Next meeting of SMART

Posted on January 3, 2013 by admin
The next meeting of SMART will be at the Commercial, Slaithwaite at 7.15pm on Wednesday 9th January.
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Enough is enough say rail campaigners

Posted on December 31, 2012 by admin

A press release from Railfuture, which is the UK’s leading independent organisation campaigning for better rail services for both passengers and freight.

 

On the 2nd of January, rail fares will rise above inflation for the tenth year in a row.

“Yet again rail fares go up with no perceptible improvement in service”, said Bruce Williamson of campaigning group Railfuture. “Over the last ten years fares have increased by more than 50 percent, much more than people’s incomes. Annual increases should be limited to no more than the rate of inflation, and that should be CPI not RPI, because that’s the lower figure and pensions benefits and salaries are all linked to CPI.”

“There is an average rise of RPI plus 1, but it’s very average, it will vary from area to area and route to route. Some fares are going down a little bit, although you’ll need a magnifying glass to find them. Most people’s fares are going up anywhere between 4% and 11 or 12 percent. Meanwhile, petrol tax is frozen and overall the cost of driving remains static. How does this help persuade people out of their cars and ease congestion? Where is the green policy?”

“The train operating companies may say that they need the money for improvements, but how much fare income is actually spent on improvements? Fares income is not ring fenced for anything. If you look at how much money is being paid back to the government in the form of corporation tax, fuel tax (which airlines don’t have to pay), industrial buildings tax and so forth, you have to ask whether raising fares above inflation is really necessary.”

“Most passengers would consider it reasonable that there’s a correlation between the level of fares and the service they get. Our fares are the highest in Europe – do we have the best rail service in Europe? Of course there are some heavily discounted advance tickets to be had, but people want to just turn up and go at a reasonable price when it suits them. Discounting advance tickets is a way of managing passengers to suit the needs of the railway. I think we should be managing the railway to suit the needs of the passengers”.

Enough is enough say rail campaigners

Railfuture’s website can be found at: http://www.railfuture.org.uk

 

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“Slaithwaite Railway Station celebrates the 30th anniversary of its reopening”

Posted on December 17, 2012 by admin

[from the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 17th December 2012]

FOSLS logo

The re-opening of a railway station which put a village back on the map was celebrated on Saturday.

Villagers turned out for a celebration of the reopening of Slaithwaite Station in December 1982, organised by Friends of Slaithwaite Station (FOSLS).

The event featured an exhibition on the platform of photos and memorabilia of the station, which opened in 1849 but was closed and demolished in 1968.

The celebration included live music from folk musicians Gamut, Steve Harrison and Annie Dearman and the cutting of a celebratory cake by Helen Freeman, who is the great-great-granddaughter of Joseph Bray Freeman, the station master at Slaithwaite until 1901.

Platformgroup

Guests-of-honour also included Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney.

Victoria Minton, of FOSLS, said:

“We had a really good turnout throughout the day and especially the cake cutting moment.

“There was a lot of interest in the exhibition and the station’s importance to the village, jobs, leisure and culture.

“The station has increased the diversity of people coming to Slaithwaite and people are attracted by the excellent train line.

“We’re well served with great access to Manchester and Leeds.”

The station first opened on August 1 1849, to coincide with the opening of the first tunnel at Standedge, which took three years to build and cost £201,608.

In 1848 the station had two platforms and modest goods facilities but by 1900 it had grown to four platforms, a large goods shed, stables for the delivery horses, a signal box and coal drops to feed coal to the mill boiler houses in Slaithwaite.

The goods yard closed on October 5, 1964 and the station itself followed suit on October 7, 1968.

The entire station including the goods yard was demolished; the rails were taken away for scrap and the mainline was reduced from four tracks to two.

But 30 years ago, on December 13 1982, after extensive local lobbying and campaigning by some determined local residents, the station was re-opened – on the same site – but with new platforms and waiting shelters.
Read more: Examiner http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/2012/12/17/slaithwaite-railway-station-celebrates-the-30th-anniversary-of-its-reopening-86081-32439877/#ixzz2FK6aIsE2

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TravelWatch surveys Northern Rail services

Posted on December 17, 2012 by admin

TravelWatch NorthWest, (TWNW), the independent passenger champion in North West England, today (14th December) launches a report analysing 100 journeys made on Northern Rail’s services over the last few months.

The report shows that passengers are largely content with their travel experience on Northern trains, but it is of concern that, in 25% of the journeys surveyed, the conductor was not seen at all and tickets not checked. This is an area that requires management attention to reduce the scourge of ticketless travel and also give reassurance to passengers that there is a staff presence on the train.

Northern Rail has to run its services with a fleet of some of the oldest and timeworn trains running on Britain’s railway network and it has had to deal with an unpredicted growth of 40% in passenger numbers. Northern has made valiant efforts to maintain its old trains and its standards but, as a train operator in receipt of deep government subsidy, it is severely restricted from modernising its fleet and providing extra capacity to keep pace with demand.

North West electrification will hopefully enable more capacity to be provided on both electrified and, by releasing diesel trains, non-electrified routes. However, with no movement towards new and more comfortable and spacious trains in sight, the stakeholders face a challenging dilemma if they are to continue to provide train services to meet the needs of the North West of England in the next decade.

TravelWatch NorthWest

Website: www.travelwatch-northwest.org.uk

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