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General Aims and Objectives New Year Wishes 2010
SARPA's Aims & Objectives
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| 1) | That
the railway is run in the most efficient and cost
effective manner: we firmly believe that multiple
contractual interfaces between numerous fragmented
operators is not the best way to achieve this as the last
ten years since privatisation amply demonstrates. The
achievement of our other aims will be easier and cheaper
to achieve if this fundamental is got right. |
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| 2) | That
seating capacity on all trains is sufficient for existing
demand and to cater for growth, which has been sustained
over a very long period of time. |
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| 3) | That up
to date real time information is available at all
stations |
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| 4) | That a
minimum standard of station facility in terms of
specification for waiting shelters; provision of
information; usable car parking facilities; cleanliness (both
platform and whole station environment) and lighting are
both set and adhered to. |
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| 5) | That
there are sufficient platform and on board staff to cater
properly for passenger needs. |
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| 6) | That
there is proper integration with bus services both
physically and by ticketing. In a rural area running both
bus and train services as one entity has great advantages
and may help facilitate Aim 5. |
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| 7) | That a
more frequent service exists than the two hourly or
greater gaps that are currently on offer. |
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| 8) | That
track capacity is sufficient to maintain efficiently the
punctuality of the service and accommodate an hourly
passenger service as well as being able to support
freight and charter train movements. |
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| 9) | That the timetable designed around transport needs relating to wider policy objectives this includes: |
| i | A morning commuter train into Shrewsbury (and return). | |
| ii | Proper connections with the coast line at Dovey Junction/Machynlleth. | |
| iii | Sufficient recovery time built into schedules to allow for holding of late running connections. | |
| iv | A morning commuter train into Aberystwyth (and return). | |
| v | Connections of less than 25 minutes wait at Shrewsbury in all directions. | |
| vi | Robust
cross platform connections to London preferably at
Shrewsbury. |
| 10) | The
reopening of stations at Bow St (Ceredigion), Carno (Powys)
and Hanwood (Shropshire). |
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| 11) | That
journey times are not in excess of two hours between
Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury. |
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| 12) | That
rolling stock is appropriate for longer distance
passengers that make up most of the users of the line and
that trolley facilities are available on the majority of
services. |
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| 13) | That
Internal decor and maintenance of rolling stock are of a
high acceptable standard. |
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| 14) | That an easy to understand, transparent fare system is put in place that encourages travel. Including: |
| i | Adult group travel discounts. | |
| ii | The easing of restrictions of cheap day returns in winter. | |
| iii | Consistency with fare levels in other parts of the country | |
| iv | A zonal system for travel. | |
| v | Proper
Integration with local and Traws Cambria bus services. |
| 15) | That full usage of the line is properly recorded by the full collection of fares. |
NEW YEAR WISHES
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| A Happy New Year to you everyone from SARPA We wish you all well. We take a brief look back at 2009 over the pantomime season have been granted 10 wishes for the New Year which we would like to share with you. We hope to examine these in early 2011 to see if our Fairy Godmother has been working hard and whether any progress has been made:- Unsurprisingly the recession didn't make a number of issues go away in 2009, and if anything the year confirmed that these issues should have been addressed some time previously. It also saw some anniversaries. In addition to it being 2 years since central Government promised 1300 extra carriages we had the 10th anniversary of being promised an hourly service between Shrewsbury and Aberystwyth in December. The Class 158's on our line remained unrefurbished. Do we have the scruffiest rolling stock on the UK network? Wish Number One: is that at long last ATW have a Class 158 refurbishment programme. No more talk; just get on with it everyone else seems to have managed it....... Expecting increasing passenger numbers to be accommodated in an inadequate number of coaches has always been dumb and though no official figures for our line are publicly out for 2009, industry sources tell us that Cambrian usage continued to grow at around 4-5%. So much for the no-growth franchise and the recession dampening demand - though at the risk of saying so yet again SARPA has consistently got this issue right. 2009 saw plenty of occasions when even 4 car formations proved inadequate; the 2 car departures from Aberystwyth on Fridays at 1530 & 1730 are consistently overcrowded. Number Two: the need for more rolling stock has not gone away and needs to be properly addressed. Once upon a time a bidder for a rail franchise won its bid on the promise of an interconnecting timetable: in fact it was just about the only discernible improvement on offer at the time. Six years on a casual look at the December 2009 timetable at the hub of Shrewsbury soon indicates this has not been achieved. On the odd hours a train from Cardiff to Holyhead arrives at 15 minutes past the hour and waits 9 minutes departing at 24 minutes past, in the other direction a train heading for Cardiff arrives at 17 minutes past and departs at 21 minutes past. A train from Aberystwyth then arrives at 25 minutes past……. Interconnecting this is not. We could also mention the 26 minute wait for a Manchester bound train and the 49 minute wait traveling from Manchester to the Cambrian. So wish Number Three: is that ATW deliver on their franchise winning promise of an interconnecting timetable. Helpfully we've found an area that may help them; it's all the padding in their timetables. Whilst the end to Wolverhampton turnarounds is welcomed and a confidence in the timetable is returning, ATW's "record punctuality" is of course helped by slowed down schedules, lengthy waits at stations and good old charter minutes. Following line speed improvements in 1994 BR offered 105 minute schedules from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth; in 2009 we have 119 minutes including the 5 extra minutes allowed between Borth and Aberystwyth. In the UP direction trains have in total 26 station dwell minutes including 9 at New St followed by a leisurely non stop 14 minutes to get to Birmingham International - 4 minutes slower than Arriva Cross Country. That PPM figures in the Mid 90's are achieved is perhaps not surprising with 30 minutes out of the 200 minute schedule in the UP direction station dwell or charter minutes. But is an officially very punctual service one that all users recognise especially those that don't travel end to end? Wish Number Four: is that a proper punctuality target regime not open to manipu- lation by the TOC's is introduced. Of course some will point out that the much admired Swiss Railways pad out their timetables too. However they get their trains to connect at key interchanges… We know its not just ATW, but lets abolish charter minutes, set journey time limits, only allow extended station dwell for making connections and measure punctuality through key stations not just end destination. Honesty is the best policy! This of course leads us to fares. Is it fair that passengers should pay for 75% of an inflated cost base? Then there's the complexity. Two passengers board the 0514 train at Aberystwyth: one doing a day trip to Birmingham, the other going to London via New St and staying overnight returning at 1645 the next day. The cheapest valid walk on fares are the "Anytime" (£22.70) for New St and the "Off Peak" (£61.80) for Euston. However will the Birmingham traveller know this or will they be offered the twice as expensive "Off Peak" (£41.30) fare and will the Euston traveller stand their ground as most TOC staff both Virgin and ATW expect some type of draconian time restriction on travel in and out of London and can't believe that the "Off Peak" is valid and try and get them to buy a £212.00 "Anytime"? Number Five: that the fares farce both cost and complexity is brought to an end. It's a good job confusion over fares distracts passengers from the much maligned stations they have to use. The passenger champions found that because franchise agreements hadn't specified station standards no one has done anything with them - as the jagged platform cobblestones at the far end of Aberystwyth and the about to fall down canopy at Borth testify. And who will take responsibility and resurface the footbridge leading to Welshpool station before the elf and safety brigade close it? Relying on specifying stations when the franchise is re-let will be no good as December 2018 for the Wales and Borders franchise is a long way off still. Number Six: some heads really need banging together about stations on the route. Part of head banging process will have to be with Network Rail. They need to discover who the customers really are. There should be plenty of attention on the Cambrian as we're the test bed for their shinny new signalling system - ERTMS. Number Seven is that Network Rail remembers the Cambrian is used by passengers (c 1.5 million journeys per annum) and don't treat it as a play toy for signalling engineers. As you can see the Cambrian has many more issues than just the much talked about for ten years now hourly service. It was good to see WAG committing to the hourly service "by 2011" in its Draft Transport Plan. Number Eight is that we hope that the commitment to an hourly service is followed through. One of the more ironic happenings of 2009 was the vehement opposition to ATW's plan to run trains from Aberystwyth to London Marylebone by Conservative MP's in Shrop- shire . ATW clearly don't come up to the mark according to the shire's MP's and shouldn't be allowed to run there. But isn't it the Conservative party's official policy on the railways that the answer to all problems is awarding longer length franchises as the private sector will then be allowed a free role to prosper? The fact that ATW have a long 15 year franchise already is glossed over or ignored. Number Nine; is that running a successful railway that delivers consistently high standards involves a lot more than franchise length; this needs to be recognised. The rows that have engulfed Virgin's and ATW's proposals to run to London in competition with Wrexham and Shropshire from Shrewsbury have highlighted how franchise specification and arcane regulation rules have worked against restoring proper direct services to London from North East Wales, Mid Wales and Shropshire . This not only affects passengers but also the economic connectivity of these areas. Number Ten: is that a resolution to providing quality through services to London from North East, Mid Wales and Shropshire is found. One of our members has suggested handing over the current franchised two hourly ATW service from Birmingham International to Chester to Chiltern Trains (Wrexham and Shropshire ) with provision for portions to run to Aberystwyth. This may cause consternation at Penarth House but has the potential to build a proper service through the area. After all surely the purpose of a franchise is not to provide a particular TOC with public subsidy for ever more but surely to get the best value for money? |
Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth Rail Passengers Association (SARPA) 64 Churchill Drive, Barnfields, Newtown, Powys, SY16 2LH, Wales, United Kingdom © SARPA 2005-2010 All Rights Reserved Website:- Angus Eickhoff |