Some interesting comments / information from Rail Future national meeting, Ely, 3.11.07

Presenation by group from France, looking at the overall public transport with concentration on rail, primarlity in the Ile de France region.   As I was "next on", I'm afraid that I concentrated more on checking my own notes than listening to the presentation in detail, but I notes.

"Wagon Wheel Effect" - 80% of commutes in and out of Paris are by public transport, but only 20% of the commutes that are between suburbs.  I would be interested to know the London figure.  I also classify Trowbridge - Swindon as "between suburbs" for this measure.

Some growth rates on improved services quoted - into double figures, as has been shown on the TransWilts too.  So this isn't local or even national - why on earth is the curent service based on 0.8% growth which is less that a tenth of the practical experience that everyone seems to have?

In France, the customer pays around 70% of the true cost of his trip, with there being a subsidy of around 30%.

Presentations by the Fen Line Rail User's Group, and the Cotswold Line Group both showed how such campaigns can succeeed.

King's Lynn has a population of 57000 and at one time was threatened with closure. But train services have risen from 5 a day to 23.  Like Melksham, King's Lynn is about 100 miles from London.  This line also serves Watlington, Downham Market, Littleport (exclusively) and Ely and Waterbeach along with several other operators. There are now no fewer than 62 trains a day between Ely and Cambridge.  I note that Cambridge is NOT part of the campaign but rather is the main destination.

Key points - Reasonable Aspitations
- Talk to everyone and keep everyone on side
Sound bits - "The railways are now far more nationalised than they were when under nationalisation"

Cotswold Line Promotion Group.  Another excellent case or re-growth, this time within what is now the FGW area. At one stage, the line was served by two expresses a day for commuter traffic, and an Oxford - Worcster shuttle during the day. Aspiration is an hourly though service, London to Worcster, during the day with extensions of alternate trains to Hereford.  And half hourly in the peak.

These give us hope and inspiration as well as a great deal of practical hints and tips.   By nature of such a day, there's a limit to how many notes I can take to this is something of a summary - especially of those talks directly before and after mine!