RAIL CLOSURE THREAT

RMTnews :: march 2006 :: www.rmt.org.uk 6 Much of the 2005 Railways Act addressed the closure of lines, services and stations and the Department for Transport recently issued a consultation document which deals with closure procedures and modifications guidance. Next year, the DfT will also announce how much money they have available in the railway pot and there are indications that the Treasury is seeking to cut £1billion a year from the rail budget. Under the new guidance, once a closure is proposed, a cost-benefit analysis is conducted with monetary values placed on a series of factors including the impact that closure will have on the environment, accessibility, safety and the economy. However, this cost-benefit analysis is already used and all too often utilised as a barrier to investment on rail network. Secondly, consultants carrying out the analysis are likely to come up with results required by the DfT to support a closure, once again raising the spectre of ‘bustitution’. The highly respected Rail Business Intelligence journal recently said: “the fundamental problem is an underlying assumption that buses, which obviously incur negligible infrastructure costs, are in principle as good as the rail services they replace. “The danger is that bustitution will inevitably emerge as the cheapest option for a substantial proportion of the network as the noose tightens” it said. The guidance also makes clear that in addition to the money which could be saved by rail closure, potential land values should also be taken into account. The guidance scraps the current system where the final decision over closure rests with the elected Secretary of State for Transport and regional Rail Passengers Committees report on the likely hardship caused by any proposed cut. The new procedure will allow Network Rail, Train Operating Companies, or a rail funding authority (DfT, Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly, PTAs or the London Mayor) to propose a closure. The decision to go ahead will be made by the unelected Office of Rail Regulation. The consultation process requires that notices are placed in newspapers and in the stations affected by the proposed closures. Organisations have 12 weeks to respond after the second newspaper notice appears. Trade unions and local rail users’ groups are not on the list of organisations to be consulted and there is no obligation to hold public hearings to discuss proposals. RMT will be working with other rail unions and other groups to campaign for the protection and expansion of rail services. The deadline for responses to the consultation is 21 April, any organisation or individual can respond including local rail campaigners and rail users’ groups. The full closures procedure document can be found at: http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft _railways/documents/divisionhomepage/ 611062.hcsp R MT activists and supporters lobbied a Bristol city council meeting last month to save the threatened Severn Beach rail line. RMT’s Bristol Rail branch, alongside the city’s trades union council and transport campaigners, lobbied Bristol councillors to throw out a Liberal Democrat cabinet proposal to axe the council’s entire £138,000 rail support budget. The grant supports services on the Severn Beach line, which provides a vital transport lifeline across north and west Bristol, through Clifton and Avonmouth to Severn Beach. “£138,000 is not a huge amount of money and Bristol city council should be considering increasing it, not cutting it,” said RMT regional council secretary Alex Gordon. “The Severn Beach line needs more services, not fewer, but axing this lifeline grant will start a downward spiral that could lead to closure,” he said. The proposal has already prompted First group to plan replacing some morning services with buses and rescheduling the rest to make them useless for people who rely on them to get to work. RMT members in and around Bristol converged on the Council House when the proposal was debated to tell the council loud and clear to save the line. Bristol East Labour MP Kerry McCarthy also tabled early day motion 1702 condemning the planned cut that can only result in more traffic on already congested roads. The motion, signed by several MPs already, also backed the campaign to improve Bristol’s rail services. RAIL CLOSURE THREAT Since last year’s Railways Act was passed there have been growing press reports that branch lines should be concreted over and many stations could be closed SAVE THE SEVERN BEACH LINE A train crosses Narroways Junction in Bristol, where the single line to Severn Beach branches off from Bristol Temple Meads to Filton mainline.