move over freightliner, we want to get into ... - Rail Professional

NEWS
ISLE OF WIGHT’S TRAINS SOLD FOR £1
The former tube trains on the Isle
of Wight’s Island Line have been
sold for a total of £1 – making each
train worth a little under 17 pence.
HSBC Rail, which has owned the
trains since privatisation, has
handed the 69-year-old former
London Underground trains to
Stagecoach.
At privatisation there had been
widespread criticism of a system
which charged substantial sums for
leasing worn-out trains which were
worth little more than their scrap
value. Island Line has often been
labelled the most heavily
subsidised line in the country, with
£1 from taxpayers for every £1 paid
by passengers.
Island Line was previously the
country’s smallest rail franchise, but
is now part of Stagecoach’s 10-year
South West Trains operation.
Stewart Palmer, SWT’s managing
director, said: ‘This marks another
step in the direction of community
rail partnership. The trains will be
re-painted in heritage colours.’
It will bring the trains into line
with the Mark 1 slam door trains
used on the Lymington branch
from Brockenhurst, which are
painted in British Rail blue, using
the ripe old age of the rolling stock
as a tourism marketing opportunity.
The island’s trains will probably
be painted in London
Underground’s red and grey, but
South West Trains says it is
struggling to source the correct
paint to match the livery the trains
had when first entering service
before the Second World War.
One of the Isle of Wight’s Class
485 ex-tube trains, used on the
Piccadilly line before the war.
Some of the island’s stations will
also be painted in heritage colours.
The Class 485 tube trains, which
were built in 1938, each cover up to
70,000 miles a year on the island. It
is the only part of the national rail
network where track, signalling,
train operation, maintenance and
ownership are now in the hands of
a single company.
‘This means the train company
can adopt a more flexible approach
to the local needs of the
community, working alongside the
Isle of Wight Community Rail
www.railimages.co.uk
Partnership,’ said Peter Aldridge,
head of HSBC Rail. ‘These units
can continue to serve the Isle of
Wight for many years to come and,
as part of the handover of these
trains, we have given a refund of
rental towards the re-livery and
corrosion protection of the
vehicles.’
There have been numerous
attempts to find alternative rolling
stock, as well as studies aimed at
replacing the trains with trams.
None have succeeded, and the
tube trains will remain for the
foreseeable future.
The line has around 40 staff,
most of whom are capable of
carrying out a wide range of duties.
Managers, led by Andy Naylor,
cover for drivers or ticket office staff
when someone goes sick.
Jack Richards, of the island’s
Community Rail Partnership, said
the change of ownership was a
logical development towards
increased local ownership of the
line.
BRITISH TRAIN FARES ‘HIGHEST IN EUROPE’
Walk-on fares in Britain are higher than
anywhere else in Europe, according to a
report by the Liberal Democrats.
A £10 ticket will, typically, take a
British passenger 35 miles, while a
Latvian can travel 663 miles in their own
country for the same amount. In France,
passengers can travel 102 miles for £10,
while the same fare will take you 99
miles in the Netherlands.
The second most expensive
European country in the survey was
Ireland, where £10 will take you 44
miles.
Even Switzerland and Sweden,
Virgin is to run an extra 17 trains a
day between London and
Birmingham when its highfrequency
timetable starts in
January 2009.
Off-peak trains will leave every 20
minutes and take, on average, an
usually thought of expensive countries
for visitors, offer cheaper walk-on rail
fares than Britain – in either country
your £10 will get your almost twice as
far as it would on British tracks.
Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrat
shadow transport secretary, said:‘The
biggest rise in complaints over the last
year has been about fares and refunds,
which is not surprising given that rail
fares continue to be the most expensive
in Europe.
‘Our railways should be reliable and
accessible for everyone, not just those
who can afford it.’
New London-Birmingham trains
hour and 21 minutes. Some trains
will take just and hour and 12
minutes.
Virgin Trains business
development director Tim
Shoveller said: ‘This is great news
for Birmingham.’
Reading upgrade plans
Plans to radically improve the
biggest bottleneck on the Great
Western line have been submitted
to the Government.
Backers of the Reading station
upgrade claim it has a cost-benefit
ratio of 1:5, making it one of the
most effective rail schemes in the
country.
The revised business case puts
the bill at £515m. The Reading
Station Partnership, which is led by
Reading Borough Council, hopes
the work will be included in July’s
High Level Output Statement.
The document predicts a 75 per
cent increase in platform capacity
and a 37.4 per cent improvement in
performance. Reading is the second
busiest railway station in the
country outside London, with only
Birmingham New Street busier.
The work includes the grade
separation of the busy freight route
from Southampton docks, where it
crosses the Great Western main
line. It would mean relocating the
depot where all Thames Turbo
trains are maintained.
Reading Borough Council
believes the replacement of Cow
Lane bridges west of the station
would allow major road traffic
improvements at the same time.
The number of trains that can
stop at Reading is limited by the
current platform capacity and track
layout. The upgrade would provide
four new platforms.
The lengthening and widening of
the existing platform nine, as well
as a new island platform to the
north, would provide two additional
through platforms and two bay
platforms.
The Reading Station Partnership
hopes preliminary work will start
next year.
6 RAIL PROFESSIONAL : MAY 2007