Activists Briefing Issue 31

23rd October 2007

IN THE NEWS

At the end of September Local Transport Today published a letter from Railfuture Chairman, Mike Crowhurst, calling for a programme of fill-in electrification. This was followed this week by another letter from Mike putting the view that we cannot rely on technology to solve all our transport problems and that we will have to change our lifestyles as well.

NEWS FROM RAILFUTURE BRANCHES

David Eldridge, Railfuture Thames Valley Secretary, has had 2 letters published in 'The Oxford Times'. Both letters concerned the sudden closure by First Great Western of the Travel Centre at Oxford Railway Station. The first letter was headed by the editor as 'Reopen Centre', and the second 'Devastating closure'. This subject has appeared for four consecutive weeks in that paper.

On Tuesday 11th December Railfuture East Midlands are holding a Christmas get together at a pub/brewery next to Oakham station starting at 12 midday. Members from adjacent branches are welcome. More details from Railfuture East Midlands Secretary, Roger Bacon .

Railfuture East Anglia Branch issued a press release on 5th October welcoming the news that Crossrail has at last been given the green light. The press release said that this is a positive step and long overdue as the new route will bring relief to cross London travellers and open up new journey opportunities for rail users from East Anglia. However East Anglia branch said they do however have reservations concerning the future of railfreight particularly south of Shenfield. It is important to develop alternative routes in order to accommodate the ever-increasing growth of railfreight traffic.

In their 'Perspective' column on 3rd October the Birmingham Post carried an article, under the by-line of Peter Cousins of Railfuture West Midlands, explaining why the West Midlands could be returning to the Age of the Train. The article outlined the recent improvements to services in the area and the significant challenges facing the industry. It called for a strategy to be developed to accommodate the current and predicted future growth on the network. Suggestions included infill electrification, a new station at Kenilworth, and passenger services on the Camp Hill and Sutton Park lines. We have since recruited a new member who first heard of us when he read the article.

For the article see http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/birminghampost/perspective/features/tm_method=full%26objectid=19887945%26siteid=50002-name_page.html

Railfuture East Midlands Secretary, Roger Bacon, has been interviewed outside Nottingham station by BBC East Midlands TV in preparation for an item on the transfer of the East Midlands franchise to East Midlands Trains.

The Lincolnshire Echo on 22nd October carried a front-page story highlighting Railfuture Lincolnshire branch aspirations for station reopenings. Following an interview with Lincs branch Vice Chairman, David Harby, the article discussed possible candidates for reopening and all the difficulties that are likely to be encountered before any reopening scheme can even get to the stage of preparing a business plan. Read the article at http://www.thisislincolnshire.com/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=156582&command=displayContent&sourceNode=156408&contentPK=18736529&folderPk=87028&pNodeId=156139

BRANCH AGMs

Railfuture East Anglia AGM will be held on 23rd February 2008 at Bury St Edmunds Library.

Railfuture North East AGM will take place at 7pm on Thursday 17th January 2008. The venue will be Brunswick Methodist Church, Brunswick Place Central Newcastle. The speaker will be Alex Nelson of Chester - le - Track. www.chester-le-track.co.uk

Railfuture London and South East AGM will be held in London on 28th April 2008.

RAILFUTURE POLICY

Railfuture's specialist committees have each produced short documents outlining Railfuture policy on issues within their remits. A page has been created on the Railfuture website with links to each of the PDF documents explaining our policy. As it is imperative that all Railfuture media spokespersons speak with a consistent policy would all branch spokespersons please familiarise themselves with the contents of the documents.

2008 ELECTIONS

Nomination Forms for the 2008 elections can now be downloaded from the Railfuture website. The website also has a page explaining the new Board composition and tenures.

OTHER WEBSITE UPDATES

There is a new page explaining the Fighting Fund including a link to an application form.

A revised expense form incorporating the opportunity to have expenses paid directly into a bank account has been added to a new finance page off the members' page.

ELY CONFERENCE 3RD NOVEMBER 2007

Bookings are coming in for the Ely conference but there are still a few spaces available. A booking form and street map can be downloaded from www.railfuture.org.uk. The cost is only £10 for Railfuture members (£12.50 non-members).

BRANCHES – DO YOUR ROOM HIRE FEES INCLUDE AN INSURANCE CHARGE?

There have been two instances recently where branches have been asked to pay a room hire fee that included a charge for Public Liability insurance. Railfuture already have Public Liability insurance, with a £5,000,000 Limit of Indemnity, that includes the activities of all branches and committees so there is no need to pay any additional insurance fee. If you are asked to provide evidence of insurance cover contact David Harby for a copy of the insurance schedule.

RAILFUTURE CONFERENCES IN 2008

As mentioned in Briefing 30 we are planning a High Speed Rail conference in London in autumn 2008 so are looking for volunteers to host a Rail Users' Conference in summer 2008. No volunteers have yet come forward so if your branch would like to host the RUG conference please contact Mike Crowhurst.

COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORTS

As per last year Lloyd Butler is to collate reports from all Committees etc and put together the Annual Report. Would all Committee and sub-committee Chairmen please send their report to Lloyd (lloyd@deltic.net) before 21st January 2008. As in previous years reports should be 500 words maximum, preferably nearer 300.

TIMETABLE CONSULTATIONS

CrossCountry Trains are consulting on their 2009 timetable with a deadline for comments of 23rd November 2007. The draft timetable document including details of where to send responses is available from their website www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk

The West Coast Main Line Strategy and December 2008 timetable was published by DfT on 20th September 2007. A briefing for stakeholders, invitation for comments and copies of the draft Virgin West Coast, Govia and Transpennine timetables can be downloaded from the DfT website at http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/pi/wcml/wcms2008timetables/

ORR NEWS

On 19th September 2007 ORR published its fourth annual statement on Network Rail's performance. The assessment covers April 2006 to March 2007.

Network Rail are achieving nearly all the targets set in 2003. Safety performance has continued to improve and delays have been reduced.

The annual assessment of Network Rail can be found here: www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/339.pdf

National Rail Trends 2007-08 quarter one (April to June) has recently been published. Since 2006–07 Q1
 The moving annual average for total passenger kilometers has increased by 8.3% This is compared to an increase of 2.7% between 2005–06 Q1 and 2006–07 Q1.
 The moving annual average for total passenger journeys has increased by 8.4%.
 Passenger revenue has increased by 13.4% (nearly double the increase in passenger kilometres!)
 Passenger journeys of season ticket holders increased by 11.1% and passenger revenue from them increased by 15.4% compared to 5.3% between 2005–06 Q1 and 2006–07 Q1.
 The quarter on quarter increase for revenue per passenger kilometre was 5.9% with the revenue per passenger journey increasing by 6.3%.

See http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/341.pdf for full details.

SNIPPETTS

On 3rd October the RAIB issued a progress report into the derailment at Grayrigg, Cumbria on 23 February 2007. This includes details of the conditions of the similar points elsewhere on the network that were inspected after the accident. See http://www.raib.gov.uk/publications/interim_reports.cfm

On Tuesday 2 October 2007 Transport Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones made a Statement on Welsh Assembly Government Transport Priorities. An upgraded railway timetable is to be introduced in December 2008 and officials are investigating the feasibility of a new faster rail service, including business class facilities, which would operate southbound in the morning and northbound in the evening. The full statement is at
http://www.assemblywales.org/bus-home/bus-chamber/bus-chamber-third-assembly-rop.htm?act=dis&id=60494&ds=10/2007#rhif3