Activists Briefing - Issue 24
18th March 2007
IN THE NEWS
The Daily Mail telephoned Railfuture President, Peter Lawrence, on Wednesday 28 February concerning an incident at West Dulwich station sometime ago when someone fell on the track. They asked Peter what Railfuture recommendations would be for improving safety at this or any other station. Peter's viewpoint was that no two stations are alike in layout so different solutions may be needed for each station. For a busy station more platform staff may be the answer or extra CCTV installed.
The News of the World telephoned Peter and sought our opinions on fares. They had picked up the situation whereby by booking two legs of a journey £s could be saved on the cost of rail ticket. Peter said the present fares position is a jungle and we, like other bodies, are calling for a more simplistic fares structure. While Railfuture agrees that Train Operating Companies have to make profits it is important that all fares are regulated.
It was an early start for Peter on 14th March when Three Counties Radio and ITN News telephoned him at 06.45am for interviews from Railfuture regarding the proposed announcement that 1,000 new railway carriages are to be built to ease overcrowding. Peter's view was one of welcoming the announcement and accepting that London & SouthEast need the help together with Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. Also on some Community Rail Partnerships where we have seen increased growth extra stock was needed in the peak hour periods.
Birmingham Post/Mail? then telephoned for comment on Birmingham New Street. It appears that only five information screens were working and there was a major event in Birmingham on Saturday. They wanted Railfuture views. Peter passed them on to West Midlands branch.
An independent news station service in East Anglia then telephoned Peter around noon also for an interview, which was due to, be broadcast in Ipswich, Norwich and other commercial radio stations in East Anglia.
Shortly after the BBC Radio in London telephoned and asked if Peter would give interviews to three local radio stations from the Norwich studios. When he arrived three turned out to be seven: BBC Radio Newcastle, Southern Counties, Oxford, Northampton, Hereford and Worcester, Cornwall and Derby. It is a long time since Peter gave ten radio interviews in one day.
Keith Dyall, Railfuture London and SouthEast chairman, also gave an interview to Three Counties Radio on 14th March.
The Sunday Mirror asked Andrew MacFarlane for Railfuture views on the Pendolino accident but they were not reported in the paper.
NEWS FROM RAILFUTURE BRANCHES
Railfuture Wales has been consulted by the Wales Audit Office as part of its' scoping study for its' audit of Integrated Transport in Wales. The WAO will agree with Welsh Assembly Government the areas it will finally study and publish a report in 2008.
Railfuture Wales also intends to publish in late 2007/early 2008 its' findings on Integrated Transport in Wales and any contributions from members including good examples of integrated transport outside Wales would be appreciated.
Railfuture Wales have produced a bi-lingual membership leaflet for use in Wales.
After holding the position of branch secretary of Thames Valley branch for 20 years Martin Smith did not seek re-election at their recent AGM. The new branch secretary is David Eldridge.
At the Railfuture East Midlands AGM on 17th March Roger Skilton did not seek re-election as branch chairman as he has moved to Yorkshire. Roger was a founder member of the East Midlands branch 20 years ago and has been involved in branch activities ever since. He is now living in Leyburn on the Wensleydale Railway and has already started helping them as a volunteer. The new branch chairman is Terry Holt.
NEW REGISTERED OFFICE FOR THE RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY LTD
Following on from the note in last month's Briefing the Registered Office of The Railway Development Society Ltd has moved to 12 Home Close, Bracebridge Heath, Lincoln LN4 2LP with effect from 5th March 2007. Can Officers and Branch Officials please change any templates they have on their computers.
REGISTERED OFFICE MUST NOW BE ON ALL EMAILS AND WEBSITES
New regulations concerning Railfuture websites and emails have been introduced under The Companies (Registrar, Languages and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2006. The Company name, Registered Office number and address must now be on all Railfuture websites' home page or contact us page. The definition of business letters has been clarified to include emails and order forms. This means that all emails sent of behalf of Railfuture must now include the same information as on our stationery. According to the briefing your editor has received from his trade association anyone acting on behalf of a company which fails to comply is personally liable and could be fined so please do try to remember to include the details on all emails you send.
One of the reasons why this regulation has been introduced is as a protection for anyone purchasing goods via websites. As readers may have read in the press there have been instances where purchases have been made via websites and then, when the goods have not arrived, the purchasers have been unable to take action against the seller as they have been unable to find a postal address for the seller.
See http://www.nortonrose.com/html_pubs/view.asp?id=11326 for more information.
CLARIFICATION OF RULES CONCERNING BRANCH AFFILIATION TO OTHER ORGANISATIONS
London & SE branch has asked the Board to clarify when, or if, they are allowed to affiliate the branch to other organisations. The Board discussed this on 3rd March and they have asked for the following clarification to be put in this briefing so that all branches are aware of the situation.
Affiliation is permitted by Article 56 of the Articles of Association, which states as follows. “Other organisations may be invited to affiliate with the Company upon such terms as may be settled by the Board. The Board shall have the power to seek affiliation to other bodies. Such affiliations shall not compromise the Aims and Objectives of the Company or restrict the activities of the Company or its Branches.”
The Board has now formally agreed that branches have delegated authority to affiliate or join local bodies in their area. This is subject to the proviso that the decision to affiliate or join must be made, and minuted, at a branch committee or general meeting (not at divisional level) and that the National Chairman must be notified of this decision before the affiliation decision is actioned. The Board reserves the right to overrule affiliation decisions made at branch level. Affiliation to national bodies is determined only by the Board. Once such affiliation is in place at national level branches may make appropriate arrangements at local level. Such arrangements currently exist with Transport 2000 National Transport Activists Roundtable and ACoRP.
Branch chairmen/secretaries are requested to notify Mike Crowhurst (or David Harby by email) of all affiliations or memberships that branches currently have.
RDS AGM
Everyone should have received a booking form for the AGM in Preston with the latest Railwatch. If you are intending to attend please send your booking form to Lloyd Butler in good time.
Are there any volunteers to host the 2008 AGM? We are in the North this year so it is hoped to have a Southern venue next year.
FREIGHT ROUTE UTILISATION STUDY PUBLISHED
The Freight RUS was published on 5th March 2007. Also published on the Network Rail website were the submissions to the RUS Consultation. Railfuture Freight Committee and NorthEast, Scotland and West Midlands branches sent submissions.
The RUS can be found on the Network Rail website at http://www.networkrail.co.uk.
NEWS FROM DFT/FRANCHISE NEWS
Intercity Express Programme – On 8th March DfT initiated the procurement process for the new fleet of trains for the Intercity Express Programme (IEP) which will replace the HST fleet. An order of between 500 and 2,000 new vehicles is expected. The main fleet is to be introduced across the network from 2014 with pre-series trains being deployed on the East Coast Main Line from 2012.
Summary and Overview http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/pi/iep/summaryandoverview
The Stakeholder Briefing Document for the ICEC franchise is now available on the DfT website. The bidders will receive an ITT document on 8th March 2007 setting out the specification and the issues that bidders will need to address, and contains commercially sensitive material to enable bidders to formulate and deliver their bids. Bidders are required to submit their final bids to the DfT by 6th June 2007. The winner of the franchise will be announced in summer 2007.
Summaries of the consultation responses from stakeholders, including Railfuture Lincs, North East and Yorkshire are in the Stakeholder Briefing Document which can be downloaded from http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/passenger/franchises/icecf1/stakeholderbriefingdocument?version=1
Bus and light rail statistics Great Britain: October - December 2006 are now on the DfT website. The bulletin presents the latest quarterly data from the Bus Passenger Satisfaction Survey and also includes statistics on bus reliability and bus and light rail patronage. See http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/public/buslightrail/200607/buslightq306?version=1
The 1,000 new carriages that Peter Lawrence gave interviews about on 14th March were announced by Douglas Alexander in a speech to the Rail magazine conference. In the speech he says that the new carriages will be specified in the High Level Output Specification this summer. He anticipates that this will significantly increase the number of carriages on the network by 2014 but he also said “if the price is right” so we might actually end up with considerably less than 1,000. The speech can be downloaded from the DfT website at http://www.dft.gov.uk/press/speechesstatements/speeches/railmagazine?version=1
GOVERNMENT ATTEMPTING TO RESTRICT FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUESTS
In October 2006 the government announced proposals to make it easier for public authorities to refuse Freedom of Information (‘FOI’) requests on cost grounds. The proposals severely restrict the amount of information that could be obtained under the Act. At the moment, an FOI request can be refused if the cost of dealing with it exceeds £600 for a government department, or £450 for any other public authority. In calculating whether these limits have been reached authorities can take into account the costs of searching for and extracting the requested information.
The proposed changes to the rules would allow authorities to include the cost of the time spent reading the information, consulting others about it and deciding whether it should be released. The cost of unrelated requests made by the same individual or organisation to an authority could be aggregated and refused if their combined cost exceeded the £450 or £600 limits.
It is already difficult for campaigners to discover essential information from secretive train operating companies which use "commercial sensitivity" to hide information from both passengers and campaigners. With so many different agencies, governmental, semi-official and completely private companies and individuals involved in running the railways, it is important that there is as much transparency as possible.
Railfuture have written to the Department for Constitutional Affairs opposing these proposed changes.
The consultation paper can be downloaded from - http://www.dca.gov.uk/consult/dpr2007/cp2806-condoc.pdf. Further information is available from Campaign for Freedom of Information website http://www.cfoi.org.uk/feesproposals.html
SNIPPETTS
The House of Commons Transport Committee published a report, “Local Transport Planning and Funding”, on 29 October 2006. The Government's response to this report was published on 27th February and can be downloaded from http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmtran/334/334.pdf
Does anyone recognise a hand-written code 'HAD' on a membership application form of 2005 vintage? If so please let David Harby know what it stands for.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
- Saturday 24th March 2007
Railfuture Passenger Committee, Seckford Arms London,
- Saturday 31st March 2007
Railfuture Wessex AGM, The Point, Eastleigh at 14.00hrs.
- Saturday 7th April 2007
- Monday 16th April 2007
- Saturday 12th May 2007
- Saturday 2nd June 2007
- Saturday 9th June 2007
- Saturday 16th June, 2007
- Saturday 23rd June 2007
- Saturday 30th June 2007
- Saturday 7th July 2007
- Saturday 28th July 2007
- Saturday 29th September 2007
- Saturday 3rd November 2007