Activists Briefing Issue 34

17th January 2008

IN THE NEWS

Railfuture President and media spokesman, Peter Lawrence, has had a busy time with media enquiries. The Eastern Daily press telephoned him on Sunday 16 December 2007 concerning the reports from local politicians that there could be a shortfall in government funding for UK railways. Peter's comments were published in the EDP the following day.

To coincide with the fare increases on January 2nd 2008 we will issued a press release pointing out that the fares increase is to meet the government target of passengers bearing 75% of rail costs. We pointed out that passengers expect value for money. They expect some real investment in much needed new capacity, more stations, reopened lines and a serious policy of electrification.

As a result of this press release Peter's New Year started with a bang! On New Years Morning he received a telephone call from BBC Radio Norfolk and recorded a piece on fares.

Wednesday 2 January the news broke concerning the Network Rail overruns at Liverpool Street and the West Coast main line. Peter was interviewed for TV at Norwich station by Richard Bond, BBC Look East Business Reporter. This was followed by a telephone interview by East Anglian Daily Times on fares and also the Liverpool Street chaos. ITV also contacted him for information on the rail chaos. but no interview was recorded.

Thursday 3 January while taking a neighbour to hospital, Radio 5 live telephoned at 08.39 asking Peter to take part in a rail "phone in" from 09.00 until 10.00. Could not take part unfortunately as he was still at the hospital.

On fares Peter was also contacted by the People Newspaper, recorded an interview with Radio Broadland, gave an interview to Anglia Television and recorded an interview with BBC Radio Gloucester.

The Warwickshire Telegraph telephoned Peter asking for Railfuture views about a story concerning a Department of Transport plan to investigate the re-opening of the Great Central route through Rugby.

On 2nd January Railfuture London & South East Chairman, Keith Dyall, was interviewed by BBC Southern Counties Radio on fares increases.

Railfuture Chairman, Mike Crowhurst, was contacted by a researcher from Channel 5 who asked about the engineering disruption over the Xmas period and the issues that would arise if renationalisation was attempted.

Railfuture Lincolnshire Vice Chairman, David Harby, was contacted on 3rd January by a reporter from Lincolnshire Echo for a wide ranging discussion on local and national rail issues. This resulted in a ¾ page article about the difficulties in resolving overcrowding problems due to a national shortage of rolling stock.

A Railfuture delegation recently had a meeting with Stephen Hammond MP, Conservative Shadow Transport Minister, to discuss a wide range of rail issues including the Rail White Paper, NATA refresh consultation, longer and heavier lorries, light rail Thameslink and Crossrail and TfL Overground.

NEWS FROM RAILFUTURE BRANCHES

A small Railfuture delegation from London & South East and East Anglia branches met with First Capital Connect on 16th December and had a wide ranging discussion on a number of issues. These included lots of discussion regarding the robustness of the 2015 full Thameslink Timetable, car parking, station upgrades, extra rolling stock and Carnet tickets.

Railfuture Wales have responded to the Wales Freight Strategy Consultation. For an electronic copy of the response email david.harby at ntlworld.com.

BRANCH AGMs

In addition to the AGMs previously notified the Cambrian branch AGM will be on Saturday March 8th at the Owain Glyndwr Centre, Machynlleth, Powys. The meeting will commence at 2.30pm. Tim Shoveller, MD of East Midlands Trains, has agreed to speak at the Railfuture East Midlands AGM which is now booked at the Corn Market Hall in Kettering for the 15th March. The business meeting will start at 12 and the public event at 2pm. The Railfuture South Wales AGM will be on 19th April at the Quaker Meeting House, Charles Street, Cardiff.

BRANCH FINANCES

A reminder to all branches to please ensure that their year end accounts are sent to the National Treasurer, Bob Imrie by 31st January 2008 at the very latest. If you are waiting for an examination/audit to be completed then please send your draft version.

ELECTIONS TO THE RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY BOARD

Nominations for the RDS Ltd Board of Directors for the year 2008-2009 must be received by the Returning Officer by 1st February 2008. Nomination forms can be downloaded from the Railfuture website.

SPECIALIST COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP FROM MAY 2008

If anyone is interested in becoming a member of any of the Railfuture committees (International, Policy Lobby and Campaigns, Passenger, Network Development and Freight) now is the time to be putting your name forward. Due to resignations as a result of emigration and illness the Freight committee is especially keen to attract some 'new blood'.

In the first instance it is suggested that you contact the relevant committee chairman, contact details on the Railfuture website, or email david.harby at ntlworld.com who will pass on your interest. Members of specialist committees are expected to take an active role in the committee deliberations and activities.

DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT NEWS

There are 2 new items of possible interest on the DfT website at http://www.dft.gov.uk/?view=Filter&h=m&m=4552&pg=1.

Rail industry research strategy - The main document sets out to review current railway research programmes, establish strategic priorities for future research, help ensure that public sector funding is appropriately directed, encourage the adoption and implementation of research results and assist in collaboration with Europe-wide research. It was developed by representatives of the rail industry, research organisations and DfT. It is supported by an Evidence Pack on current projects and recent Government publications.

Frequently asked transport questions - Straightforward answers to common questions about road, rail and air transport in the UK. (Ed. Well that's what DfT call them)

ORR NEWS

ORR are conducting a consultation into a change in the Land disposal arrangements for railway land. According to the ORR website the arrangements place greater emphasis on Network Rail delivering proposals acceptable to its stakeholders. (They do however make it easier for Network Rail to dispose of land for development, or even road schemes.) No changes will be made to Condition 26 - the land disposal licence condition. See http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/346.pdf

Railfuture Freight Committee will be responding to the consultation. Comments to Gary Tinsey, gary_tinsey at hotmail.com, by 1st February.

There has been some update to the West Coast Route Modernisation project pages including a copy of the ORR letter to Network Rail about the Rugby and Liverpool Street engineering overruns.
See: http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.5687

NEW LIB DEM SHADOW TRANSPORT TEAM

The new Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg has appointed Norman Baker, to the party's shadow cabinet with a transport brief. He supersedes Susan Kramer in this shadow cabinet post. Born in Aberdeen, Norman moved to Hornchurch in Essex in 1968 and was educated at the Royal Liberty School, Gidea Park, in London before taking a degree in German at Royal Holloway College, University of London. He does have some experience of railways as he was once a clerk at Hornsey Railway Station.

He was elected to his local councils - Lewes District and Beddingham Parish - in 1987, and two years later was elected to East Sussex County Council to represent Telscombe. In 1991 he led the Liberal Democrats to victory on Lewes District Council, becoming that council’s first ever Liberal Democrat leader. He contested the Lewes parliamentary constituency in 1992, and at his second attempt in 1997 succeeded in becoming the seat’s first non-Conservative MP since 1874.

Source Liberal Democrat’s website http://www.libdems.org.uk/party/people/mr-norman-baker.0003.html

NETWORK RAIL

Network Rail have issued their final report on the Greater Anglia Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS). Railfuture, STEER and other rail user groups attended a couple of stakeholder meetings during the development of the RUS and submitted comments on the 23 possible proposals contained in the draft report in the summer. The RUS covers the main lines and associated branches out of London Liverpool Street; the Great Eastern route to Norwich, the West Anglia Route to Cambridge and the Fenchurch Street (Thameside Route) to Southend.

The report shows that the region’s rail routes are well used and can expect to see continued growth over the period covered by the RUS. It gives a very positive outlook for the region’s rail routes and shows that there is a strong case for future improvements to be made to cope with expected demand. The key task for transport campaign groups would appear to monitor progress to ensure that the schemes listed actually happen.

Nick Dibben, Railfuture East Anglia secretary, has written a short appraisal of the RUS. Copies from david.harby at ntlworld.com.

The report can be found at: http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browseDirectory.aspx?dir=\RUS%20Documents\Route%20Utilisation%20Strategies\Greater%20Anglia&pageid=2895&root=

Following Network Rail's failure to reopen the rail network on time after the Rugby and Liverpool Street engineering possessions the mainstream media concentrated the effects on passengers. They missed the serious problems for rail freight. The overrun at Rugby isolated the Daventry Terminal and was particularly bad for the supermarket industry who at very short notice had to find sufficient lorries to maintain a 24/7 delivery service to their shops. Railfreight companies have worked hard to attract supermarket business from road. The supermarkets will not take kindly to this sort of treatment and will almost certainly now be looking critically at their rail contracts.
The Rail Freight Group's recent press release highlights some alternative approaches to track maintenance regularly seen abroad. Find this at http://www.rfg.org.uk/news/?pid=3158&lsid=3159&edname=25486.htm&ped=25486

Network Rail has published a useful route map of the UK rail network showing those routes already having W10 gauge and those proposed as part of the various projects which have either been awarded funding or are proposed for it. See http://www.rfg.org.uk/ for a link to the map and explanatory notes.

SNIPPETTS

Thanks to David Watts for an interesting Road Freight item from the 'Western Telegraph' Main Pembrokeshire weekly paper. Pembrokeshire Road Policing Unit has carried out an operation targeting large goods vehicles travelling through the county, mainly to/from the Irish Ferry ports at Fishguard and Pembroke Dock. Of the 311 large goods vehicles stopped 83 were found to be committing offences and 37 were given immediate prohibitions for committing offences relating to drivers' hours. No wonder road can undercut rail costs!

On the Nuneaton & Bedworth RUG's website www.nbrug.org.uk there is some interesting correspondence on the draft 2008/09 West Coast timetable particularly a 5 page reply from DfT. This letter explains some of the DfT thinking about long distance express services which may be relevant to other routes such as ECML. The need to maximise revenue is seeing stations such as Liverpool and Manchester getting improved services at the expense of smaller intermediate stations.

There are some new additions to the Rail Freight Group website including a letter (3 January 2007) from Network Rail Member Tony Berkeley wrote to fellow members about NR's democratic deficit and suggesting a new governance structure based on a largely elected Members Council.

RFG Report: A Report (Monday 26 November) which sets out the true story about the UK railway model and which suggests the UK railway model applied elsewhere in Europe will achieve growth, improved service and reduced state subsidies. The Report has been produced in response to a number of misleading quotes or comments from outside the UK about its railway model, often as an excuse to prevent restructuring to achieve liberalisation and fair competition.

RFG website: http://www.rfg.org.uk/

The House of Commons Transport Committee are looking at the Government White Paper “Delivering a Sustainable Railway - a 30 year strategy” Oral evidence was taken on 9th January 2008. This included some well received evidence from Roger Ford of Modern Railways magazine. A transcript will soon be available at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtran.htm#evid. If you have the appropriate software you can watch the proceedings on video at http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meetingId=769.