Community Rail - how it's done and where it's going

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Yesterday (back today) I attended the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) / Community Rail conference in Devon ... you've seen a few slides from others.  This was my first attendance at such an event - I understand they're annual, but of course I'm very much the 'new kid on the block' and went along to network and learn.

Some excellent contacts made.  Some issues much better discussed face to face rather than by email or phone have been sucessfully resolved.  And a very great deal was learned.

Here are some pictures from the day - mostly slides but a few others. Those slides speak for themselves - but if you have questions, please ask and I'll do my best to fill in (or perhaps other members who were present will).

Further meetings coming up - Friday and Tuesday for me as we put together the response to the franchise consultation, now much clearer in the best approach in some of the aspects having listened and learned to the man from the ministry.

[JayMac]

grahame. One of those slides appears to have the title, 'Reducing Crime'. I note that the Severn Beach Line is on the list. Is there any more detail from what was said about those crime statistics?

My own, purely unscientific and somewhat anecdotal, analysis of incidences of 'crime' at Shirehampton station  suggest it may be bucking the downward trend for that line.

Nothing to do with lacking CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) coverage of course. 

If FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are saying that crime is reducing on the line as a whole then I fear the message Bristol City Council and other stakeholders will take from the figures is that there is no need to instigate further crime prevention/detection measures.

[grahame]

grahame. One of those slides appears to have the title, 'Reducing Crime'. I note that the Severn Beach Line is on the list. Is there any more detail from what was said about those crime statistics?

They are very specific measures for a number of Severn Beach line stations across the duration of the "Engaging with Schools and Art" projects, as run by and presented by Heather Cullimore of the Severnside Partnership;  I'm afraid that I was distracted during that talk by its proximity to something I was doing at the conference, so I'm not crystal clear on the methodology.

[grahame]

As a further follow up on my answer, bignosemac, I don't think that the success of one measure in getting a noticeable decrease in vandalism issues is a reason for stopping other measures ... the figures on the slides show impressive reductions over the period, but they don't show, by any means, an elimination of the problem.  In fact, the success of a scheme shows via a significant collerelation to a reduction in unwanted activity should be all the more encouraging to other schemes on the basis that somethings CAN be done that work.

[bobm]

I spoke to Heather Cullimore after her presentation and CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) is certainly still on the agenda.  Yes, in hindsight, the cost of repairing/replacing the help point at Shirehampton would have covered the installation of camera(s) there and while it might have deterred some it would have not guaranteed the security of the infrastructure.

Other snippets from the conference not directly related to Community Rail Partnerships

• FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to hire in two more units.  One, a two car turbo from Chiltern, will be used on the Greenford branch.  This will release one of the Class 150s currently in use on the Basingstoke branch will which will now head west.  Another Class 159 will be borrowed from South West Trains, and this will also release a unit for the west and allow services to run with increased capacity.
• Confirmation that the Class 57 and day coaches off the sleeper will be used for a Saturday morning service from Par to Exeter St Davids in the high summer
• Acknowledgement that the reliability of the DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) fleet has fallen in recent months.  This is largely due to the problems at Dawlish which meant units could not get to home depots for scheduled maintenance.
• Passenger levels climbing after the re-instatement of the sea wall but still not back to pre-winter levels, hence the marketing campaign.
• Pullman restaurants to remain after the completion of the changes to First Class but may be restricted to certain ticketholders.
• Consultation on the December proposals to provide an earlier arrival in the West from London by swapping the destinations of the 07:06 to Paignton and 07:30 to Penzance massively in favour of the change.
• Wifi to be installed on the sleeper "by the summer" and HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) "by the end of the year"

On the Community Rail front a genuine interest from FGW to continue working with groups.  Some excellent presentations of "best practice" and the floating of an idea to form a CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) for the Thames Valley Branches.

All in all a very valuable day and some very good speakers..

[SDS]

A quote from Mark Hopwood in the weekly E-mailed connect.

This week we hosted the Community Rail Conference, an important event that brings us together with our local stakeholders and communities and as ever, a good opportunity for First Great Western to demonstrate our support for the communities we serve.

Community rail services are an important part of our business, just as much as our commuter or long-distance services. They provide much-needed revenues and help customers reach some of the most beautiful parts of the country, especially leisure travellers. By helping communities in this way, we get stronger support from local authorities and passenger groups when we want to make timetable changes, improve station facilities and so on.

It can easy to forget that our work with local communities is one of our strengths. We run six out of ten of the most successful community rail lines in the country in terms of passenger growth and we^re doing better than ever with the frequency of our services and passenger capacity on them.

We should all be proud of First Great Western^s success in supporting local communities through the services we provide and improving our community relations.

However, this is sometimes undermined by the performances and punctuality of our trains. For example, we have been short of trains on our west services recently which has significantly impacted our customers.

[ChrisB]

• FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to hire in two more units.  One, a two car turbo from Chiltern, will be used on the Greenford branch.

Eh? Chiltern were so short of units that they had to 'nick 9 2cars from TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express)....and now this. It's get stoopid.....

• Wifi to be installed on the sleeper "by the summer" and HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) "by the end of the year"

Typo on the slide then - refers to Summer 2013....

[bobm]

• FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to hire in two more units.  One, a two car turbo from Chiltern, will be used on the Greenford branch.

Eh? Chiltern were so short of units that they had to 'nick 9 2cars from TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express)....and now this. It's get stoopid.....

I assume they are saving at least one with the long term closure of the Oxford-Islip-Bicester line.

[ChrisB]

Already working to improve provision on many services.

But indeed, maybe coming back before Oxford services start needing stock, I guess.

[grahame]

The slides of my little presentation, together with my crib notes, are online:

http://atrebatia.info/devon_crp.pdf

[Rapidash]

Was there any mention of the Pacers being purged from the Devon Metro? The new Northern franchise consultation has it as a specific goal, but there's nothing in the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) one.  Massive 142 swarm headed to Exeter I guess!

[grahame]

Was there any mention of the Pacers being purged from the Devon Metro? The new Northern franchise consultation has it as a specific goal, but there's nothing in the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) one.  Massive 142 swarm headed to Exeter I guess!

Welcome to the forum, Rapidash

1. When electric trains start running from Paddington to Reading / Newbury / Oxford, class 165 and 166 units ("turbo"s) won't be needed there

2. There are Network Rail plans to do works to clear 165 and 166 units to be able to operate on most lines in the South West

It has been suggested to us that we should not add 1. and 2. to get 3., but it strikes me that it would be an awful waste of resources to clear all the lines for turbos if they weren't going to actually run on those lines 

[Rapidash]

Was there any mention of the Pacers being purged from the Devon Metro? The new Northern franchise consultation has it as a specific goal, but there's nothing in the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) one.  Massive 142 swarm headed to Exeter I guess!

Welcome to the forum, Rapidash

1. When electric trains start running from Paddington to Reading / Newbury / Oxford, class 165 and 166 units ("turbo"s) won't be needed there

2. There are Network Rail plans to do works to clear 165 and 166 units to be able to operate on most lines in the South West

It has been suggested to us that we should not add 1. and 2. to get 3., but it strikes me that it would be an awful waste of resources to clear all the lines for turbos if they weren't going to actually run on those lines 

Thanks for the welcome!

I had heard of this, but I have seen no actual hard evidence for it, other than the clearance plans. Main reason I'm asking is that in the last 2 months, I've been on more broken trains than I have been in the last two years. Not just the pacers mind, even the sprinters are creaking! I keep hear the fleet down here is under tremendous strain, so the sooner the better on any increase in capacity, really.