The Health and Safety Commission's (HSC's) Railway Industry Advisory Committee (RIAC) will host its second
public meeting on Tuesday 25th June at 6.30 pm in the National Railway Museum in York. This is an opportunity
to meet senior representatives from the rail industry with presentations on key health and safety issues and
an open discussion where the public can fully participate. For details of the FREE event contact Ade Odebiyi
[ade.odebiyi@hse.gsi.gov.uk] at Health & Safety Executive.
A reminder that exhibitions from the London to South Midlands multi-modal study are being held in Cambridge
on 27th-28th June and at Bishops Stortford and St Neots in July. Details in Snippets 93.
Did you know that if you purchase train tickets through Chester-le-Track (based in Chester-le-Street)
[http://www.chester-le-track.co.uk / 0191-387-1387] they will donate
3% of the price to the Keswick-Penrith railway reinstatement project - if over £25 and you ask them to.
According to CKP-Railways founder Cedric Martindale, they have earned over £200 from this source so far. If each
Railfuture member spent £300 per year this would raise £30,000.
RAIL PERFORMANCE
Anglia Railways tops SRA's TOC performance league
The SRA's "On Track" and "National Rail Trends" documents covering October 2001 to March 2002 showed encouraging
signs for the railways. Performance improved on 23 of the 25 franchised operators.
Anglia Railways achieved the highest level of overall satisfaction - at 90% - on the British mainland. It was
beaten by Island Line with 92%. The national average is just 73%. Anglia is the only operator to have achieved
a pre-Hatfield satisfaction level, which is based on punctuality, reliability, information and station
environment. Railfuture chairman Peter Lawrence was interviewed by BBC Radio Norfolk on 3rd June about these
figures.
Nationally domestic railfreight was 9% up on last year and passenger kilometres travelled were also up, by
2%. The total number of peak passengers travelling into London was 471,388, up from 466,920.
SRA press release: http://www.sra.gov.uk/news/releases/2002/june/
publication_of_ontrack_and_nrt_060602.htm.
TRAIN OPERATING COMPANIES
Anglia Railways takeover stalled due to poor valuation
According to the Evening Standard in mid-June, the capitalisation of GB Railways PLC (Anglia's parent) was
only valued at £3.5 million, 40p per share. Late in 2001 they announced to the City interest in a merger or
takeover, but apparently talks have been abandoned due to this poor valuation.
ST.IVES LINE
Cambridgeshire County Council now looking at alternative SuperCAM route through city
There's only a month to go before Cambridgeshire County Council must submit their appraisal of the superCAM
proposal to government. The council have admitted in correspondence to the public that there is a difference
of views between itself and the superCAM consortium, including the route through Cambridge.
The council are still insistent that some of the services must run parallel with the mainline, and are now
considering a route which leaves the line at Barnwell junction and runs along bus lanes on Newmarket road.
SuperCAM consultants technical competence may be severely limited
When the superCAM was launched to the public in March, its web-site stated: "On the trackway, the superCAM
will reach speeds of 47 mph (70 kph)." Unfortunately, the technical competence of the superCAM consultants is
brought into question as 70km/h is a mere 43.5 mph. Following the successful complaint to the Advertising
Standards Agency against the Luton-Dunstable Translink guided busway, might campaigners have a case here too?
In contrast to the bendy-bus, the vehicles on Croydon Tramlink have a top speed of 100 km/h, travel at
80km/h on several parts of the off-road route and can accelerate from 0 to 60 km/h in around 25 seconds.
REVENUE PROTECTION
Businessman prosecuted for producing forged rail ticket on computer
Many revenue protection staff on trains are not known for their thorough checking of tickets, often not
bothering to ask to see railcards. Not so with Anglia Railways.
In June a 49 year-old businessman was given 100 hours community service and ordered to pay £50 costs
after being caught on an Anglia train fraudulently using a forged ticket produced on a computer.
RAIL BARGAINS
First Great Eastern offers £5 travel on Sunday 28th July 2002 with Modern Railways
The June 2002 edition of "Modern Railways" and the July 2002 edition of "Railway World" include leaflets that
enable the bearer to buy a First Great Eastern (only) Rover Ticket from any staffed FGE station for travel on
Sunday 28th July. It costs £5 per adults and £1 per child. Each coupon may be used by one adult and up to two
children.
Cheap rail travel on Sundays to London
For £10 return you can travel on Sundays from any Norfolk or Suffolk station to London. You have to book
before 28th July and the offer only runs until 18 August 2002.
TRAIN BREAKDOWNS
Anglia Railways' aging rolling stock continues to affect passengers
On 20th June, fifty passengers were forced to abandon the 6.30am London to Norwich service just outside
Witham after it broke down. The Anglia Railways train was shunted into Colchester station where passengers
were transferred to another service, arriving in Norwich just over an hour late.
NETWORK RAIL
Railtrack PLC to be replaced by by Network Rail imminently
It is expected that Railtrack Group shares will recommence trading and Network Rail will acquire the rail
assets of Railtrack PLC any time now. Ian McAllister of Network Rail, gave an insight into the new "not for
dividend" profit-making company at the recent Rail Passengers Council meeting in Leeds.
It will be like a PLC but for the benefit of "members" - 60% of whom will be the SRA, TOCs, FOCs - who
represent the public interest, rather than shareholders. It will be run to make a profit, which will be
reinvested into the railways, although the 11-strong executive board (7 of whom will be engineers) will
receive bonuses based on safety, punctuality, availability and capacity.
Network Rail will manage operations, maintenance and renewals but will not be responsible for big renewal
and enhancement projects, as these will be run by the risk-taking Special Purpose Vehicles. Significantly for
rail campaigners, SPVs - which are responsible for design, build and finance - are not expected for projects
costing less than £300m, as they are too costly legal entities to set-up. Technically the East West Rail Link
would be too small for a SPV, though this is likely to be an exception since the EWRL consortium is already
in existence.
Unlike Railtrack, Network Rail will aim to be predictive rather than reactive. It will anticipate track defects
and repair them before speed restrictions - or worse - occur. It would look at best value long term rather
than cheapest cost now, for instance, replacing old rail with better quality lower-maintenance rail.
There will be a separate property company to manage the property portfolio. Mr McAllister claimed that no
land would be disposed of which could be operational within a 20-year period.
STATIONS
Attempt to reduce vandalism at stations by FGE
An attempt by First Great Eastern to discourage vandalism at five of its stations by playing classical music
has failed at Frinton station. Youths have sabotaged the system by cutting wires that lead to the speakers. A
similar idea used in continental Europe has been "extremely successful" at vandal-plagued inner-city stations.
FGE says that "Generally this pilot project has been very successful. Young kids don't like the music and so
they walk away from it." It intends to extend the project to more stations.
FastTicket machine at Cambridge upgraded for all destinations
The computerised FastTicket credit/debit card ticket machines at Cambridge (and presumably elsewhere) can
now issue a full range of tickets to any station in England, Scotland, Wales & the Irish Republic, but not
Northern Ireland for some strange reason. Previously, at Cambridge, it was only possible to choose from a
short list of common destinations.
CROSS LONDON RAIL LINK
London Crossrail construction begins
Astonishingly for a rail line that hasn't got approval yet, construction has begun on the London Crossrail.
Britain is used to a lack of co-ordination such as a road being dug up to lay a cable, then re-laid only to
be dug up a week later to work on the sewer. However, in London, the new Moorhouse office building is being
built to incorporate part of Crossrail line 1's new station and ticket hall serving Liverpool Street and
Moorgate.
CrossRail press release: http://www.crossrail.co.uk/pages/-18june2002.html.
PRESERVED RAILWAYS
Mid-Norfolk to stop all trains at intermediate stations
As of Sunday 16th June, the MNR improved its services to Yaxham and Thuxton Stations. These stations are being
upgraded from request stops to full stops during the summer running period. As other stations along the line
become operational, these too will become full stops rather than request stops. The MNR press release says it
"is committed to constantly upgrading its service to the local community and we believe that this is another
step along this road."
There will be a further two railtours visiting the MNR in 2002. First is a NENTA
[http://www.nentatraintours.co.uk] tour to Bath and Bristol on
Saturday 31st August, and then a Hertfordshire Rail Tours [http://www.traintrips.co.uk]
from King's Cross to Norwich via Dereham on Saturday 23rd November.
North-Norfolk announces opening date for Holt Station buildings
The North Norfolk Railway has announced that the formal opening ceremony of their new station building at Holt,
using the former Stalham building, will be on Easter Sunday 2003.
OPINION RESEARCH
Rich in favour of spending more on public transport according to VIPer survey
A Taylor-Nelson "very important people - exclusive research" survey of 1000 Britons aged 25-54 in the AB
social grade has found that the majority are in favour of tax increases if the money goes directly into
health and transport; over half are in favour of congestion charging and two thirds would like to use public
transport more. This suggests that people on high incomes with expensive cars will use trains.
RAIL WEB-SITES
New web-site for Department of Transport following de-merger from DTLR
The Department of Transport now has its own web-site: http://www.dft.gov.uk.
Campaigning web-site achieves success in influencing parliamentary politicians
The www.FaxYourMp.com web-site has claimed success in persuading the government to
moderate its e-mail snooping legislation. It will convert your e-mail to a fax, which is more likely to be read and
responded to than an e-mail. The web-site also offers tips on how to contact your MP and campaign effectively.
|
