FOSBR persists in lobbying Bristol City Council to continue to fund an additional train
Date: July 2010Background
Before May 2008, for most of the day, services on the Severn Beach Line were provided by a single train which shuttled between Bristol Temple Meads and Avonmouth. Severn Beach was served by train only in the early morning and evening, with bus connections provided during the rest of the day.
The single train provided an hourly off-peak service between Bristol and Avonmouth in each direction. Because there was very little time to turn the train round at each end, the service suffered from poor reliability, with frequent lateness and cancellations. This service was partly funded by Bristol City Council until it became a franchise requirement in 2006.
In 2007, Bristol City Council entered into a three-year contract with First Great Western to provide a second train for the Severn Beach Line. By this contract, the Council agreed to pay the operating costs of the second train, and First Great Western agreed to operate it. The contract provided for the second train to run from May 2008 until May 2011 at an annual cost of £450,000.
This second train has enabled services between Bristol Temple Meads and Avonmouth to be run approximately every 40 minutes for most of the day, with the two trains passing each other at Clifton Down. Trains are extended to Severn Beach every two hours. There is also a Sunday service on the line as far as Avonmouth, for the first time for many years.
Other recent improvements include the provision of real-time information points at stations, introduction of a simplified fare structure, refurbishment of the rolling stock used, relaying of some of the track (now mostly continuously welded as far as Avonmouth), and cosmetic improvements to stations. From May 2010, the Sunday service will be extended to Severn Beach, and will start earlier and run later. As a whole, the service now provided is more attractive than it has been for thirty years.
The enhanced service that the second train has enabled has been very successful. Reliability is much improved, and ridership has increased dramatically. The annual station footfall count reported by the Severnside Community Rail Partnership shows an increase of 87% in two years: from 2,845 passengers using the line daily in 2007 to 5,325 in 2009. The number of tickets sold on the line in 2009 was 664,000, up from 505,000 in 2008.
Bristol City Council is to be thanked and congratulated for enabling this significant improvement to the city’s rail services. The step-change in provision that the second train represents has both improved travel on the line for existing passengers and attracted new passengers, helping to reduce the city’s carbon footprint.
Requests to Bristol City Council Cabinet
- FOSBR (Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways) urges the Council to continue to fund the second train for a further three-year period, from 2011 to 2014. We understand from correspondence with councillors that provision is to be made for this in the Medium Term Financial Plan, but have not found it mentioned explicitly in the published draft. We therefore seek assurance that the Medium Term Financial Plan includes continued funding for the second train.
- Once the funding for the train is allocated, it will be necessary for the Council to sign a renewed contract for the train with First Great Western. They, in turn, will need to secure the continued use of the rolling stock needed from the train leasing company and the Department for Transport, and the train paths from Network Rail.
- Because of its complexity, the railway industry has a long lead-time for decisions of this kind. We have asked Council transport officers what progress has been made with negotiations, but have received no response to our enquiries. We suggest that, if not already started, discussions with First Great Western should begin now, in order to ensure that the rolling stock and train paths needed for the service continue to be available after May 2011.
- It is desirable that the new contract with First Great Western should include an improved evening service. The current weekday pattern, with an hour’s gap between trains leaving Temple Meads at 19.33 and 20.34, and then a gap of over 100 minutes before the last train at 22.16, is not satisfactory. There is also the need to improve fare collection on the line, and to install CCTV cameras at stations, as set out in the Severn Beach Line Development Plan drawn up in March 2007.
- Finally, we understand from the Department for Transport’s revised policy for funding local and regional rail services promoted by local authorities and PTEs that, if the enhanced service continues until 2014, it will then become eligible for funding from the Department for Transport. This would mean that, if it meets the Department’s criteria, the second train could continue to run after 2014 at no further cost to the Council.
- Does the Medium Term Financial Plan provide for the second train currently serving the Severn Beach Line to be funded from 2011 to 2014?
- What steps have been taken to negotiate a renewed contract with First Great Western and Network Rail so that the second train will continue to run from 2011 to 2014?
Questions to MPs following FOSBR resolution
At the FOSBR regular quarterly meeting, held at Yatton Methodist Hall on July 10, it was unanimously resolved :
That this meeting is deeply alarmed and concerned by the threat to rail services in the Bristol region due to the current financial cuts and calls upon the MPs of the West of England Partnership (WEP) area to campaign for the improvements to services and infrastructure set out in the Network Rail Utilisation (RUS) report for 2014/18 to ensure that Bristol and region does not suffer yet again from lack of investment and downgrading of our already worn rail services and infrastructure.
In particular we call on the Government to proceed with the Great Western electrification plans, including the local network, announced by the previous government; to reopen the line to Portishead as part of the Greater Bristol rail Metro; to quadruple the tracks between Parson St and Filton Abbey Wood and to proceed with the long delayed resignalling of Bristol Temple Meads.
We believe such rail projects would put the region in a strong position to benefit in a sustainable way as the economic recovery begins.
We look forward to receiving your reply and hearing of your activity to promote rail projects in the West of England Partnership (WEP) area.
Proposed Bernard Lane, FOSBR Chair
Seconded Bernard Kennedy, ASLEF Bristol secretary
FOSBR was delighted with the report in the Evening Post confirming MPs commitment to rail in particular and transport in the Bristol area in general. On 8 May 2010 Bristol Evening Post questioned 10 MPs on what promises they would make to the people who had voted them into power.
Five MPs included transport in their pledges: - Charlotte Leslie listed tackling First Bus monopoly and opening Henbury Station; Liam Fox MP listed Portishead railway link and better transport. So did Steve Webb MP, John Penrose MP and Kerry MecCarthy MP.