News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 119 - 02/07/2003
- GUIDED BUSWAY [all issues]
- Cambs County Council launches three-week public consultation on their "Rapid Transit" proposals
- "Rapid Transit" costs keep going up and up
- RAIL FRANCHISES [all issues]
- RAIL PUNCTUALITY [all issues]
- Quarterly performance figures for train operators announced by the SRA
- TOC subsidy levels show that East Anglia railways pay their way
- STATIONS [all issues]
- RAIL CUSTOMER SERVICE [all issues]
- RAIL FARES [all issues]
- RAIL COMPANIES [all issues]
- RAIL FREIGHT [all issues]
- ROLLING STOCK [all issues]
- ROAD SAFETY [all issues]
Railfuture is despatching Railwatch at its London office from Monday 30th June to Saturday 5th July. Any help would be appreciated. Work starts at around 10:00, and both travelling expenses and lunch are provided, with refreshments during the day. The office is 200 metres from Dalston Kingsland station, giving connections with West Hampstead (Thameslink) and Willesden Junction and Stratford (GER).
According to a recent copy of Broadcast magazine, Pete Waterman is doing four hour-long programmes on the history of trains for Channel 4. It is due to go out in the autumn at around 20:00.
GUIDED BUSWAY
Cambs County Council launches three-week public consultation on their "Rapid Transit" proposals
Railfuture members are encouraged to express their views about the guided busway proposals on the Cambridge-St.Ives
line either on the County Council's website [http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk],
through the glossy leaflets delivered to many homes and in weekly newspapers (which can be requested by emailing
[transport.plan at cambridgeshire.gov.uk]), or by visiting one
of the many staffed exhibitions:
* Thursday 3rd July - Rosie Corridor, Addenbrooke's Hospital, 13:00-19:00
* Friday 4th July - Cambridge Railway Station, 15:30-20:00
* Saturday 5th July - Marquee, Chequer's Court, Huntingdon, 10:00-18:00
* Monday 7th July - Swavesey Village College, 17:00-20:30
* Tuesday 8th July - Histon Junior School, 17:00-21:00
* Wednesday 9th July - Willingham Primary School, 17:00-20:30
* Thursday 10th July - Needingworth School, 17:00-20:00
* Friday 11th July - Cottenham Village College, 17:00-20:00
* Saturday 12th July - Lion Yard, Cambridge, 10am-18:00
* Sunday 13th July - Longstanton Village Hall, 13:00-17:00
* Monday 14th July - Trumpington Village Hall, 17:00-20:00
* Tuesday 15th July - Impington Village College, 17:00-21:00
* Wednesday 16th July - Oakington Primary School, 16:00-20:00
* Thursday 17th July - Over Community Centre, 17:00-20:30
* Friday 18th July - Queen Elizabeth School, Post Street, Godmanchester, 17:00-20:00
* Saturday 19th July - Burleigh Hill Community Centre, St Ives, 13:00-18:00
* Monday 21st July - Free Church, St Ives, 10:00-17:00
* Tuesday 22nd July - Arbury Community Centre, Buchan Street, Cambridge 16:00-20:00
* Wednesday 23rd July - Commemoration Hall, Huntingdon, 12:00-18:00
* Thursday 24th July - Fenstanton and Hilton Primary School, Fenstanton, 17:00-20:00.
Between 3rd-24th July 2003 there are static (unstaffed) exhibitions at Huntingdon Library; Houghton County Primary School; Hinchingbrooke Hospital; Huntingdon Rail Station; Pathfinder House - Huntingdonshire District Council Offices; Rainbow Supermarket, Ramsey; St Ives Library. It is possible that St Ives Town Council may organise a public meeting about the proposals.
The open-access "Rapid Transit" proposals - with buses going all the way to Trumpington Park and Ride from Hinchingbrooke Hospital includes a 23km kerb-guided busway on the railway line between St Ives and north Cambridge, and a further stretch from Cambridge railway station to Trumpington - still appear to be rather vague.
The Hunts Post is urging its readers to keep up the protests through its Boot Out The Bus campaign, which gained support from Huntingdon MP Jonathan Djanogly and councillors from all parties in the area as well as thousands of readers. Cambridgeshire County have, surprisingly, praised this campaign claiming that many of the issues they raised have been addressed by the latest proposals.
After this preliminary consultation, the council will seek a Transport and Works Order, which will trigger a 42-day period during which objections can be sent to a special unit of central Government. The Government will pass them to the county council who must "work towards acceptable solutions" before a Public Inquiry is called. According to councillor Shona Johnstone, a submission date of early November has been deliberately timed to allow for the statutory 42 days of consultation before the Christmas break.
Cambridgeshire MPs Andrew Lansley and Anne Campbell have spoken in favour of the busway in the House of Commons on the final day for objections to the Cambridgeshire Structure Plan. Lansley asked Transport Secretary Alistair Darling when he would back the guided bus system, who said he hoped it would be "developed, consulted on and put in place as quickly as possible." However, local councillor Geoffrey Heathcock has expressed his concerns about the lack of any alternative proposal if Government refuses to fund a substantial part of the scheme, saying: "I remain very anxious that the county council, with Government blessing, is placing all its eggs in one basket."
CEN report: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/search/dispstory.asp?id=29075&db=1
Exhibitions: http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/sub/eandt/planning/raptrans/exhibitions.htm
Details of scheme http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/sub/eandt/planning/trplan/apr/app10.pdf
Scrutiny of scheme: http://www2.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/db/reptrack.nsf/
c3cf865e3cc1131380256a6b0037e439/f4ea57ee4ecf6aa680256d34005477c9?OpenDocument.
"Rapid Transit" costs keep going up and up
The County Council claims there will be no cost to the local taxpayer in establishing and running the busway, but the cost seems to keep rising according to the minutes of a cabinet meeting on 17th June. Instead of £73m the "LTP Major Schemes Bid 2004 - 2011" has costs shown in three years totalling £81m (£7m + £37m + £37m). There are also three items under: "LTP Integrated Transport Bid 2004 - 2011" including cycle schemes, bus priority measures and improved pedestrian/cycle access - all specifically for the Rapid Transit - which cost another £11.7m. This makes a total of £92.7m. The council have also allocated costs to various non-LTP budgets including "Design work and land purchase for Rapid Transit" as part of the "Sustainable Communities Plan".
RAIL FRANCHISES
First Great Eastern gains legal right to see SRA documents revealing why it filed to qualify
Keywords: [FirstGreatEastern]
On 17th June the High Court gave First Group the right to see the 'scores' that the three qualifying bids were awarded by the SRA. However, the scores were anonymised, since even the successful bidders don't know their competitive advantages over each other. Being granted permission to scrutinise the procedures used is the first step towards First Group mounting a legal challenge for the franchise, which is likely to generate £350m of income with a margin of 5% (£17.5m profit) in its first year. However the SRA has said that it would defend any legal action robustly.
On Friday 27th June, about 10 days after evaluating this information, First Group announced that it had decided to abandon its legal challenge. This was incidentally the day when the SRA again flexed their muscles by sacking underperfoming Connex, against whom First was shortlisted for the TransPenning franchise. It has been speculated this this is aboutface is because either First now expects to get the TransPennine franchise - and successfully bid for the new South East frnachise - if it shuts up, or is considering taking a financial interest in another rail company.
BBC Essex report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/2997402.stm FGE press release: http://www.ger.co.uk/popup.asp?ID=74.
RAIL PUNCTUALITY
Quarterly performance figures for train operators announced by the SRA
In June the SRA published its 'On Track' National Passenger survey for spring 2003, which contain punctuality
figures for each TOC in the branch area:
* Anglia - InterCity 75.9% / Locals 87.6%
* c2c - 91.2%
* First Great Eastern - 87.8%
* WAGN - 80.5%
* Central 72.9%.
Readers interested in how Anglia might compare with FGE if they win the franchise will be interested in the
following Anglia/FGE comparisons from passenger surveys:
* How staff handle requests: Anglia 81% satisfied/good, FGE 83%
* Information about times/platforms: Anglia 76%, FGE 72%
* Complains per 100,000 journeys: Anglia 469 Complaints, FGE 43.
TOC subsidy levels show that East Anglia railways pay their way
Anyone concerned that the SRA is eager to cut funding the passenger services in East Anglia will be relieved
to know that subsidies are cancelled out by payments to the SRA. Figures per TOC (which do not include RPP awards)
are:
* Central: £105.9m subsidy (this includes all Central services, with East Anglia services being well used)
* c2c: £21.4m subsidy
* Anglia: £1.8m subsidy
* WAGN: £1.9m payment to SRA
* GNER: £26.9m payment (includes whole GNER route, though London end is well used)
* FGE: £38.7m payment.
STATIONS
Hunts Post newspaper fails to find out why Huntingdon station toilets have still not reopened
Keywords: [HuntingdonStation]
The permanent toilets at Huntingdon Railway Station have been closed since the end of the 2001 when pipework was damaged during road works, yet no-one will accept responsibility or give a date when they will reopen, replacing the four temporary portaloo toilets that have generated many complaints when they have not been emptied.
The issue was taken up by the Hunts Post in June who were told by the toilet hiring company - and confirmed by WAGN - that the toilets are not for public use, but only for Serco staff. However, Network Rail - who are responsible for providing public toilets - insisted that the portaloos are for public use and are frequently emptied!
RAIL CUSTOMER SERVICE
GB Railways and Anglia senior management go "back to the floor" to provide customer service
Keywords: [GBRailways]
Snippets readers may remember in 2000 when Prism director Giles Fearnley was filmed by BBC television going back to the floor on WAGN services. Well, on 25th June the directors and senior managers at Anglia Railways and their parent GB Railways experienced a day in the front line of customer service issuing tickets, serving refreshments and manning contact centre phones. It is claimed that the managers will better understand the operational problems running a rail business and their customers' needs.
Anglia press release: http://www.angliarailways.co.uk/latest-information/news-detail.asp?id=438.
RAIL FARES
SRA announces results of fares review - above inflation fare rises likely
The SRA has published the findings from its fares review. It has concluded that:
* Passengers have been paying a smaller percentage of the railway's income (from 75% in 1999 to 55% now, would become 50% if no changes made)
* Under-inflation rises (RPI-1%) on regulated fares (which represent 44% of all fares) are not justified even if performance is poor
* Average increases for the next 3 years will be 1% above RPI average fares
* Saver fares cause overcrowding on some routes - resulting in the first off-peak trains being more crowded than during the peak
* Regulation must be retained so that passengers with no choice other than rail are not exploited
* TOCs should be free to set fares according to market demand subject to total fare basket increases
* No regulated fare rise should exceed 5% above inflation in any one year
* SRA will encourage ATOC to use standard ticket type names and common terms and conditions for similar tickets
* SRA will work closely with ATOC, TOCs and passenger groups to explore options for a well targeted National Railcard that encourages a switch from road to rail
* SRA will carry out research into smartcards and how they may be used to help manage demand, possibly with a trial on part of the London network.
Fare baskets will be used to control all regulated fares. To keep down administration, the basket will only include the very small number of station-to-station fares that generate 95% of the revenue (e.g. Cambridge to London, Ipswich to London). The other fares will not be allowed to exceed the fare for a journey in the basket which covers that route (e.g. a Shippea Hill to Lakenheath fare could not be more than the Ely to Thetford fare).
Alistair Darling explained that "Four years ago, rail fares covered 72% of the cost of running and improving the railway. That is now down to around 53% and the taxpayer pays the rest." However, the media reported rail user groups to be angered by proposals for above inflation increases - likely to be 4% in January (3% RPI + 1%) - when a fifth of trains are running late. Railfuture issued a press release describing the above-inflation rises as "unacceptable", saying "With large fare increases on the horizon we expect to see big improvements to the rail system as a result", and was reported in several newspapers.
Predicting criticism, the SRA commissioned a survey from 518 representative adults, showing that 15% believe rail users should pay for all rail modernisation investment; 25% believe rail users should pay the majority; 39% think that rail users and taxpayers should pay equally and just 15% say that taxpayers should pay the majority or all of the costs of investment.
SRA press releases:
http://www.sra.gov.uk/sra/news/releases/other/20030619_first_review_of_rail_fares_since_privati.html
http://www.sra.gov.uk/sra/news/releases/other/20030619_rail_fares_must_keep_pace_with_investmen.html.
RAIL COMPANIES
GB Railways PLC preliminary full-year results show healthy revival in fortunes
Keywords: [GBRailways]
Anglia Railways' parent, GB Railways PLC, made a pre-tax profit of £900,000 (£1.2m loss in 2001/02) after £0.6m bidding costs, with net contributions from all its subsidiaries (Anglia, Hull Trains [£0.7m from -£0.6m] and GB Railfreight [£1m from £0.7m]). Anglia passenger revenue increased 6.7% for the year (industry average 3.3%), helped by the new Norwich-Cambridge service.
Performance figures for Hull Trains are not published since it is not a franchised operator, but GB claims they have the best punctuality and reliability figures of any long distance passenger operator.
GB claims that it will still remain "a viable entity" even if it fails to win any of the three franchises that it is currently biding for (Greater Anglia, Northern Rail and Wales & Borders) - although it remains optimistic - because of its non-franchised passenger and freight businesses, as well as recently set-up property and consultancy ventures.
GB results: http://www.gbrailways.com/downloads/prelim-jun03.pdf.
RAIL FREIGHT
Royal Mail by rail
Further information has come out into the open since the Royal Mail's announcement that it will cease all rail
services by March 2004. It is understood that EWS have proposed several new initiatives, which would have
provided considerable cost savings to Royal Mail. These are:
1) Since the new contract has been in operation EWS have dropped their prices by 20% in order to provide Royal
Mail with further assistance to its ailing finances. EWS need not have done this, but considered themselves in
partnership with Royal Mail.
2) EWS have proposed thirty more cost effective options for new services with Royal Mail and are disappointed
that have not responded to any of them.
3) Additionally, EWS have provided Royal Mail with five new pricing options, all of which were more cost
effective than the previous and once again no response has been received.
4) With Royal Mail being a government owned body, they are exempt from paying VAT for their internal road
transport arrangements whereas EWS by law have to charge VAT which Royal Mail are unable to claw back. This
unlevel playing field benefits road transport by 17.5%.
SRA's capacity utilisation study intends additional freight paths in East Anglia
At the same time as publishing the fares review, the SRA also announced the results of its Capacity Utilisation
Study. These had minimal detail on passenger services, but promised increased freight paths for freight, as follows:
* Stratford - Ipswich: 23 now, 36 in 2011
* London-Peterborough: 8 now, 11 in 2011
* Ipswich to Ely: 10 now, 16 in 2011.
SRA press release: http://www.sra.gov.uk/sra/news/releases/performance/
20030616_network_utilisation_strategy___first_ev.html.
ROLLING STOCK
Anglia Railways unveils first of their refurbished Class 153 trains
Keywords: [AngliaRailways]
In Snippets 112 Anglia's plan to refurbish all of its Class 153 trains was announced. The first of these, No. 153335 named "Michael Palin", has been completed and was revealed to the press on 30th June.
Anglia press release: http://www.angliarailways.co.uk/latest-information/news-detail.asp?id=442.
ROAD SAFETY
Department for Transport release 2002 road casualty figures
Next time there is a major rail accident (one is due in a few months time), campaigners might like to draw attention
to the latest road casualty figures which were announced by the Department for Transport on 26th June. In summary:
* 302,605 road casualties in Great Britain in 2002, 3 per cent fewer than in 2001
* 3,431 people were killed, a fall of under 1 per cent compared to 2001
* 35,976 were seriously injured (down 3 per cent on 2001
* 263,198 were slightly injured (down 4 per cent)
DfT press release: http://www.dft.gov.uk/pns//DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2003_0078.
Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 119 - 02/07/2003
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