A 30-year plan to transform rail travel with longer trains that can run closer together using biofuels and even hydrogen power will be set out by the government this month (link below.)
Ministers are to give more details of a new fleet of inter-city trains , raising the prospect of Britain getting trains similar to the high-speed Velaro recently unveiled in Spain. They will also announce for the first time a 'new generation' train to replace much of Britain's remaining diesel and electric stock. Research will also be unveiled into trams that can run on commuter rail routes and on roads through city centres.
To increase capacity on crowded routes , the white paper is likely to say the latest hi-tech European signalling system will be fitted within a decade so that trains can run closer together. Thousands more carriages are to be ordered so that trains can be made longer.
The improvements will come at a price: officials warn that seats could have to be removed from busy trains so they can carry more standing passengers, and fares could rise further on popular routes to encourage travel outside the rush hour. The white paper is also expected to suggest that savings could be made
and anger if fares continue to rise , particularly before the improvements are introduced.[/b]
I refer you to the quotes below.
Very well said , Steve. I have yet to read a post that more perfectly sums up the extensive research that I & others have conducted into this. The only things that I would really disagree with are :
1) That certain "political elements" have been far more helpful than you suggest.
2) That FGW , whilst working within limitations , could be far more helpful in resolving many issues.
Welcome to the forum.
Fair enough. I'm fortunate to live nowhere near the FGW area so I don't have first hand experience of their services. I suppose the point of my post was to make sure that you understand the background to the current situation. Most people's reaction will be to just blame FGW - which no doubt suits the DfT just fine.
The current timetable cuts could be interpreted as a classic 'closure strategy': They want to close some lines to save money but they can't because the services are too popular. Therefore they have to make the services unpopular. This is done through a combination of 1) reducing the frequency of trains, 2) running the remaining trains at unsuitable times and 3) making the remaining trains shorter so that more people have to stand. This hopefully has the effect of driving away most of the passengers. The DfT can then come along and say that because no-one uses the service it's going to be closed.
I think 2007 is going to be the crunch year. There are two acronyms to watch out for: HLOS and SOFA.
The funding requirement for the railway is determined every 5 years. Each 'block' of 5 years is known as a Control Period (CP). We're currently in CP3. Control Period 4 covers the years 2009-2014 and the process of determining the funding for CP4 has recently begun. This is where the HLOS and SOFA come in. The HLOS is the High Level Output Specification, which defines the kind of railway the Government wants to buy (eg service levels, train capacity etc), and the SOFO is the Statement of Funds Available, saying how much it is prepared to pay. It is then up to the ORR to try to match up the two i.e. is there enough money in the SOFA to pay for the railway specified in the HLOS? If there isn't (and this is the likely scenario) there then has to be an iterative process involving the ORR, DfT and Network Rail involving a trade off of service levels and costs until a compatible HLOS and SOFA emerge. So in a worst case scenario services could be cut and lines closed as a way of bringing the railway's costs down to the amount specified in the SOFA.
The HLOS and SOFA are expected in Summer 2007.
For background reading to the HLOS stuff and other issues I suggest looking at the back issues of Roger Ford's 'Informed Sources' column (published monthly in Modern Railways magazine).
For starters:
October 2005
http://www.alycidon.com/ALYCIDON%20RAIL/INFORMED%20SOURCES%20ARCHIVE/INF%20SRCS%202005/Informed%20Sources%2010%202005%20p4.htm"Periodic Review – the process starts now."
"Developing the HLOS"
February 2006
http://www.alycidon.com/ALYCIDON%20RAIL/INFORMED%20SOURCES%20ARCHIVE/INF%20SRCS%202006/Informed%20Sources%2002%202006%20p2.htm"Railway costs – struggling with the unknowns"
"Railways in hock"
August 2006
http://www.alycidon.com/ALYCIDON%20RAIL/INFORMED%20SOURCES%20ARCHIVE/INF%20SRCS%202006/Informed%20Sources%2008%202006%20p3.htm"DfT outlines the HLOS"
And an article about Dr Mike Mitchell, the Director General, Rail at the DfT:
April 2005
http://www.alycidon.com/ALYCIDON%20RAIL/INFORMED%20SOURCES%20ARCHIVE/INF%20SRCS%202005/Informed%20sources%2004%202005%20p4.htm"DG Rail – the axeman cometh"
Quote: "‘If they are looking for a dour personality to close lines and reduce costs without a thought as to the social implications, they have got the right person'."
Here is a link to an article entitled "French trains? They're worse than ours."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/25/wrail25.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/25/ixnews.htmlHere are some quotes from it :
"Britain has saved most of its network through an "enormous catch-up effort," but vast tracts of the French system are being ruined by a short-sighted repair policy, said Robert Rivier, a Swiss professor."
"Mr Rivier, the author of a damning audit on the railway ordered by the French government, said track needed to be renewed and ageing or underused lines closed, rather than patching up infrastructure."
"While the TGV network remained the envy of the world, the high-speed system only ran on 1,000 miles of track from a total of 19,000 miles. The smaller regional lines have been left by the wayside, Mr Rivier said."
"He estimated that two thirds of the national network would be unusable by 2025."
"In Great Britain, it took dozens of deaths, after which the British took remarkable action," he said."
"They made choices, set out a long-term strategy and chose to scrap parts of the network. The French have that ahead of them."
Here are a couple of quotes from the Network Rail Business Plan 2006 :
"The creation of the Greater Western franchise in April 2006 will see the introduction of a simplified train service structure for the route, particularly west of Taunton, from December 2006. This will eradicate some of the current service duplication and better meet existing demand."
"Expenditure
The age of rail and sleepers on the route is amongst the highest on the national network and varies between 30 and 40 years old and to address this we are implementing a track renewals strategy which matches the traffic usage of the route. This will include the deployment of Network Rail’s new High Output equipment on the most intensely used part of the route, between Reading and Exeter, to deliver a higher track quality with absolute minimum rail failures; more conventional targeted renewals will be carried out on the less intensely used sections beyond Exeter, with patch repairs and renewals to maintain stable infrastructure on the more rural branch lines."
It will not have escaped your attention that ALL of the Devon & Cornwall Branch Lines feature on the "least-used lines in Britain" list.
Here is an example from the 1980's (BR days) of where such a track renewals strategy can lead (Visit the "Destruction of a railway" section of the link below.)
http://home.clara.net/wealdenline/st_set.htmlHere is a quote from the above link :
"With the closure of Tunbridge Wells West station in July 1985, it was with almost indecent haste that steps were taken to realise the lucrative redevelopment potential of the site by constructing a large shopping centre."
"It is interesting to reflect that in this way, a transport site which had the potential to contribute to a reduction in local road traffic has now become a very significant local generator of such traffic."
Here is a link that highlights how the closure process works today.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_railways/documents/page/dft_railways_039661.pdfHere is one that highlights how the closure process would work under the new DfT Closure Guidance.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/F3641215?thread=2441627A Huge THANK YOU to Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram for coming along today and giving us their support.
They take to Westmister with them a view of a service that show much that's good in secondary rail services - a real success story that's had traffic rise 8 fold in 5 years to 109,000 journeys per annum, through towns such as Chippenham (44,000) and Melksham (24,000) which are set to grow by 30% in the next few years.
Chris spoke of all the money being spent on the Railway Industry through Network Rail, much on big "showcase" type projects, where at the same time the DfT are "cheesepairing" and trying to save a few quid here and there on short term cuts to services which are getting more viable not less year on year, and will be sorely missed in 5 years time if they're axed in 5 months time. Problem is .... once you effectively scrap a service that's got 32 people per train riding, they'll melt away and NOT come back if you re-instate a year later. Problem is ... if you re-align the track away from the platform to allow freight trains to go through faster, you'll not simply be able to restart the service anyway. Chris also spoke of the excessive beauracracy involced in frachising and franchise admin with all the various companies involved, and how frankly impossible the civil servants who have to manage the system are finding it to do an effective job I may have paraphrased some of this badly ... will post up links to any other published comments later
More - MUCH more - to follow on the visit ...
P.S. Chris's message ... KEEP CAMPAIGNING ... all is not yet lost.
Having got ourselves into a position where we could avoid the mistakes of our French counterparts , we would appear to be about to embark on a policy that would copy those same mistakes.
Some "uneconomical" SNCF (French Railways) services have been replaced by SNCF buses in recent years. Many that still operate are , to a surprisingly large extent , dependent on the French equivalent of regional & local funding to survive. A sizeable number of smaller stations are served by a very limited train service as a result.
For a French - style railway system to work for local train services in Britain , regional & local authorities plus PTA's would have to be encouraged to fund rail services.
Here is a link from the Future Of Transport White Paper.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_about/documents/page/dft_about_031274.hcsp"5.17 We intend to give Passenger Transport Authorities the ability to choose whether to channel subsidy towards rail or other forms of public transport. In some cases, buses might provide both a better service and better value for money."
"5.18 We recognise that Passenger Transport Authorities may not be willing to consider this unless they can be certain that bus routes, timings and fares will meet passenger needs and work well with the national timetable. We will amend the Transport Act 2000 to make it easier for Passenger Transport Authorities to introduce Quality Contracts as part of a strategy that includes modification of rail services."
(The official name for the DfT Closure Guidance is "Railways act 2005: Implementation of network modification provisions."
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_railways/documents/divisionhomepage/611062.hcsp)
"5.19 Passenger Transport Authorities will be able to decide whether to take greater control of their bus routes and associated budgets by deciding which rail routes are best value and which would be more efficiently replaced by bus services."
Future Analysis link.
http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=421.msg1243#msg1243Just as I have got to know the Melksham area well over the last few months , I also know the Loudeac area of Brittany well , as I used to holiday there with my ex.
Here is the current Loudeac - St-Brieuc Monday - Friday timetable.
From Loudeac :
0652 Bus
0916 Bus
1413 Bus
1559 Train
1902 Bus
1926 Train
From St-Brieuc :
0740 Bus
1015 Bus
1215 Bus
1423 Train
1734 Bus
1825 Train
Up until recently the train ran onwards to Pontivy , but that section is covered by an all - bus service now.
Here is the latest Bus / Rail December 2006 Melksham timetable , but as the link below points out , this may be subject to further change.
http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/loncombined.html
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