Railway Cuttings - Issue 84

16th March 2005

IN THE NEWS

BBC Radio Norfolk telephoned Railfuture President, Peter Lawrence, on 22nd February for his comments on the latest very good performance figures announced by 'One'. Good results despite the radical change to the new timetables introduced in December 2004. The new timetables have caused problems in some areas because of retimings and tweaking of times, which should bring improvements to services for passengers, will take place in the June 2005 timetable changes.

Peter also represented Railfuture East Anglia Branch at the official opening of The Rail Tech Training Academy, Ipswich on 4th March 2005.

Clara Zilahi, Railfuture Officer for Disabled Persons represented Railfuture at a Rail Passenger Council Public meeting in London on Wednesday 9th March 2005. The meeting discussed the Disability Discrimination Act and also provision of passenger information and the problem of advance timetable information (T-12). The lack of advance timetable information is of special concern to those disabled travellers who need to book assistance with their journey.

NEWS FROM RAILFUTURE BRANCHES

At their AGM on 19th February East Anglia branch elected a new Chairman, Peter Wakefield, and Vice Chairman, Peter Lawrence. For several years the Branch has been without a Chairman and Ivan Ivanovic was outgoing Vice-Chairman. Ivan decided not to seek re-election as Vice-Chairman or to continue on the Branch Committee this year due to his many other commitments. As part of the East Anglia team his input will be missed.

At their AGM on 5th March South Wales branch also elected a new Chairman, Guy Hardy. The outgoing Chairman, Peter Clark, is now Vice Chairman.

The March 2005 issue of Railfuture Scotland’s branch newsletter is on their website www.railfuturescotland.org.uk

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Readers may recall that in issue 82 of Railway Cuttings I mentioned that it had been suggested that Railway Cuttings would benefit from a change of name to something that better reflects the contents. Thank you to the members who sent in suggestions for a new name. The name that best reflects the contents seems to be "Railfuture Activists' Briefing" so the next edition of this newsletter will be "Railfuture Activists' Briefing" no 1.

YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW

The Freedom of Information Act gives you the right to request information from public bodies and certain private organisations. Friends of the Earth has set up a website to guide you through the process. From the homepage, you can select an Information Request Generator which produces a request letter. See www.righttoknowonline.org

INFLATION FIGURES FROM THE DfT

Real increase in cost over 25 yrs since 1980, nationally...
- bus fares is 43.1%
- rail fares is 35.7%
- motoring costs is minus 7.5% (ie decrease)

ELECTION OF OFFICERS FOR 2005/2006

There will be ballots for Chairman, Vice Chairman and Board of Directors. David Harby is returned unopposed as Membership Secretary and there are no candidates for Treasurer or Sales Officer. Ballot papers and full details of the AGM will be distributed with Railwatch in the next few days. All completed ballot papers should be returned to the Returning Officer, John Lee, and must arrive no later than 23rd April 2004.

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP

Membership of Committees is confirmed at the first Board meeting after the AGM. Committee Chairmen will be asking existing members if they wish to continue. If anyone else would like to serve on a committee (International, Network Development, Freight, Passenger or Policy) they should inform John Lee by 1st May.

FANCY GETTING PAID TO TRAVEL BY TRAIN?

This interesting advert is from the March edition of Modern Railways.

“We are looking for a small team of enthusiasts to help us assess access and facilities at stations and on-board trains operating within the UK. Please write a short note to:

Colin Coleman & Company – Chartered Engineers
Carpenters Barn
Sampford Courtney, Okehampton
Devon EX20 2SX

Your letter should be marked for the attention of Rita Hoile, stating the hourly rate requested and SRA Rail Franchise Region which would be your first and second choice, and the days and number of hours you would be available each week.”

RAILWAYS BILL 2005

Railfuture Board members have been lobbying in the Houses of Parliament for changes to the Bill. Amendments suggested by ourselves and other like minded bodies were put down for debate in the House of Lords and assurances were given by the Government on some of our concerns. Railfuture Vice President, Lord Peter Snape, spoke in support of some amendments. The latest information that we have is that the Bill is expected to be discussed by the House of Commons on 4th April.

With the Railways Bill nearing completion thoughts are turning to what happens next. When the Regional RPC’s are wound up their members may be lost to rail campaigning. It has been suggested that branches should consider approaching enthusiastic and capable RPC members and invite them to join Railfuture and become part of their local branch committee. If they wish to continue passenger representation at a local level this is probably their best hope of doing this effectively.

Some branches have good contacts with their local media and journalists already turn to them for comment on rail issues. Their are however other journalists who usually turn to their local RPC. Branches may wish to discuss this and perhaps make plans to write to selected media explaining about the RPC demise and saying that Railfuture is aiming to fill the void as much as possible.

In the current climate it also seems inevitable that, despite assurances given by Transport Ministers, service cuts and station closures will be on the agenda once the General Election is out of the way. Railfuture needs to be ready when the cutbacks start. Initially it is suggested that branches should try to identify where the cutbacks and closures are most likely to occur and start to prepare anti-cuts campaigns so that we are ready to act quickly when they are announced.

SRA PUBLISH WEST MIDLANDS ROUTE UTILISATION STUDY

To quote from the Executive Summary, “A Route Utilisation Strategy has been developed for the West Midlands region to ensure that best use is made of available capacity and to address the following issues:
 Performance on the rail corridors into Birmingham is poor. The Strategy examines the structure of the timetable to identify where this could be changed to deliver better performance;
 There are significant commuter flows into Birmingham and there is crowding during the peak periods, although over a shorter time and to a much lesser extent than in the South East. The strategy considers how crowding can most effectively be managed;
 Further passenger and freight growth is forecast and plans need to be put in place to take this potential growth into account; and
 There are a number of train operators in the region, and it is believed that centrally co-ordinated changes to the specification of train services developed in this Route Utilisation Strategy can lead to more efficient operations and a better service to customers.”

Some proposals are:
 Extending some existing services from Birmingham to provide a higher frequency to Kidderminster and Stratford-upon-Avon in the off-peak
 A possible peak Shrewsbury – London service
 Revise the specification of Network Rail planned track and signalling renewals to improve a freight bottleneck between Water Orton and Landor Street.
 Make better use of the Walsall – Rugeley Trent Valley route to provide for freight growth and engineering diversions.
 More off-peak services to call at Bromsgrove.
 Longer station platforms to take longer peak hour trains.
 Route all long distance CrossCountry services via Coventry and Birmingham International to free up capacity via Solihull to help improve operating performance as freight volumes grow.

There are however some disbenefits:

 Withdrawal of the Walsall – Wolverhampton and Stoke – Stafford local services.
 Reduce local journey opportunities between some pairs of lightly used stations on the Coventry – Birmingham – Wolverhampton corridor.
 Use pricing mechanisms for train services and car parks to better manage peak demand. I.e. increase fares and car park charges for peak hour commuters.

It is important that Railfuture speaks with a joint voice on this. The Railfuture response will therefore be lead by Railfuture West Midlands branch and all comments should be sent to Branch Chairman, Ian Jenkins, at 283 Stafford Rd, Wolverhampton WV10 6DQ, email: ianbaggie at yahoo.co.uk. Ian must receive all response by 1st May 2005.

Link to the SRA document: http://www.sra.gov.uk/pubs2/consult_new/West_Mids_RUS/West_Mids_RUS_Homepage.doc

BRANCH OFFICERS FOR WHO’S WHO 2005/2006

Following their AGMs, all branches are asked to let John Lee know full details of their Officers (i.e. names, addresses and contact emails/numbers for Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary & Treasurer) immediately thereafter. The list should make clear which name should appear in the 2005 "Who's Who" for contact purposes.

TRANSPORT COMMITTEE REPORT ON RURAL RAILWAYS

The Transport Committee's Report on Rural Railways (HC 169-I), was be published on Tuesday 15 March. The text of the report is available on the Committee's website http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtran.htm
Source: Transport Committee Press Notice 16/2004-05, 11 March 2005

NO FREE LOCAL RAIL TRAVEL FOR PENSIONERS IN THE BUDGET

The Budget announced that free local area bus travel in England will be extended to all people aged 60 or over and disabled people during off peak hours with effect from April 2006. There is no mention of free rail or tram travel. Encouraging pensioners and disabled to switch from rail and tram to bus is hardly going to improve the viability of loss making rail services. Members may wish to point this deficiency out to their MPs.