Activists Briefing - Issue 17

16th August 2006

IN THE NEWS

Graham Larkbey, lead member for the Railfuture Sudbury Hill Campaign has a letter in Rail 546 asking why if Chiltern can manage to stop at Sudbury Hill in the peaks it can’t stop at evenings and weekends when capacity is less stretched.

NEWS FROM RAILFUTURE BRANCHES

Railfuture Lincolnshire are exhibiting at the Grantham Rail Show, Central Technology College, Rushcliffe Road, Grantham on 2nd and 3rd September. 10.00 – 17.30 (17.00 on Sunday). Details from david.harby at ntlworld.com

Following the publication of the December 2006 First Great Western timetable Derek Buttivant, vice chair Railfuture Devon and Cornwall, was quoted in Western Morning News on 29th July. He voiced his concerns about the absence of some services such as the through services to the south coast and Cardiff. Source: http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=141529&command=displayContent&sourceNode=141513&contentPK=15019404&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

RAILFUTURE NORTH EAST AT ACORP COMMUNITY RAIL FESTIVAL, DARLINGTON

Railfuture north east branch will be setting up a small stall to help promote Railfuture & Rail User Group activities at this years 'Community Rail Festival' to be held at Darlington on the 23rd and 24th of September. They hope to display various Railfuture publications and various leaflets produced by Rail User Groups in the region. They would also welcome the chance to distribute any leaflets produced by other Railfuture branches or RUGS. Offers to help staff the stall would also welcome. If you could cover for say an hour this would greatly assist in covering meal breaks and the like. Please contact Gordon Barclay by e-mail at firstnorthumbria at tinyworld.co.uk or telephone 01670 505958 (evenings after 19.00).

The Community Rail Festival is now annual event and many members may well remember the large event held at the National Rail Museum in York in recent years. The Darlington event will be similar in character but on a smaller scale. In addition to the exhibits and displays to be held at the Bank Top station in Darlington, two excellent railway museums are located in the area, the North Road museum in Darlington and the National Railways Museum's 'Locomotion' museum at Shildon. Both these sites are served by Northern Rail services on the Bishop Auckland branch. For those wanting an escape from things railway, Darlington is a very attractive market town in its own right!

Hertfordshire Rail Tours will be running a charter train to Darlington from London on the Saturday for the event. In addition they will also be running two trains from Darlington the scenic Boulby Branch, normally only served by goods trains!

Details of the ACoRP event from their web site http://www.communityrailfest.org.uk/

CONSULTATION RESPONSES

Railfuture West Midlands and Railfuture North East have both submitted responses to the DfT consultation on the Cross Country Franchise. Railfuture North East views were highlighted in the Newcastle Journal on August 7th under the headline 'Cheap and nasty rail service' plans. the article can be read at http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/journallive/thejournal/tm_objectid=17521591%26method=full%26siteid=50081%26headline=%2dcheap%2dand%2dnasty%2drail%2dservice%2d%2dplans-name_page.html

Martin Murphy writes: “There seems to be a deep concern about the DfT proposals for the new CrossCountry franchise. There are many aspects of the DfT proposals which are unacceptable and which have been picked up in the consultation submissions which I have seen. However, a simple issue which I thought would reflect the general mood is the proposal to cut most of the through trains and impose changes of train in Birmingham New Street.

The suggestion has been made that, 'The only thing which might cause Ministers to cease automatically signing letters written by their officials and to instead look into the issue, would be a cross-party lobby of MPs reflecting all of the regions from Glasgow to Penzance'. The spread of concerns I have seen suggests that we ought to be able to initiate such a lobby but it is the purpose of this note to find out your views, as between us we cover the whole CrossCountry network. Indeed you may all be ahead of me and already lobbying your MPs. It would seem to do no harm if more than one MP were to be persuaded to set the ball rolling, as long as we ensure that all interested MPs are put in touch with each other.”

If you have contact with your MP and think you could persuade him to get involved Martin would like to hear from you on murphy.martin at btinternet.com

Norman Bradbury has submitted a paper on behalf of Railfuture in response to a consultation by the All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group.

NEW NATIONAL RAIL CONDITIONS OF CARRIAGE

New National Rail Conditions of Carriage, and Conditions for the Carriage of Luggage, Articles, Animals and Cycles, come into effect from the 24th July 2006, and copies of the booklet should now be available at all staffed Ticket Offices. The booklet can also be downloaded as a pdf file from http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/nrcc/

Many of the conditions have been renumbered, and there are several additions, including an entire section devoted to Electronic Tickets. There's a new Condition (17) relating to using return tickets and expanded rules on using a combination of tickets (Condition 19). There are several other rewordings and changes.

DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT NEWS RELEASES

The Birmingham and West Midlands Rail Capacity Review was published by DfT on 25/7/06.
See : http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_railways/documents/page/dft_railways_612183.hcsp

OFFICE OF RAIL REGULATION NEWS

Station usage statistics for 2004/5 are now available on the ORR website in the form of an Excel file Station usage excel sheet (2004-2005). These should be read in conjunction with the 2 pdf files dated 26th July (Notes on station usage Excel file (2006) and Station usage report (2004-2005)) as these explain some apparent inconsistencies. In particular it should be noted that where there are group stations e.g. Maidstone tickets sold from “Maidstone stations” might all be allocated to one station. See http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.129

The Office of Rail Regulation published on 24th July the final report by the Independent Investigation Board set up by HSE to oversee their investigation into the Hatfield train derailment that occurred on 17 October 2000.

'Train Derailment at Hatfield: a Final Report by the Independent Investigation Board' available for download from:
http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/297.pdf

GROWING THE RAILWAYS CAMPAIGN REGIONAL LAUNCHES

The Growing the Railways campaign is led by T2000 and endorsed by 21 other groups including Railfuture. Plans for Regional launches in the first four regions are now well advanced. Each launch will include:
 a regional manifesto including rail priorities, pinch points which need attention etc (positively focused)
 a press release
 a local celebrity (if possible) to spearhead the launch;
 collaboration with a key regional newspaper (if possible); and
 open invitation to regional: press, stakeholders, MPs, activists/RUGs etc. etc.

Provisional dates are:
North West - Friday 15 September at Crewe Station (to be confirmed)
East Midlands - Thursday 28 September in Nottingham
North East - Friday 22 or Saturday 23 (to be confirmed) in Darlington to include a stall on Darlington’s Bank Top station as part of the ACoRP Community Rail Festival 2006 in Darlington.
South West - 25, 26, 27 or 29 September (to be confirmed according to celebrity’s availability) probably at Bristol Temple Meads Station.

DEBATE ON LONDON ORBITAL RAIL NETWORK

There was a House of Commons (Westminster Hall) Debate on London Orbital Rail Network on 19th July. Tom Brake (Lib Dems), Chris Grayling (Conservative) and Stephen Ladyman (Labour) all spoke in the debate. The Hansard report of the debate can be found at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm060719/halltext/60719h0353.htm
Source: Liberal Democrat briefing: http://www.libdems.org.uk/transport/parliamentaryreport.html?id=5908

RAILWAY CONVERSION - THE IMPRACTICAL DREAM

This recently published book by E.A. Gibbins claims to be the first critical analysis of the railway conversion idea that began in 1954. According to a flyer from the author the book:

"Proves that conversion to roads is impractical. Only 250 miles of 10,000 miles of railway closed since the idea was first advanced are 'converted', Most were short lengths that had to be widened by a factor of up to eight. Road transport makes such poor utilisation of roads that there would be no space for existing road traffic on converted main lines. Most closed lines have been converted to footpaths and cycleways, for which the limited width of railways is not a problem.

"The conversion lobby claims that inevitable below-standard road widths and bridge heights on converted railways would be adequate. On that basis, road delays could be cut by reducing lane width on motorways and concreting verges to create five or more lanes.

"The traffic claimed to be on roads is being overestimated, so that road/rail disparity is exaggerated. Unsafe practices have held down road transport costs and undermined competition by railways.

"Conversion of railways to guided busways - a new and costly gimmick - will give another subsidy to bus operators, who now enjoy free bus lanes, red routes, shelters, lay-bys and raised pavements. They will not pay all infrastructure costs for a converted railway. Hence they are not financially comparable with rail. Complications for the concept, arising from thousands of public, private and farm level crossings are ignored.

Pages 220, 24 Photos, Pbk. Price £ 13.95 Published by: Leisure Products, 11 Bedford Grove, Alsager, Stoke-on-Trent. ST7 2SR

SNIPPETTS

Can all branches please note that requests for mailing labels should normally be sent to David Harby at least 2 weeks before they are needed. They are usually produced quicker than this but there are times e.g. holidays when a quicker printing cannot be done.

Peter Lawrence has asked me to tell all branches that he has an email distribution list of around 400 media contacts etc. If you have a press release etc that would benefit from a distribution beyond your normal branch contacts then it can be sent to Peter, , for distribution.

The June 2006 issue of the Environmental & Sustainable Technology Journal includes a two-page feature article on the subject of hybrid railways. Authored by John Parry and Caspar Lucas of Parry Associates, it identifies the benefits of lightweight suburban railway technology to both the environment and society. Also mentioned is a new community interest company being set up to provide lightweight railcars for lease to rail operators. The June 2006 Issue (Vol 4 no 4) can be downloaded from http://www.eastjournal.co.uk/ Source JPM Parry and Associates Press release http://www.parryassociates.com/Latest_News.htm

The August newsletter from PPM Issue 45 estimates that they could supply the materials to build a two-coach (forty metre) platform, for under £1,600. Source: http://www.parrypeoplemovers.com/newsletters.htm

On 11th August Sea Containers issued a new statement about their financial position and the GNER franchise. See: http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=176995

INVALID EMAIL ADDRESSES

Howard Thomas (Passenger Committee Chairman) and Elisabeth Jordan (Lottery Organiser) have both asked me to notify everyone that they no longer have an email address. Future correspondence to them will need to be by Royal Mail.