NEWS ARCHIVE 2006

See below for the full article under each of these headlines:

Christmas Engineering Works  

25 October 2006

Network Rail will be closing the Brighton main line at Earlswood for engineering works this Christmas between 23 and 28 Dec 2006.On 23 and 24 Dec, the slow lines will be closed at Earlswood, so Horsham-London trains will not call at Earlswood, Salfords, Redhill or Merstham. Fast line trains between London and the south coast will run as normal. On 27 and 28 Dec, all four tracks at Earlswood will be closed. Southern will operate a half hourly service between Victoria and Three Bridges via Dorking and Horsham. For Arun Valley stations to Chichester. change at Horsham. For Brighton and Eastbourne, change at Three Bridges. The stopping service on the Dorking line will be replaced by buses between Horsham and Leatherhead. On 29 and 30 Dec, Arun Valley trains will terminate at Three Bridges, where passengers will have to change for Gatwick, Redhill and London.

Network Rail will be closing the West Coastway line to renew signalling in the Portsmouth area between 23 Dec 2006 and 5 Feb 2007.

From 23 Dec 2006 to 2 Jan 2007, trains to Portsmouth and Southampton will terminate at Chichester with buses operating to all stations west of Chichester. From 3 Jan to 5 Feb 2007, trains to Portsmouth will terminate at Fratton, with buses running to Portsmouth. Southampton services will run normally.

Brighton Main Line Route Utilisation Strategy

23 December 2006

The Brighton Main Line RUS recommends that the Gatwick Express is merged with Southern's Sussex Coast trains. These 8 per hour trains would stop at Clapham Junction, East Croydon and Gatwick Airport and then continue to the Sussex Coast; 2 to Eastbourne, 2 to Brighton, 2 to Worthing and 2 to Chichester. This would solve overcrowding at East Croydon, improve performance by making better use of capacity and quicken journey times to South Coast destinations. For Arun Valley passengers, journey times to London would improve by 10 mins since our off peak trains would no longer serve Redhill and take the fast line from Gatwick Airport to East Croydon.

The draft RUS was issued in September 2004 by the Strategic Rail Authority and a consultation on the RUS closed in December 2004. The responses to the consultation were spilt, with passengers generally in favour of the proposals but the airline industry opposed. It was not until February 2006 that the Department for Transport (who had replaced the SRA) published the final RUS. This delay was due to considerable pressure from Gatwick Airport companies such as British Airports Authority and the airlines, who dramatically termed the RUS 'Murder of the Gatwick Express'. Further delay was envisaged with Winter 2007 now being the implementation date. In September 2006, DfT issued a second consultation with four options. Three options retained the Gatwick Express and option 1 reflected the original RUS. 

This consultation has now closed and Avrua expects the results to be the same as the previous consultation. Passengers in favour of the original proposals, Gatwick airlines against. There is no doubt that the majority of passengers will benefit from option 1 but it seems increasingly unlikely that the DfT will signal the end of the Gatwick Express due to the political pressure from the airline industry. If this is the case, the benefits to overcrowding, performance and journey times for Brighton Main Line passengers will be lost and the unsatisfactory status quo maintained. Another consideration is that Southern's franchise comes up for renewal in 2009. It may be that the DfT will combine the RUS and franchise negotiations in 2008 but this is by no means certain. This will mean that the RUS may not be implemented until 2009, five years after the RUS originally saw the light of day. 

Horsham prepared for winter

2 October 2006

Those of you who are observant, may have spotted several Network Rail infrastructure trains occupying the goods yard at Horsham. These trains are Network Rail's de-icing fleet for the Southern area, which have been moved from Effingham Junction. With our own fleet now battling adverse weather conditions, there should be no excuses this winter for bad weather affecting trains at Horsham.

Get On With It

16 August 2006

Letter to Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP, Secretary of State for Transport

The West Sussex Rail Users Association represents rail passengers on the Arun Valley line from Three Bridges to Chichester, Bognor Regis and Littlehampton.

In February 2006, DfT published the Brighton Main Line Route Utilisation Strategy and recommended early implementation of their proposals. As far as we can see nothing has happened in the six months since. We cannot understand why there are further delays to these sensible proposals, when both Southern and Network Rail completed their work on the new timetable several months ago.

As you know, this long running saga began in September 2004 when the SRA published its draft Brighton Main Line Route Utilisation Strategy. The recommendations will speed up journey times, improve performance and relieve congestion on the Brighton Main Line. The original implementation date for these changes was December 2005. This matter has now been under consideration for 2 years and we are frustrated with the slow progress by DfT.

We would remind you that there are 40m Sussex coast passengers compared with only 4.8m Gatwick Express passengers. Despite BAA’s high profile campaign, the majority of passengers (90%) on the Brighton Main Line will benefit from these proposals and the final strategy agreed with this view.

We understand from Network Rail that the planned implementation date is June 2007 but we are concerned that this will be missed. Bearing in mind the snail’s pace so far, I would ask you to fast track these proposals for the benefit of the majority of passengers.

I would be grateful if you could assure me that the proposals will be implemented as promised in the June 2007 timetable and look forward to receiving your reply.

Response to New Cross Country Franchise Consultation

10 July 2006

 

Executive Summary

This is a response from the Arun Valley Rail Users’ Association (WSRUA) to the DfT’s consultation on the New Cross Country Franchise.

We consider the consultation to be poorly thought out, short on numbers and solely designed to cut costs on the Cross Country franchise as opposed to improving rail services. The cuts in services will lead to a reduction in rail passengers and an increase in car use. This is a cost cutters charter, which is bad for passengers, bad for the environment and bad for the country.

Our comments can be summarised as follows:

  • Opposed to the proposal to withdraw Cross Country services east of Reading, which will force people off rail and on to the motorways.
  • FGW commuter trains from Gatwick Airport to Reading are an inferior service to Cross Country trains.
  • Omission of Brighton Main Line RUS and Cross Country passenger loadings makes it difficult to judge the proposals and suggests that this is a poorly thought out strategy not based on fact.
  • Overcrowding in the Midlands is a direct result of decisions by Virgin Cross Country but can be solved by using redundant rolling stock.
  • There is a need for more Cross Country services to the south east.
  • More justification to remove Cross Country services to Aberdeen and Penzance than those to Brighton.

Murder of the Sussex Scot

We are strongly opposed to the proposal to remove Cross Country services from Guildford, Gatwick Airport and Brighton, which ends the famous ‘Sussex Scot’ Inter-City services in Surrey and Sussex. It is unacceptable that 2m residents and 32m air passengers at Britain’s second largest airport are removed from the Inter-City map.

The proposal on p23 that "the New Cross Country franchise will not operate services east of Reading" contradicts the objective on p12 that "a key characteristic of Cross Country is the provision of through journey opportunities of Inter-City quality, avoiding London."

This proposal will decrease the journey opportunities avoiding London and requires a minimum of two changes in London for many passengers. It will increase overcrowding on the already busy Southern services into Victoria, Thameslink into Kings Cross and the Underground. Many passengers will choose to use the car for their journey rather than changing.

There is no justification for the withdrawal of Cross Country services east of Reading apart from the desire to cut costs by reallocating the rolling stock. There is a demand for these services and that should be recognised by DfT.

Inferior Trains

FGW trains from Gatwick Airport to Reading are an inferior service to Cross Country trains. The rolling stock used is not of Inter-City quality, there are stops at smaller intermediate stations and it is necessary to change at Reading. They fail to serve the Brighton market and faced with two changes at Gatwick Airport and Reading passengers will not use these services to access the Cross Country network.

Omissions

There is no mention of the Brighton Main Line RUS (also issued by DfT rail), which proposes to withdraw the through Brighton-Watford Junction service. This will remove a useful link from Sussex to the North, forcing all passengers to travel across London. This omission suggests DfT Rail has not properly thought out this Cross Country strategy.

We would like to see passenger loadings of the existing Cross Country trains east of Reading, as we consider that these trains are well used. Indeed, it is impossible to judge any of the proposals as there are no figures provided on passenger loadings across the Cross Country network. It is difficult to accept the proposals when no evidence is provided to back them up.

Overcrowding

The consultation states on p24 "by not operating services between Reading and Brighton, it is possible to redeploy rolling stock to the core of the New Cross Country network strengthening some services which will reduce crowding."

We consider that overcrowding problems in the Midlands have been caused by insufficient new rolling stock being deployed by Virgin Cross Country. At the same time, redundant stock (125s) is sitting in storage unused. New Cross Country should use this redundant stock to strengthen core services rather than cut services in the south east.

More trains

The current Cross Country service from Brighton is just 2 trains per day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Virgin Cross Country promised 7 trains per day but this was never delivered due to financial difficulties. The new franchise should reinstate this proposed level of service, increasing Inter-City services to Guildford, Gatwick Airport and Brighton instead of removing them altogether.

Penzance/Aberdeen

Some Cross Country services will be extended to Penzance and Aberdeen (p22) beyond the core route from Plymouth and Edinburgh. These extensions cannot be a sensible use of existing rolling stock as First Great Western and Scotrail already provide an hourly service over these routes and population numbers are much lower in these areas than in the south east. For example Cornwall has 500,000 residents compared to more than 2m in Surrey and Sussex.

However it is impossible to judge whether to retain these services to Penzance/ Aberdeen as there are no figures on passenger loadings.

Passenger watchdog accuses Thameslink of confusion and greed

13 June 2006

WSRUA, the local passenger watchdog, has expressed its frustration that the Thameslink name has been changed to First Capital Connect ("FCC"), meaning unnecessary confusion for passengers, whilst some fares have almost doubled by reducing the validity of cheap day returns.

Separately the latest national passenger survey, published by Passenger Focus, has put Thameslink as the second worst of the London and South East train operators, with overall satisfaction at 74%.

Clive Burgess, WSRUA secretary said: "Thameslink is well known as the cross-London rail line and we think it is confusing for passengers if that name disappears. A rail franchise is let for just seven years. It’s a short term thing but it seems that we see a change in name and the trains repainted in a different livery every time a franchise changes hands? It’s just a waste of money. We’ve also seen name changes locally with Southern being the third name and livery in the last ten years."

"We now have a situation where the passengers think it’s Thameslink, the enhancement project for this line is called Thameslink 2000, there’s a ticket called Thameslink DaySave and three London stations actually have Thameslink in their name but it’s called First Capital Connect. It makes no sense whatsoever and we are deeply disappointed that First has chosen this meaningless new name."

This week the news got worse for Thameslink, as they implemented huge increases in leisure fares by banning the use of cheap day returns between 16.30 and 19.00 hours on its routes north of London and came 2 from bottom with 74% in the latest national passenger survey.

Clive Burgess continued: "These dodgy fare increases will affect those people who travel to London for a day out and then find they can’t return on their ticket. The effect will be to make FCC richer but the off-peak trains even emptier. This action is directly related to the Government re-letting the franchise on a maximum cash basis and the extra income needed to meet the premiums can only come from milking the passengers. We are very worried that it will set an unwelcome precedent on other commuter routes."

"It’s not as if Thameslink is performing well. It’s the second worst south east TOC on passenger satisfaction and the third worst on performance. Overcrowding on rush hour services is appalling and they currently have no plans for additional carriages. The new management have got a lot of work to be done but they have got off to a very poor start. A confusing name, unjustified fare increases and even their managing director has been caught for fare evasion because she doesn’t understand the rules."