Route Utilisation Strategy ... tell us how "The Coffee Shop" can help

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Great Western Route Utilisation Strategy - Draft for Consultation

* Published 1st September 2009 by Network Rail

* Passenger Focus is holding 3 meetings for Rail user Groups (19th September, Bristol is one of them)

* (Travel Watch South West http://www.travelwatchsouthwest.org/ meeting - 3rd October - subject will probably be hot on the agenda)

* Consultation closes on 27 November 2009

* With the final RUS^▸ (Route Utilisation Strategy) scheduled for publication in early 2010.

Network Rail's web site states:

The RUS covers services from London Paddington to Cardiff; to Penzance; the Cotswolds and the West of England with radial routes to Oxford, Gatwick Airport, the Midlands and the North, the South Coast and the South West. Branch lines into the London suburbs in the Thames Valley, to the Devon and Cornish coast and dedicated freight only lines complete the mix of routes within the Great Western RUS area.

The RUS Draft for Consultation identifies a number of gaps, the most significant of which is on-train crowding on peak services into London Paddington, Reading and Bristol Temple Meads. Other gaps examined include journey times between regional centres, station capacity and performance pinch-points in the RUS area.

The RUS identifies a range of options to address these gaps, comprising train lengthening and additional services, to increase capacity to accommodate the growth in passenger and freight services whilst maintaining performance.

The complete document is 192 pages in length, with some very significant ideas, and some sections which (at a first glance) appear to contradict each other. Some things read "wow - that would be good" and I can see some others causing fury. As an example in my own area, One diagram shows TransWilts service reduce to just ONE train a day each way (that's half the current service), yet another shows hourly and has a cost benefit analysis showing what huge sense the proposal makes. And another local 'negative' that I picked up ... a diagram showing the Warminster stop withdrawn from the Cardiff - Portsmouth service, with direct services to Bath / Bristol from there provided only by South West Trains.

Link to Draft RUS page

QUESTION ... What (if anything) should the "First Great Western Coffee Shop" do concerning the RUS.

1. Continue to provide a forum for discussions.

2. Run a series of items on what the RUS proposes

3. Solicit and co-ordinate inputs with a view to presenting them at the meetings listed above

4. Solicit and co-ordinate inputs with a view to responding to the consultation

5. Arrange a passenger / member meeting (centrally) on a Saturday in Mid-October to discuss / plan response

6. Some other idea (please post in thread)

7. None of the above

I'm opening a poll on this - can I get inputs in the next 7 days, please?  I've set it up for multiple votes so that you can select all the first six options if you wish. 

[Electric train]

It should be remembered that this forum only represents a small proportion of the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) RUS^▸ (Route Utilisation Strategy) users however I believe that this forum does solicits views many of which are very focused on service provision and highlights what many would like to see that service to be, well founded and objective views that cover the whole of the GWML RUS and the adjacent RUS's that impact on these forum users should be put forward from the forum to the consultation.  It is an opportunity not to be missed by the Coffeeshop.

[grahame]

It should be remembered that this forum only represents a small proportion of the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) RUS^▸ (Route Utilisation Strategy) users however I believe that this forum does solicits views many of which are very focused on service provision and highlights what many would like to see that service to be, well founded and objective views that cover the whole of the GWML RUS and the adjacent RUS's that impact on these forum users should be put forward from the forum to the consultation.  It is an opportunity not to be missed by the Coffeeshop.

I am indeed aware of the tiny proportion of FGW^▸ (First Great Western) users who post here and we 'represent' - however, I look around and I'm not sure that I see anyone else who does quite what we do, nor who has quite such as spread of places nor age groups that we have.  It would be really nice to say "leave this to the xxxxx group - it's their role" and although I can come up with at least four possibilities for "xxxx", I can also come up with reasons why I  think we should input as well

The voting is coming along - please add YOUR votes as to how you feel "The Coffee Shop" should handle this.  I much appreciate your encouragement, electric train;  I don't think we intend to miss it - but first I want to make sure we have member feedback to tell us just *how* to catch it.

[Trowres]

Passenger Focus are holding RUS^▸ (Route Utilisation Strategy) consultation meetings:

Great Western RUS Meetings


Passenger Focus is holding three meetings across the South West region to engage with various Rail User Groups and stakeholders to establish priorities for their local area.

Tuesday 15 September in Exeter (6:30-8:30pm)

Wednesday 16 September in Reading (6:30-8:30pm)

Saturday 19 September in Bristol (12-2pm)

For more information or if you^d like to attend then please contact our Manchester office using the details below.

Contact: Syra Syeda
Telephone: 0300 123 2142
Email: syra.syeda@passengerfocus.org.uk

[matt473]

I think it may be an idea for the coffee shop to have a designated person if possible to represent the views and ideas expressed through this forum. This person should be un-biased as such not to favour one area over another as it benefis their locality whilst also being voted for by forum members. Hopefully this person can be used to pass information between those who can influence decisions and forum users. Hopefully this person representing a large number of people could then for example pass on views to MD of FGW^▸ (First Great Western), Network rail etc. and develop a close working partnership with them to ensure membvers are involved and informed of various stages of the process.

I know it sounds like one of the options for voting but I feel a chosen individual to represent the view of those from the forum would be beneficial. All parties involved will go through this person who ultimately be able to express our views to senior figures within the industry whilst informing members of the outcome of any potential meetingst.

[grahame]

Thanks for filling in the details of the other meetings, TrowRes ... I have brought them - initially - to the attention of the other moderators.   We are already planned to be at Bristol, but there is a '1 place per organisation' rule from Passenger Focus so I'm not sure if we can the others at all ... we're a rather 'different' group having wide coverage rather than being line / local / community based, and having more members than many local groups;   those members have a split across all age ranges (unusual for Rail User Groups), but we'll be first to admit that only a small proportion are truely active; other RUGs^» (Rail User Group - about) may have the same issue.

The poll is up there so find out an idea of what (if anything) our members want us to do ... and it's about halfway through.   How we then implement what it shows has yet to be worked out - and may not be easy.   I think everyone here has specific interests in the lines / areas that they as well as the general picture, so we might be hard pressed to find one individual who has unbiased knowledge all across, is independent of the players, and would take on a role such as Matt473 suggests.  Then there are the hurdles of ensuring that everyone rallies behind, and the mechanism for putting the whole thing into place ... we're just a 'loosley hung together internet group'. I'm intending to point out the issues that lie ahead ... and in no way am I suggesting that we don't attempt them - let's wait for a couple more days until the poll results are even more obvious than they're looking at the moment!

[grahame]

Thanks for all the inputs everyone ... the admin / moderator team will be looking at the results and deciding on what / how we should help with RUS^▸ (Route Utilisation Strategy) responses.   I'm rather keen on actually doing what the members who voted have asked for rather than the traditional response to a consultation which is to tick a box and say "we consulted"  - having said which, this poll was a consultation about a consultation.

[stebbo]

1 to 4 definitely

[grahame]

The most enormous thanks to Chris from Nailsea who has correlated the various inputs he received and submitted inputs on behalf of the Coffee Shop as a whole.  The response is at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/gwrus_response.pdf

I also have (in my own neck of the woods) submissions to hand from "Save the Train" which was masterfully correlated and presented by Lee, from the Melksham Railway Development Group (written and presented by John Hamley on behalf of the group) and from the Melksham Chamber of Commerce. Links:
Save the Train
Chamber of Commerce
MRDG^» (Melksham Railway Development Group - about)
I am also hoping to have links to copies of responses from the team campaigning for a station and services in Corsham, and from the West Wilts Rail User Group; I understand that both made submissions.



_{Edit note: As grahame is having technology problems, I've taken the liberty of correcting one of his classic typos in the above. C.}