Activists Briefing - Issue 28

18th July 2007

IN THE NEWS

On 11 June 2007 Transport 2000 and Friends of the Earth issued a press release on behalf of the National Transport Roundable (TAR) of which Railfuture is a member. On that day representatives from TAR met officials in Whitehall where they called for future Government spending on transport to focus on measures to cut the sector’s growing carbon emissions. The NGOs have drawn up a package of recommendations for the Treasury’s Comprehensive Spending Review.

Among the measures called for were more funding to increase rail capacity, improve stations and get more freight on to rail. Money should also be spent to develop low-carbon links to and from stations. These initiatives would be funded by a concerted programme of cost reduction, including structural reform.

NEWS FROM RAILFUTURE BRANCHES

With the announcement of the award of the East Midlands franchise to Stagecoach 22nd June was a busy day for East Midlands and Lincolnshire branches. It started at 7.45 am when BBC Radio Nottingham telephoned Railfuture East Midlands secretary, Roger Bacon, to give him the news. Within a few minutes Roger found himself being interviewed live on the breakfast programme.

Lincolnshire Echo contacted Railfuture Lincolnshire Vice Chairman, David Harby for comment. David and Roger put together a media release welcoming the announcement but expressing concern about the above inflation rise in off-peak fares. Our comments were reported in the Echo. David was then asked to record an interview for Radio Lincolnshire. Similar comments were made about the fare increases together with an observation that we do not expect many people to use the proposed Lincoln to London via Nottingham service when there is an alternative of 30 London trains a day from Newark Northgate and that we expect Stagecoach to provide a 7 day a week service without the wholesale Sunday cancellations we have come to expect from Central Trains.

Elisabeth Jordan reports “At about 7.30 I was contacted by BBC Radio Northampton regarding the news that Corby Station has been given the go-ahead for December 2008. I responded by saying that it was excellent news, following many years of campaigning. However, it was only a first major step in the right direction as we now need to work towards a service that not only links Corby with London but also goes northwards as well. That was broadcast live and also repeated in the following news bulletins. An hour or so later Anglia TV Look East contacted me and sent a young man out to interview me. I said the same things again and that went out on Look East at 6.30pm.”

Railfuture East Anglia Secretary, Nick Dibben, had a piece in the Hunts Post about the East Coast Route Utilisation Strategy.

RAILFUTURE ANNUAL DRAW

Following the distribution of draw tickets with Railwatch 112 there are a few spare tickets. If branches think they can sell any at their events or readers would like some more themselves then these can be obtained from Chris Precey,

ELY CONFERENCE, 3RD NOVEMBER 2007

Preparations for the Ely conference are going well with some interesting speakers. These include Bob Breakwell, director First Great Western (formerly managing director of Great Eastern), Dave Wetzel, vice-chair, Transport for London and Christian Wolmar, the well known commentator on railways. If you have lost your booking form then a new one can be downloaded from the Railfuture website.

BRANCH ACTIVITY REPORTS FOR 2006

A summary of Branch Activities during 2006 can be obtained by email from david.harby at ntlworld.com.

EAST COAST RUS

The East Coast Route Utilisation Study was released on 26th June 2007. Responding to this was discussed at the Internal Affairs committee meeting on 13 July. As there is a potential for branches submitting conflicting aspirations in their responses it has been decided that Mike Crowhurst will act as co-ordinator. All branches with possible ECML RUS have been contacted to advise that all responses under the Railfuture banner must be referred to Mike before submission.

Mike has prepared a briefing paper with his personal view on the RUS. This has been sent to branches. If anyone else would like a copy email david.harby at ntlworld.com.
Responses have to be with Network Rail by 21st September 2007.

FRANCHISE NEWS

As readers will by now be aware Go Via have been awarded the West Midlands Franchise, Stagecoach the East Midlands Franchise and Arriva the Cross-Country Franchise. There has already been plenty of comment and analysis in the media so I will just give links to the various press releases etc.

DfT announcements:

Cross Country
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/passenger/franchises/winnernewcrosscounty
http://www.dft.gov.uk/press/speechesstatements/statements/statecrosscountryrail

East Midlands
http://www.dft.gov.uk/press/speechesstatements/statements/eastmidlands
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/passenger/franchises/emfranchise

West Midlands
http://www.dft.gov.uk/press/speechesstatements/statements/westmidlands
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/passenger/franchises/wmfranchise

Press releases:

Go Via: http://www.govia.info/doc/franchisenews/index.html (Go Via already have a London Midland website set up at http://www.londonmidland.com/)
Stagecoach: http://www.stagecoachgroup.com/scg/media/press/pr2007/2007-06-22/
Arriva: http://www.arriva.co.uk/arriva/en/media_centre/press_releases/2007/2007-07-10/ (Arriva website for this http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/)

London Overground

The TfL press release announcing the award of London Overground to MTR Laing is at: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/5318.aspx
PR Consultants, Trimedia Harrison Cowley, issued a press release on behalf of MTR Laing. Your editor cannot find a copy of this on the we but thinks he could find an email version if anyone wants to see it.

NEW ON DFT WEBSITE THIS MONTH

There are some interesting new items on the DfT website this month at:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/?view=Filter&w=What%27s+new&df=17%2F06%2F07&dt=17%2F07%2F07&pg=1

 GB TENS Map showing which rail routes are designated High Speed, Conventional and Domestic Lines.
 Travel in Urban and Rural areas factsheet summarising findings on how personal travel patterns vary according to the type of area in which people live. Published 12 July 2007
 Travel to work factsheet summarising findings on how people travel to and from work. Published 12 July 2007
 Shopping factsheet summarising findings from the National Travel Survey on travel to and from the shops. Published 12 July 2007
 Department for Transport Resource Accounts 2006-2007 - Summary of Departmental expenditure for 2006-2007. Published 11 July 2007
 Road Casualties in Great Britain: Main Results: 2006 Published 28 June 2007
 Implementation of changes to the Gatwick Express and Southern franchises statement by Tom Harris 19 June 2007
 Speeches by Tom Harris:
To Institute of Economic Affairs delivered 26 June 2007
To the Modern Railways '4th Friday Club' delivered 22 June 2007

MINISTERIAL CHANGES

Following the latest round of ministerial changes the new Secretary of State for Transport is Rt Hon Ruth Kelly MP. Tom Harris MP remains Parliamentary under Secretary of State with responsibility for Railways.

Theresa Villiers MP is now Shadow Secretary of State for Transport. Stephen Hammond MP remains in the Frontbench Team so I assume he is still responsible for rail.

The Liberal Shadow Secretary of State for Transport is now Susan Kramer MP who is assisted by Shadow Minister John Leech MP

ORR NEWS

The National Rail Trends yearbook, covering the period April 2006 to March 2007, was published by ORR on 5th July 2007.

Comparing 2006-07 with 2005-06:
 88.1% of trains ran on time representing a 1.7 percentage point increase in the Public Performance Measure (PPM) for all operators between 2005-06 and 2006-07. This is the highest annual percentage of trains on time since 1999-00.
 Total freight moved in 2006-07 was 22.58 billion net tonne kilometres, a 4.0% increase since 2005-06.
 Over 108 million tonnes of freight were lifted in 2006-07, an increase of 0.7% between 2005-06 and 2006-07.
 The percentage of passengers satisfied with their journey overall was down by 2%, compared to Spring 2006, to 79%. This was the lowest overall percentage of passengers satisfied nationally since Spring 2005.
 Between January 2006 and January 2007 the overall average increase in rail fares was 6.8%, compared with 5.8% the previous year.

Source ORR website: http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.00101a001

SAFETY FIGURES

In his 2007 Lloyd's Register Educational Trust Lecture to the Royal Academy of Engineering Professor Rod Smith of Imperial College, London commented on the relative safety of different forms of transport. Risk of death per year on the road - 1 in 8,000, playing football – 1 in 25,000, homicide – 1 in 100,000 and rail travel – 1 in 500,000.

Source: Modern Railways July 2007 edition.

SNIPPETTS

I'm sure most of us know of shops near to stations where we can buy snacks at prices somewhat cheaper than the station outlets. I'm also sure that there are many times when you have no option but to buy on the station. If you would like a 20% discount off station prices at Upper Crust, Burger King, Pumpkin, Millie's, Ixxy's, The Pasty Shop, Caffe Ritazza, Delice de France, Bonapartes, A piece of cake and Taste! then go to the Bite discount card website, www.bitecard.co.uk, and register for their discount card. Thanks to Alan from the Friends of the Barton Line RUG for the information.

After attending a Stakeholder Briefing on the Draft Local Transport Bill, Mike Crowhurst has prepared a briefing paper. For a copy please email david.harby at ntlworld.com.

Transport 2000 has published research by consultants MDS Transmodal, using the freight model used by the Government, showing that a lorry road pricing scheme could improve the efficiency of road freight, almost double rail freight and also increase coastal shipping and the use of northern ports. The research assumed that road haulage would pay its full environmental and social costs through a distance charge scheme on all roads, with different charges for different types of road and different levels of congestion. The lowest charges would be on motorways, to encourage lorries to use these rather than local roads. The report is available on the Transport 2000 website: http://www.transport2000.org.uk/campaigns/mds_roadpricingfreight_small.pdf .

The next crucial stage for reopening Skipton – Colne is to commission a consultant's report on the traffic potential for the line and likely costs etc., such that it will inform the Network Rail North West RUS. This "CBR Report" will cost £10,000 plus VAT. The consultants are lined up, all that is needed is the money!!
SELRAP has raised much of that sum already. To raise more SELRAP are selling a professional standard DVD of the first train for 37 years to run between the two towns, albeit via a roundabout route. Copies at just £5.99 can be ordered from the SELRAP website.

To help reopen the Ashington Blyth & Tyne Line sign the online petition to 10 Downing St at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ABTreopening. Over 500 people have now signed. Shouldn't you join them? Denis Murphy MP for Wansbeck is taking a delegation including SENRUG Chair, Dennis Fancett, to meet Transport Minister Tom Harris to discuss the re-opening on the 18th July at Westminster.

Vote your station as the “Weakest Link”. Is your local railway station difficult to get to? Well now is your chance to name and shame that station! Transport 2000 is running a nationwide competition to find out which stations are difficult to access by bike, foot, bus, or wheelchair. In a bid to highlight the need for high level station integration with cycling, walking, buses and taxis as a means of reducing car dependency, the competition will highlight the worst integrated stations in the country and highlight some of the exceptional ones as well. It takes just five minutes to fill in the survey on-line and you will automatically be entered into a prize draw to win travel vouchers of your choice. Results will be announced 24 August on Transport 2000’s website. The Weakest Link survey can be completed online: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=PcEpPJbr6Jzp7mdXX_2fD3mw_3d_3d

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Saturday 28th July 2007
Railfuture Freight Committee, Derby

Tuesday 14th August 2007
Railwatch 113, last date for copy on paper (text by email 21st August)

Saturday 1st September 2007
Railfuture Board meeting, Peterborough

Saturday 15th September, 2007
Railfuture Yorkshire branch meeting, Dewsbury

Saturday 22nd September 2007
Railfuture Freight Committee, Peterborough
Railfuture Passenger Committee, London

Saturday 29th September 2007
Community Rail Festival, Hastings and surrounding areas.

Saturday 6th October 2007
Railfuture International Committee, London

Saturday 13th October 2007
Railfuture Policy Committee, Birmingham

Saturday 3rd November 2007
Railfuture Rail User Conference, Ely