Activists Briefing Issue 25

24th April 2007

IN THE NEWS

Railfuture President and Media Spokesman, Peter Lawrence, was busy following the publication of Network Rail's business plan in which they announced they are to spend about £2billion on maintenance between now and April 2009.

BBC Radio 4 Today programme asked Peter to record an interview on the announcement for broadcasting the following morning.

BBC Radio Five live also asked for an interview. Could Peter do a live interview at 05.30 am? Peter declined but did agree to be interviewed after 06.45 am but not before. In the end he recorded a piece late in the afternoon.

BBC Three Counties Radio telephoned at 09.00am on the same subject and asked for a live interview. Peter had just five minutes before going live on air.

On 4th April Peter received a telephone call from the Eastern Daily Press concerning the East Anglian implications for the Network Rail enhancement package.

On behalf of Railfuture East Anglia Branch Peter welcomed the replacement of the overhead lines between Liverpool Street to Chelmsford. This particular stretch of track is currently unreliable to due to the life expired overhead and has had a knock on affect to the whole system with reliability and punctuality of trains between Norwich and London. Currently three local Norfolk MPs are slagging off 'One' Railway and Network Rail in the Eastern Daily Press. Peter and Railfuture received very good press coverage in the EDP over the "enhancement" package.

Just by coincidence Peter also had a letter to the Editor of the Eastern Daily Press published the same day. Peter was unaware of the impending announcement by Network Rail and I felt it was time for some Railfuture comments on the pressure being placed by the three Norfolk MPs.

Peter points out that the Network Rail proposals obviously will improve the service but is not the only solution needed. It is difficult to run more trains when there are no more train paths available. In the long term we need Inter-City type EMUs to increase passenger capacity and of course serious consideration on completing the East-West rail link.

Peter has also received a telephone enquiry from a journalist who is writing an article for the "Countryman Magazine" on disused railways and possible re-openings. Peter spent sometime talking to him and was able to give him useful information and contact details for Jerry Alderson and Nick Dibben of Railfuture Network Development Committee.

Again on the Network Rail announcement Peter recorded over the telephone a five-minute interview with BBC Radio Norfolk.

BBC Look East TV also telephoned to arrange a TV interview at Norwich Station. There was a very noisy diesel unit in platform three and workmen were breaking up concrete on platform six so they had great difficulty in finding a quiet spot to record.

Metro Newspaper telephoned Peter on 11th April for comment on a press release from Conservative Party. Peter could only give general comments, as he had not seen the press release.

Further investigations showed the Conservatives were claiming that despite Government claims about increasing the number of carriages on the network there are now fewer trains running on the network. Shadow Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, was commenting after it emerged that while the number of locomotives went up from 249 to 251 in the past year, and the number of carriages rose by 10 to 1,131, the number of diesel multiple units fell by 59 to 2510, and the number of electric multiple units dropped by 220 to 6,625 - and overall fall of 267. (Conservative Party Press Release Tuesday April 10, 2007)

Following speculation in the media that the discussions have taken place between the Labour Party in Scotland and Network Rail concerning Network Rail running the Scotland franchise when the current franchise expires a reporter from the Glasgow Herald telephoned Railfuture Chairman, Mike Crowhurst. Mike explained the difficulties likely to be encountered; not least the probable need for changes to Westminster legislation before Network Rail would be permitted to run a franchise. A BBC Radio Wales researcher telephoned Peter Lawrence for Railfuture views on possible re-nationalising the rail network. Peter gave a general view neither advocating nationalisation nor retaining the existing position. This did not lead to a radio interview.

NEWS FROM RAILFUTURE BRANCHES

Railfuture London & SouthEast branch have held a postal ballot to elect Officers and Committee for 2007-8. Keith Dyall continues as Chairman, Roger Blake is the new Vice Chairman and Eric Wright the new Secretary.

The Spring 2007 issue of Rail Wales, the newsletter of the Railfuture Wales branches, includes a detailed article by Paul Jeffries on the complexities of timetable planning. Mr. Jeffries has recently retired after working on timetable planning for Valley Lines, Wales and Borders and Arriva Trains Wales. If anyone would like to see a copy of the article please email david.harby at ntlworld.com.

At the Railfuture Severnside AGM the attendance was 60% up on 2006 and the committee has enlarged considerably. The Western Daily Press has published a letter from branch secretary, Nigel Bray, welcoming a statement by Rt. Hon. Des Browne MP in favour of reopening Corsham station.

RDS AGM

If you are intending to attend the AGM in Preston but have not returned your booking form please send it to Lloyd Butler as soon as possible.

RAIL USER CONFERENCE, ELY 3RD NOVEMBER 2007

As part of the Rail Users Conference in Ely Rail User Groups have the opportunity to highlight their activities. We are looking for 3 or 4 short 10 minute presentations from Rail User Groups outlining how they set about campaigning for an improvement or protecting to their local rail service or station. We are looking for examples of good practice in getting the local media/ councillors / MP / train companies to support the campaign. Further details from NickDibben nick.dibben at btinternet.com.

DFT REVIEW OF COMMUNITY RAIL STRATEGY

The DfT has published a review of the Community Rail Development Strategy, which was launched in November 2004.
This review reports the progress made since the launch of the Strategy also looks to the future by suggesting where further cost reductions might be found. They are examining the possible use of lighter rail technology. There is also an emphasis on the link between community rail and regeneration, both social and economic, and news that regeneration has been added as a fourth objective of the Community Rail Development Strategy. The review can be found at:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/strategyfinance/strategy/community/revcomrail

ROUTE UTILISATION STUDIES

Greater Anglia:

The consultation document for the Greater Anglia RUS was published on 18 April 2007. The deadline for consultation responses is 13 July 2007. Railfuture East Anglia branch (nick.dibben@btinternet.com) will be taking the lead on this. Any other Railfuture responses must be cleared with East Anglia branch before submission. Copies of the RUS and the earlier scoping study can be found on the Network Rail website. http://www.networkrail.co.uk

Brighton Main Line:

The Ministerial statement about the implementation of the Brighton Main Line RUS that retains the Gatwick Express service can be found at:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/press/speechesstatements/statements/implementbrightonmainlinerus
A stakeholder briefing giving a summary of the responses and outlining how the key decisions were reached can be found at:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/closed/brightonmainlinerusconsultation/briefingdocument

NETWORK RAIL FUTURE INVESTMENT PROGRAMME

The Network Rail Future Investment Programme, where they plan to spend nearly £2.5 billion on enhancements to the network in the next two years, mentioned in “In The News” above can be found on the Network Rail website.http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/3851.aspx There is also an investment map to see where the money is to be spent.

OFFICE OF RAIL REGULATION NEWS

National Rail Trends, for Quarter 3 2006-07 has been published. This covers the period from October to December 2006. The full document can be downloaded using this link (1MB): http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/320.pdf

On 20th April 2006 ORR published a Sustainable Development Policy that sets out the way in which it intends to contribute further to the development of a sustainable railway. The consultation paper ORR's sustainable development and environment duties is available from the ORR website at http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/304.pdf . Consultation responses can be viewed at http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.8527.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE ONLINE PETITION TO REOPEN ASHINGTON BLYTH & TYNE

The South East Northumberland Rail User Group (SENRUG) have set up an online petition to 10 Downing Street to campaign for the re-opening of the Ashington Blyth & Tyne Railway Line. SENRUG understand there are now two studies going on into different aspects of the ABT re-opening:

(1) The North East Assembly are leading a study into re-opening the Morpeth - Choppington - Bedlington section. This should report back in May 2007 and SENRUG are involved as a non-funding partner in the study.
(2) Nexus are leading a study from the same consultants in to re-opening the Ashington - Bedlington - Northumberland Park section. SENRUG are aware but not so far formally involved.

SENRUG are requesting that Railfuture members log in and sign the petition. The link is http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ABTreopening/

SNIPPETTS

The Publications section of the Passenger Focus website, www.passengerfocus.org.uk, has some documents that readers might find interesting. Among these are:
 Passenger experiences of overcrowding on routes in the Bristol area
 Getting to the station -meeting demand for access to railway stations in the Greater Anglia route utilisation strategy area
 Mystery shop of rail ticket retailing

Details of the statistics that DfT plan to publish over the next 12 months can be found at:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/recentforthcomingpublications/forthcomingstatisticalpublic5470

I have pdf files of Northern Rail’s stakeholder magazine for Spring 2007 plus their Cycling and Community Strategies. If anyone wants copies of these then email david.harby at ntlworld.com.