CLOSURE THREAT TO RURAL & REGIONAL RAIL SERVICES ..UPDAT

FORUM DISCUSSION HERE. http://www.national-preservation.com/fo ... php?t=2437

RURAL branch lines and regional rail routes face closure and replacement by bus services under government plans to reduce the huge taxpayers’ subsidies to the rail industry, it has been claimed.

On 26 January the Conservatives said a government consultation document had been launched to create guidance on the process for closing down railway lines. The move followed rumours that the Government was planning to cut smaller railways, after subsidy to rural railways was cut by a third in November 2004, said a Conservative Party news release.

Shadow Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: "The consultation gives added weight to suspicions that the Government is planning to close down parts of the rail network. If they have no intention of closing smaller and particularly rural railway lines, why are they consulting on how to go about doing it?"

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling, in a written statement, said: "Changes to service provision will be necessary to reflect passenger and freight demand."

He added the guidance would be put on a statutory basis for the first time and would be more transparent than the current process, which will be obsolete later in the year due to changes in the organisation of the railways.

Now rail industry journalist Christian Wolmar, writing in The Independent on Sunday, says ministers are preparing ways of closing or "mothballing" large sections of the railway network according to the document “which was slipped out without publicity last week.”

Wolmar says that dozens of branch lines and secondary routes could shut, in what would be the biggest rethink of the network since the Beeching report in the 1960s, which led to the closure of 4,000 miles of railway and nearly half the nation's stations. Loss-making services would be transferred on to buses, as a means of reducing the £6bn-a-year subsidy.

The 83-page consultation paper uses a new kind of cost-benefit analysis (CBA), reports Wolmar, and experts say this CBA will highlight the economically fragile state of the network. Such analysis often penalises trains because it fails to take into account that they are environmentally friendly.

Wolmar cites a range of lines potentially under threat, including the lines to the seaside resorts of Whitby in North Yorkshire, St Ives and Newquay in Cornwall, Sheringham in north Norfolk and Skegness in Lincolnshire. But some urban lines, such as Huddersfield to Sheffield and Walsall to Wolverhampton, could go too.

Roger Ford, technical editor of Modern Railways, told The Independent on Sunday that cutting branch lines might not be enough. "If they want to save serious money they would have to cut many regional services and possibly whole swaths of lines."

Procedures for simplifying rail service closures were included in last year’s Railways Act, which was rushed through with little publicity just before the general election.

Under these powers, the Department for Transport has already given approval to Arriva Trains Wales’ plans to withdraw its services between Manchester and Cornwall, via Crewe, Hereford and the Severn Tunnel.


SOURCE RAILNEWS

 

More of the same........ :smt022

Dozens of lines may shut as ministers draw up action plan for closures. Document reveals scheme for cuts as Treasury pushes for massive cash savings

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article341731.ece

 

RURAL TRAIN SERVICES FACE BIG CUTS - REPORT
THE biggest cuts in branch-line train services for over 30 years are in the offing, according to a report in The Times newspaper.

The newspaper says the cuts are concentrated in the West Country but the Department for Transport is also considering reducing services on the South Coast and across northern England.

It says the new station at Chandler’s Ford in Hampshire will lose all 18 daily direct services to Southampton.

Many of the reported cuts in branch line services in the West Country are associated with the new timetable in December when the new Greater Western passenger franchise begins operation.

Commuters into Plymouth will suffer the greatest loss of services under the draft timetable, said The Times, which listed the following cuts in services:

Saltash and St Germans 12 daily trains cut to 6; St Ives branch 26 trains cut to 16 in winter and 23 in summer; Looe branch 13 trains to 8; Newquay branch 7 to 4; Cornish stations to Plymouth 3 morning commuter trains cut to 1; Torbay/Newton Abbot and Totnes to Plymouth 4 morning trains to 2; Plymouth to Ivybridge 3 trains in evening peak to 0.

The Department for Transport told The Times that the train operator, First Group, was responsible for deciding “when exactly trains should run and where they should stop.” But First blamed the DfT, saying: “The department provides the specification and we have to meet it.”

A spokesman for First said that it would consider representations from communities affected. “We do promise to look in detail at each proposal, consider which we could introduce, and where we cannot change the draft, provide reasons why.”

Adrian Lyons, director-general of the Railway Forum, the industry lobby group, told The Times: “There is a hard-nosed view that the rail share of the transport budget must be reduced. Any service seen to have low patronage is now vulnerable.”

The newspaper reported that Alistair Darling, the Transport Secretary, told the House of Commons this month that community railways were “in the last chance saloon.” He added: “I am pretty confident about the prospects for the railways, but to say that no network or service can ever change cannot be the right approach.”

** The planned new timetables in the West Country can be viewed at http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/franchise. Responses should be received by First Great Western by Wednesday 8 March. Responses should be sent to Timetable Consultation, First Great Western, Milford House, Swindon SN1 1HL, or via e-mail to mailto:TT06@firstgroup.com

SOURCE RAILNEWS