22 people attended the meeting – apologies were received from Ruth Hughes of Getabout Rural Transport.
- The meeting started with a talk from Ruth Annison, the Secretary and one of the prime movers of the Wensleydale Railway. Ruth started by talking about why the railway had begun, when it became obvious that farming was not a good proposition any more in the dales, and tourism was bringing problems of car parking, congestion and pollution. Ruth was at pains to stress that it was not a Heritage line, and that the long-term target was the completion of the Hawes link which would make the Wensleydale eventually link up to both East Coast and West Coast major routes via Northallerton in one direction and Garsdale joining to the Settle and Carlisle in the other. The idea was to bring tourists in, but also to provide a regular service for commuters, schools and shoppers – “ordinary people making ordinary journeys.”
Early on, they realised it was a “hearts and minds” campaign they had to win, and they went into the mass production of train-shaped biscuits as a means of persuasion to dignitaries they wanted to get on board. It worked ! They campaigned from 1992 when the track was due to be torn up, and managed to get a stay of execution until they could buy the trackbed themselves. Railtrack bosses on seeing the work of their volunteers said that they had “no idea it was possible to rescue a railway so quickly.” They opened up a share offer for £1.3 million and found themselves joint owners with a responsibility. Ruth said they were “proud of what they had done, but did not think it was what they should have to do.” They had to get the railway up and running in 9 weeks.
Ruth had a Churchill travel grant and went around some European railways gleaning ideas. She found that “no railway operator makes more than half operating costs from tickets” – you must therefore diversify if you want to keep going. You cannot, for instance, sell the landscape in Lapland, but you can sell souvenirs and “railway ice cream” at special stops provided for the purpose. This helps the local economy as well. The answer to massive signal structures and therefore massive costs was to have a signalman with a computer at isolated stations – the same person could later sell tickets and refreshments, and even provide a travel agency – multi-tasking was the answer to high costs. Other ideas were to have larger carriages, but different levels, to help with buggies and bicycles – also wider doors to make station stops easier and quicker. In Germany, they had self-dispensing ticket machines on board, and in Holland, there was co-operation in terms of return tickets, so that you could get off at one station with your bike and get back on at another with no complicated procedures.
Back to Wensleydale, the railway was developing its own marketing strategies, including having a cottage for winter and summer breaks, a buffet car and a kiosk at Northallerton station open from 6.30 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. Amazingly, this was staffed by volunteers all year round, and it gives the railway a very public face on the main line. A good bonding exercise for volunteers, incidentally, was an evening spent stuffing envelopes – very good for morale apparently ! Other good wheezes were a cheap photo-call at the national Railway Museum, a car wash at one station which made a lot of money, and people growing flowers for tubs at the various stations. Badges helped with support, as did church bells rung up the valley in 14 churches at the opening. A royal visit from Prince Andrew was a great success, underpinned by a famously cheap wedding cake bought from Marks and Spencers, one layer used for the bigwigs and the other two layers raffled off to pay for it. Sir Topham Hat and Thomas had been to help out, as had the son of their inventor, Chris Awdry.
Ruth ended by saying that the difficulties were not to be underestimated – they recently had a £100,000 deficit to fund – but they were determined to keep up both winter and summer running. A big help was their own DMU, which they could use more as their own and paint as they liked, but it did cost money to run.
John thanked Ruth for an interesting and varied talk, in which there was much food for thought for SENRUG members.
To start off the second part of the meeting, Ken gave the Chairman`s report for the year. He emphasised the aims of the next year`s activities, and underlined the remarkable successes of SENRUG`s first year, when we not only discovered that several intercity direct trains to Morpeth were under threat but saved them, and also managed to get a review of the ABT line, moribund for 40 years. Our aims were to keep up the pressure on the train operators to fill in the gaps in service, particularly evening trains; to fight for better access for the disabled and children in buggies at Morpeth station, and to fight for better information services at all SE Northumberland stations; also to continue the campaign to get the ABT line reopened, following the review of costs which we felt were bound to be cheaper than assessed at first.
Ken mentioned that we had been invited to several meetings over the award of the ECML franchise. We had been happy that it had been awarded finally to GNER, for whom we had put in a good word from time to time. We had learnt of the secrecy with which the SRA liked to work, and the dangers this approach posed, but were learning how to counteract this. Did SENRUG not exist, it is worth noting that this year passengers throughout South East Northumberland would be faced with a much poorer service – as it is, we can build on the success of a very good campaign in conjunction with the Alnmouth group to improve services to an even higher level. The importance of direct access to the train operators had also become evident, since all had agreed to keep existing services as they were.
On the ABT line, Ken mentioned that there was a setback initially when a railtour that was set to go had been cancelled at the last minute. However, through the year we had had a number of successful meetings with County Transport officers when the history of the line was made available so that we could make our own assessment of what had to be done. Ken paid tribute to the work and ideas of Trevor Watson, who made an extremely detailed and knowledgeable assessment of the line`s capabilities that was eventually instrumental in starting the ball rolling towards reopening, as Network Rail have agreed that the original costs were “hugely overestimated”. So from the original pessimistic assessment that the line was “too slow to attract passengers” and may cost as much as £46m, the comparison with the recently reopened Vale of Glamorgan line at only £17m had to be made, and a faster route through had to be considered. “Refurbishment” is now being talked about rather than wholesale rebuilding, which may again have favourable implications as regards cost. Ken mentioned cheaper options as to signalling and light rail for instance, mentioned in Colin Wheeler`s talk to us earlier this year and also this evening from Ruth. He finished by saying that we were pursuing our original aims with vigour, and the start of this process was a meeting agreed with Northern, to be held in the Methodist Church on September 12th.
Dennis Fancett gave the Treasurer`s report, handing out the accounts which had been checked by a retired bank manager. He thanked the Getabout Rural Transport Partnership which had been responsible for our original seeding grant of £1,000. This had provided the main “cushion” for our needs, supplemented with membership fees of £177.50. Main expenditure had been £122 for a leaflet, and small sums for the hire of the Storey Park Centre for meetings. Money had been earmarked for a survey of rail passengers and was still there if we needed to implement it. Dennis mentioned the possibility that had been talked about of starting our own rail trip, and added that we had the money to support it up to a point, but that so far the estimates for such a trip had been beyond what it was safe to advance in case of loss. Dennis proposed that we should keep the subscription rate the same for next year, with the proviso that if you joined in the last three months of the membership year (June-June), you would not have to pay again until the following year. This proposal was passed, and there were no further questions on the report.
Elections. John proposed for Ken to keep going as long as he felt he could as Chairman, and he agreed to do so provide that he could have support in the role of a new post of Vice-Chair. Dennis agreed that he would fill the latter post, and the two elections were ratified by the meeting. John agreed to keep going as Secretary, unless there were other proposals – there were none. Colin Patmore was elected as the new Treasurer, and Coral Patmore was elected Membership Secretary, a post which we had been looking to fill since last year but which John had maintained in the interim. Ken asked for new “ordinary members” for the committee – no offers, but it was pointed out that Gordon Barclay and Martin Murphy were regular attenders, supplemented by various other members at various times.
The meeting finished with an open discussion, during which the following points were raised:
The issue of information screens was raised, and it was pointed out that the technology was in place to have them; other technology such as wap enabled phones was mentioned. Tyne Valley had a sound system, apparently, which was obviously better than nothing. The Taxi office at Morpeth was useful, but it does not open till 9, and obviously does not keep going late.
Access to northbound platform at Morpeth – who pays ? Answer, it is Northern`s station so therefore we cannot put too much pressure on GNER for the sake of the few trains they have stopping here; equally, we cannot make the point that Morpeth is one of the few in this state, as there are “hundreds” apparently.
Running to Berwick – is it easier to get Virgin trains stopping than trying to get more stops out of Northern ? Mention of “secret talks” between County and Virgin, but so far we have heard nothing. Dennis felt that we should put emphasis on trying to get Virgin to stop more.
Has there been any work to ease the curve through Morpeth by taking a different route ? Trevor says that the TPWS system was now fitted in this location so the problem was less acute; the old plan for route straightening was unlikely to happen now because Coopies lane was in the way of further development. Plans for a “Maglev” system were more likely in the long run, which would take a route through Newcastle airport rather than going through Morpeth, but this was very unlikely to go ahead in the present climate.
What were the rumours about cutting Northern services, and what implications does this have ? We would obviously fight this if it happened, but Dennis stressed that level of service was laid down by Parliament so it would take major upheaval for them to decimate the service considerably. Trevor mentioned again the favourable acceleration of the Virgin trains and pointed out the comparability of Chester-le-Street and Cramlington as commuter destinations, Chester-le-Street being very successful in attracting Virgin stops. Dennis agreed that for the Berwick possibilities we need to put focus on Virgin and see what we can get out of them.
Late-night and Scottish trains – discussion on how well used these still were, with “25 to 30” getting off the very late one on Friday evening from London – why could late-night trains not be extended?
Any other business – none.
Ken thanked everyone for attending, and mentioned that the next meeting was on September 12th at the Methodist Church when a representative from Northern would be there. Once again he emphasised that all were welcome at committee meetings through the year.
The meeting formally closed at 9.40 pm, but people stayed for a chat until about 10. Thanks to Coral Patmore for the refreshments.
