Activists Briefing Issue 27

19th June 2007

IN THE NEWS

South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon has expressed concern that 'One' paid the Treasury £55.6m in premium payments in 2005-6, the second-highest figure of any of the county's train operating companies and exceeded only by a payment of £68.8m from GNER. Richard Bacon wants this money reinvested in Norfolk rail services. A view which Railfuture President and Media Spokesman, Peter Lawrence, shares. His comments were reported together with Richard Bacon in Eastern Daily Press. On 14th June.

NEWS FROM RAILFUTURE BRANCHES AND COMMITTEES

On 14th June the Lincolnshire Echo asked Railfuture Lincolnshire branch Vice Chairman, David Harby, for Railfuture views on the closure of Lincoln station for 3 weeks in August whilst the track and signalling are remodelled. The Echo wanted to know if we thought the future benefits would outweigh the disruption. David said there would be considerable benefits with more operational flexibility, faster line speeds and a more robust and reliable services.

Railfuture Lincolnshire will be exhibiting at the Grantham Rail Show on 1st and 2nd September. The Show attracts visitors from a wide area so if neighbouring branches have issues they would like mentioned on the Lincs display boards please contact david.harby at ntlworld.com.

REVISED RDS MEMORANDUM AND ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION

Following the changes to our Articles of Association agreed at the recent AGM a revised version incorporating the changes is now available from david.harby at ntlworld.com and may also be downloaded from the AGM page of the Railfuture website.

RAILFUTURE RAIL REOPENINGS CONFERENCE, GLASGOW

There is still time to book for the Rail Reopenings Conference at Renfield St Stephen, 260 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 4JP on 23rd June 2007. If you have lost your booking form, sent with the last Railwatch, a new one can be downloaded from the Railfuture website or you can book online at http://www.railfuturescotland.org.uk/conference.

NEW PUBLICITY GROUP – RECRUITS WANTED

The Board have decided to set up a Publicity Group to co-ordinate our publicity work. The group will have a wide-ranging remit to help with all publicity matters, printed media, website and press contact.

We do not see this group operating as another formal committee with regular meetings. Often one or more individuals would be assigned to a task or they would work on a project with an existing officer or committee. It is envisaged that much of the team's work would be done by email, phone or post with perhaps one or two in-depth meetings a year and possibly some members attending specific specialist committee meetings to discuss projects such as new leaflets, books etc.

Will you come on board? If so, please contact Trevor Garrod by 1st July.

OUR MEDIA CONTACTS LIST IS BEING REVISED

Since our media contacts list was last revised there have been changes of officers in some branches and some media spokesmen listed on our website are no longer office holders. All branches and committees will therefore shortly be asked to provide updated details of their media spokespersons. If you are not currently a media spokesperson but think you could take on the role for your branch or committee then please contact your chairman or secretary.

In addition we are looking for someone to assist our national media spokesman, Peter Lawrence, with the long-term aim of taking over from Peter when he wishes to retire from the role. The press works to tight deadlines so are usually looking for an instant quote. The ideal spokesperson is therefore someone who can be contacted by phone during working hours.

Peter would like to remind all branches and committees that he has an extensive list of media contacts and is able to distribute press releases nationwide. When branches issue press releases can they please always send Peter a copy so that he can respond if any of the media come to him for comments. Instances have arisen where Peter has been asked to comment on branch news releases that Peter knew nothing about.

2008 AGM

In the absence of any other volunteers the Board have decided that the AGM will be hosted by West Midlands branch. The meeting will be somewhere in the Birmingham area on 10th May 2008.

LOTTERY ORGANISER

A reminder that we are still looking for an assistant lottery organiser who can take over from Elisabeth Jordan when she retires from the role. Elisabeth has indicated that due to personal circumstances she will probably resign sometime next year.

DFT NEWS

SECURE STATIONS SCHEMES

Design and management audit of the Secure Stations Scheme updated 24 May 2007
Guidelines on the Secure Stations Scheme updated 24 May 2007
Access for All Small Schemes Funding application pack for year 2008/09 published 23 May 2007

DRAFT LOCAL TRANSPORT BILL

A draft Local Transport Bill, for public consultation and Parliamentary pre-legislative scrutiny, was published on 22nd May. The draft Bill sets out legislative proposals to:

• enable local authorities to improve the quality of local bus services, building on the measures set out last December in Putting Passengers First;
• reform the arrangements for local transport governance in our major conurbations, to ensure strong local leadership and a coherent approach to transport across individual local authority boundaries and across different transport modes; and
• reform the existing legislation relating to local road pricing schemes to ensure that, where local authorities wish to develop local schemes, they have the freedom and flexibility to do so in a way that best meets local needs. It will also help to ensure that any schemes are consistent and interoperable from the road user's perspective.

As there is a stong suggestion of changes to existing PTE powers and even the creation of new PTE style bodies; there may be a good case for branches to respond.

The draft Local Transport Bill is on the DfT's website for consultation, and printed copies are also available from their publications department 0870-1226-236
Source: DfT Press release

REGIONAL PLANNING ASSESSMENTS

The Department for Transport has published the Yorkshire and Humber, Thames Valley and East Midlands RPAs
The RPAs set out the options for development of the railway in the Regions over the next 20 years. It provides the link between railway planning and spatial planning.

For a link to the RPAs see: http://www.dft.gov.uk/?view=Filter&w=What%27s+new&df=06%2F05%2F07&dt=06%2F06%2F07&pg=1

FRANCHISE ITT'S

DfT have released a large number of papers covering all the existing Franchise Contracts. They appear to have decided that these should have been in the public domain all the time! They are in a new section titled 'Public Register'.

DfT Rail Procurement formerly had a settled policy to publish franchise Invitation to Tenders (ITTs) once the franchise has commenced and the Public Register Franchise Agreement (PRFA) has been agreed between the relevant Train Operating Company and DfT. Following a review of that policy, in future, subject to the application of any exemptions under the FOI Act (e.g. commercial prejudice), DfT Rail Procurement now intends to make ITTs publicly available at the same time as the ITT is disclosed to pre-qualified bidders.

Source: http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/passenger/invitationtotender/

A fresh batch of grants to attract freight away from the roads and onto UK railways has been announced by the DfT. http://www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=289148&NewsAreaID=2
has some details.

OFFICE OF RAIL REGULATION NEWS

Latest publications (which are all on the ORR website).

National Rail Review - Q4 2006-07 - This document features a number of key industry issues: Network Rail’s performance; What Passengers are telling us about the railway; and Annual safety report. 6th June

Network Rail Monitor Q4 2006-07 - This document gives information on safety, infrastructure assets, expenditure, and performance of Network Rail. 6th June 2007

ORR's Annual Report 2006-07 - This, the first as the combined safety and economic regulator for railways in Great Britain, provides a commentary on the accounting year (April 2006 to March 2007). 6th June 2007

Railway Safety Statistical Report 2006 - This document in its new format, which provides information on the safety performance of the railway industry last year (January to December 2006). 6th June 2007

RECENT RAIL FARE RISES

ORR has recently been receiving a number of complaints and hearing concerns (from TSSA and Passenger Focus in particular) about the decision by South West Trains and Arriva Trains Wales to increase the price of unregulated saver off-peak tickets. The complainants said that they consider that these price rises represent an abuse of a monopoly position and therefore an infringement of competition law. ORR have said that they have not had sufficient information supplied to us to date to support opening an investigation. This is explained in more detail in http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/competition-briefing-note-fares.pdf.

Commenting on the Office of Rail Regulation’s decision, Anthony Smith, Passenger Focus chief executive said; “What this ruling seems to imply is that off peak passengers are left totally unprotected against unreasonable fare rises. Unless you are using tickets that are protected by fares regulation, such as savers or season tickets, or happen to have a service provided by a competing train company it seems that competition law will not protect you.”

Mr Smith continued; ”We think substantial numbers of off peak passengers will have no choice but to pay the new fares – the assertion by the Office of Rail Regulation that people have a choice simply does not ring true. We will challenge this ruling in an attempt to give off peak passengers some protection against massive price rises.”
Source: ORR and Passenger Focus websites

NEWS FROM PASSENGER FOCUS

NATIONAL PASSENGER SURVEY

The Spring 2007 National Passenger Survey has been published by Passenger Focus. Overall passenger satisfaction has fallen for the first time in three years with only two in five passengers thinking that they are getting good value for money when they travel by train - the lowest ever score on this measure. More than one in four (26%) passengers are unhappy with the amount of room they have to sit or stand.

Anthony Smith, Passenger Focus, chief executive said; “The train operators with the biggest drops in passenger satisfaction need to listen to their passengers and take action. We hope that this decrease is a dip and not the beginning of a trend.”

The survey was conducted at over 650 stations between 22 January and 25 March 2007.

Full results of the Spring 2007 wave of the National Passenger Survey are available to download from www.passengerfocus.org.uk/nps. Ratings for each individual Train Operating Company are available, as well as ratings for each sector, i.e. London and the South East, long distance and regional operators.

LONDON - PARIS PLANE V TRAIN RACE: YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT UP! TRAIN WON

Just occasionally events go wonderfully, spectacularly in our favour.

It happened in the Big Ben to Eiffel Tower plane/train race HACAN and NOTRAG staged last week.

The racers set off, in the full glare of the TV cameras, from Westminster as Big Ben struck 11 o’clock.

The train people settled comfortably in their seats and left Waterloo on time just after midday.

The plane people made their way to Heathrow and then…….the plane sat on the tarmac for an hour because of heavy showers in Paris.

So, at the moment the train arrived at the Gare du Nord around 3pm, the plane was just taking off from Heathrow.

Just after 3.30 (UK time) the train people emerged from the metro near the Eiffel Tower to an enthusiastic welcome from the French campaigners and the French media.

Around 4.00pm the plane people disembarked at Charles de Gaulle Airport and then…..because of an immigration alert at the airport could not retrieve their luggage until 5.00pm, i.e. another hour’s wait

Meanwhile the train people, having had a civilised beer on the Champs Elysees, were making their way back to the Gare du Nord to catch the train home.

At 6.30, the train people were relaxed, on Eurostar, speeding through the French countryside on their way home while the plane people were just arriving at the Gare du Nord, having abandoned any attempt top rendez-vous at the Eiffel Tower.

NOTRAG: No Third Runway action group at Heathrow www.notrag.org
HACAN Clearskies stands up for all people adversely affected by the increasing number of aircraft flying in and out of Heathrow airport. http://www.hacan.org.uk/

SNIPPETTS

Congratulations to Railfuture Scotland Secretary, Mike Harrison, who was recently named volunteer of the year 2006 and awarded the Moss Medallion for services to CTC. A member of CTC Scotland for many years Mike is editor of CTC Scotland's 'Cycle Talk' and Secretary of CTC Scotland.

This website should make it easier to keep track of the regional planning process as this impacts upon different parts of England http://www.planning-inspectorate.gov.uk/pins/rss/index.htm

 Regional Spatial Strategies' deal with a range of issues including:
 The scale and distribution of new housing and employment;
 Priorities for the environment, such as countryside enhancement;
 Key infrastructure to support development; and
 How waste will be dealt with.

The Regional Planning Body (RPB) for each region is responsible for reviewing the 'Regional Spatial Strategy' and preparing draft revisions in partnership with local and regional stakeholders. Once the RPB has prepared the draft strategy, it publishes it for at least 12 weeks public consultation. Only in London is the RPB elected, there it is known as the GLA (effectively the Mayor held to account by an Assembly elected by a proportional voting system).
Source: Railfuture Yahoo newsgroup

The June issue of the bi-monthly RFG News leads with a challenge to Government – make the High Level Output Statement inclusive of both freight and passenger needs, and sort out the other means of funding infrastructure such as TIFs.

There is news and comment about the Government’s Planning White Paper, and of the Rail Industry Skills Forum, alongside another chapter in EWS’ excellent work on how to reduce maintenance costs of the railway and keep it open to traffic for longer.

Also included is comment on the interesting comparisons between Government views on options for Crossrail and Hutchinson Ports, RFG News June 2007 is on http://www.rfg.org.uk/files/RFGNews70final.pdf
Source: RFG press release

Nottinghamshire County Council is asking for support for Sunday services on the Robin Hood line. Opening this line has been a great success bringing the benefits of rail travel to a large population from Monday to Saturday. We have Sunday travel almost everywhere else, so why should this be an exception. Please use this link and show your support by signing the petition. https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/rhlsupportletter