Network Rail – Regional urban market study 2013 draft for consultation

Posted on June 19, 2013 by admin

Network Rail have done their draft regional Urban Market Study, using West Yorkshire as a prototype for their new approach to developing plans for the future.

“The regional urban market study draft for consultation is one of four consultation documents produced as part of the Long Term Planning Process. Together, the London and South East, long distance passenger market studies and the freight market study will set out how passenger and freight demand is expected to change in each of these markets in Britain over the next 30 years.”

 

“In developing the market studies, the rail industry sets out a new approach to developing plans for the future. This reflects the need to gain a better understanding about how plans for the railway impact on the economy and make sure that strategic change, such as the implementation of the Northern Hub programme, the development and implementation of the electrification programme and the development of High Speed 2, can be effectively considered in rail industry planning.”

 

“The regional urban market relates primarily to travel by large numbers of people for commuting or leisure purposes in an area less than 50 miles from a regional centre and this study seeks to understand where rail can exploit its competitive advantages in best serving this market. Despite the recession commuting demand into regional centres continues to grow as a result of modal shift from road to rail. It is anticipated that this growth will continue in the future. Key deliverables of the study are the ‘conditional outputs’ for the regional urban sector in terms of frequency and journey times on key suburban corridors.”

 

“The regional urban passenger market study draft for consultation was published on 25 April 2013 with a 90 day consultation period ending on 26 July 2013. We welcome the views of interested parties on the proposals set out in the study.”

Their rather disappointing conclusion is that they don’t see a case for increasing the frequency of trains at Slaithwaite and Marsden. The methodology has some obvious flaws, and some of the figures and assertions are either dubious or just plain wrong. For example, their figures assert that the population within a 1km radius of Marsden station is nil, which might come as a surprise to the 4,000 inhabitants of the village. Obviously people who don’t exist have a fairly low propensity to travel by train! Errors such as this would clearly have the effect of undermining what we believe to be a very strong case for improving the frequency of train services at Mossley, Greenfield, Marsden and Slaithwaite.

SMART will be drafting a detailed response, setting out where we see limitations in the methodology and data and where appropriate challenging the conclusions reached regarding local train services at Slaithwaite and Marsden.

View the regional urban market study 2013 draft for consultation

It’s a draft for consultation, with a reply deadline of 26th July 2013.

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Ale Trail Meeting, 17th June

Posted on June 18, 2013 by admin

[Update courtesy of Cllr Donna Bellamy.]

As promised I said I would update on tonight’s meeting regarding the ale trail.

The meeting was attended by several members of the public, landlords, West Yorkshire Police, Northern Rail, BTP, First Transpennine and Councillors.

The meeting in a whole was very positive with lots of positive feedback from all involved.

The present implementations are to carry on for now, including the police presence, the discouraging of stag/hen parties and fancy dress and the limited drinks. Please can I ask that you support this action, as to get the message out there to the wider public, that the ale trail is what it says an ale trail! NOT a booze cruise on a train!

Further to this it is at present also being looked at setting a community run website up to promote the ale trail as a REAL ale trail, so if there are any budding web developers out there, willing to donate any time, can I ask that you get in touch. Northern Rail are willing to cover any costs that this may incur.

The police are looking into setting a pub watch scheme up for the area. This needs to involve all the public houses and there has been commitment from three that are willing to be apart of this.

Some of you may have noticed that the police did in fact make an arrest on Saturday (drugs related). Just to reiterate this was not the picture on the front page of the Examiner (as someone queried this evening) – the picture was in fact a police briefing and the woman there was me!

Regarding the man seen to be streaking the police hadn’t actually seen this but had realised that he was up to something, but had no evidence as to what. Can I please remind everyone that if you do see anything please tell the police, or if you don’t want to leave your home then please still ring 101.

Regarding the previous discussion asking if Jason McCartney MP was aware of the problems and was in support of the action being taken, Jason has confirmed that he will be in the village on Saturday afternoon and will be talking to the police and residents. Thank you to all that attended and thank you Gary Brammall for the use of the room at the Riverhead Tap Marsden.

Kind regards, Donna

[And from Cllr Nicola Turner]

It was a good meeting and real progress is at last being made. This follows the efforts of many people from the Marsden and Slaithwaite communities, landlords and breweries, Councillors, council officers, police, transport police, rail companies and others. It really shows how this “partnership working” can be effective. We need to make sure that we have a sustained effort for the next few months to ensure that the message gets out there that Real Ale drinkers are welcome but groups intent on getting drunk and blighting people’s lives with antisocial behaviour are not. A big thanks to everyone prepared to work to find a solution!

 

 

Posted in FOSLS, Marsden, Real Ale Trail, Slaithwaite | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Ready for return of ale trail idyll”

Posted on June 17, 2013 by admin

[by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 29th May 2013]

IT’S come to something when you’ve got to form an orderly queue to wait for the train into town.

Instead of milling around on the platform, those of us who wished to catch the 7.04 from Slawit last Saturday found ourselves lined up behind a cordon, with five men in luminous jackets guarding the station.

Only when the train arrived (late, as ever) was the cordon lifted.

The reason for this strange security system is obvious to anyone who lives in the Colne Valley – the Real Ale Trail.

Every weekend hundreds of drinkers descend on Slawit and Marsden.

Many are rowdy, some are in fancy dress and a few are unable to make the crucial distinction between a railway platform and a urinal.

After a couple of years of this, I’m prepared to put up with a few traffic cones at the station if it calms down the boozers for a bit.

Last Saturday’s cordon succeeded, the 30-odd Real Ale Trailers toned down the raucousness when they approached the station and glimpsed the hi-vis tabards.

Once on their way to Huddersfield though, it was back to type.

With no security on the train, the well-oiled revellers roared and yelled all the way into town.

On Monday the Examiner reported that many pubs on the trail, including the Commercial in Slawit and the Riverhead in Marsden, are taking further measures to try to tone down the raucousness.

From midday to 8pm on Saturdays – when the rowdiness is at its height – these pubs will not serve any lager or shots, the preferred tipples of many Real Ale Trail participants.

I hope it works.

It would be great if the pub crawl could get back to what it was in 2009/10 before the stag parties started coming – a friendly journey through the beautiful Pennine countryside accompanied by a few pints of fine ale.

Read more: Examiner http://www.examiner.co.uk/views-and-blogs/columnists/2013/05/29/barry-gibson-ready-for-return-of-ale-trail-idyll-86081-33397179/#ixzz2UgTiu5JJ

Posted in Marsden, Real Ale Trail, Slaithwaite | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“Real Ale Trail revellers greeted by mounted police in Marsden”

Posted on June 17, 2013 by admin

[From the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 17th June 2013

DRINKERS on the Real Ale Trail got a shock when they turned up in Marsden on Saturday lunchtime hoping for a quiet pint.

Greeting them off the trains were a posse of mounted police accompanied by police officers on the ground dotted around the village.

A single train stop can see more than 50 young men being disgorged on to the platform before they set off snaking through the village in search of a good time.

The police presence – which some drinkers saw as “heavy-handed,” and “over the top” – comes after landlords and brewers agreed that a crackdown was needed on bad behaviour at weekends.

The popular trail, which runs from Manchester to Leeds via the Colne Valley, Huddersfield, Mirfield and Dewsbury has been ‘hijacked’ by hen, stag and other parties.

It began four years ago as an enjoyable day out for genuine real ale enthusiasts after a TV programme popularised the route, but since then residents have become fed up with revellers’ increasingly anti-social behaviour.

There have been numerous incidents of drinkers vomiting in people’s gardens and urinating in the streets as well as more intimidating behaviour.

In one infamous incident a Marsden resident, Dorothy Lindley, was shocked to find a drinker sitting in her living room last summer.

And there have even been occasions when drunk men and women have been witnessed running on the railway tracks, endangering their own lives.

West Yorkshire Police and British Transport Police have promised a crackdown.

The Examiner revealed that a new group comprising landlords and brewers from Stalybridge to Dewsbury had been set up to combat the menace.

The Real Ale Trail Licensees scheme (RATL) say participating pubs, including The Riverhead, Marsden, will not be serving lager, shots, spirit doubles, cider and other tipples favoured by binge drinkers on Saturdays.

But Daniel Wyness, 27 from Bradford who was enjoying a drink at The Railway pub in Marsden with his friends Adam Keath and Luke Dawson, said he was shocked at seeing the mounted police when he got off the train.

He said:

“It felt like I had come to a football match when we saw the mounted police unit.

“We have just come out for a pleasant day out and are having to drink our beer in plastic glasses.

“The trade this trail brings is obviously good for the local economy but if it’s getting out of hand then it’s counterproductive, it seems a bit like one of those Mediterranean islands that get invaded by the Brits.”

Maggie Holmes, a building society manager from Sherbourne-in-Elmet, near York, was out with three girlfriends.

She said:

“It’s been excellent. We have had a good day out but I do wonder at the cost of this kind of policing and the resources that have been poured into this.

“We come from villages and we would be absolutely mortified if this was happening on our doorstep.”

Her friend Joanne Gascoigne, a nurse from Leeds added:

“I feel sorry for the villagers” but she joked: “I am most upset that there’s no doubles being served!”

One of the mounted police officers, Adrian Simpson, said:

“If we are helping to stop things getting out of hand then that’s great.

“It’s the second weekend that West Yorkshire Police have run it and it was really, really busy”.

Read more: Examiner http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/2013/06/17/real-ale-trail-revellers-greeted-by-mounted-police-in-marsden-86081-33482477/#ixzz2WSuU9wyC

[plus, from the Dewsbury Reporter, 17th June 2013]

Drinkers on the Real Ale Trail were met by mounted police when they got off the train this weekend.

As they stepped off the train at Marsden on Saturday they were greeted by police on horseback.

It coincided with the start of alcohol sale restrictions along the Transpennine rail route of pubs along the line between West Yorkshire and Manchester with some landlords introducing bans on selling lager, doubles, shots and other binge-drinking tipples.

It is part of a crackdown on booze-fuelled behaviour on the trail which runs from Leeds to Manchester through Dewsbury, Mirfield and Huddersfield along the Colne Valley.

There are concerns that the Real Ale Trail has been hijacked by stag and hen parties with complaints including of drunken revellers being sick, jumping in canals, running on the train line and intimidating other passengers.

Chief Supt Tim Kingsman of Kirklees Police, said:

“We are aware of concerns in communities on the Real Ale Trail regarding anti social behaviour on weekends and we are working closely with partners to address these matters.

“West Yorkshire Police are providing additional patrols including mounted officers at key times to reassure residents and deter offending.

“Policing alone will not fully resolve the issues and we are building on existing partnership work with colleagues from agencies such as British Transport Police, Kirklees Council and licensees to put in place various measures to allow Real Ale Trail users to enjoy the experience safely and responsibly while also ensuring communities on the trail are not blighted by frequent poor behaviour by those who might seek to abuse it.

“Residents in communities such as Marsden should quite rightly not have to put up with drunken or loutish behaviour and it will not be tolerated by Kirklees Police and our partners.”

Publicans and brewers along the route have formed the Real Ale Trail Licensees scheme and have recently introduced restrictions on Saturdays along the Batley to Stalybridge stations route.

Posted in Marsden, Northern Rail, Real Ale Trail, Slaithwaite | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment