Page 1 SARPA Newsletter 39 SARPA Newsletter 39 Page 1 Shrewsbury Aberystwyth Newsletter Rail No. 39 Passengers’ Association April 2007 Chairman’s Message..................................................................................................1 News in brief...............................................................................................................2 89C rises again...........................................................................................................5 Passenger Focus and meetings with ATW.................................................................7 The view from Milepost 62..........................................................................................9 Arriva Trains Wales invites applications for its new passenger panels....................10 ‘Catch the BIG TRAINS to meet the Great Little Trains of Wales’ promotion..........10 Shrewsbury Station to gain from £738,000 investment programme.........................12 40th anniversary exhibition: ‘Over the points - 1967’: the end of steam in Shrewsbury..........................................11 SARPA to Rhodri Morgan, First Minister, National Assembly for Wales..................14 Websites...................................................................................................................15 SARPA Meetings and venues 2006...........................................................................15 CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE Having a pint in the Weatherpsoons at Aberystwyth station one day waiting to come home I was thinking nothing is ever as it seems is it? Take UK Transport Secretary’s Alexander Douglas’s “1000 new carriages” to relieve overcrowding. Well not until 2014 and the sidings are even fuller of “off lease” rolling stock in the meantime. A decade has been spent merrily acquiescing to the franchise con, yet something could have been done at any stage in the last decade about overcrowding. Imagine calling a plumber who says I’ll get round to it in 17 years! Or here in Wales where the fine print was omitted about the extra WAG funding of units for the Cambrian, guaranteed for Monday to Friday only, at the operators discretion at the weekend, as some have found out on 2 coach Saturday trains. An oft quoted “fact” is that 70% of all journeys are by car and only 7% by rail. It’s often used as a put down against rail campaigners. However look at the detail - it’s not as simplistic as that. For a start 70% of all car journeys (50% of all journeys) are less than 5 miles in length: a market that rail is just not in. The bus which accounts for 15% of all journeys is also for predominately short distance trips. Journeys over 15 miles in the UK account for 20% of all trips made, and rail market share here leaps to 28%. So far from being a minor player rail is a major player in its market. Of course some individual flows show even greater reliance on the train. When you realise that rail is such a major player in certain markets it’s then not too great a leap of faith to realise it is therefore very important economically to the country - it’s nothing to do with anoraks and locomotive numbers I’m afraid. Travel from Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury (82 miles) and rail has a more than healthy market share as Transport Wales officials admitted privately Page 2 SARPA Newsletter 39 a couple of years back. Network Rail acknowledge this in their 2007 Business plan. The railway is tied up with the economy whether some people like it or not. Which makes the decisions after the next Assembly election in May all the more important. Do we continue with our unrealistic minor incremental approach to rail improvements, or go for something a little bit more realistic and in tune with the needs of the 21st century? We have more European money to spend in the old Objective One areas this time around, with c£350 million (including match funding) being available for transport. Priority 3 is developing the strategic infrastructure for a modern economy and its objective - to equip the region with the physical infrastructure necessary for the development of a modern competitive economy, and to promote agglomeration effects. Attempts to resurrect the road building agenda are foundering on the out of control costs in the road construction industry (the current estimate for the A483 Pant/Llanymynach bypass (£50 million plus) mean that its cost benefit ratio is hopeless). So £50 million on the roads pays for a 3 miles of single carriageway bypass around two small villages in between two small border market towns, so a relatively small number of HGV’s can shave a minute or two off their journey times. Where’s the economic benefit of that versus the cost of provision? One rail scheme in the current round of structural funds is the Ebbw Vale line reopening. Reconnecting an area of c100,000 people to the rail network, six new stations, access to employment, training and shopping in the boom city of Cardiff for an unemployment black spot and all without adding to road congestion. Cost £28 million. Rail will give a much better bang for your European funding than any road scheme can hope to achieve. Do we have the courage to move forward and grasp the opportunity? Gareth Marston Newtown, April 2006. News in brief Aberystwyth Sources within the Welsh Assembly Government have confirmed that the Aberystwyth Masterplan is unlikely to include provision for the proposed station relocation. An automatic ticket machine has appeared on the platform selling a range of more popular fares, designed to be a queue buster. Its Achilles heel appears to be that it can’t cope with the wide range of destinations the users of the station request fares to. There has been some disappointment as none of the four coach formations are reaching the town, on occasion resulting in passengers having to move forward through the train when it joins the extra carriages at Machynlleth. Machynlleth Progress on the new depot has speeded up since the New Year, the most notable aspect being the construction of a new two road shed under the cliff face at the far western end of the complex where the livestock pens used to be. However it has emerged that it has been built to the wrong dimensions. Units used on the Cambrian are of course of the Class 158 variety, 23m in length the new shed can accommodate 20m Class 150’s. Some have also questioned its location in the most obvious part of the Page 3 SARPA Newsletter 39 SARPA Newsletter 39 Page 3 railway land to expand the car park which is desperately needed. It has been pointed out that plenty of land exists at the eastern end of the complex. A depot for the ERTMS equipment as been built on the UP side alongside the old entrance to the good depot. Two Class 37 locomotives have been fitted with GSM-R equipment ready for trials: they are believed to be 37411 and 37425. A pair of Class 158’s received graffiti/ paint damage in early April whilst stored overnight on April 1st/2nd. Cemmaes Road – a victory for the middle class incomers? Some local residents were up in arms over the GSM-R technology masts that have appeared along the line. They allege a lack of consultation and were worried about radiation from the masts some of which are within 100m of housing. A protest campaign attracting wide support has persuaded Network Rail to relocate the mast away from the centre of the village. Two masts will now be erected either side of the village. Carno Despite being deemed a viable option by Network Rail, WAG have instructed the GRIP 4 stage of the Cambrian One train per Hour Study to look at enhancing Talerddig loop and not relocating it to Carno as was floated initially. Carno Station Action Group feels this was a deliberate move to scupper any reopening of the village station. Weig lane The installation of automatic barriers and the lifting of the speed restriction are under- stood to be part of Network Rail plans for the ERTMs trial. Moat Lane Junction The island platform at the old junction is rapidly becoming the eyesore of the line with a collection of old HGV’s and heavy plant being stored there serving no apparent purpose. Newtown Café Loco has closed (again). The latest sub tenant apparently “did a runner” and left the towns football club in the lurch also. The lease is now up for sale: call Tim Clarke on 07789 918141 if interested. Already erected is the GSM-R mast next to the car park. Hundreds of residents of the Treowen estate live close by over the tracks. A working class estate with some single parent households. Opposition? Not a murmur! The flower bed on the DOWN platform has received new concrete edging. Shrewsbury A combination of WAG, DfT and Shropshire CC money will see the lift restored to operational use on Platform 3 and Network Rail will fund the restoration of the platform line to full operational use. How this pans out and whether Cambrian services will use it Page 4 SARPA Newsletter 39 remains to be seen but it will definitely enhance operational flexibility at the station which once boasted 7 platforms, currently only 4 are in full use. Wrexham Wrexham and Shropshire Rail Company have suffered a setback, and have had to resubmit their plans to the Office of Rail Regulator following objections, mainly from Virgin Trains. Arriva also objected claiming that the new service would get in the way of their trains and make them late – which is exactly the same argument made by Virgin and Central Trains when Arriva try and get their trains paths to Birmingham International! Freight on the Cambrian returns. OK maybe not what you would expect if you remember the Stanlow Oil tanks to Aberystwyth but if you have a resource why not use it! The 0633 from Birmingham New St has been observed carrying a new PC to Machynlleth station and even a fridge freezer for the catering trolley base at Aberystwyth.