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Only a quarter of passengers aware of refund rights
A STUDY by the Office of Rail Regulation has found that 75% of passengers are unaware of their compensation and refunds rights when trains are delayed or cancelled. The‘Delay Repay’scheme pays a 50% refund of a single fare if a train is delayed by 30 minutes and a full 100% refund for delays of two hours or more – yet few passengers know of this right. One of the reasons, says ORR, is that train operators do not do enough to promote the schemes.‘Delay Repay’is operated by several companies, including Virgin, London Midland, East Midlands and Southeastern. In the survey, passengers said there needs to be information on the back of tickets, more posters and an automated claims processes. One of the big drawbacks of the system is that refunds are made in the form of travel vouchers, which can only be exchanged at manned ticket offices. This can prove inconvenient for passengers who book on line and has led to a situation in which even vouchers issued are only redeemed by 55% of complainants. ORR feels that train operators need to offer cash refunds or online vouchers, as well as making more use of social media. It is now working on a code of practice for ticket sales, which will be in place by the end of the year.
IanAllanhonouredinHRAawards THE annual awards ceremony of the Heritage Railway Association was held in the Guildhall at Bath on February 8. The Bluebell Railway won the Large Groups prize for its remarkable reopening of the East Grinstead line and Ian Allan OBE won The Railway Magazine lifetime achievement award for services to railway preservation and publishing. Mr Allan, now aged 91, was
Railway Magazine editor Nick Pigott shakes hands with ian Allan oBe after presenting him with the Heritage Railway Association/RM lifetime Achievement Award for services to preservation and transport publishing. on the wall is a painting by George Heiron of class 91 No. 91007 Ian Allan. left: A Highly commended certificate was made in the HRA/Railway Magazine lifetime Achievement Award category to eileen clayton MBe for instigating and helping to run, for more than 21 years, a week of activities for young people on the Ffestiniog Railway, thereby helping them to become interested in railway heritage and providing a valuable example that other steam railways are starting to follow
Re-think leads to cancellation of Watford blockade A PLANNED 16-day closure of the West Coast Main Line at Watford in August and a further nine-day shutdown in February 2015 have been cancelled. Following feedback from passengers and discussions with train operators, Network Rail has decided it can do the work during weekend possessions instead of total blockades. The work – which is required to relay 10 miles of track and renew all signalling between King’s Langley and Bushey – will now be carried out over eight weekends between May and April 2015, considerably reducing disruption to passengers. News of the blockades last July brought howls of protest from passenger groups and other operators who would have had to carry passengers on different routes. The WCML will now be closed at Watford on the weekends of May 3-5, August 9-11/16-18 and 23-26 as well as December 24-29. In 2015 the dates are February 14-16/21-23 and April 3-7.
unable to travel to Bath, so RM editor Nick Pigott took the specially made awards (featuring his first and last combined volumes) to his Thames-side home a few days earlier to make the presentation (below). The awards at Bath were presented by Lord Faulkner of Worcester. Full details of categories and winners were published in our January issue.
lord Faulkner (second right) presents Bluebell representatives with the HRA’s large Groups Award.
london transport’s sam Mullins (centre) receives the Peter Manisty Award for an exceptional heritage contribution.
HRA DiRectoR cAlls it A DAy
David Madden has retired after more than 40 years as the longestserving director of the Heritage Railway Association. For half that time he was also general manager of the North Norfolk Railway before moving to the rail museum at Bressingham. He will remain on the HRA awards committee.
‘Suicide fences’installed on platforms ‘SUICIDE-deterrent’ fencing is being installed on a number of stations along the Great Eastern main line and is expected to spread to other parts of the country soon. In this scene at Brentwood on February 2, the Metro service platform 3 is in the process of being isolated from main line platform 2, which is not normally used. Greater Anglia is undertaking this work at all Metro stations between Liverpool Street and Shenfield except Stratford, Romford, Gidea Park and Shenfield. Sliding gates in the barrier fencing, which can be unlocked by staff, will be used when slow line trains use fast lines in the event of diversions or
engineering. An increasingly held view within the rail industry now is that members of the public have no right to be on a fast line platform on which no train is due to arrive for some time. On
some stations, ‘trespass bollards’ are being installed, which sound an alarm when an infra-red beam is broken. Other activities include monitored CCTV, enhanced lighting, platform-end barriers and Samaritans posters and free phone lines. NR is working with BT Police and Samaritans on training station staff to spot troubled individuals and those “acting oddly”. Although only 4% of suicides in the UK take place on the railway, NR says the emotional, human and financial costs are disproportionately high as they can take place in view of passengers, station staff and drivers and can result in considerable disruption to services. Picture: Dr IAIN SCOTCHMAN
Willesden depot to be extended...
…. but Doncaster shed closes
AN extension is to be built onto Willesden depot, north London, to accommodate London Overground Class 378‘Capitalstar’ EMUs that are being lengthened from four to five cars. As part of a £20million contract awarded by Transport for London, outdoor stabling sidings will also be lengthened. Overground’s capacity improvement programme – made necessary by the astonishing success of the service since completion of the London Orbital route in
THE signing-on point at the former steam shed of Doncaster Carr (36A) closed on February 23. The shed, which had been used as a diesel loco depot since closing to steam in 1966, is due to shut in March. The building stands in the way of a proposed ‘super depot’ for Intercity Express trains’. DBS, which operates the shed, is moving to a new facility at Carr Hill, near Doncaster Belmont. TOM O’DONNELL
December 2012 – will also see platform extensions or upgrades at 32 stations along the orbital route. At stations where platforms cannot be lengthened without reconstruction of station buildings, selective door-opening will be deployed on five-car trains instead. The fifth carriages, which are being built by Bombardier at its Derby Litchurch Lane plant, will begin entering service at the end of this year and are due to be fully introduced by the end of 2015.
March 2014 • The Railway Magazine • 11