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The Rages Rag Newsletter of Rail Action Group, East of Scotland www.rages.org.uk Issue No. 15 - October 2002 1862 Signatures for the Re-opening of Reston Station This excellent total of 1862 27 th August. Present at this meeting was - albeit the money required for Reston is signatures consisted of 1701 collected by farmer Hugh Veitch who very kindly, on very small by comparison. RAGES and 161 by Euan Robson MSP. our behalf, reinforced the point to the At the RAGES AGM Councillor Euan arranged for the petition to be Convenor that land was available for the David Jones questioned Transport handed over to John McAllion MSP on station. John now accepts that Dunbar Minister Lewis Macdonald on the Thursday 3 rd October. Barrie Forrest and and Berwick station car parks are past problem caused by GNER withdrawing Joyce McLean having the 23.00 service from Edinburgh which done sterling work in stopped at Dunbar and Berwick and as to collecting signatures, when Reston was going to get its station. attended the Scottish This would allow the local populace the Parliament with Tom opportunity to get into Edinburgh for Thorburn. John work and leisure. David also runs a B&B McAllion was very and his guests wished to have access to receptive to our plight Edinburgh by train. The minister replied in East Berwickshire 'The GNER franchise is renewed in 2005 and indeed to rail as a and the lack of a late train should be whole. We will featured then to try and ensure its hopefully get a three provision is featured in the specification. minute slot to put our Regarding Reston station it is for case to the Parliament Scottish Borders Council, and the local community, to put forward a scheme on on 5 th November, with costs to go to the SRA for consideration'. subsequent questions thereafter. Euan showed us round the their capacity and will support Reston. debating chamber and arranged our One lesson to be learnt from this visit is tickets for the afternoon debating to fully brief the local press session. Later we met Christine photographer, who unfortunately gave Welcome to this issue of The Grahame MSP and on enquiring the his version of where the station would be Rages Rag, which we intend to reason for our visit, she reiterated her – not ours. publish regularly. It will be the main support for the Reston re-opening. Jevan Fraser of Scottish Borders means of communication with our Council Planning Department and Brian members. Other Reston News Frater from Roads Department visited Reston on 25 th September to re-draw the Inside Issue 15: Politicians and the Scottish Borders Local Plan. This meeting was attended Our third AGM - Page 2 Council Planning Department have by Barrie, Ted Clemit, Chairman of Dunbar and North Berwick News visited the proposed station site at Reston and Auchencrow Community - Page 4 Reston. Council, Hugh Veitch and Tom GNER - Page 5 Thorburn. Jevan and Brian suggested th Ticket barriers? - Page 5 On 14 July Barrie Forrest and Tom that our second option for the station 322 refurbishment - Page 6 Thorburn showed Christine Grahame access road, at the now closed auction Suggestions to SRA - Page 6 MSP around the Railtrack (now Network mart lorry entrance, would indeed be Rail) advised location of the new Reston their choice. Brian was very helpful Transport report - Page 7 station. Being suitably impressed by the with suggestions on road layouts for the New Berwick services and News site and the fact the land will be made car park. - Page 8 available for the car park and access Councillor John Elliot continues to road, she said that she would continue to query Scottish Enterprise Borders as to The editor invites contributions fight for Reston. why the Reston station re-opening which should be sent to him at the Our next visitor to Reston was feasibility study is not receiving funding “Published by” address at the foot of Council Convenor John Ross Scott on like its Central Borders Line counterpart page 8. RAGES Third Annual General Meeting The third annual general meeting of RAGES was held in the increased from £92.00 last year to £269.00 this year. Stamps West Barns Bowling Club on 14 August 2002 when around 24 and envelopes cost £302 and £20 respectively. members were present, with 17 giving their apologies. One of RAGES continues to be a member of Transform Scotland these was unable to attend as there was not the 23:00 hrs GNER and of Railfuture at a cost of £20 and £17.50 respectively. service back to Berwick! Members were welcomed by the chairman, Tom Thorburn. Membership Secretary’s/Editor’s Report Résumé of the group’s third year Russell Darling advised that there were now 193 members of RAGES, representing a 69% renewal rate. Reston and Excellent distribution of The Rages Rag had been achieved Haddington had the higher percentage of renewals, probably with electronic RAGES information being used by an increasing reflecting the desire of local residents to see rail routes number of members. Progress has been made on the North restored. In particular, thanks were expressed to Barrie Forrest Berwick lines, with most journeys now worked by Class 322 for the work he had carried out in raising the profile of the units, and hopes of a Dunbar local service improved with East organisation in Berwickshire and the Eastern Borders. Lothian Council and ScotRail promoting driver training on the Four newsletters were published during the year, with 23 line. A downside, however, was the withdrawal of the GNER members now accepting them by e-mail. E-mail registered 23:00 hrs Edinburgh-Dunbar-Berwick-Newcastle service. Work members, of which there were 72, also received electronic had been done to try and ensure that buses were more able to newsletters that disseminated up-to-date ad-hoc news on rail connect better with trains – the North Berwick to Dunbar services. service had been extended to cover Poppyfields at peak times to The website address had been given greater prominence, connect with GNER trains. Work had been carried out on resulting in 650 hits to the site compared with 225 last year. promoting feasibility studies to restore trains to Haddington and the re-opening of East Linton Station, whilst Euan Robson MSP Election of Office Bearers had also assisted in striving for a re-opening of Reston station with his petition. Before Tom Thorburn was re-elected as Chairman, tribute was paid to him for his work done over the past year. After Chairman’s Report James King had resigned from RAGES during the year, the Committee elected Barrie Forrest as temporary Vice Chairman. Tom Thorburn thanked all Committee members for their This was ratified by the meeting. To replace Glenn Moulding help and assistance during the year and also East Lothian as Dunbar Representative, Wilma Brennan volunteered and was Council for their support. accepted. Geoffrey Evison was elected to a new co-opted Although much of the Chairman’s work had been noted in position of Berwick Representative. the above résumé, Tom referred to an invitation to a Rail Ian Bowman (Treasurer), Allison Cosgrove (East Linton Passenger Council meeting which he and Barrie Forrest had Representative), Russell Darling (Membership Secretary and attended. At this meeting, they had met with the Railtrack Newsletter Editor), Charlie Marshall (North Berwick Director of Safety, Chris Leah, who provided them with an Representative) and Roy Mitchell (Minute Secretary) all wished excellent contact in the form of Willie Black – East of Scotland to remain in post and were appointed unopposed. Signalling Manager. Some of the RAGES committee members spent a Saturday with Willie Black looking at the opportunities Amendment to the Constitution - Withdrawal of for restoring loops at Reston, initially to help freight traffic, and Membership the signalling implications. It was agreed that membership may be withdrawn from Secretary’s Report anyone who was likely to discredit the organisation. Roy Mitchell advised that Committee meetings were held James King every 6 weeks to allow topics to be discussed and for any action to be agreed. Regular correspondence with ScotRail and John Denning proposed that appreciation be recorded to GNER was undertaken. A public meeting had been held in James King for his work as Vice Chairman and North Berwick Haddington to discuss restoration of rail services whilst RAGES Representative. James had had to resign from the Committee had also made a presentation to Gullane and Area Community upon his appointment to the Rail Passenger Council for Council. Scotland to avoid any conflict of interest. This was seconded by Judy Hayman and supported by the meeting. James was also a Treasurer’s Report founding member of RAGES. In the unavoidable absence of Ian Bowman, the chairman Guest Speaker presented the figures and read Ian’s report. There had been an increase in subscription rate from £2 to Lewis Macdonald, MSP and Deputy Minister for Enterprise, £3. The total income was £723.40. Transport and Lifelong Learning, but responsible for transport, The main increase in expenditure was for production and distribution of the newsletter. In particular printing charges Go to page 3 2 Lewis Macdonald From page 2 had kindly agreed to address the meeting. for the Scottish Borders Council, and the local community, to Mr Macdonald advised that events over the past 40 years - put forward a scheme on costs to go to the SRA for the Beeching Rail Closures, a policy in the 80s and 90s that consideration. provided road space on demand, bus deregulation and privatisation of bus and rail services - had created an Q John Fortune of Drem - Plans are for a large number of unbalanced policy in favour of road transport.
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