On 28 July 2020 South Western Railway ran a special 'fact-finding' train to Fawley to mark the successful submission to the Department for Transport’s ‘Restoring your Railway Fund’ by Hampshire County Council, and approval by the New Forest National Park of the plan for up to 5000 new homes at Fawley. Left to right, SWR managing director Mark Hopwood, Network Rail chairman Peter Hendy and Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris ready to board the train at Southampton. Image by South Western Railway.

The East West Rail Central Section route was announced on 30 January 2020. This is a huge step forward for the Railfuture campaign, but there is still a long way to go. Central Section Preferred Route Option taken from the East West Railway Company website.

The Hundred of Hoo branch that last saw services pre-Beeching in 1961 is set to see new services introduced to the Hoo Peninsula, a victory for this Railfuture campaign in North Kent, with £67m funding awarded. Reinstatement of passenger services is justified by major growth in housing and industry as part of the Medway Unitary authorities Local Plan (2012-2035) in 2024.
The original Sharnal Street station, where the fields and lack of passengers show why it was closed, but that will all change - image Wikipedia.

In promoting a bigger and better railway, Railfuture issued a 10 point challenge to the rail industry and government for 2019 to rebuild public trust in its service delivery. Here is our end of year report on how well we think the rail industry performed as a whole in 2019. Did the rail industry rise to Railfuture’s challenge? Christmas is traditionally the time when the railway undertakes major remodelling projects such as at King's Cross throat – image Network Rail.

Ian Brown, Railfuture’s Policy Director, explains the purpose of the HS2 Review commissioned by the new government, and Railfuture’s position.

SENRUG, the Railfuture-affiliated rail user group that campaigns for better rail services in South and East Northumberland, has secured funding for a feasibility study which will look at the possibility of running a local rail service between Morpeth and Berwick. Could local trains soon be running over Berwick’s Royal Borders Bridge? Photo (adapted) by Clive Nicholson / Steve Miller.

After a long hard campaign by Railfuture and affiliated groups, the government has stumped up the extra £32m needed to reopen the railway line to Portishead. New Portishead station as proposed in 2015. Image by North Somerset Council.

The government cut electrification projects in favour of alternative technologies for rail traction but in response to the Transport Select Committee, the Rail Industry Association has published the Electrification Cost Challenge report showing that electrification costs could be cut by more than 50%. This briefing explains how the alternatives stack up. Proposed hydrogen-powered "Breeze" conversion of class 321. Image by Alstom.

Railfuture Wessex continues to campaign for a railway station at Welborne near Fareham at the site earmarked for 6,000 new homes. A single platform station could be built at Welborne at economical cost on the single track railway line.

The initial strategic challenge

Railfuture Policy Director Ian Brown contends that rail cannot make any meaningful contribution to growing the North’s economy, or even realise the benefits of new rolling stock and services about to be delivered, without investment in core routes and core stations to enable a further doubling of journeys over the next 15 years. Crowds on the only two through platforms at Manchester Piccadilly demonstrate the need for investment in extra capacity linking Chester, Liverpool, Preston, Manchester, Sheffield, Bradford, Leeds and Hull – photo by Maria Whelan, from Twitter.

Signal interlocking, whether mechanical or computerised, underpins public trust in the safety of the railway. But the industry has lost public trust in its service delivery, with the ongoing industrial dispute and the timetable fiasco. Image Network Rail. Railfuture challenges the rail industry and government to rebuild that trust in 2019 by fulfilling ten customer demands.

The next major step in restoring rail links between Oxford and Cambridge was taken this week (27 July 2018) when Network Rail applied for legal permission to rebuild a railway across central England.

Railfuture have linked with the Campaign for Better Transport to deliver a letter to Transport Secretary Chris Grayling calling for a Network Development Fund to pay for project development of realistic proposals for new and reopened stations and lines with the best projects joining a pool of national projects to be taken to full development and implementation. Photo: Railfuture media spokesman Bruce Williamson at the Department for Transport with the letter to hand in.

Railfuture has joined together with local people, rail planning experts and influential local business leaders to progress Wisbechrail through a new group they have set up called the Wisbech Consultative Group. This will harness peoples’ ideas about where the station should be, what facilities it should have and other issues to do with a new train service.

Chris Gibb’s independent report to the DfT on how the performance of the Govia Thameslink Railway franchise might be improved was published on 23 June 2017. Its recommendations include proposals that Railfuture already campaigns for, such as electrifying the Uckfield line. If these are implemented, then passengers could see an unprecedented improvement in rail services. This diagram, taken from the report, depicts the Southern system. At its heart are the passengers, who depend on all the other elements in the diagram for their train service. The light blue elements are the key ingredients that make the system work; the relationship between them is critical.

On 2 March 2017 the government published the long-awaited London and South Coast Rail Corridor study report. News headlines portrayed this as the death knell of a second main line to London, but in fact the study points the way forward for reopening between Uckfield and Lewes, and a new route between Stratford and East Croydon via Docklands. The diagram, taken from the report, shows the new approach recommended to justify re-opening Uckfield – Lewes.

Radical fare changes proposed by the Rail Delivery Group risk reducing choice and flexibility for passengers. What is needed are clearly explained fares which offer choice, not simplistic ticketing which removes flexibility. In London, the adjacent termini of St Pancras and King’s Cross offer alternative routes to Sheffield, giving holders of ‘any permitted route’ tickets the flexibility to choose either.

Railfuture urges the Chancellor of the Exchequer to commit the government in next week’s Autumn Statement to a long-term investment programme which will:

• deliver improved connectivity for London’s growing economic hub in Docklands and for the UK’s second largest airport at Gatwick, and
• meet continually growing travel demand between London, Gatwick and the south coast.

The future of the Waterside Line in the South of England is once again under the spotlight, as freight traffic to Fawley refinery ceases and the Hythe ferry comes under renewed threat of closure. Photo: Marchwood station

Railfuture affiliated local group SENRUG (The South East Northumberland Rail User Group) are leading the campaign to re-introduce passenger services on the Ashington, Blyth and Tyne route which is a working freight line. On 11th October 2016 Northumberland County Council agreed to proceed to GRIP 3, setting out an ambitious timescale and saying trains could be running by early 2021.