Attached Documents:

• David Franks’s powerpoint presentation
• Treasurer's Report

Annual General Meeting 14th July 2008

Held at Morpeth Methodist Church

Guest Speaker David Franks, Managing Director National Express Trains

Welcome

Dennis Fancett, chairman of SENRUG opened the meeting and welcomed everyone to the meeting. Dennis said that apologies had been received from Carol Dixon. He especially welcomed David Franks, Managing Director of National Express Trains and Fiona Neil, Newcastle Station Manager for National Express East Coast (NXEC).

Guest Speaker – David Franks National Express Railways

David said that and Fiona were pleased to have been incited to come to the meeting and give a presentation. He said that he and Fiona would be happy to return and speak to the group again. He then gave an interesting and informative presentation about National Express’ pedigree in rail operation and their plans for the East Coast franchise. A copy of David’s powerpoint presentation is attached separately.

Questions for David

Dennis thanked David for his presentation and asked for questions from the floor.

Question:
SENRUG were campaigning for a two-hourly inter-city service from Morpeth made up of Cross Country and East Coast trains. Would NXEC consider additional stops of their trains at Morpeth?

David said that he could make no promise except that NXEC would look carefully at this question. He pointed out that, even with the need to slow for the curve at Morpeth, a stop would add about 5 minutes to journey time and operators needed to balance the number of stops against journey times.

Dennis commented that when Virgin had held the cross country franchise they had agreed to add two Morpeth stops but found it so successful that they had quickly increased that number to four. They had found that popular journeys were Morpeth to York and Morpeth to Edinburgh – not just to Newcastle as some had feared. However, Arriva had chosen to reduce the number of trains stopping at Morpeth from 4 to 3 and had re-timed them so that they now ran within a few minutes of Northern’s local service. Would NXEC be prepared to capitalise on Arriva’s decision by increasing their own stops at Morpeth?

David re-iterated commitment to look carefully at the option of additional Morpeth stops. He said that after his first 25 years in the railway industry which were all about cut backs, it was good to be talking about such major growth in demand.

Question:
Given the 4% passenger growth already mentioned, had NXEC given any thought to longer trains and using the largely empty guard’s vans for passenger luggage?

David said that the Class 91 locomotives used on the electric trains (the majority of services) were excellent performers and could easily haul more coaches – but the longer trains could not be accommodated in the platforms at King’s Cross. It was possible in theory to store luggage in the guard’s van, but there would have to be a check-in and check-out system which people do not like. People have expressed a preference to keep their luggage with them.

Question:
What is C2C that David had mentioned and why can’t through tickets be bought onto the trains?

David said that C2C was effectively the old London, Tilbury and Southend Railway. It should be possible to buy through tickets. He said he would look into the problems reported.

Question:
While it was good to see the planned improvements, did NXEC have any plans to improve the services between Newcastle, Morpeth and Berwick? Also, could the Sunday service be improved?

Again, David agreed to take his away and consider – however, he commented that the Sunday service was constrained by Network Rail’s engineering programme.

Dennis commented that the “skip - stop” approach to intermediate stations, and the lack of a local service, meant that it was almost impossible to travel from Morpeth to Berwick and back by train in a day. There should be a reasonable service between Morpeth, Alnmouth, Berwick, Dunbar and Edinburgh.

David said that NXEC’s role was to provide a high speed service. The kind of service Dennis described would be best provided by the local service operator (eg Northern). It takes NXEC’s trains longer to stop and start than Northern’s.

Question:
While the refurbishment of the High Speed Train (HST) fleet was welcome and would no doubt enable them to carry on for a few years yet, did David think that the plan to replace HSTs with new trains from 2012 was too optimistic?

The new Inter-city Express Train (ICE) was being designed as a diesel- electric hybrid unit and the Invitation to Tender had already been issued. NXEC was providing technical support to the project. Any completely new train brings with it risk of delay and teething problems so NXEC will ensure that its fleet can operate beyond 2012 if needed. David commented that the Mark 4 coaches used with the electric trains were also very good.

Question:
Would NXEC consider re-introducing the Edinburgh sleeper ?

David said not. Given the shorter journey times now, demand for sleepers generally were greatly reduced. In any event, NXEC does not have sleeper vehicles and a 7 year franchise does not make it worthwhile to acquire them even if they felt the demand was there.

Question:
The first departure from Morpeth is at 07.20 – that is too late for many people needing to get to London. Could the late evening service from London to Morpeth to improved – the last service is the 17.30 from London. Given that these points sometimes make it necessary to travel to and from Newcastle, could anything be done to improve parking at Newcastle?

NXEC had investigated swopping the early morning Alnmouth & Morpeth stops from the 06.00 departure from Edinburgh (current) to the 05.50, which gives an earlier London arrival of 10.10. However, to accommodate the extra stops, the start time from Edinburgh needed to be advanced and this required negotiation of extended station opening hours. Thus they had been unable to implement this at present.

A later evening service from London to Morpeth would be considered along with the other suggestions that had been made.

NXEC had included commitments to improve car-parking at many stations as part of their franchise commitments, but growing demand for car parking was a problem caused by the phenomenal growth in passenger volumes.

Question:
Did NXEC intend to do anything about the underpass at Morpeth station and the fact that the northbound platform was only accessible via steps. Passengers with disabilities, heavy luggage or push chairs faced real difficulties. Especially when the station was unmanned, there was areal danger of people alighting at Morpeth being stranded on the north bound platform.

David replied that Northern rather than NXEC was responsible for Morpeth station, but he was aware that NXEC’s passengers were being affected by this serious problem. He said that he would take up the matter with Heidi Mottram, Managing Director of Northern.

Question:
Why did NXEC put so much emphasis on booking via the internet? Why was the 10% discount only available on tickets bought over the internet? Not everyone has internet access.

David said that NXEC also sold tickets via the telephone or travel centres. Internet booking is much cheaper for NXEC to provide and the discount reflects that by passing on a saving to the customer.

Question:
Why can accompanied travel for people with disabilities not be done over the internet? Despite spending 45 minutes on the phone to book a journey, there was still no space available.

David apologised for the problems and said that if the questioner provided details afterwards, he would look into that particular incident. David said that NXEC’s website was widely regarded ass one of the best in the industry but he would take the suggestion back for consideration.

Question:
Why is there a lack of train running information at Morpeth? Staff are good, but they are busy with other duties and for much of the day the station is unmanned. What can be done to provide more information?

David said that texting of live train running information to a mobile phone is available. He repeated that NXEC does not control Morpeth station and therefore cannot offer to install TV display screens.

Question:
Why had NXEC changed the food menus – they had removed the all day breakfasts and there was now too much cheese.

David commented that NXEC’s food was of a very high standard but recognised that it was impossible to please everyone with menus. He said that the menu had been extensively tested before introduction and had proved popular, but again he noted the comments and would feed them back.

Question:
It was often difficult to hear announcements on the trains, especially for foreigners and older people. Could anything be done to improve the quality of announcements?

David promised to raise this point within NXEC.

At this point Dennis drew the question and answer session to a close and thanked David and Fiona for their attendance and willingness to take questions. Dennis also agreed to compile a list of any outstanding questions which David said his team at NXEC would consider. There was a short break and David and Fiona left the meeting.

After the break, Dennis gave the Chairman’s report on the preceding year.

Chairman’s Report

Dennis said commented that the major focus of the last year had been the campaign to re-open the Ashington, Blyth and Tyne line (ABT) culminating in the three special charters in June 2008 which had received widespread positive coverage and the visit of the Rail Minister to the line with Denis Murphy MP shortly afterwards. But, SENRUG is not just about re-opening eth ABT it is also about improving the existing services – hence tonight’s speaker from NXEC. The charter trips had resulted in SENRUG gaining new members and Dennis welcomed them to SENRUG, but the challenge now was to sustain the level of interest and keep the members on-board. Dennis said that the charter had revealed some shortcomings in our network of communications and steps had been taken to improve communications following the charter and as a result, we will be publishing a clear statement of what communications people can expect from SENRUG. Gretaer use of e-mail and increased newsletters will mean that everyone is better informed about what SENRUG is doing throughout the year. The committee structure had also been improved and more details of this would be provided later too. Dennis observed that only two public meetings had been held last year which was less than usual and that this was due to the amount of work that the committee had put into organising the charter.

Dennis asked if anyone had any questions for him. He was asked if there had been any response from Cross Country to his letter about the reduction in the number of trains stopping at Morpeth? Dennis said that he had written a second letter to their managing Director and received an e-mail saying that he would receive a reply, but had not yet done so. Dennis said that he felt Northern were very good and willing to listen and NXEC had demonstrated their willingness to build relations by attending tonight, but he was unconvinced that Cross Country were committed at the moment to building contacts.

Another questioner asked if there was a plan that the new committee would be working to? Dennis replied that SENRUG had a statement of aims which reflected the things to which SENRUG was committed to campaign:

• Two hourly inter-city service for Morpeth
• Local services which operated o Sunday and in the evenings
• The regular local services extended to Alnmouth and Berwick
• Infrastructure improvements at Morpeth including level access, better customer information and increased ticket office opening times
• The provision of customer information at Cramlington
• All local trains to call at Manors
• Re-opening of the Ashington, Blyth and Tyne line to passengers
• More car parking at Morpeth station,
• Buses to call at Morpeth station

Those are the key things on SENRUG’s agenda, but how they are achieved depends on who we are able to influence.

A question was asked whether anything could be done about the poor lighting in the area around Cramlington station? Dennis said that Northern had been asked about providing signposts to the town centre from the station, but were reluctant to do so when the path was so poorly lit.

Treasurer’s Report

Richard Hilton gave the Treasurer’s report. This has been a good year for the group and membership has almost doubled, now standing at 106 full and concession members and 3 corporate members. Financially SENRUG is in a much stronger position than at this time last year. SENRUG was started four years ago with a grant of £1,000 which almost been used up, but the chrter generated almost a further £1,000 for the group which, hopefully should last another four years. The committee has decided to freeze the membership fees at the current levels for another year. SENRUG has also introduced the facility for members to pay their subscription by standing order which is easier for both members and SENRUG. The report can be found here.

Election of Officers

The following people were elected by the AGM. Although Dennis invited nominations, all elections were unopposed.

• Chairman - Dennis Fancett was re-elected.
• Deputy Chair (this is a new role) - John Earl was elected.
• Membership Secretary - John Earl was re-elected.
• Minutes Secretary (this was previously combined with membership secretary) – John Brierley was elected.
• Treasurer – Richard Hilton was re-elected.
• Postal Secretary (this is a new role) – Coral Patmore was elected.
• Newsletter Editor (this had previously been done by the chairman) – Richard Hilton was elected
• Additional Committee Members – Ronald Hunt, Adrian King, Ken Allott and Colin Patmore were elected.

Dennis thanked everyone for their attendance and participation and closed the meeting.