LATEST NEWSLETTER
Station footfall on the Cambrian grew by 9.2% in 2009-2010
Aberystwyth
Footfall for 2008/2009 was 273,410, compared to 218,498 in 2002/2003.
Work on the station refurbishment WAS due to start "in early 2011"....ahem ahem. As of the end of January 2012, nothing had happened.
Llandre
Consultants employed by TraCC managed to get the backs of the residents of Llandre up
with their plan for a proposed station showing the village playground consumed by a station
car park. Apparently they weren't consulted about it.
Borth
The Line Liaison Committee were told that Borth's footfall for the first 9 months of 2010
was c61,000. The ORR figure for the year 08/09 was c47,000. Observations from
members suggest that fare collection has been more effective recently.
There has been uproar reported amongst the student fraternity some of whom decided to take accommodation in
Borth blithely assuming their Young Persons Railcards would get them discount for their
daily commute into Aberystwyth. The national terms and conditions have changed some-
what: you cannot use a Young Persons railcard before 0930 and can only buy tickets over
the value of £12.00 now. However all is not lost for the students who can, as with any other
residents of Borth, buy a Cambrian Local Railcard for just £5.00 and use it before 0930.
Work has been completed on the renovation of the offices on Borth Station which opened as a museum in Mid July. The long haul of meetings, planning submissions, estimates and tenders etc., has finally come to fruition and after three years,
The building now houses
various collections, including Village History, Railway and Industrial heritage Collections
and Natural History and Environmental displays.
The renovation of this building, subleased from Arriva Trains Wales, is being
funded from various sources, including Borth Station Volunteers, The Railway Heritage
Fund, Cambrian Railways Partnership and the industrial heritage fund known as PLWM.
If you feel you want to contribute to this exciting heritage project, have anything
to donate or loan to the collection or wish to join the Friends of the Museum, or think you
can help in any other way, please contact George on 01970871850. The Museum is staffed by volunteers.
Tywyn Bus Connections
A revised bus timetable came into force w/e/f 31/10/11 following cessation of Arriva from
the Machynlleth/Tywyn/Dolgellau route. Lloyds Coaches have implemented a reduced
service in the daytime only, from Machynlleth to Tywyn, with the first and last only
continuing to Bryncrug & Llanegryn.
Those travelling to Tywyn by train should note that
THERE IS NOW NO BUS CONNECTION FOR TYWYN FROM THE 18.46 TRAIN INTO
MACHYNLLETH. There remains of course the train to Barmouth on Fridays only. The last
bus from Machynlleth leaves there at 17.15, almost in the shadow of the 17.06 train. [Via
Bill Redfern]
Dovey Junction
Footfall for 2008/2009 was 1,494, compared to 804 in 2002/2003.
Surprisingly the Aberystwyth line platform, Numbered 2, has not been split into
a & b, given that it will be capable of holding two trains simultaneously.
Machynlleth
Footfall for 2008/2009 was 107,346 compared to 81,219 in 2002/2003.
The Department for Transport has announced under its "Access for All" scheme funding of
£1 million to construct a lift and footbridge between the 2 platforms. Further monies will be
contributed by Welsh Government to complete the scheme but with continued lack of
investment in what the all will be accessing is it really worth the money if trains are still too
infrequent or short formed and the fares too expensive to be attractive to the all? SARPA's
own disability focus group comes up with the same issues as other passengers on
overcrowding, connections etc. Perhaps we should make these a "disabled" issue and see
if money is showered?
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Carno Station:- Business Case (With comment from Sarpa News No 56 by "The Brigadier")
In view of the lengthy investigations and appraisals with which the protagonists of a revived Carno station have been involved, it was interesting to note in "Modern Railways" for January 2012 a column which began "Research suggesting that traditional transport appraisal techniques
fail to capture the full economic impact of investing in stations has
been published by Network Rail........."
The magazine said that the report, published in conjunction with Steer Davies Gleave had found that stations can act as regional gateways, helping to stimulate economic growth and attract business. Actual benefits associated with station investment greatly exceeded, by between five and seven times, those estimated by traditional transport appraisal techniques. Food for thought?
In the meantime, (The Brigadier says) we've all heard about business cases: we're often told that a particular scheme hasn't got
one or occasionally we hear that a scheme such as High Speed 2 has. However once and
a while the nitty-gritty of how they're worked out is made available, and in the case of Carno
station a distinctly sour taste is left in the mouth. TraCC commissioned consultants Capita
Symonds to look at the business cases for reopening Carno and Bow St Stations and some
funny results fell out the woodwork, exposing the inputs chosen for the methodology as
suspect. The success or not of schemes appears to be rigged by what's chosen as its
inputs.
You'll remember that the estimated benefits of a particular scheme expressed in
monetary terms are divided by the estimated cost of providing the scheme. The greater the
resultant ratio is in the positive the more chance the scheme has of being approved.
Historically getting a ratio somewhere near 2.0 was seen as in the green light zone, i.e. the
cost of doing it was around about half the cost of the benefits. Sounds great doesn't it?
Carno's station came out at a sickly 1.15 - nowhere near green light status. Carno Station
Action Group obtained the report and found the following suspect assumptions used by the
consultants:
- 1. Nearly 4000 existing journeys per annum will no longer be made on the line. The
two minute slowing down of the schedule to stop at Carno will put these folk off
travelling according to the consultants and the lost revenue was counted as a
cost: c£25K.
- 2. The annual maintenance cost of the station would be a staggering £35K.
- 3. The station car park would need to be raised 1.5m out of the floodplain at a cost
of c£250K.
- 4. Vehicle operating costs saved i.e. the cost saved by folk not driving assumed
petrol prices rise at 0.2% per annum.
It's not too hard to question these. Will 2 minutes in the schedule really have any
difference on someone making the decision to travel from Aberystwyth to Birmingham? Is
the station to have its own full time caretaker with a generous paint allowance? No one who
lives in the village can recall the allocated field for the car parking flooding in living memory.
Is raising it therefore necessary? Petrol costs have risen by an average of 3% per annum
for the last decade, and are expected to continue in this vein, therefore the real savings
would be far higher than the consultants' assumed value and so beneficial to the case.
It looks like the good old fudge - find additional costs and knock down the estimated
benefits to make sure the scheme you don't like doesn't have a business case. CSAG
calculate that assuming no passengers are lost, a sensible maintenance cost, no rising of
the car park and using real petrol costs, the BCR is around 1.7. (See also this link to Department for Transport website)
Still not good enough? Well consider this: the Western Mail reports that the cost of the
Welsh Government's (WG) own favourite pet transport project, the dualling of the A465 Heads
of the Valleys road, has risen so much since the BCR for it was first estimated, that if a
reassessment was made today which included the reality of falling traffic levels and hefty
rises in insurance and petrol the scheme wouldn't even hit a BCR of 1.0!
WG didn't even deny it: a spokeswoman said "Dualling this road will help improve
safety, shorten travel times for commuters and businesses and contribute to the wider
regeneration of the region," adding that benefit-to-cost ratios (BCRs) formed only part of
the decision-making process. "The overall appraisal needs to take account of all of the
costs and benefits of schemes, such as their economic, environmental and social impacts."
As anyone with any common sense knows (which clearly the silly girl in the press office
doesn't) these are already factored into the BCR calculations!
Which makes you wonder why BCR is used at all, if you're in control it seems you just
plough ahead with your 35 year old out of date and irrelevant Welsh Office roads masterplan, even if scores of railway station reopening proposals are whopping your business
cases backside.
Pontdolgoch (Closed 14th June 1965)
Station house adjacent to Cambrian main line for sale. Offers around £150,000, we are told. Contact Morris, Marshall and Poole at their Newtown Office for more details.
Caersws
New "Customer Information Screens (or "Train Describers" to those of a certain age) were due to be installed towards the end of 2011.
The manually operated level crossing gates and signals plus associated wiring rods and
levers were removed on 19th March 2011 ready for ERTMS operation and the crossing keepers
made redundant. The box at Caersws had been opened under Cambrian Railways
ownership in 1891 built by Duttons of Worcester. Until 1987 it controlled a crossing loop
and block sections either side to Talerddig and Newtown, prior to 1965 the sections were
to Moat Lane Junction West and Pontdolgoch.
Caersws Community Council is looking to set up station adopters.
Moat Lane Junction
From a briefing given to the National Assembly for Wales Enterprise and Learning
Committee in January 2011 by Professor Stuart Cole, Professor of Transport, Wales
Transport Research Centre, University of Glamorgan Business School:
"Re-opening of the Moat Lane junction to Builth Road section primarily for freight
operation to enable increased use of both the Cambrian and Heart of Wales lines for
freight movements between South Wales and North West England and give some relief
to the congestion in the Cardiff - Newport areas". We presume that Professor Cole will understand that after the introduction of an hourly service, the route could only be used at night because of the line occupation on the Cambrian.
Newtown
Footfall for 2008/2009 was 110,034, compared to 80,540 in 2002/2003.
The scaffolding that has covered the Royal Welsh Warehouse/Pryce Jones building next
to the station has at last been removed after over 12 months work. The owners with grant
aid have spent £2 million renewing the roof, windows and sand blasting the exterior. The
external condition is the best it's been for a number of decades. Stonework on the front
reveals the buildings links to the railway with a stone carving of an LNWR "Alfred the Great" Webb Compound
locomotive clearly on view. The Warehouse was built in 1879 and extended in 1886/1887.
A further building on the other side of the road known as Agriculture House completed in
1902 according to several sources though the building bears 1895 in large lettering on it.
Newtown draper Pryce Jones
started the World's first mail order business in 1859 and his company provided a thriving parcels trade that the
railway dealt with. The goods were shipped in LNWR built vans with Pryce Jones lettering and marked "Return to Euston". It was taken over by
larger concerns in 1938 and subsequently had several name changes.
The upper floors of the building were
operating as a catalogue call centre up
into its closure in January 2011. The
1979 working timetable for the line
showed a parcels train running down to
Newtown in the morning and returning
empty to Shrewsbury. Conversations
with older members of the community
reveal it was being used as a returns
centre for Kays Catalogue at that time.
What happened to the returned goods?
The buildings still house several retail
companies and members of the public
can walk in and browse. The top floors
of the original building are not accessible and the call centre is still there with desks and
computers in situ. Shop Direct apparently have the lease until the end of March 2013 and
seem to have mothballed the facility. |
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Welshpool
Footfall has now passed 100,000, compared to 60,538 in 2002/2003.
No work has yet been been done with regard to repairing the station footbridge, although we learned during 2011 that the matter was supposedly in hand and the intention was that work would have started "in June". We believe this information originated from Welshpool's Town Clerk, though as far as we are aware, he did not state which June he meant. In the meantime that doyen of accurate and impartial information the County Times published a piece
at the end of October claiming that the station footbridge will be resurfaced. Ah yes. But WHEN?
Since the introduction of full ERTMS working in March, the Down platform has remained largely out of use unless trains are required to cross at Welshpool.
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As of mid February 2012, the new customer information screens have been made to work properly and are now displaying train running information. However, there is no longer any means of summoning any form of assitance at the station, should it be required.
It was claimed by a County Times (30/12/11/) columnist that a mother and young
toddler had been refused access to a train due to overcrowding and left to wait on a
following bus in freezing cold conditions. No date or time was given.
Buttington
From November 2011, piles of steel sleepers have been noted stored ready for use by Network Rail on the site of the station at Buttington.
Middletown
We are pleased to note that the veritable forest growing out of the overbridge at Middletown, adjacent to the site of the station (closed 1964) has been cleared.
Shrewsbury
Footfall for 2008/2009 was 1,595,812, compared to 1,258,246 in 2002/2003.
Severn Bridge Junction signal box, built by the LNWR in 1903, is set to continue in service until at least
2030. It is now the largest lever-operated box in the world, with 180 levers. |
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Severn Bridge Junction Signal Box, seen here in May 2006, with some serious motive power using the triangle to turn. The box has since been repainted in the full LNWR livery of buff and brown.
Shropshire County Council have now officially dropped its campaign to build the so
called North West Relief Road, conceding that getting the £100 million plus funding was
unlikely in the current climate. Instead they are backing a £30 million package of traffic
calming and control measures, including the building of the long mooted Shrewsbury
Parkway station - on the Wolverhampton line near to where the A49/A5 roads split/join.
The current A49/A5 bypass around the town dates from the early 1990's, an
earlier bypass just involving the A5 was built in the 1930's avoiding the town centre. It
should be noted that a bypass on a bypass has not resolved traffic congestion in the
centre of the town. It should also be noted that an arrival into Shrewsbury station around
0830 in the morning from the Cambrian would take traffic off the A458 road.
Cosford Station
Cosford station is to be rebuilt in a £2.1 million project. There will be new platforms and
waiting shelters, new lighting and customer information screens. The work started on 31st
October and is hoped will be completed by the end of March 2012. During reconstruction
the station will be closed, and road transport provided from Albrighton station.
Telford:- RE-OPENED RAIL LINE BETWEEN STAFFORD AND TELFORD?
Rail chiefs in Shropshire have unveiled ambitious £230 million plans to re-open the Telford to Stafford railway line creating a direct link from Shrewsbury to London in under 2 1/2 hours. Shropshire, Telford & the Marches Strategic Rail Group has voted to lobby the government to back its bid to fill the gap left when the Wrexham and Shropshire Railway ceased operating in January. The group, which includes members of Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Herefordshire councils, believes that there is no room for expansion at Birmingham New Street and that a route via Stafford is the quickest, cheapest and most realistic option for re-establishing a direct link to the capital.
The rail group wants stations at Donnington, Newport and Gnosall to be re-established along a dual line that would roughly follow that which existed until the 1960s. Members have travelled in a bus along the potential route and were pleasantly surprised by the lack of work that would be needed, with only a small detour required at new houses in Donnington. They have already held meetings with Network Rail and Association of Train Operating Companies about the proposals. - Stafford Railway
Circle website.
Gowerton
We noted in the railway press that the Swansea-Llanelli redoubling is likely to go ahead to reverse the singling of approximately six miles though Gowerton in 1986. This now places a serious constraint on service frequency and recovery from delays for West Wales services, including hourly workings from Milford Haven or Carmarthen. Loughor Viaduct which is on the route is said to be now too weak to support the loads associated with reversion to double track. Funding for a new viaduct was said to have been earmarked just before the May elections for the Welsh Assembly.
Meanwhile the obfuscation with regard to the Chester-Wrexham redoubling continues, with silly proposals for dynamic loops instead of double track thoughout. The reason? The existence of 2 single track bridges built in the 1980s, one over and one under the A483 Gresford - Pulford bypass. It would of course be very difficult to imagine a road scheme for a dual carriageway being contstrained in such a manner by the existence of a single carriageway bridge over a railway! Interesting too that the Gowerton redoubling is in South Wales. Double standards or what?!
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Timetable Changes and Hourly Service Update
We met with our assembly member, Russell George in January and he said he would ask questions regarding the proposed hourly service in the Assembly. We include here the complete transcript with the replies from the minister, Carl Sargeant. . We leave it up to people to make their own minds up........... We gather that some of our members are Not Very Impressed with the responses!
WRITTEN ASSEMBLY QUESTION
FOR ANSWER BY THE MINISTER FOR
LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITIES
ON 24 JANUARY 2012
Russell George (Montgomeryshire): What considerations led the Minister to
defer the implementation of a daytime hourly service between Aberystwyth and
Shrewsbury beyond 2011, in contradiction to the commitment made in the
National Transport Plan. (WAQ59579)
Carl Sargeant: In May 2011, I announced that I would prioritise the
remaining interventions in the National Transport Plan. This meant that
every project not already started was subject to review. The Plan was
published on 7 December 2011.
Russell George (Montgomeryshire): What are the Welsh Government's perceived
barriers to the introduction of the hourly service between Aberystwyth and
Shrewsbury. (WAQ59580)
Carl Sargeant: Network Rail has commissioned its new ERTMS signalling system
on the Cambrian Line. This was delayed by a number of different technical
issues, which led to reliability problems with train services. It also led
to a delay in our planning for an enhanced timetable as we were unable to
establish the train running times that could realistically be achieved with
the new signalling system and enhanced infrastructure.
The train services are now more reliable although there is scope for further
improvement. There are still some infrastructure problems affecting
reliability, and we have made it clear to Network Rail that it needs to
address these quickly at its own cost, which it is doing. These
infrastructure issues also prevent the introduction of an enhanced service
pattern.
When Network Rail addresses these infrastructure issues we will have a clear
understanding of how an enhanced timetable would work. A number of different
timetable options have been prepared, and my officials are discussing these
in detail with Network Rail and Arriva Trains Wales. Following this, my
officials will provide me with detailed advice, and I will consider the
introduction of additional services when Network Rail completes its
remaining work.
Russell George (Montgomeryshire): Does the Minister intend to introduce the
hourly service between Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury as soon as possible in
2012. (WAQ59581)
Carl Sargeant: I refer you to my answer for WAQ59580 which explains the
barriers to the introduction of additional services on the Cambrian Line. I
will consider the introduction of additional services when Network Rail has
ensured that the infrastructure is robust.
Russell George (Montgomeryshire): With regards to the rail service between
Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury, what preparatory work in terms of timetable
drafting and crew diagramming has the Welsh Government commissioned from
Network Rail and Arriva Trains Wales respectively. (WAQ59582)
Carl Sargeant: We have commissioned our own preparatory work, which has
formed the basis of our discussions with Network Rail and Arriva Trains
Wales. We have asked Network Rail to model the robustness of the train
running times on the new infrastructure and to identify where it needs to
make improvements so that an hourly daytime service can be achieved.
Russell George (Montgomeryshire): Has Arriva Trains Wales been asked to
quote for the cost of the extra service and if so, what was the
specification for these extra services and what was the final quoted cost.
(WAQ59583)
Carl Sargeant: I refer you to my answer for WAQ59580 which explains the
barriers to the introduction of additional services on the Cambrian Line.
Arriva Trains Wales has provided us with costs, however, these cannot be
finalised until the infrastructure issues are resolved by Network Rail.
Arriva buys Grand Central
Grand Central, an open access operator, has been added to Arriva's portfolio of Arriva
Trains Wales, Cross Country and Chiltern Railways franchises, and their concessions to
operate the Tyne and Wear Metro, and as a joint venture, London Overground.
The Uk's Most Reliable Diesel Train
Is the Class 158 DMU. Yes the self same that we have here on the Cambrian. The bad news for us is that the units which have achieved this are operated by South West Trains, with a staggering 81,202 miles per technical incident (MTIN). Arriva Trains Wales, meanwhile are bottom of the heap, with only 2,466 MTIN. Arriva are blaming ETCS, though in the previous method of reporting casualties, which changed to "MTIN" 4 days after the introduction of our new signalling system, Arriva were still in last place, with the units running only 3,765 miles per 5 minute delay (MP5MD). South West Trains, meanwhile managed 43,464 MP5MD in the same period. Clearly some room for improvement here. (Gleaned from "Modern Railways")
Clearly, South West Trains have achieved something to be proud of here and indeed, this is the sort of thing we should expect from diesel traction if indeed it is all its cracked up to be. Steam traction on the old LNWR managed over 30,000 miles per failure and for Arriva to crawl home with around a tenth of this figure with modern traction is a disgrace. The message is quite clear. Get busy and sort it out! We look forward to seeing some positive results from Arriva!
Number Crunching
The webmaster noticed an article in the "Big Issue" rescently, which stated that the total cost of a fatal road accident is estimated to be £1.8m. As around 3000 people are killed on the roads every year, if true this puts the total bill to the UK economy at around £5,400 million. Thats just the fatal statistics, without any casualties who are seriously injured or whatever. One wonders whether any of this financial burden is rightly apportioned to road transport, or whether it just gets shoved under the health budget. All the same, it rather puts a different perspective on the cost of ERTMS and TPWS!
PLANS TO PUT PASSENGERS AT THE HEART OF RAIL REGULATION
Plans for the rail regulator to be given more powers to protect passengers' interests are the subject
of a joint consultation by the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR).
The consultation,'A greater role for ORR regulating passenger franchisees in England and Wales',
seeks views on the potential for an expanded role for ORR so that it can put passengers at the heart
of regulation. Under the proposals, which would see the Government step back from rail regulation,
new licence conditions would enable the independent rail regulator to ensure passenger complaints
are handled properly as well as to take on responsibility for monitoring train performance and
service standards. The plans aim to simplify the landscape of regulation in England and Wales to
make the rail industry more efficient, cost effective and transparent. The closing date for comments
is 2 Mar 2012. Details here. - rail-reg.gov.uk
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Newsletter 57 April 2012
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