Railfuture News Snippets 162

TRAIN OPERATORS

PASSENGER SATISFACTION

RAIL FREIGHT

RAIL STAFF COSTS

FRANCHISES

PRESERVED RAILWAYS

WEB-SITES

Grand Central puts back launch date to September 2007

Train operators in branch area need to drastically improve their service according to Passenger Focus

GB Railfreight

Latest Central Trains pay increases give indication of expense of running a train service

Staff change at 'one'

Construction commences on new carriage sheds at Holt on the North Norfolk Railway

Virgin web-site aims to improve the train ticket purchase experience

Web-site promoting the creation of a "Railschool" on the recently closed railway branch to North Woolwich

Web-site for TrainsEurope international rail travel service

Web-site for new charter operator UK Railtours


	RAIL NEWS SNIPPETS		Issue 162 - 01 March 2007
	News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture		Edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson

ATOC estimates that 1,147m train journeys were made in Grest Britain in 2006. This represents an increase of 6.7% over 2005's total of 1,075m. However, the growth over the last six months of 2006 was around 10%, which means that the number of train passengers is accelerating and is now at an annual equivalent of 10%. If this growth were to be sustained, almost twice as many – 2,000m or more – would be using rail by 2012.

New open access operator Grand Central, which has had a licence to run trains from King's Cross to Sunderland since December 2006 does not expect launch until September 2007. It blames delays in refurbishing its Class 43 HSTs, which belong to its sister leasing company Sovereign Trains. In the longer term, Sovereign plans to procure new Chinese-built Polaris hybrid traction units.

=== Chaps I attended a stakeholder briefing on the Greater Anglia RUS today (27th February) in Ipswich. The draft report for consultation is due out April, but Network Rail presented a summary of the key issues and possible options they are looking at. Issue A - Peak Capacity Lengthen services on the Fenchurch Street main line to 12 cars Extended paltforms and services on the Tilbury Loop Replace London-Norwich trains with EMUs to provide more seating (replacing the locomotive and driving trailer with coaches creates more seats without need to lengthen platforms) Additional Great Eastern services during peak More trains to call at Stratford Regional Station More local peak Trains from Gidea Park Longer trains to Chingford Lengthen services on WA route to Cambridge and Stansted. Longer trains to Enfield Town Peak hour shuttle to Seven Sisters Increase capacity on Lea Valley route Issue B - Rural & Interurban routes 13. Enhance Peterborough - Ipswich service 14. Hourly Ipswich to Lowestoft (Beccles Loop) or 15. Hourly Ipswich to Saxmundham 16. Longer trains generally at peak times Issue C - Freight 17. Increase gauge and capacity between Felixstowe and Nuneaton 18. Remove speed restrictions for freight trains Issue D - Improve performance 19. Options include: Close level crossings on Lea Valley route Review timetables and recovery margins Replace overhead line equipment on GE route Improve turnarounds on rural services Other preformance enhancements such as Ely Curve Issue E - Engineering access 20 Options include : Longer operating hours to Stansted Longer operating hours on suburban routes to match the Underground Reduce impact of possessions on depots Imrove engineering access on Cross Country route Issue F - Power supply 21. Look at future power requirements to suit demand Issue G - Improving access to stations (Passenger Focus looking at this) 22. Car park capacity, DDA, interchange, station crowding, possible new stations Issue H - Berthing capacity 23. Review capacity/locations to store trains overnight and between the peak hours. At the meeting Option 3 caused the most discussion. East-West rail was raised as a solution to capacity issues. NR confirmed that unlike other RUS, this one would not be suggesting service cuts of lightly used services. Alternative routes and turnback options in case of disruption were also being considered. Regards Nick ==== ‘one’ railway announced a programme of actions to improve punctuality. Some of the actions to be taken include door closure at Liverpool Street 30 seconds before booked departure time, more efficient despatch of trains into traffic from depots, and progress on upgrades to the power supply system on Class 90 locomotives. Network Rail is to renew 60km of track in ‘one’s area. ‘one’ railway has announced a programme of actions intended to improve punctuality. Since the start of the ‘one’ franchise punctuality has improved from 84.96% to 87.47%, but ‘one’ intends to move towards 90%. Some of the actions to be taken include door closure at Liverpool Street 30 seconds before booked departure time, more efficient despatch of trains into traffic from depots, revised engineering schedules, modifications to Class 317 units, and progress on upgrades to the power supply on Class 90 locomotives. Network Rail, meanwhile, is to renew more than 60km of track and introduce fortnightly monitoring of OHLE on the London–Norwich main line. Liverpool Street is to receive a new pa system. ====== =========ZERE=====OK from here

The Passenger Focus survey published on 29th January shows that value for money is still the big railway issue for most travellers with fewer than half happy with the cost of their journeys. It also found wide disparities between regions and operators, which is partly caused by different expectations by passengers: commuters often being the most demanding.

The survey found that 76% of First Capital Connect passengers are satisfied generally, but just 19% statisfaciton for staff availability - still better than the 10% for 'one', which scored 31% for value for money and 28% for dealing with delays.

PF survey: http://www.passengerfocus.org.uk/your-experiences/content.asp?dsid=496.

On 16th January First Group subsidiary GB Railfreight has also announced a second contract to move recycled rail ballast from London to East Anglia. It will operate eight trains for Mendip Rail, each made up of JNA big-box wagons. They will carry a total of 10,000 tonnes of ballast from Acton to Yeoman Aggregates at Parkeston, near Harwich.

Press release: http://www.gbrailfreight.com/news_archive.php?newspage=1&newsid=167.

Anyone trying to promote new services and stations ought to be aware of the costs of providing the staff. The revised pay Schedule from 1st April 2007 for Central Trains (which is at the higher end of the "Regional" pay rates, average compared to London & South East TOCs and rather lower than the Intercity TOCs) makes interesting reading:

Station Staff (including ticket offices and revenue protection):
* RPI (Reveue Protection Inspection) West Midlands: £20,505, RPI New Starter Rate: £18,701
* Station Staff/West Midlands ATE (Assistant Ticket Examiner) £16,693-£17,266
* Ticket Checkers at barriers: £15,490 (New Starter Rate: 13,662 - ticket checkers and station staff)
* Station Staff Allowances - Wide Area Relief: £1,228, Local Area Relief: £615, Night Shift Allowance: £7.37 per shift

Supervisors:
* Bands are: £18,879-£19,437 (C); £20,714-£21,728 (B); £23,271-£25,783 (A)
* Supplements per shift - Sunday Shift: £26.83, Night Shift: £13.43, Xmas Day/Boxing Day: £20.25

Traincrew Supervisors:
* Roster Clerk: £31,554, Duty Traincrew Manager: £35,127

Controllers:
* Delay Resolution: £21,309; Information Coordinator: £21,309; Route Controller: £31,094 (East) / £32,366 (West)
* Fleet Controller (B): £35,366, Duty Control Manager: £37,196

Traincrew:
* Senior Conductor: £22,010 (trainee £16,718); Senior Conductor Coach £22,922
* Senior Conductor Allowances: Xmas Day/Sunday Supplement: 20.25 per shift
* Driver: £35,059; Newly Qualified: £26,295; Trainee: £19,143; Driver Instructor: £37,005

Station Maintenance Staff:
* Senior Maintenance Technician: £25,563; Technician: £23,931

Clerical Support Staff: (Not ticket office staff, who on CT are counted as station staff)
* Head Office/Outstation Clerical: £14,863 (A1), £18,581 (A2).

'one' has appointed James Reeve as Group Station manager based at Cambridge. He will be repsonsible for the stations at Cambridge, Shelford, Whittlesford, Great Chesterford, Audley end, Newport and Elsenham. He had previously been the Travel Centre Manager at Norwich.

'one' has also announced that Ben Rule has joined the company as Head of Performance and Planning, which means that Phil Barrett has become Head of Operations and will be leading the Challenge 90 initiative, a joint project between 'one' and Network Rail which aims to raise the PPM figure to 90% or higher.

Work has begun to construct new carriage sheds at Holt on the North Norfolk Railway. Concrete has been poured on the levelled site and the steel framework is expected shortly. The sidings will be formed of bullhead rail track panels from the Bittern Line which were replaced over Christmas as part of Network Rail's renewal programme. It is hoped that the shed will be completed and the panels during 2007.

Virgin Trains has revamped its http://www.virgintrains.com website to "make searching and buying the cheapest possible ticket far simpler". It claims to offer a one-stop-shop from enquiry through to ticket purchase thanks to a brand new search engine (developed with its TheTrainLine.Com subsidiary) that enables passengers to identify and purchase the best rail fare available quickly. Whislt showing both APEx and walk-on fares, unlike existing web-sites it will only show fares that are still available. It will also allow people to by an APEX for one leg of the journey and a Saver Half Return (at half the price of a Saver Return) for the other. This ticket combination is only available for website bookings. Virgin hopes that the new web-site will improve the perception that rail fares are expensive espeically as a recent Passenger Focus survey found that only 58% of its passengers felt the ticket was value for money. Virgin has also been trialling the print@home e-ticketing system, which it plans to relaunch later in 2007.

Virgin's train partner Stagecoach has recently combined the megabus and megatrain websites in order to strengthen the 'mega' brand.

The http://www.railschool.org website promotes the transformation of the now unused section of the North London Line to North Woolwich into a Railschool and ultimately a heritage steam line. The company behind the project held a Meet-the-Team community day at North Woolwich on 24 March which gave anyone interested, including potential volunteers, a chance to meet the team and discuss the plans for RailSchool and the Royal Docks Heritage Railway. The web-site has further details of the project.

The TrainsEurope company serving the international rail niche market on platform 4 at Cambridge station has a web-site: http://www.trainseurope.co.uk.

East Anglia Branch

www.railfuture.org.uk/east.html

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Now that Hertfordshire Railtours is in the hands of Victa Westlink Rail following the collapse of FM Rail, the former boss of that company, John Farrow, has returned to the former Welwyn address of Herts. Railtours, but trading under the name of UK Railtours with a website http://www.ukrailtours.com featuring the popular Forgotten Tracks enthusiast trips. Meanwhile http://www.traintrips.co.uk, the Hertfordshire Rail tours web-site continues under new maangement.