 2005–06 quarter 3 (October-December 2005) was published by ORR on 24 March 2006. The headline figure was an increase of 1% in the Public Performance Measure (PPM) on the same quarter of the previous year. This average figure does hide some wide variations between operators. Increases by Virgin West Coast (14.6%), South West Trains (7%), Silverlink (5.2%) and Southern (5.2%) contrast sharply with decreases by First Great Western (8.1% ) and ONE Intercity (5.4%).

The growth in passenger kilometres and passenger journeys continues. Long distance operators experienced a 7.8% growth in both passenger kilometres and passenger journeys. For regional operators, passenger kilometres increased by 4.6% and passenger journeys by 7.2%. In the London and South East sector, passenger kilometres and passenger journeys increased by 2.5% and 7.6% respectively.

Total freight moved increased by 8.4% with a notable increase of 24% in the amount of coal moved (measured in tonne-kilometres). Total freight lifted, measured in tonnes, increased by 6.3%.

This edition of NRT has a more detailed breakdown of Government support to the rail industry.

The detailed report can be accessed from the ORR website at http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.129
Source: ORR press release

EAST WEST RAIL GETS GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

The East West Rail Consortium are claiming that trains could be running between Oxford, Aylesbury, Milton Keynes and Bedford within five years following the publication of a study that encourages further development of the East West Rail scheme. The study looking at options for improving transport between Milton Keynes, Aylesbury and Bedford, as well as Oxford, was published by the ODPM on 11th April. The report can be found on the re-launched East West Rail Consortium website, at www.eastwestrail.org.uk

A further package of work is now to be carried out by Steer Davies Gleave. The original business case is to be updated. A half-hourly service will be looked at. A method of capturing increased land values as a result of the re-opening and using that to pay for the scheme will be investigated. The work will be complete in July and should enable the Government to make a decision on getting the project delivered in time to match the new housing planned for the area.

Also announced by the ODPM on 11th April were eight new transport schemes to be funded from an additional £51 million of investment as part of the Community Infrastructure Fund. As might be expected most of these schemes are for road ‘improvements’ but also included is £8.17 million towards a new parkway station, to be known as Aylesbury North, and upgrading 3 miles of track. The station will serve Berryfields and Weedon Hill developments north of Aylesbury.
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Sources: DfT press release http://www.gnn.gov.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=195785&NewsAreaID=2 and East West Rail Consortium press release http://www.eastwestrail.org.uk/downloads/PRESS%20RELEASE%20-%20EWR%20110406.pdf

BUS AND LIGHT RAIL STATISTICS GB: OCTOBER TO DECEMBER 2005 PUBLISHED ON 23 MARCH 2006

Http://www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/fulldetail.asp?releaseid=192320&newsareaid=2&navigatedfromdepartment=false

NORTH EAST REGIONAL PLANNING ASSESSMENT FOR THE RAILWAYS PUBLISHED

On 30th March the Department for Transport published the North East Regional Planning Assessment for the railways (RPA), the second in a series of eleven RPAs covering England and Wales. The North East RPA covers the North East of England region and a small part of North Yorkshire where the railway services are closely linked to the North East network. Source and link to the full RPA: DfT website http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_railways/documents/page/dft_railways_611453.hcsp

REGIONAL CONTACTS ON SCHOOL TRAVEL PLANS

If you are part of a Rail User Group or other local organisation trying to bolster support for a vulnerable train or bus service, you might wish to pass ideas to a local School Travel Plan officer. Sometimes minor timetable changes can meet the needs of a specific secondary school or college with both economic and safety benefits accruing over the long term.

The Department for Transport has recently issued a list of staff in Regional Offices of central government who could confirm who - in a particular county or unitary authority - promotes the concept of School Travel Planning. The list, together with telephone and email suggestions, can be found here:

www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_foi/documents/page/dft_foi_611511.pdf