ndrailusers - Mag06

Issue 6, March 2001

Table of Contents

Editorial

Editorial DB: Koln-Passau Line. Half a carriage devoted to cycle storage!

Picture: Robin Bevis

Members' Event The Line We Want

Points of View Whatever you might say Operational Matters about the state of affairs Policy Matters on our line, we are Floods on Barnstaple Line: certainly living in exciting England Cut Off times! As I write, the line Perchance To Dream?...of is still only open as far as trains and bikes.

Portsmouth Arms, with a bus service from there to Membership Matters Barnstaple, and the Welcome to new members rumours and quasi-official Committee Meetings reports that come our Special Events way serve only to muddy Exeter and Crediton Railway the waters still further.

Cheshire Railtours - Trip To The line may open in a The Severn Valley Line couple of weeks - we hear at one time - only to discover that the latest report is that it will definitely not be opening before Easter. At this rate, it might as well wait until May 12th, then we can fully reopen it exactly one hundred and fifty years after it was first opened to traffic between Exeter and Crediton: now there's irony for you!

Against this backdrop of gloom, and the consequent severe falling off in passenger journeys, comes the ever increasing anticipation surrounding the upcoming letting of the new Wessex franchise - the one which covers the Barnstaple line. A special meeting, on 7th March, sees Richard Burningham, of the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership, address the Group on various matters pertinent to the future of the line, followed by a short presentation by Ian Baxter (Laing/Chiltern Railways) and Peter Muff (Swiss Rail), outlining their vision for the line. This is important stuff! Please show that we care what happens to our line: come along and listen to those who could end up wielding great influence over its future. This is your chance to question those who make the decisions. If you don't seize this opportunity, you will have no excuse to moan when, subsequently, they do not do what you would like them to do.

The meeting is not restricted to members only - it is far too important for that - so bring a friend or two. It is up to us to show those we seek to influence that we are not just an armchair organisation, seeking only to complain when things go wrong, but a group with a specific, well-defined agenda, anxious and determined to present a unified, practical policy to the players in the railway field and to the politicians who make the rules within which those players are obliged to act.

David Gosling

Members' Event (and for non-members too!)

The Line We Want A meeting organised by our group to promote discussion about what people want for the North Devon Line.

Key speaker: Richard Burningham (Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership) Further contributors: Ian Baxter (Laing/Chiltern Railways) Peter Muff (Swiss Rail) Chair: David Gosling State your views! • Listen to the views of others! • Talk to rail people!

Swiss Rail (SBB) and Laing/Chiltem Railways have formed a partnership to bid for the franchises for a number of British rail services.

They include Wessex Rail, the franchise that will provide services for the North Devon Line.

NB. It is not our Group's policy to nivour any one bidder for the franchise which will cover the North Devon Line We do aim, however, to provide a forum in which people can articulate what they want from the line and meet, and perhaps influence, would-be franchisees.

Wednesday 7th March 2001 Starting at 19.15 Castle Centre, The Strand, Barnstaple John Gulliver

Points of View

Paddington or Waterloo?

In your December issue, Christopher Redwood expresses his preference for through trains from Barnstaple to run to Paddington rather than Waterloo.

Paddington has its advantages, providing a through service to Taunton and also to Reading, with easy access to the Thames Valley. Its greatest benefit is for passengers travelling to Heathrow. At Paddington, if they are using one of fifteen major airlines, they can book in, dispose of their baggage and, armed with their boarding passes, travel by Heathrow Express and, on arrival, go straight to the departure lounge.

What kind of service will be provided to Waterloo? The only company to publish details of its plans is Stagecoach, which runs the present Waterloo to Exeter service It promises to double 55 miles of track between Salisbury and Exeter. This will allow it to run an hourly semi-fast service similar to the present twohourly one. In addition, it will run an hourly fast service stopping only at Honiton, Axminster, Yeovil, Salisbury and Andover. Its scheduled time of 2 hours 25 minutes compares well with the 2 hours and 10 minutes of the Exeter Paddington services. Stagecoach may not be granted the franchise, but any other prospective franchisee must surely use these plans as a benchmark if it is likely to be successful.

The benefits of a through Waterloo service would include: • Connections at Salisbury to Hampshire and Brighton; • Connections from the semi-fast train to Basingstoke for Hampshire, at Woking for Hampshire and Surrey, and at Clapham Junction for Surrey and West Sussex; • At Waterloo, a short walk to Waterloo East for East Sussex and Kent; • Direct access to Eurostar and large areas of the Continent.

Waterloo's Underground connections are good, being on the Northern, Bakerloo and Jubilee lines. These give direct access to central London and much of north London, as well as to London Docks developments. A simple change at Basingstoke will also give direct access to parts of north London and East Anglia, cutting out the awkward transfers from either Paddington or Waterloo to Liverpool Street.

The most important benefit, however, is the direct service to Exeter Central. The majority of passengers on any Barnstaple line train are making local journeys, and most of these are to the City of Exeter. Having to change at Exeter St Davids would be both inconvenient and time-consuming.

Mr Redwood refers to day trips from Barnstaple to London. These passengers would certainly prefer the faster service to Paddington. However, they would be a small minority compared with those staying over for longer periods, for whom cost and convenience will be more important than a saving of 30 minutes.

In any event, most day return passengers will continue to be

Letter in the Journal Dear Mr Gosling, Reading your letter in the North Devon Journal reminded me that I have still not paid my subs to the North Devon Rail Users Group.

I very much enjoyed reading the magazines.

Keep up the good work.

Simon Lewis

Freight to Barnstaple For previous governments the transfer of freight from rail to road made perfect sense. Freight yards all over the country could be closed down and the land sold off for massive profit to developers. The removal of freight and locomotive haulage could also allow the maintenance regime on branch lines to be slashed.

But in these more enlightened times there is a great deal of public support for taking freight off the roads and back on to rail. Political parties such as Labour, Lib Dem and Green, plus environmental and transport groups all proclaim support for shining freight back on to rail.

Reintroduction of freight to North Devon is not going to be achieved overnight but some likely candidates are already there, e.g. MOD traffic, milk, clay, etc. With a more modem approach to freight, perhaps with a new generation of interchangeable road/rail vehicles more possibilities start to open up.

Deliveries to supermarkets, High Street stores, DIY outlets, building materials, pottery (e.g. Brannams), timber (remember farm diversification?), and pharmaceuticals are all possibilities to recreate a busy rail freight yard in Barnstaple. If we can land a probe on Mars we might, just possibly, be able to get some freight to travel up the line to Barnstaple. With all due respect to the correspondent in the December 2000 magazine the last thing we need is the rail lobby saying there is no significant freight volume on offer. We would end up doing the Road Haulage lobby's work for them if we went down that "road" (oops dreadful pun).

John Webber

A Tale of Two Bridges There's a curious anomaly in our public affairs. I'm reminded of it as I wrestle with one of life's minor dilemmas: should I take the train to Exeter, or go by car?

It's difficult to imagine a more private conveyance than the car.

You climb in, start up and off you go. Whether you take anybody with you is largely a personal matter. What there is no denying is that it is a convenient and, for the most part, comfortable way to travel. Much the same goes for lorries. They go where their owners direct them, when they want to send them.

Yet both cars and lorries depend on public provision. Their fuel and servicing must be paid for, of course, and in both there is a substantial element of taxation. But there is no expectation that they should pay to use the roads each time they venture forth and any relationship between duties paid and the overall costs of provision is wholly coincidental.

Roads, then, are free at the point of use, paid for from the public purse. If they become dilapidated or crowded, as happens increasingly, we call for repairs to be made or new ones to be built. One, incorporating a lengthy bridge, may shortly be constructed over the Taw. Out of the public purse. We call it 'investment'.

Trains use rails, not roads, We regard them as 'public transport'. Yet, at the moment, they are public only in the sense that anyone can use them. They are provided by train companies; nowadays private affairs. Unlike cars, they are not free at the point of use. We pay for them most obviously (but not wholly) through the fare box, often quite dearly. While we may grumble when there are too few, we pay for more of them from public funds only with reluctance. That, we say, involves 'subsidy'. And, as if by definition, we see subsidy as a drain on our resources and not at all a good thing.

From time to time, however, the provision fails. An embankment is washed away, or, as near Portsmouth Arms, a bridge is so undermined by flood waters that, for months on end, no trains run, Who should pay for its reconstruction? A private company, strapped for cash because of a huge backlog of repair work over the whole network of which it is steward? The public, which has so much to gain from a service open to all its members?

We wonder about the rail company's ability and willingness to provide the first. We baulk at the second, in part from a sometimes unthinking distaste for subsidy, in part out of a reluctance to assist a private concern. Meanwhile if we can, we turn to our private cars, hugely supported as they are by public finance, leaving that other form of 'public' provision as ever the poor relation. Is it any wonder that 'public' transport is so desperately in need of improvement? With our confusion over how we think about these key terms, 'subsidy' and 'investment', should we be surprised that our transport arrangements in North Devon mirror the private affluence and public squalor of so many

Operational Matters If only...

It is not widely known that in 2000 Railtrack had engaged a specialist contractor to carry out scan protection works around certain bridge piers on the North Devon Line to considerably reduce the incidence of line closure due to 'floods'. This, it is understood, involved eight bridges and work had reached Weir Marsh Bridge, about 1 mile the Barnstaple side of Portsmouth Arms station, when the exceptionally heavy rains and subsequent serious floods of 22nd and 29th of October closed the line and meant the works had to be postponed until probably April 2001 when river levels should reliably be low enough.

The North Devon line (and Railtrack!) has had more than its share of 'bad luck' from this winter's exceptional rainfall. There can be no rail line in Britain that has not run a normal service for nearly five months.

"If only" the work on Weir Marsh bridge had been completed then once the washed out stretches had been reballasted and tamped etc. the line would have re-opened. Reballasting, using ballast from Meldon Quarry, brought by lorry to Farm level crossings thence to sites by road-rail vehicles, was in fact done within three weeks of the original October closure.

It has been reported in the press that Nick Harvey and various County and District Councillors met Railtrack at Exeter St Davids on 10th February where Railtrack stated that it was possible the line could re-open on 10th March subject to satisfactory tests on Weir Marsh Bridge.

Tony Hill

Policy Matters A version of the article which follows was published in the North Devon Journal. As not all our members may have seen it, we are printing it here in full. We see it as an important part of our efforts to get councillors and the public behind our campaign for the line.

Floods on Barnstaple Line: England Cut Off And, all the while, the councillors of North Devon sleep.

Since the 22nd October last year, no trains have reached or left Barnstaple. They have got closer, it is true, first to Eggesford, more recently to Portsmouth Arms. But, on the northern part of the line, the rails gather rust. Buses fill the gaps. At times, they have replaced trains throughout the length of the line to Exeter. A broken rail and flood damage, it was said at first, had caused the disruption.

Now, nearly four months after the trains were first withdrawn, there is no sign of their return. What initially looked like a simple repair task has turned out to be something more formidable: a bridge which may have to be realigned. Since the river is too high for divers to examine its foundations, we are told, there is no telling when work on it will begin.

Viewed against the recent chaos on the national network, this may look like a small matter. Those who depend on the line, however, view it differently. For them, in spite of the sterling efforts of many local rail and bus employees, the frequent overcrowding, the unreliability of connections, the lengthening of the working day caused by the slower substitute buses, the lack of toilet facilities, the occasionally inadequate space for luggage, push chairs and cycles, the absence of provision for the disabled and the misery of journeys begun and completed on a winding road in darkness, are causes of anxiety and even hardship.

If this were an isolated affair, it would be bad enough. But it is not. It is the latest in a succession of winter disruptions. This one has merely been the greatest so far. Taken together, they undermine the confidence of individuals in rail and the initiatives of local and national government to promote it as an alternative to the motor car. With close on 300,000 journeys on the line each year and, until

the present problems, numbers rising annually, this is a serious matter.

Meanwhile, out in England, remarkable developments are under way. A government-backed Strategic Rail Authority has been set up to conjure order out of the chaos into which the national rail system has fallen. It is urging people to think boldly about the services they want. It has money, lots of money, to spend, and seeks to double it from the private sector. In the west country, it wants to set up a 'Wessex' franchise to bring unity to what is offered.

Would-be franchisees are falling over themselves to run its trains. Prism Rail, now taken over by National Express, was the first to throw its hat into the ring. It is offering an hourly service between North Devon and Exeter, with daily through trains to London. What it offers, others must cap. Even Swiss Rail, whose managers know a thing or two about running trains, is raising its flag. Moreover, it's bidding in partnership with Chiltern Rail, a company committed to expanding the rail network.

All this means that, with a little pushing, North Devon could have its best rail service, not just for years, but ever. Properly marketed, there is no reason why numbers using it should not double, or even treble, over a relatively short period, with all that this would mean for the mobility of people in the area and those who visit it, for business and, not least in this increasingly polluted world, for the environment.

But, if nobody pushes, it will not happen. Companies bidding for the Wessex franchise almost certainly do not accord Barnstaple their highest priority. Mindful of the big improvements expected on the Salisbury to Exeter line, they eye the potential of a reinvigorated, alternative route to London and of an increasingly important corridor between Bristol and the south coast. In this light, promised improvements on the North Devon line might best be seen as bargaining counters.

North Devon must make sure that these counters count. That means facing up to two things. One is the damage so often done to its line by flooding. The patching and mending of the recent past is as futile as the construction of sand castles against the incoming tide.

If bridge footings cannot withstand scouring, more substantial ones must be put in. If relief channels are too few to allow flood waters to pass, then more need to be built. Such work, it seems, has been going on over the years. It needs to be finished, urgently. The second is that neither investment in the line's infrastructure nor improvements to its service will happen if the Strategic Rail Authority on the one hand and the train operating companies and Railtrack on the other do not bear an insistent call for them. There are, after all, other places where they could spend their money. And it is in the nature of things that those who shout are more likely to get and those who remain silent are forgotten.

Where, then, do our councillors come in? They have no direct responsibility for rail services. But they do have a potential to influence.

They need to sit up and take notice of what is happening on England's wider rail network. They need to bang on Railtrack's door, armed with good arguments, pointing out that North Devon wants its railway back, not at some time in the future, but now, and in a form robust enough to support a service which so many, including the County Council, want.

Meanwhile, they must bend the SRA's ear. For it is the SRA which must lean on Railtrack to upgrade the line, the SRA which will choose between the bids which may favour it rather than some other, the SRA which can direct government funds towards the improvements which are required and squeeze the rail companies to chip in some of their own.

Individuals can do their bit, both directly and by letting councillors know that they are behind them, not least through the pages of this newspaper. So, too, can groups like ours. But it is when North Devon acts collectively that those who hold the purse strings take notice. That is best done through our councillors.

In this matter, silence will be taken as indifference. A reasoned case, pursued with vigour, on the other hand, could work wonders. It needs to be made now, though, while the new shape of the nation's railways is being formed. So, how about it, Councillors of North Devon?

John Gulliver

Perchance To Dream?...of trains and bikes.

We propose to check our route and train times on the website, to determine, well in advance, times and changes of trains, to ascertain platform numbers for their arrival and departure and whether we can take out three bicycles with us. We want to know that they are secure and where to stand for our reserved seats and for the carriage for cycles. We want to travel in the peak August

period for fares cheaper than flying, to book everything in advance and to pay by cheque through the post. And to know it will all work Fantasy? No. Fact; and not for the first time. Not rail travel in the U.K, though, but a journey across Europe last August, starting in Belgium, then through Germany, Austria and Hungary, for a cycling holiday into Slovakia.

We saw how several qualities characterised rail travel on the European Mainland: The trains were reliable. They arrived on time at the platform designated. Formation diagrams were provided, particularly for long distance services, with none of the scrambles seen here as people sought their places; Access was easy. Lifts and ramps abounded at stations. Many had their own cycle hire, with bikes shipped by train, saving the hirer having to return them to the original hire point. Computer print-outs for prospective journeys were widely available over the counter; Quality was pervasive. Rail staff often assisted with locating and lifting cycles; Cycles were normal. It wasn't an issue to be travelling with three bikes. In Germany, Austria and Holland, upwards of 30 cycles per train were common (where trains don't carry cycles, it said so clearly on the timetable. But there were plenty of alternatives, even on sleeper services).

In the UK we hear much about integrated, but less about intermodal travel, perhaps the key element of integration. It is not just a case of changing from one train to another but being able to mix modes. We take for granted the mix of car and train, but true intermodal travel should involve train, bus, bicycle and foot. It is the train/bus and cycle combination that we are so weak on in the UK. Devon boasts the 'Devon Coast to Coast' path, attracting nearly 100,000 cycle 'movements' along its 32-mile off-road section in a season. Yet Tarka Line trains offer to carry just 'up to 2 cycles' - at the guard's discretion!

Isn't private enterprise supposed to seize such opportunities? In Germany, Holland, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland and even former communist states like Hungary and Slovakia, where good provision for cycles is made, they are state run!

A familiar refrain for limiting cycle carriage here is the rolling stock. Another is low demand. Note these two responses can be contradictory! But what of the new rolling stock that the rail companies are buying? These could offer even less space for cycles in the interests of carrying more passengers. Cyclists are seen as a separate breed, not as normal passengers generating income!

Yet there is a scope for optimism. The Disability Discrimination Act's requirement for wheelchair space could lead to flexible areas on trains for multiple usage, including stowing cycles. Nonetheless, we must press the rail companies for new and reconditioned rolling stock to give proper space for passengers with luggage, be h pushchairs, bicycles, strboards or just bulky shopping.

To be fair, some progress has been made The DETR has set up working groups, including representation from a spectrum of cycling interests for rail, bus and cycle intermodal integration. The National Cycling Forum Intermodality Working Group has been bending the ears of the train operating companies, OPRAF, the Rail Regulator, Railtrack and Government departments and officials (many of whom are very sympathetic) on this matter.

Hatfield may have put these issues on the back burner for the moment, but they will not go away. It is not unreasonable to expect here what the rest of Furope takes for granted. Intermodal issues may not be a high priority on everyone's rail agenda but if even some of these are provided there's no doubt that many other passenger benefits will have been gained along the way. I urge you all to apply continual pressure on the appropriate organisations - central and local government, the TOCs, train leasing companies, the Regulators and the rest - for integrated, intermodal travel. It can be achieved here. Elsewhere, certainly in central Europe, it is the norm.

Journey details: Details checked in English on the German Rail - Deutsche Bahn - website http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de /bin/query.exe/en that gives clear information on which services carry cycles. Tickets for 3 adults with three accompanying cycles booked by phone through the DB office in the UK Tel. 0870 243 5361 Fax 0208 339 4700, tickets received and paid for by post. Return journey for three adults with three cycles from Oostende to Gyor in northern Hungary with just two changes, at Koln and Munich. Sleeper train between Munich and Gyor. Total journey time one way approx 16 hours.

Robin Bevis

Membership Matters Welcome to new members Babs Stutchbury, Crediton Aileen Mockridge, Crediton

Committee Meetings 14th March - Crediton Station Tea Rooms (committee meeting), 1800 23rd March - Crediton Station Tea Rooms (meeting with John Burnett M.P.), 1800 25th April - Eggesford Country Hotel, 1845 6th June - Yeoford Mare & Foal Public House, 1830 Linda Rogers

Special Events Exeter and Crediton Railway One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary Celebrations As mentioned in the previous issue, the southern half of our line celebrates one hundred and fifty years since its opening on 12th May 1851. It was thought improper to allow this birthday to go unnoticed so, about sixteen months ago, a train of events was initiated designed to raise the profile of the line, bring people in to Crediton - all to local economic benefit - and, well, to have a party!

On Saturday May 12th, therefore, a special steam locomotive hauled excursion will arrive at Crediton from Hampshire, hauled by one of O V S Bulleid's West Country Class locomotives. No. 34016, Bodmin, will take the guise, for the day, of No.34048 Crediton, and a special renaming ceremony will take place on the up platform, adjacent to the old booking office, now the Station Tea Rooms, re-enacting the occasion when 34048 was originally named there in March, 1948.

Later in the afternoon, a special bonus return trip to Exeter will leave Crediton, hauled by 34048, on which local people will have the chance to ride. This will be the first time since the 1960s that a steam locomotive hauled train will be scheduled to take up and set down passengers at Crediton. Tickets for this unique occasion will be limited so, to take part in this historic event, contact the Station Tea Rooms at Crediton where tickets are to become available for sale.

In addition to No. 34048's activities, many other attractions are being organised In the Station Tea Rooms win be a railway exhibition, outlining the building and subsequent progress of the line over a century and a half of existence. A specially commissioned model of Crediton station, as it was around one hundred years ago, is also to be on display there.

Outside, craft stalls will be selling local wares whilst other interested authorities and railway groups will be represented. A live steam passenger carrying miniature railway will also be in operation.

Throughout the day, performances will be given by local drama and singing groups, whilst additional entertainment will be provided on a more ad hoc basis. Morris dancers will be performing around the station area and up in the town; a puppet theatre and the Crediton Majorettes will be in attendance; and the Crediton Brass Band, augmented by members of the Exeter Rail Band, will provide suitable music to mark the arrival, departure and renaming of the locomotive.

A vintage bus service will be provided, free of charge, to transport members of the public from the station to the town, taking in a tour around the local countryside. Adjacent to the station area' a number of veteran road transport vehicles will be on display.

Please make the effort to support this event: recognition of the line's very existence is needed after the tragic consequences of the winter flooding. Come to Crediton on that Saturday; have a good time; and when you do come, come by train!

Cheshire Railtours - Trip To The Severn Valley Line Rail bosses have given the all-clear for a unique trip on Good Friday, 13th April, when a Great Western High Speed Train - 'The Severn Valley Belle' sets off from local stations to run straight up the Severn Valley Railway in Shropshire.

The trip starts from Barnstaple between 6am and 7am, calling to collect passengers at Umberleigh, Eggesford and Crediton. The train runs through to Bridgnorth where there will be a break of around three hours. Passengers will have the choice of completing the final hour of their journey along the Severn Valley by changing to a waiting steam train. The High Speed Train will return passengers to their home station mid-evening. Telephone 01984 64005 for details.

David Gosling