Railway Cuttings 79

16th October 2004

IN THE NEWS

Under the new InterCity East Coast franchise the SRA says it wants to stop the last from King's Cross train to the North East calling at Morpeth and Alnmouth. If the move were approved, the last service would depart at 15:30 rather than 17:30hrs.

Martin Murphy, Chairman Railfuture North East branch, is quoted on the BBC website as follows: "This is just not good enough. We are quite clear that we need the long distance connections from London and also the cross country services we now have that connect us with Edinburgh and the north, and the Midlands and the South West. Typically, 40 to 50 people get off that train in Alnmouth and Morpeth together, quite apart from those who get off in Berwick and Dunbar. It's a vital part of life in the area and we really cannot afford to do without it."

To see the SRA's views read the BBC report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/3692762.stm

NEWS FROM RAILFUTURE BRANCHES

The latest edition of Railfuture Scotland News was published on 28th September. A PDF copy is in the 'News' section of their website at www.RailFutureScotland.org.uk. The next Branch Meeting is on Saturday 20th November at Quality (Central Station) Hotel, Glasgow at 14.00. Speaker is Alistair Watson (Chair of Strathclyde PTA)

Tim Shoveller Operations Director, MML Ltd, will be giving a talk entitled “Outdoing Them All” to East Midlands Branch at City Rooms, Hotel St., Leicester on November 13th at 2 p.m. All welcome.

A second edition of ‘'On Track for the 21st Century: A Development Plan for the Railways of Wales and the Borders” was released in September 2004. 54 pages in A4 format plus two-coloured foldout A3 maps. Printed copies are available at cost price for members - £3 including p&p. Order from Peter Clark, 84 North Street, Abergavenny NP7 7ED. It is also available for downloading from the Welsh branches website at http://www.chartist.demon.co.uk/rdsw//dev-planupd.htm.

Lord Berkeley of the Rail Freight Group is the guest speaker at the next meeting of Railfuture East Anglia branch. The meeting is at Little St.Mary's Church Hall, Trumpington Street, Cambridge on 4th December 2004. Meeting starts at 14.00 and finishes around 16.00. The venue is about 15 minutes walk from the station or you can get a bus (every few minutes) to the Downing Street stop in the City centre and then walk along Downing Street to the Church Hall. All Railfuture members are welcome. Further details from Nick Dibben (branch secretary) tel: 01480 495101, email: nick.dibben at ukgateway.net.

RAILFUTURE HAS A NEW MEMBERSHIP LEAFLET

A new membership leaflet has been printed and copies have been included with each October Railwatch. Extra supplies are available from the Railfuture office. As a tri-folded A4 leaflet it has been designed to fit into standard leaflet racks as found on stations etc. There are also some Railwatch back numbers available to any branch that wants to use them for membership promotion. For further information please contact Peter Harris by telephone or fax on 0161 798 8661, or e-mail peter.harris at railfuture.org.uk

RAILFUTURE ANNUAL DRAW

If anyone needs further supplies of Annual Draw tickets please contact Chris Precey on 01455 616824. Profits from the draw are used to assist re-opening campaigns with the distribution being administered by Railfuture Network Development Committee.

RAIL USERS’ CONFERENCE 2004 AND 2005

Members are reminded that John Lee must receive booking forms for the 2004 Rail Users’ Conference no later than 27th October 2004. Thoughts are now turning to the arrangements for the 2005 Conference. Would any branch like to host the event? Offers to Mike Crowhurst please.

ERIC F LAYFIELD

I am sorry to have to inform members that Eric F Layfield (Freight Committee Secretary & Budget Holder) is in hospital following a stroke. He is talking and stable though will remain incapacitated for some time.

On behalf of Railfuture the Freight Committee Chairman, Garry Tinsey, has sent our best wishes to his wife for his full recovery.

Please send all freight correspondence to Gary Tinsey until further notice.

NEW CONTACT NUMBERS AND ADDRESS FOR THE RPC NETWORK

The RPC network is changing the way it interacts with passengers. From 11th-October 2004 there will be one national point of contact to offer help and advice to passengers on the issues that affect them. The new RPC contact centre will be open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 4pm Saturday and Sunday.

Details for the contact centre are:

Tel: 08453 022 022 Fax: 0845 850 1392 Textphone: 0845 850 1354 E-mail: info at railpassengers.org.uk
Address: Rail Passengers Council, Freepost WA1521, Warrington, WA4 6GP

The council and committees numbers are also changing. From 27 September a new integrated phone network was introduced. All RPC contacts will have new direct dial telephone numbers and the following new main office numbers:

Rail Passengers Council: 0870 336 6000, RPC Eastern England 0870 336 6065, RPC Midlands 0870 336 6075, RPC North Eastern England 0870 336 6085, RPC North Western England 0870 336 6095, RPC Scotland 0870 336 6105, RPC Southern England 0870 336 6115, RPC Wales 0870 336 6125, RPC Western England 0870 336 6135.

GLASSHOUGHTON STATION DUE TO OPEN ON 12TH DECEMBER

West Yorkshire PTE have confirmed that it is their intention to open the proposed station at Glasshoughton on the day of the major timetable change on 12th December 2004.

ST.IVES LINE

Atkins Rail are the consultants that Cambridgeshire County Council has used to try to discredit CAST.IRON's plan for a rail service on the Cambridge-St.Ives line, which would ultimately extend to Huntingdon and link up to the East Coast Main Line. The huge effort put into this exercise shows that the County sees a rail scheme as a serious possibility.

Atkins Rail have produced a 74-page critique from CAST.IRON's costed plans that it gave Cambs County a first look at on 2nd December 2003. They have assessed the 20-minute timetable as unworkable, conveniently having got the distances between stations wrong and therefore costed additional infrastructure and train sets to provide the commuter service. On top of this they added 57% for maximum "optimism bias" onto all of CAST.IRON's figures despite CAST.IRON having received written quotations from rail infrastructure companies to perform much of the work. In total, Atkins has claimed that it would cost £354.5m to reinstate a 19-mile Chesterton Junction to Huntingdon ECML railway. The route mile cost is the same as the major West Coast Main Line upgrade, and is twice the cost per track mile!
Source: Railfuture East Anglia branch news snippets http://freespace.virgin.net/martin.thorne/snippets/

CAMBRIDGESHIRE GUIDED BUSWAY INQUIRY EXTENDED BY THREE WEEKS

It was intended for the CGB public inquiry to be complete in six weeks, however, owing to the number of individuals who wish to speak, a schedule has been produced that sees the inquiry sit for 32 days, from 28th September to 2nd November. This is likely to delay the inspector’s report by at least six weeks. Railfuture/St.Ives 'et al' have been allocated about a day, with CAST.IRON receiving more than two days. Both organisations are among the five groups given a 10-minute allocation in the opening and closing speeches. The other three are Save the Lakes, Trumpington Environmental Action Group and Histon/Impington Parish Councils.

Despite the risk, some would say probability, that the guided busway will not be given approval, Cambridgeshire County Councillors have decided to risk £3m of the public's money - £1m from government and £2m from Section 106 funds - of progressing the guided busway scheme, so that if approval is given, its construction can take place as soon as possible. The money may also be wasted if the scheme is approved but with substantial changes.
News item: http://w3.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge/story.asp?StoryID=61110.
Guided busway site: http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/sub/eandt/planning/raptrans/index.htm
Cast Iron: http://www.castiron.org.uk/index.php

MORE PROGRESS WITH FELIXSTOWE TO LONDON AND WCML GAUGE ENHANCEMENT BUT SOUTHAMPTON TO WEST MIDLANDS IS DEFERRED

On 24th August the SRA announced that the Nuneaton to Birmingham corridor is now open for 9’ 6” high container traffic on standard wagons. This follows the recent completion of the work in Ipswich tunnel. It is anticipated that by the end of 2004 the remaining work will be completed to open up Daventry and Manchester Trafford Park to 9’ 6” high container traffic from Felixstowe. Gauge enhancement for traffic using the Port of Tilbury was completed in June 2004. This work has permitted the handling of 9’ 6” containers on standard wagons between Tilbury and Garston (Merseyside) and Coatbridge (Lanarkshire).

This was followed on 14th October by an announcement that the route from Felixstowe to Nuneaton is completed. The upgrade was projected to cost nearly £40 million, but has been delivered for under £30 million – a significant cost saving - and has been completed ahead of schedule. It involved work at 31 key locations along the route

This leaves the port of Southampton at a competitive disadvantage as the route from Southampton to the West Midlands is still to be cleared for 9’ 6” containers. In their September 2004 newsletter the Rail Freight Group are reporting that “development work on this gauge enhancement has actually stopped, with the SRA instructing Network Rail to disband its project team allegedly to save £2m next year.” The RFG have written to Dr Kim Howells suggesting that some of Network Rail’s unused budget for this year should be spent on continuing the Southampton project.

Sources: SRA press release http://www.sra.gov.uk/news/2004/8/nuneaton_birmingham and RFG newsletter no 54 (which can be downloaded from the RFG website http://www.rfg.org.uk/)

NEWS FROM THE OFFICE OF RAIL REGULATION

There is an article by Chris Bolt, Chairman of the Office of Rail Regulation, entitled “The ORR: evolution or revolution?" in the September 2004 issue of The Utilities Journal. This is a 2-page résumé explaining how the ORR will operate in the light of the rail review at http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.001007

On 22 September the ORR issued a Consultation document: “Implementing The Future of Rail: ORR’s Role and Proposed Work Programme”. Responses to this consultation document should be sent to the ORR no later than 1700 on Friday 5 November 2004. Link: http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.00100700400d

NEWS FROM THE SRA

National Rail Trends April to June 2004 (Quarter 1) was issued by the SRA on 23rd September 2004. http://www.sra.gov.uk/news/2004/9/nat_rail_trends

The SRA has started the next stage in letting the new InterCity East Coast franchise by inviting the four pre-qualified companies to submit detailed bids. The SRA expects to announce the preferred bidder early in 2005 with the new franchise operating from 1 May 2005. A ‘Stakeholder Briefing Document’ outlining the franchise specification is available on the SRA website: http://www.sra.gov.uk/publications/consultation_default
Source: SRA press release http://www.sra.gov.uk/news/2004/10/intercirty_east_coast

SETBACK FOR KESWICK TO PENRITH PLANS

Despite a vigorous campaign against the proposal Eden District Council have now granted planning permission for a road through the trackbed at Flusco Industrial Park near Penrith. The council refused an offer by CKP Railways to provide an independent engineer to attend a site meeting and answer questions about the project. This decision was made despite the current planning policy stating that development along the line of a disused railway will not be permitted if the use of the route for recreational purposes or the reopening of the railway is prejudiced.

This is a warning to all campaigners that we must constantly be monitoring planning applications in our local areas and looking out for any proposal that might prevent the future reopening of a closed line. Even when Structure Plans safeguard disused railway trackbeds for future rail use councillors seem to be able to ignore these safeguards if they wish. Source: http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?c=190&id=141176

REVIEW OF BTP FUNDING JUDGES IT TO BE PIECEMEAL AND UNSYSTEMATIC

On 22 April the Secretary of State for Transport met with Ian Johnston, Chief Constable of the British Transport Police (BTP). At the meeting it was agreed that the DfT would undertake a short review of the BTP working with the Force and the Home Office.

This review has now been published. Some of the findings are:
 Industry and passengers receive significant benefits from a dedicated force. The BTP should continue in its role as a specialist rail police force.
 The BTP should continue as a functional Force for the railways and should not be merged with Home Office Forces.
 The BTP should consider the possibility of agreeing more co-operative agreements with County Forces.
 The BTP should continue as a specialist Force for the railways and should not be a multi-modal Force.
 The review supported the BTP's ambition to enhance its counter-terrorism role.
 The costs of the BTP should remain largely funded by the rail industry. Therefore the Force should not be funded directly by the Department
 The establishment of the British Transport Police Authority (BTPA) will create an opportune moment to ensure that the industry is paying enough to secure effective policing of the railways.
 The Department should work with the newly established Authority to look at the possibility of capital funding to cover some of the most pressing shortfalls in BTP funding.
 The Department and the Authority should consider whether the BTP should have access to central funding from the Home Office or DfT where it is involved in initiatives that benefit the wider public interest or benefit national policing initiatives.
 The establishment of the BTPA provides an opportunity for developing better co-operation and collaborative working arrangements in relation to the role and funding of the BTP.
 There is an urgent need for the Authority to assess the BTP's counter-terrorism funding requirements.
 There is a need to develop clear guiding principles setting out BTP access to central funding. This should set out how it would work, when it can be considered and how it would be implemented. The Department should take the lead on developing this piece of work in conjunction with the Authority, the BTP and where relevant the Home Office.

The Executive Summary and full report can be downloaded from http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_control/documents/contentservertemplate/dft_index.hcst?n=12086&l=2

BRANCH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGS

Branches will soon be setting the dates of their next AGM. Two are already listed in ‘Forthcoming Events’. When branches do set a date would they please advise me so that I can give it a mention.