European Business Guide: 16/10/2006
Basileio De Rolia

The European Commission has announced it will drag 13 European member states through the courts for failing to 'liberalise' and fragment their railways ready for privatisation.

The Commission has decided to pursue infringement proceedings against the 13 EU countries that have failed to notify the Commission of the transposition of two key directives of the second railway package into domestic legislation. These two directives aim at ensuring high levels of safety and interoperability for rail business across Europe. The Commission is determined to ensure a 'level playing field' for rail across the single market.

The second railway package had to be transposed into national legislation before 30 April 2006. The 13 countries failing to notify the Commission of their transposition of the two directives (2004/49 and 2004/50) are Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic.

If any of these Member States fails to respond to the Commission's reasoned opinion (by notifying its transposition measures) within a two-month deadline, the Commission may decide to take the case before the European Court of Justice.

Directive 2004/49/EC on railway safety aims at introducing a market in track acess charges in relation to safety procedures. It lays down a procedure amending Council Directive 95/18/EC on the licensing of railway undertakings and Directive 2001/14/EC (Railway Safety Directive) for granting safety certificates on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification every railway company must obtain before it can run trains on the European network.

Directive 2004/50/EC amending Council Directive 96/48/EC on the interoperability of the trans-European high-speed rail system and Directive 2001/16/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the interoperability of the trans-European conventional rail system, which is needed in order to operate cross-border services and cut rolling stock costs on the high-speed network by introducing flexible cross-border working for train crews.

Posted on 10:41 AM | Permalink

Mail & Guardian: 18 October 2006

Sapa-AFP -- The last landmines and unexploded ordnance blocking Mozambique's vital Sena railway line have been removed, thanks largely to about $13-million in United States aid, the US State Department said on Tuesday.

The humanitarian mine action assistance launched in 2002 "has saved lives, created jobs, encouraged more than $104-million in World Bank loans, and boosted Mozambique's economic recovery along segments of the line that were cleared earlier in the project, the State Department said.

Under the US Humanitarian Mine Action Programme, approximately $46-million have been given in aid to Mozambique since 1993.

The 670km Sena Railway connects Beira, Mozambique's main seaport, to its resource-rich interior.

Before the railway line was damaged and mined by Renamo insurgents in 1984, it carried 2,4-million tonnes of freight annually and several hundred passengers daily, the State Department said.

After it was sabotaged, not one train used it for more than 20 years.

The government of Mozambique calculates that when fully operational, the railway will enable the country to tap a potential of 10-million tonnes of high-grade coal annually, and to exploit its other valuable resources such as gold, copper, and diamonds.

Mozambique's agricultural sector, which once employed tens of thousands, should also recover.

Clearance of mines and unexploded ordnance on one section of the Sena Railway has already led to the re-building of a concrete plant employing more than 500 workers.

Jobs for 2 000 workers are projected on the rail line itself.

See also:

Mozambique railway mines cleared

BBC News: 18 October 2006

Mozambique's Sena Railway, which has not been used for 20 years, has been cleared of mines and unexploded ordnance, says the US State Department.

The 670km long railway line connects Mozambique's main port city, Beira, with its resource-rich interior.

Renamo insurgents damaged the railway and laid mines in 1984 during Mozambique's civil war.

Before it was attacked the Sena Railway carried more than 2 million tonnes of freight every year.

The line also carried several hundred passengers daily.

Mineral rich

The US State Department invested some $13 million in the clearance project, which took just over two years to complete.

The Government of Mozambique believes that once operational, the railway will enable the country to tap into its valuable resources such as gold, copper and diamonds.

The government says they should be able to produce more than 10 million tonnes of high-grade coal annually thanks to the railway.

The benefits of the line are already being felt in Mozambique. Clearance of one section of the Sena Railway has resulted in the reconstruction of a concrete plant employing more than 500 workers. There is no indication when trains may start running again.

The line itself should create 2,000 jobs, according to the US State Department.

As well as serving Mozambique's transport needs, the line could also provide access to the sea for neighbouring, landlocked Malawi.

Mozambique is littered with landmines after 26 years of conflict, including a war for independence and subsequent civil war.

Posted on 10:33 AM | Permalink

The Times: October 17, 2006
By Ben Webster

A new system of traffic management can squeeze more capacity out of existing tracks

TRAINS will run with a shorter safety gap to the one behind under a new control system that squeezes more capacity from tracks.

Network Rail is planning to test the system in North Wales before installing it on high-speed lines.

All trackside railway signals will be removed and replaced by a digital radio link and sensors between the rails which tell each train exactly how far ahead the next train is. If a driver makes an emergency stop the change of speed will be communicated instantly to the train behind and the brakes will automatically engage.

The system, known as the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), also calculates the highest speed at which a train can safely travel without catching up with the train in front.

On some sections of line the distance between trains will be halved, but a minimum safety gap will be retained to allow for differences in the braking capacity of trains and tracks made slippery by ice or leaves.

The system will also remove the small remaining risk of drivers running past red lights and hitting another train, the cause of seven deaths at Southall, Middlesex, in 1997 and 31 at Ladbroke Grove, West London, in 1999. An automatic braking system has been installed on most of the network but is fully effective only at speeds below 75mph (120kmph).

The system could allow high-speed trains to operate without drivers, but the industry believes that it will be many years before this becomes publicly acceptable.

At present, lines are divided into “blocks”, entry to which is controlled by signals. A train has to wait for the service in front to leave a block before receiving a green light to enter it.

On the East Coast Main Line, where a shortage of capacity means hundreds of passengers have to stand at peak times, the block system means that the minimum gap between 125mph trains is three minutes.

The time between trains will be cut to 21⁄2 minutes, and could be further reduced when later versions of ERTMS are installed. The system will allow the East Coast Main Line to accommodate an extra four trains an hour at first and eventually an extra ten trains. It has already been introduced on the high-speed line between Rome and Naples, where trains run at 186mph without any signals to separate them.

Alstom, the company that installed the system, said that the extra cost was justified not only by improvements in capacity and safety but by also removing the need for maintenance of signalling equipment.

Network Rail will sign a £59 million contract next month to equip the Cambrian line, from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli. The line was chosen because it is a self-contained part of the network used by only a small of number of trains. The 12 trackside signals will be removed and the system will control the trains from December 2008.

Simon Kirby, Network Rail’s director of major projects, said a review of ERTMS in December would decide how to introduce it elsewhere. “Clearly we will go for a more complex line (than Cambrian) where there is more need to improve capacity for freight and passengers.”

Network Rail plans to announce options for equipping more lines in January. Colin Foxall, the chairman of the watchdog Passenger Focus, said: “We urgently need more capacity and this system is an alternative to building new lines, which are very expensive and often impractical.”

Posted on 09:25 PM | Permalink

Birmingham Post: Oct 17 2006
By Paul Dale, Chief Reporter

A new high speed rail link between Glasgow, Birmingham and London - at an estimated cost of £33 billion - is the only long-term answer to traffic congestion, according to a major transportation survey published today.

The Institution of Civil Engineers' annual State of the Nation report urges the Government to start planning now for a completely new track running the length of the country.

Failure to do so would wipe out by 2026 any benefits from existing road and rail improvement projects, the report claims.

Transportation schemes currently planned, including the upgrading of the West Coast Main Line, the refurbishment of New Street Station, traffic management schemes on the M42 and expansion of the Midland Metro network will be seen in 20 years time as a "sticking plaster" if the high-speed rail link is not built, according to the ICE.

The improved West Coast Main Line, where trains can run at 125 mph, will be running at full passenger capacity by 2025.

A new rail link would help unlock some of the biggest problems on the West Midlands' transport network, allowing more flexibility on existing road and rail routes, the report adds.

The new railway could be built close to the existing track, or could follow the line of disused track.

The ICE survey is based on the cost of the new Channel Tunnel rail link to London - at £50 million per kilometre.

An ICE spokesman said: "It is a huge amount of money, but as an economic investment the benefits would outweigh the cost in the long term. Like the construction of the motorways, it could be completed in incremental stages. London to Birmingham could be the first stage."

The survey calls for greater Government funding reflecting the strategic national importance of the West Midlands and a clear commitment to press ahead with the £500 million redevelopment of New Street Station and the extension of the Midland Metro.

ICE chairman Ed Gardiner said: "The West Midlands is the crossroads of the nation and spending on the region's infrastructure needs to be proportionate to its considerable significance. We need to start planning now for the transport needs of the region in 20 years time, and high speed rail is a key part of this.

"Much that is positive has been done in the past year, but other incremental improvements need to be made in the meantime, and the effect of the Government's Transport Innovation Fund will be that more new infrastructure will have to be in place."

In the West Midlands, some 96,000 vehicles a day use the motorway network - the highest in the country - while 120,000 people crowd into New Street Station daily, twice the number it was built to handle. Congestion costs the regional economy £2.8 billion a year.

Posted on 05:06 PM | Permalink

The Guardian: October 17, 2006
Dan Milmo, transport correspondent

The owner of GNER, which has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US, warned the British government yesterday that making money from rail franchises had become "too hard".

Bob Mackenzie, chief executive of Sea Containers, said rail companies were being squeezed by the government after earning large profits in the early years of the franchise system. GNER, which runs trains on the east coast line between London and Edinburgh, is in discussions with the Department for Transport over altering a franchise agreement that guarantees £1.3bn for the government over 10 years.

"The pendulum has swung the other way," Mr Mackenzie said. "It was too easy to make money but now it has become too hard. We have to find a balance."

GNER is protected from its parent's financial difficulties by separate banking facilities and is not directly affected by the bankruptcy move, but it cannot rely on Sea Containers to bail it out of a contract that it has admitted is all but impossible to fulfil. Mr Mackenzie declined to comment on the DfT talks but a decision is expected on the franchise before Christmas.

Describing the £1.3bn target as "very difficult", he said handing back the franchise to the government was an option, but GNER hoped for a "sensible conclusion" to talks. GNER is underperforming revenue forecasts that underpin the £1.3bn pledge, having posted turnover growth of 3.3% in 2005, the first year of the franchise, when 10% was needed to meet profit targets.

Mr Mackenzie said the franchise payments ratchet up dramatically in the final three years of the deal, when 50% of the payments are due: "The problem just gets worse." GNER can quit the contract after seven years and avoid the increased payments. But it faces another tough deadline in May, when a $27.5m bond used as security for payment defaults rises to $51.7m.

"My first responsibility must be to make the situation no worse," he said. "The guarantees double in May and I am well aware of that situation."

The DfT declined to comment on the GNER talks but a spokesman reiterated that the government would not back down on the £1.3bn. "The government will not renegotiate rail franchises."

Mr Mackenzie declined to comment on reports that GNER is drawing up plans to axe hundreds of jobs from its 3,000-strong workforce but said the company could run its service on lower costs. "We have got to mitigate the situation by maintaining high service levels at lower costs."

GNER has blamed the revenue shortfall on increased electricity costs and a fall in tourist numbers since the July 7 bombings. But the prevailing view within the rail industry is that the company overbid wildly, with its nearest competitor, FirstGroup, believed to have offered only £650m for the franchise.

Mr Mackenzie conceded that the bid level contributed to GNER's difficulties. "If you look at the problem, 50% of it comes from optimistic forecasts and 50% of it is costs that are beyond our control."

Chris Grayling, the shadow transport secretary, warned yesterday that the rail franchise system was becoming "unsustainable", saying: "I think there is a real doubt that GNER, and other companies that have overbid for their franchises, will be able to keep their businesses going."

Posted on 05:00 PM | Permalink

Trade unionists in the Gloucester area are invited to attend a meeting in the city to set up a local trades union council. The meeting is being held at the T&GWU offices in Great Western Road at 5.30pm on Monday, November 13

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Posted on 04:38 PM | Permalink

LOBBY PARLIAMENT 1st NOVEMBER
An alliance of South West health unions - both affiliated and non-affiliated to the TUC - has been launched to warn that recent progress in the NHS is under threat. The new alliance, named South West NHS Together, is co-ordinating the region's support for the lobby of Parliament on Wednesday 1 November, to urge the government to change course in its future management of the NHS.

South West NHS Together, which draws support from the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Nursing, as well as all the health unions affiliated to the TUC, recognises that there have been many improvements in the region's NHS in recent years, and is also clear that NHS staff support change that will improve patient care. But sudden budget cuts in some NHS Trusts are threatening jobs and patients.

There has been too much top down change that has failed to involve or win the support of staff and the fragmentation of the NHS is hindering the ability of health professionals to provide the best possible patient care.
Nigel Costley, South West TUC Regional Secretary said: "Great progress was being made by the government in improving the NHS. Staff felt valued and better terms and conditions were negotiated. Patients were receiving better care as waiting lists fell and improved treatment became more widely available. But that is now all under threat, and NHS staff morale is at rock bottom. Budget cuts, a constant stream of untested reforms that are never given a chance to bed down and the fragmentation of the NHS by a dash to the private sector now dominate the NHS."

Coach details will be circulated shortly for those able to attend the lobby.

Posted on 04:31 PM | Permalink

BBC News: 17 October 2006,

One person was killed and about 110 were injured when two metro trains collided at Rome's Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II station during the morning rush hour in Rome, officials say.

Firefighters inspect a carriage of a metro train at Rome's Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II station

The square above the station has been cordoned off, with temporary hospitals erected - some 250 people have been treated on the scene.

Passengers said the crash happened when one train arriving at the station crashed into the back of another.

Underground, there is said to be a lot of dust and smoke, making rescue efforts difficult, and the station's ceiling has collapsed on top of the two trains.

One train rammed into the back of another at the Rome station

The crash took place at Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II station in the centre of the Italian capital. The trains were travelling on metro line A.

The square above has been cordoned off. Police and firemen are at the scene.

Passengers said the crash happened when one train arriving at the station crashed into the back of another.

It has been confirmed so far that one passenger has died, a 30-year-old woman.

"It is a terrible tragedy" - Walter Veltroni, Rome mayor

Collision aftermath

It was earlier reported that the driver of the second train had also been killed, but the metro company denied this, saying he was seriously injured and in hospital.

Everyone on board the trains has been freed from the wreckage, reports say.

About 110 are said to have been injured, several of them seriously.

Lights at the station had gone out, and there was a lot of dust and smoke, which hampered rescue efforts.

'Train was getting closer'

The crash happened at 0937 (0737 GMT), one stop away from the mainline train terminus in Rome, reports say.

One train was stopped at the station platform to let passengers get off when the second train crashed into it from the back, leaving its front carriage concertinaed, passengers said.

"I saw the train in front and it seemed as though it was getting closer and closer to us and nothing was happening," Fabiano De Santis, a lawyer, told Italian television.

"I realised there was going to be an impact and so I managed to move forward in the carriage and I saw the train came towards me. It was a very strong impact."

Italian television showed images of victims being carried out on stretchers while other passengers emerged looking dazed. Some were spattered with blood.

"We saw people streaming out of the entrance to the tube station," Francesco Quirinis, a porter with the Hotel Napoleon, opposite the metro entrance, told the BBC News website.

EUROPEAN TRAIN ACCIDENTS
October 2006: Five killed in collision between two trains in north-eastern France
September 2006: A German monorail train crashes during a test run killing 23 people
August 2006: A train derailment kills six and injures 36 in northern Spain
June 2006: Forty-one people are killed when a metro train derails in the Spanish city of Valencia
January 2006: At least 44 people are killed and more than 180 injured when a train plunges into a ravine in southern Montenegro

"They looked shocked, disorientated, they were supporting each other. The police, ambulances - everyone was on the scene within 10 minutes and they immediately blocked off the piazza. There was a continuous coming and going of ambulances for about an hour after the crash.

"We gave them bottles of water, a place to sit down. We did all we could to help them - as anyone would."

The city's mayor later visited the crash site.

"When I arrived at the scene of the crash and saw it, it was difficult to describe. It is a terrible tragedy," Walter Veltroni told Italian television.

"Obviously, we don't understand why this happened - they are new metro trains so therefore in absolute working order. We have now asked the metro to try to give us the necessary information in order to help understand how something like this could have happened."

Posted on 12:17 PM | Permalink

Bloomberg: Oct 16

Balfour Beatty Plc, U.K.'s biggest builder, has been awarded a £500 million contract by London Mayor, Ken Livingstone's 'Transport for London' to provide a 25-mile rail route linking the London's financial district with commuter suburbs to the north and south.

Balfour Beatty - fined £10m and £300,000 in costs in October 2005 for breaching health and safety regulations over the 2000 Hatfield train crash, in which four people died - and partner Carillion Plc - barred in August 2006 from bidding for any new contracts with Network Rail after a survey found that its workers were twice as likely to have an accident on its sites as those of other contractors - were selected over Laing O'Rourke Plc, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the winning bid hasn't yet been announced.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone is spending £1 billion to connect the East London Line of the subway, or Underground, with surface-rail services. The extended railway, to be called the "Overground,'' will be completed in time for the 2012 Olympics, according to the Web site of Transport for London, which is in charge of the project.

"This is a decent-sized contract for the winner by any standard and it's a priority on a long list of things to be fixed before the Olympics,'' said David Taylor, an analyst at Teather & Greenwood in London. Taylor recommends buying shares of Carillion and doesn't currently have a rating for Balfour.

The two companies, which along with Laing submitted bids in May, will lay track and signaling and build four new stations and a maintenance depot, the people said. Balfour spokeswoman Marjorie Hooper would neither confirm nor deny that the company had won the contract. Paula Manning at Wolverhampton-based Carillion also declined to comment.

Transport for London spokesman Peter Boxell said the winning bid has been chosen and will be announced after contracts have been signed on Oct. 20. Work is due to begin before the end of the year, he said.

Shoreditch to Highbury

The project will extend the East London Line south from New Cross to West Croydon. In the north, it will connect Shoreditch, on the fringes of the capital's financial district, with Highbury & Islington on the surface network's North London Line.

A second phase of the development would link the line with Britain's busiest railway station, Clapham Junction, in southwest London, providing a missing link in a new orbital railway that would encircle the capital.

Livingstone said last November that he would like Transport for London to take charge of more surface routes to help address their poor performance. The new Overground brand will use the existing Underground logo of a blue band through a red circle.

Posted on 07:17 PM | Permalink

RMT: October 16 2006

THE GOVERNMENT should take the GNER franchise back in-house to protect jobs and rail services, Britain’s biggest rail union said today.

As SeaContainers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the USA, RMT, which represents more than 1,500 of GNER's 3,000 staff, today urged the government to block any sacrifice of GNER jobs.

"Our first priority remains to ensure that our members' jobs and the services they provide are not sacrificed simply to enable a privateer based in Bermuda to dig itself out its financial crisis," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"We will resist redundancies with every means at our disposal, but ministers have the power to ensure that GNER is not used as a cash cow to be milked to bail out SeaContainers.

"It would be nothing short of obscene if the government allowed GNER to make our members pay with their jobs for SeaContrainers' financial crisis.

"Shareholders are always more than happy to draw their dividends when everything is rosy, but when things go wrong it is always the people who do the work who are lined up to pay the price.

"If anyone is to be sacked it should be SeaContainers, not GNER staff, and for the sake of our members' jobs and the future of the services they provide, the government should bring the franchise back in-house before any more damage is done," Bob Crow said.

Posted on 01:44 PM | Permalink

AFX: 16th October 2006

The UK government is standing by its refusal to alter the terms of Great North Eastern Railway's East Coast Main Line franchise despite today's move by its parent company, US-listed Sea Containers Ltd, to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

'We don't renegotiate franchises,' a spokesman for the Department for Transport insisted.

Earlier, Sea Containers announced it had filed for Chapter 11 after deciding it could not repay a 115 mln usd bond due yesterday after talks over its pension deficit stalled.

The Bermuda-registered company said the move affects the parent company and two subsidiaries, Sea Containers Services Ltd and Sea Containers Caribbean Inc, but does not affect GNER or any other operating units.

The move is aimed at allowing Sea Containers flexibility and time to implement its reorganization plan and to shift the group onto a sustainable financial footing.

The DfT spokesman said of the development: 'It's a commercial matter for the company and it isn't for government to comment on the financial position of a private company.

'As Sea Containers have made clear what's happening won't have any impact on the operation of GNER,' it added.

GNER has run the East Coast Main Line (ECML) in the UK since 1997, but has struggled to meet the payments for a 10 year extension to the franchise won last year.

Sea Containers said it and GNER have kept the DfT 'abreast of developments'.

It stressed GNER is not in any breach of its franchise commitments and pointed out the rail company's lines of credit and financial activities have been 'ring-fenced' from those of Sea Containers.

'These facilities are provided by Sea Containers as a condition of the franchise agreement and remain undrawn,' it added.

GNER wants the UK government to renegotiate the terms of the franchise, which guarantees the government 1.3 billion sterling in payments.

The franchise is facing lower-than-expected passenger revenues due to the impact on leisure demand of the 2005 London bombings, increased power charges and a prospective challenge from rival Grand Central, which controversially has been allowed to start competing services on the ECML.

Sea Containers' president and CEO Bob MacKenzie has said in the past he is determined to retain GNER.

However, reports have suggested Sea Containers may force GNER to cut about 10 pct of its 3,000-strong workforce to reduce costs.

Posted on 01:28 PM | Permalink

Times Online: October 16, 2006
Angela Jameson

Sea Containers, the parent company of GNER, has entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US - a measure that sounds dramatic but will finally give the company a period of stability in which it can negotiate with its creditors.

The bankruptcy protection procedure was triggered by the company missing a bond repayment on Sunday. This was no surprise as Sea Containers has said for some time that it would not pay unless it could afford to meet all other repayments. Now the company expects negotiations of its remaining $650 million of debt to take months, rather than years.

Sea Containers' problems have been exacerbated by problems at GNER, the flagship London to Scotland train service. Since the rail franchise was renegotiated 18 months ago, margins have been cut sharply and passenger numbers have also fallen as a result of last summer's London bombs.

Previously GNER was the cash cow that serviced Sea Containers debts, now it is no longer able to provide much more than its own working capital. GNER is ring-fenced from the parent business and its service will be unaffected. There are also stand-by credit facilities in place for the train operator, in case of some unforseen eventuality, which are as yet undrawn.

However, Sea Containers still hopes to get some sort of concession from the Department for Transport that recognises that the environment in which it is trading has changed. Not surprisingly, the DFT is playing hard ball on this one and any settlement is by no means certain.

Posted on 01:28 PM | Permalink

BBC News: 15 October 2006

A mistake by Luxembourg's state rail company caused last week's train crash in northeast France, a minister said.

Rescuers at scene of crash, Zoufftgen. The two trains were travelling on the same track when they hit

Six people died when a passenger train and a goods train collided head-on near the Luxembourg border on 11 October.

An initial probe showed that signallers in Luxembourg sent the passenger train onto the same track as the goods train, Transport Minister Lucien Lux said.

"We have to admit that the main responsibility probably lies with Luxembourg," he told a news conference.

"It's tough to say, but it's the fault of the CFL (state rail company Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois)."

French Transport Minister Dominique Perben praised "very good co-operation" between the two nations' rail companies in the investigation.

Sixteen people were also injured in the crash, two of them seriously.

Posted on 07:50 PM | Permalink

Transport Briefing: 16/10/06

Plans for a direct rail service between London and Wrexham have taken a step forward with the company behind the proposals running a test train to check the feasibility of its suggested timetable.

The recently-formed Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway Company plans to run five trains a day between north-east Wales and London. It believes that the new service could be introduced as early as summer 2007 if the Office for Rail Regulation backs the plans.

Last week the company ran a special train to work out timings for the new service. Despite problems at Wolverhampton due to weather damage to line-side equipment, the train arrived at Wrexham’s General station on time and was routed from Marylebone via Kenilworth, Birmingham International and Bescot to Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury.

WSMR project manager Andy Hamilton said the trial proved it was possible to use 125mph Class 67 locomotives and carriages on the services instead of the use of 100mph diesel units as it had previously envisaged. WSMR hopes to use Wrexham station's currently disused bay platforms at the end of platform 1 and empty offices as its train crew depot.

"The planned service would stop at Ruabon, Chirk and Gobowen as well as Shrewsbury, Telford, Cosford and Wolverhampton and the journey time would be cut to as little as three hours 15 minutes," he said.

Rail passengers travelling between London and Wrexham currently have to change trains at Chester, Crewe or Birmingham for a connection to London Euston. If WSMR's plans are given the green light it would become the third open access train operator in Britain after Hull Trains and Grand Central.

Posted on 01:57 PM | Permalink

International Herald Tribune: October 12, 2006
By VAUDINE ENGLAND

HONG KONG — Nearly 50 years ago, some of the world’s top planners and engineers had a dream: Bind together the vast expanse of rail tracks across Asia and Europe to create the world’s longest train ride.

But the trans-Asian railroad has mostly remained a blueprint, with some countries failing to make progress on technical and procedural coordination across and between borders.

Now, the momentum may be about to change. On Nov. 10 in Pusan, South Korea, transport ministers from more than two dozen countries are scheduled to sign an agreement defining a framework for a Trans-Asian Railway Network.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, which effectively oversees the project, hopes that the agreement will add to the global growth in containerized freight and spread its benefits.

The framework will allow the project to move toward the goal of ferrying people and goods more easily from Asia to Europe to the Caucasus and back, said Nigel C. Rayner, an official at the Asian Development Bank. Necessary planning includes how to handle paperwork for border crossings and the technicalities of desired speeds and loads of trains.

A huge challenge that must be solved is how to connect tracks of varying sizes, or gauges, across borders.

The idea for a trans-Asia system emerged in 1960, when several Asian governments conducted feasibility studies for a continuous link of nearly 9,000 miles. In 1976, the idea was expanded to include links between rural areas and ports.

But progress was stalled by wars, civil conflicts, the cold war and communism.

Only in 1992 were ideas for further links expanded, under a project called the Asian Land Transport Infrastructure Development.

In the mid-1990’s, after more studies, reports and meetings, planners were ready to mount demonstration runs on four routes. From there, the idea has firmed up.

“Much as yesterday’s Silk Road, today’s Trans-Asian Railway aims to serve cultural exchanges and trade within Asia and between Asia and Europe,” the United Nations commission has said. “However, the network covers a much wider territory than its mythical predecessor and, needless to say, reaches a much bigger population.”

The existing rail lines between what the commission calls “railways of international importance” include those from Armenia to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as from Bangladesh and India to Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

From China, links connect with South Korea, North Korea, Mongolia and Russia, and they reach across Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Japan and the Philippines are listed as possible future connections.

Yet some glaring gaps remain in East Asia, home to the bulk of the proposed network.

Seven miles of track are needed between Thailand’s eastern border, at Aranyapratet, and the northwestern Cambodian towns of Sisophon and Poipet. A loan from the Asian Development Bank to help Cambodia’s railroads is scheduled to be applied from 2007 to 2009.

And among the network’s member countries, only China is considering a high-speed rail link, between Shanghai and Beijing.

Posted on 08:24 AM | Permalink

JoongAng Daily: October 12, 2006

Kwak Jae-gu, a contemporary poet, recalled the era of nostalgic rail travel in one of his poems:
"Waiting for the last train to chug into the station, the snow falls in flakes outside, changing the lavender bed of Indian millet into white; the sawdust is strewn around the furnace, as some doze off and others cough in cold..."

Such scenes have long since faded but several humble train stations that still exist in suburban areas are to be protected as part of a new effort by the Cultural Heritage Administration.

Late last month, the government institution selected 12 small stations and whistle-stops across the country to be listed as "cultural assets," meaning the government will protect and develop them for the benefit of the public.

"The stations are symbols of the early 20th century, and they hold memories and nostalgia," said Kim Ji-seong, a researcher at the Cultural Heritage Administration. "We initially selected those that are valuable historically and that could also be used as a tourism resource once they are preserved."

"Most of the small stations we chose are near forests, rivers and by the ocean where they have wonderful views so we recommend the sites for family outings this fall," he added.

Ilsan Station, one of the selected whistle-stops in Gyeonggi province, is well known for its peaceful atmosphere and is currently being used as a filming location for a KBS television drama, "Pure-hearted at 19".

Another station selected was the Hwarangdae station in northern Seoul, which is one of few remaining stops that were built to link the cities of Seoul and Chuncheon. It still has its original peaked roof and a gate that resembles a porch, just as when it was first built in 1939.

Although it was a popular stop for college students going camping up until the 1970s, it has since turned into a secluded area where local trains stop only three times a day, at the most.

Paldang Station in Namyangju, Gyeonggi province, which was also built in 1939, lies between the railway lines, rather than straddling them. From the station, a reservoir near Paldang dam and Mount Yebong create views to overwhelm viewers with memories of Korea's older and more peaceful days.

The station was part of an important route in the past for travelers who wanted to reach the eastern Gyeonggi area. Because new roads have since been built, hardly anyone uses the trains any longer. The station — and its surrounding scenery — is beautiful enough to have been used as background in music videos, according to Kim Ran-gi, a researcher on the project.

Further south in the countryside is Yulchon Station (1930) in Yeosu, South Jeolla, which was built during the Japanese colonial period and is a wooden facility typical of those commonly found in the Japanese countryside.

During an interim study on the project, researchers faced complaints that the government was trying to preserve a "leftover from the Japanese colonial era" but they decided the facility had value culturally and from a architectural perspective, so it was included on the list.

Others selected sites are Songjeong Station (1934) in Busan, Dongcheon Station (1938) in Daegu and Nampyeong Station (1956) in Naju, South Jeolla, which was built of bricks after the Korean War.

Posted on 08:09 AM | Permalink

Reuters: Oct 11, 2006

DHAKA - Train services across Bangladesh came to a halt on Wednesday after railway operators and employees went on a day-long strike to protest against the government's plan to privatise the state entity, officials said.

"The operations have been suspended after staff boycotted duties from this morning," said a senior traffic official of state-owned Bangladesh Railways.

The striking employees also forced most officials out of their offices, crippling the country's second-biggest transportation sector after road transport, he said.

Different trade unions of the railways called for the strike to protest against a recent government decision to privatise the railways in phases to reduce annual losses of around $15 million.

"We will go for bigger action if the government does not change its mind," Siraj Bhuiyan, a leader of railway workers' union, said.

He said the losses were incurred mainly due to corruption in management levels.

Bangladesh Railway operates 230 passenger trains and 50 freight trains carrying some 42 million passengers and 3.0 million tonnes of cargo annually.

See also:

Rail passengers stranded by strike vandalize stations in eastern Bangladesh

The Associated Press: October 11, 2006
 
CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh -- Angry passengers ransacked train stations and roughed up a station master Wednesday, after a railway workers' strike left them stranded in eastern Bangladesh, an official and police said.

The Bangladesh Railway workers' union called the strike to protest government plans to make the state-run service a state-funded independently managed corporation.

The workers are angry because they think they will lose privileges that government employees currently receive.

Striking workers barricaded rail tracks with logs and stones, forcing at least six express trains heading either to or from the port city of Chittagong to halt before they completed their journeys, said Bangladesh Railway spokesman Shafiqul Alam Khan.

Angry passengers climbed off the overnight express from Dhaka at Kumira station near Chittagong and beat up station master Abdus Salam who had stopped the train to prevent it from crashing into barricades further along the track, Khan said.

Salam was being treated at a railway hospital, he said.

Passengers also vandalized stations and trains at Fauzdarghat and Bhatiari after their trains had to stop before they reached their destinations, officers at the Railway Police control room said on condition of anonymity according to official policy.

Police arrested at least two people for vandalism in Bhatiari.

Khan said authorities were negotiating with the union.

The strike disrupted railway traffic on another 21 routes in the eastern zone, which is headquartered in Chittagong. Railway police have been deployed at stations to prevent any more trouble, Khan said.

Hundreds of passengers in Chittagong, some carrying children and luggage, were seen walking to nearby highways to look for alternative transport.

See also:

Countrywide railway strike observed protesting: Kumira Station Master beaten, Fouzdarhat office set ablaze

The New Nation: 11 Oct 2006

The Railway Sramik Karmachari Sangram Parisad enforced the countrywide dawn-to-dusk strike yesterday to press home their three-point demand that include scrapping of the denationalisation policy, formation of Railway Board and withdrawal of audit objections.

Our Chittagong Correspondent said station master of Kumira Railway Station in Sitakunda upazila was manhandled, while his office at Fouzdarhat was set ablaze yesterday during the countrywide strike called by Railway Sramik Karmachari Sangram Parisad.

Unruly passengers of an Akhaura-bound local train from Chittagong severely beat up Kumira railway Stationmaster Abdus Salam at about 8:30am for delaying their journey, he also said.

Railway workers halted the train at Kumira station forcing the stationmaster not to allow the train to leave the station that made the passengers angry. The angry passengers also damaged valuables and furniture of the station, he added.

Injured stationmaster Salam was rushed to Chittagong Railway Hospital in a critical condition, he said.

Meanwhile, railway workers set fire to the stationmaster’s office at Fouzdarhat station at about 9:00am as he allowed trains to ply ignoring the strike.

Our Correspondent said thousands of railway workers had been staging demonstration since morning and halted many trains at different stations of east and western zones of the country, resulting in cancellation of train schedules in all stations of the country.

Aminul Islam, Chittagong Divisional Convener of Railway Sramik Karmachari Sangram Parisad, said that they held a meeting with the high railway officials in Dhaka yesterday morning in a bid to resolve the strike, but failed.

A number of trains running on several routes of the eastern zone remained stranded at different stations, while no train was allowed to leave any station in western zone till filing of this report at about 2:30pm.

Meanwhile, our Rajshahi Correspondent said no train was allowed to leave stations in western zone as railway workers enforced strike yesterday protesting government’s decision to make Bangladesh Railway a corporate organisation.

Different offices of railway including railway headquarter of western zone remained closed.

Earlier, the workers also brought out procession protesting the government’s arbitrary decision.

Railway Sramik Karmachari Sangram Parisad enforced the countrywide daylong strike yesterday to press home their three-point demand.

Our Rajbari Correspondent said rail strike enforced by Rajbari Railway Sangram Parisad was observed yesterday in the district in protest against the move to turn Bangladesh Railway into a corporation.

As a result the rail movement in all routes in Rajbari remained suspended.

Besides, the leaders and workers of the Parisad brought out a procession at 7:00am and locked all the offices at the station including the control room. Consequently two trains coming from Goalando Ghat stranded near Pachuria Railway Station and Rajbari Railway Station respectively causing untold sufferings to the commuters.

See also:

Bangladesh Railway employees observe strike against corporatisation

Daily India: Oct 11
By Nazrul Islam

Dhaka -- Employees of the state-owned Bangladesh railway enforced a daylong strike on Wednesday, halting the movement of trains across the country.

The employees also clashed with lawmen at different places when law enforcers tried to disperse the workers who gathered to protest against the government's move to turn Bangladesh Railway into a corporation as per the World Bank prescription.

Nine out of 10 associations of the Bangladesh Railway employees under the banner of Railway Workers and Employees Action Council enforced the strike from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (local time), causing severe problems for the commuters. This was the first ever strike, which was enforced by the employees, observed in the railway sector since Bangladesh came into being in 1971.

No train movement was there during the strike, according to officials at the railway department.

Report from eastern Chittagong said the employees put on barricade on the rail tacks and assaulted an Assistant Station Master in Kumira, Chittagong. Abdus Salam, the Assistant Station Master, was admitted to hospital for treatment.

Like the eastern zone, employees blocked the tracks in the western zone as well.

The employees had a meeting with the railway authorities in the morning. But the meeting ended inconclusive.

The government took a reform and investment programme for the BR with the support from the World Bank and Asian Development to increase its efficiency.

The World Bank recently approved 40-million-dollar loan for the first phase of Bangladesh Railway reform to be carried out in two phases.

Along with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation have also planned to extend multi-million dollar support for the reforms and investment programmes of the railway, which has about 2,855km railway network, 459 stations, 277 locomotives, 1,363 carriages and 11,393 wagons.

As part of the reforms programme, the Bangladesh Railway will undertake an internal re-organisation into a 'line of business' structure in the first step and to support the structure, it will implement a modern financial management and accounting system and human resources management.

In the second phase, the government will enact a law to transform the railway into a corporate entity. The internal re-organisation will be completed by June 2007, and the corporatisation will be completed by June 2008. (ANI)

Posted on 11:24 PM | Permalink

BBC News: 11 October 2006

At least five people have been killed in a head-on train collision in north-eastern France, while others are still trapped in the wreckage.

Rescue workers examine the wreckage of the two trains

A passenger train collided with a goods train in Zoufftgen, near the Luxembourg border, at about 1145 (0945 GMT).

It was initially reported that as many as 12 people may have died, but the French transport minister said later that five were confirmed dead.

A senior regional official described the scene as "an apocalyptic vision".

"There's a mess of steel and tangled metal, with wagons up-ended and pointing into the sky," said Bernard Mertz.

The two trains had been sent onto the same section of the line after engineering works had restricted traffic to a single track, said a spokesman for the railway operator SNCF.

SNCF initially said two train drivers had died, as well as nine passengers and a person working on the track.

But later reports said five were dead, five injured and 10 others were being treated for shock.

But the local Moselle administration said several people were trapped inside the wreckage, "which means the toll could evolve".

Trapped

The passenger train left Luxembourg at 1130 and was due to arrive in the city of Nancy at 1255.

It collided with the freight train, which was heading north to Luxembourg.

SNCF told reporters its train had received a green signal to switch onto the first track, as the second one was closed for maintenance work.

A spokesman said: "For reasons that are not clear, these two trains came together head-to-head."

The number of passengers on board the double-decker regional express is not known.

More than 100 rescue workers were at the crash site to set up a mobile hospital and treat victims, a local fire chief, Samuel Gesret, told French television.

"We are faced with an important and dramatic situation," Eric Soupra, a local civil security official, told French radio.

Some of the wounded were trapped in the wreckage and would have to be cut out, he said.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and Transport Minister Dominique Perben went to the scene, as well as investigators who will be looking into the cause of the crash.

See also:

Cargo train not to blame for French train crash: SNCF

Xinhua: October 12, 2006

The cargo train which collided with a passenger train in France on Wednesday in the country's most serious accident since 2002 was not to blame for the crash, a French SNCF railway official said on Wednesday.

The cargo train was the first on to the section of track on which the collision happened, said Guillaume Pepy, executive director of the state-owned SNCF rail company. He added that the driver had not passed a red light.

The SNCF rail company initially said nine people on the passenger train, the drivers of both trains and a person working on the track were killed in the incident. At least 21 were injured, some seriously.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who was en route to the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, ordered his plane to return to France, so he could visit the scene. President Jacques Chirac also issued a statement expressing his condolences.

The crash took place at around 11:45 local time at the village of Zoufftgen, 1.6 km south of the Luxembourg border, on a section of track undergoing maintenance work.

The passenger train was a double-decker Luxembourg regional express traveling south to the French city of Nancy. The cargo train had been heading north into Luxembourg.

The SNCF spokesman Philippe Mirvill said the line on which the passenger train was traveling was being repaired, so it switched on to a second track, colliding with the cargo train.

Bertrand Mertz, vice-president of Lorraine regional council, told media that the incident had been caused by a "line-control mistake by people in Luxembourg."

Posted on 01:00 PM | Permalink

The Guardian: October 11, 2006
Dan Milmo, transport correspondent

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Trains business is lobbying the government for extra subsidies to cope with growth in passenger numbers, amid increased overcrowding on the nation's railways.

Virgin is in discussions with the Department for Transport (DfT) over renegotiating its West Coast franchise, which operates out of London's Euston station to Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. However, it is understood that talks have reached a hitch over the capacity of Virgin's trademark Pendolino trains, which are part-subsidised by the government.

According to industry sources, the company wants to extend the length of its Pendolinos from nine carriages to 11 to meet projected customer numbers of 34m passengers a year by 2012, when the franchise ends. Virgin already carries 20m people a year on the West Coast line and increasing the number of carriages to 11 would raise the passenger capacity per train from 450 to about 550.

The cost of leasing carriages from rolling stock companies is partly subsidised by the government, which accounts for leasing fees when it is negotiating the premium that train operating companies pay the state for operating a train franchise. It is understood the DfT is questioning whether investment in more carriages is necessary. Virgin is believed to be arguing that its trains could become very crowded from 2010 onwards if new rolling stock is not added.

A spokesman for Virgin Trains declined to comment on the discussions over capacity but stressed that the franchise talks were constructive: "We have already seen huge passenger growth of over 20% from the new trains. The key issue now is projecting how far the growth will continue into the future." A spokesman for the DfT said the department would consider any request for extra rolling stock.

Industry sources say an agreement on the franchise extension is expected within a month, with talks over the Pendolino carriages likely to continue afterwards. Virgin, which paid £270m in train leasing costs last year, introduces a new timetable in 2008 that will increase train services by 50%. It is renegotiating the West Coast franchise after its services were disrupted by redevelopment of the line.

The negotiations are taking place as franchise payments to the government boom and passenger discontent over crowded conditions rises. Coping with extra passenger capacity has also become an issue in the latest billion pound franchise deal. Stagecoach committed £1.2bn to the government after renewing ownership of the South Western service last month, and is stripping out seats from nearly 500 carriages to pack in more standing passengers to meet an expected 20% increase in travellers by 2016.

Satisfaction over ticket prices has hit record lows across the UK despite more trains running on time. Only 41% of customers believe they get value for money.

Posted on 08:26 AM | Permalink

The Shropshire Star: 11th October 2006

Breakdowns caused by pollen on a Mid Wales railway line should be fixed by the Welsh Assembly for the sake of the economy and tourism, according to an Assembly member.

Montgomeryshire AM Mick Bates has called on the Assembly’s transport minister to take urgent action to solve problems on Mid Wales railways.

Pollen blocked radiators on trains on the Cambrian Line between Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury, causing delays and breakdowns throughout the summer, rail operator Arriva Trains Wales said last week.

The problem was particularly bad on the Talerddig incline near Machynlleth, where trains were forced to crawl along the track due to overheating engines.

Mr Bates said the Assembly should act because the Mid Wales economy relies on a good transport infrastructure. He said he had written to the Assembly transport minister, Andrew Davies, demanding answers.

“Pollen on the track has served to highlight problems on our railways that need urgent attention,” he said.

“In the summer months, thousands of people come to Mid Wales. I wonder what impression they are going to leave with if they are stuck on a train for hours on end, and what incentive there is for them to come back.

“We need better trains, more frequent trains and trains that are not delayed by pollen. We must sort out problems like pollen by next summer or face the consequences.”

Arriva has admitted managing to run trains along the line to within 10 minutes of the scheduled time on just five days during the first four weeks of the summer.

A company spokesman said last week that engineers were examining the design of the radiators and cooling systems after daily cleaning failed to stop pollen from blocking the air flow.

Posted on 07:35 AM | Permalink

Waikato Times: 11 October 2006
MARK TAYLOR

A run-down rail network, a dispute over line access charges, and a potential passenger revolt all spell trouble for the future of rail transport.

REPRIEVED: The Overlander service between Wellington and Auckland was spared at the last minute, but was cut to three services a week.

Is rail headed down the track to extinction in New Zealand? More than a decade of underinvestment in trains and tracks has left a crumbling network used by an aging collection of freight and passenger services.

A standoff between the Government and operator Toll about paying for track use is the latest threat to a transport sector that has become the sick brother to road and air travel. Last week Toll threatened to stop using some lines.

Against this gloom, there is a boom in urban passenger rail services, and the continuing importance of rail freight for some of New Zealand's biggest companies.

Rail faces some major obstacles.

The legacy of more than a decade of underinvestment is a run-down, creaking system of rail tracks. There is agreement that the network needs upgrading, but division over who should pay.

After the creation of New Zealand Rail as a state-owned enterprise and its sale to Tranz Rail in 1993, spending on rail infrastructure dropped. In the past 13 years, which includes the Government's re-purchase of the rail network in 2004, no new locomotives have been bought, though some have been refurbished.

"We are cleaning up 12 to 14 years of neglect and at the same time we are trying to increase traffic and decrease transit times," Rail and Maritime Transport Union president Wayne Butson says.

Though spending on the rail network has increased in the past two years, a funding standoff is threatening long-term plans. When the Government resumed control of the network in 2004, it agreed to pay $200 million till 2009 for track upgrades outside Auckland, with $780 million set for rail upgrades in Auckland.

Toll agreed to spend $100 million on trains and was given monopoly access with a "use it or lose it" condition. That exclusivity would be lost if passenger or freight services fell below a certain level on the network. The Overlander between Wellington and Auckland, for example, had to run at least three times a week – as Toll is now doing.

Under the 2004 agreement, track access charges would be set after further negotiations. This has proved the main sticking point, with most of the $200 million cash already spent and the network in dire need of more cash. The Government has said more spending is necessary but is at loggerheads with Toll over track access charges.

Toll was reported last week to be considering a complete withdrawal from large tracts of the North Island network, including the main trunk line, because of rising charges. A Toll spokeswoman dismissed the report, saying: "We are dedicated to putting as much freight with rail as we can."

Neither Toll, Ontrack – the Government network operator – nor Finance Minister Michael Cullen would comment on negotiations over the access fees.

In Toll's 2006 annual report, which revealed a $53 million profit, chairman Mark Rowsthorn said it was disappointing the access charges were not settled.

"A full year of negotiations failed to produce an arrangement that ensures viability of the national rail network and allows certainty for future rail investment."

The glory days of long-distance passenger rail have long gone. It has been more than 50 years since rail was the preferred form of travel between Wellington and Auckland.

In the inter-war years, up to eight trains a day hauled people up and down the main trunk line during holiday periods. Now, only three trains run a week and the axe still hovers over the Overlander service.

The debate over Toll's plan to stop running the Overlander, which was reversed at the last minute, suggested tourism was the future for regional passenger rail.

Air, bus and car travel is just as cheap and quicker, so tourists who have the time and want a scenic trip provide a market for long-distance rail trips.

A Wellington consortium, Manning Group, drew up a detailed plan to replace the Overlander with a luxury service.

Such interest from private groups shows the potential of tourism rail journeys, which are increasingly popular overseas.

In 1998, almost 25,800 visitors took a scenic rail trip and in 2005 this figure grew to 74,500, according to the Tourism Ministry.

"People travel around the world for the excitement and pleasure of taking classic rail journeys," Tourism Industry Association chief executive Fiona Luhrs says.

Whatever uncertainty there may be about the future of regional passenger rail, there is little about its urban equivalent. Though limited to Auckland and Wellington, commuter trains are increasingly popular. Peak-time journeys in Wellington have increased 11 per cent in the past year and more than 11 million passenger trips were made in the 2005-06 year.

Regional transport officials plan to spend more than $400 million on new electric trains in the next decade. Such is the increase in passengers that Greater Wellington regional council may take seats out of carriages so more people can stand.

Officials have warned of a passenger backlash, but the rail system is so run-down and stretched to capacity that stopgap measures are necessary.

Lower Hutt commuter Norma Harvey says the trains are absolutely dreadful. "They have cut the number of carriages, sometimes people can't get on. I've complained to everyone about the number of people standing. Land Transport New Zealand says you can have as many people standing as you can have sitting. Greater Wellington regional council just keeps saying they'll be marvellous in 2010."

Commuter Craig Olander, of Upper Hutt: "I have just paid a 20 per cent increase in my fares, so to find out we're going to have the seats taken out, it's a little irritating. It's almost got to the stage where I say `bugger this, I'll drive in'. It's almost cheaper for my partner and I to run a car in and battle with a 20-minute traffic jam."

Andy MacIver, of Paraparaumu, has been using trains for years. "They're quite reasonable for what they are but the system is a bit tired. I'd be annoyed if they took the seats out. The trains are overcrowded, especially at night, but that's an over-reaction."

Tranz Metro uses 97 per cent of its main fleet of trains during rush hour, making it virtually impossible to get any maintenance done. In Auckland, passenger trips have jumped from 3.2 million in 2003 to 5 million in the past year. Train firm Veolia operates the Auckland network for the Auckland Regional Transport Authority.

Wellington regional passenger transport committee chairman Glen Evans said urban rail did not depend on Toll's involvement.

IT IS not hard to see why Toll would want to desert parts of the rail freight network. The Gisborne-to-Napier line carries just five trains a week, whereas the Midland line between the West Coast and Lyttelton carries 2.7 million tonnes of coal every year.

Mr Butson says three lines are particularly attractive:

* The east coast line from Tauranga to Auckland, which carries coal for Genesis energy and milk for Fonterra.

"Toll is making lots of money," Mr Butson says.

Solid Energy chief operating officer Barry Bragg says his company shifts more than 3.5 million tonnes of coal by rail in the North and South islands every year. "It would not be impossible but it would extremely difficult to move it by road."

Toll had indicated there could be an increase in access charges, but the company relied on freighting most of its coal by rail.

Road Transport Forum chief executive Tony Friedlander says the share of land-based freight moved by road and rail has remained stable in the past decade. About 87 per cent goes by road and the rest by rail.

Rail was an efficient way of shifting goods such as coal and logs over distances of more than 150 kilometres. Threats by Toll to shut part of the network were ploys as part of its bargaining over track access charges. Parts of the network were clearly economic.

"Toll should either pay a fair price for its monopoly track access or let other people who can run a more efficient business take over."

Posted on 10:09 PM | Permalink

Herts Advertiser: 10 October 2006

At the protest HUNDREDS of protestors flocked into St Albans city centre on Saturday to demonstrate against a proposal for an international rail freight depot near Park Street.

The aim of the rally was to register the strength of opposition to the scheme to build the terminal on the former Radlett Airfield site.

The demonstration started at St Albans Clock Tower before moving to the concourse outside the Alban Arena where a number of speakers addressed the protestors. They included Laurie Tucker, a veteran rail freight campaigner who was a member of a group who successfully fought off a similar development planned at Colnbrrok in Berkshire.

A planning application for the rail freight depot has been submitted to St Albans district council and hundreds of objections have been received. It proposes five giant warehouses, parking for 1,665 vehicles and 20 trains going in and out daily as well as a relief road to take traffic away from existing roads and a wildlife park.

Posted on 07:32 PM | Permalink

Sydney Morning Herald: October 11, 2006
Anne Davies State Political Editor

THE NSW Government has defended safety standards on the rail network, after a former senior RailCorp manager said there was a "cavalier attitude" in the organisation towards safety and reliability.

Writing in the Herald yesterday, Andrew McIlroy, the former human resources manager, said that since 2004 RailCorp had failed to implement all the recommendations of the Glenbrook and Waterfall inquiries.

"What has RailCorp been doing about improving the safety and reliability of the rail network since the disasters? Having sat through executive meetings, I can provide this insight. Very little. The NSW rail system is run down and getting worse," he said.

Mr McIlroy later told the Herald that examples included scheduled maintenance on weekends being cancelled because of lack of overtime available, and serious problems with the signalling system.

"I don't catch trains anymore."

The Minister for Transport, John Watkins, said safety was the highest priority in public transport, especially on the rail system.

He said more than 75 per cent of the Waterfall inquiry's recommendations had been implemented and the Independent Transport Safety and Reliability Regulator had advised that almost 90 per cent would be finalised by the end of the year.

"We take safety extremely seriously across all modes of public transport and particularly in rail, that's why we're spending more than $1 billion on rail safety this year alone," Mr Watkins said.

He said the Government had asked the transport safety regulator to monitor and report on the implementation of the recommendations from the Waterfall inquiry.

He said examples of recommendations already implemented included a tender for a trial of Automatic Train Protection technology that can monitor a train's position on the network and automatically activate its brakes; introduction of black box recorders and new health assessments for drivers and other safety-critical staff.

Mr Watkins said RailCorp had one of the toughest drug and alcohol testing regimes in Australia.

Mr Watkins said he had asked the transport safety regulator to investigate Mr McIlory's claims.

Another critic of the system has also emerged. In a letter to the Herald today Adjunct Professor John Faulkner, from the Department of Aviation at the University of NSW, writes that RailCorp has ignored a finding in the Glenbrook and Waterfall inquiries about separating safety from reliability functions.

He said experience in aviation showed reliability - getting services to run on time - could be in conflict with safety because it meant unsafe trains could be pressed into service to meet reliability. He urged RailCorp to separate the functions.

Posted on 07:16 PM | Permalink

BBC News: 9 October 2006

Improvements will take place across the country
A £413m programme to improve rail signalling systems and reduce trains delays has been unveiled. Work will take place in the north Thames, south Thames, the Midlands, Glasgow and south Wales areas.

Network Rail says the three-year scheme will form part of a long-term £2bn plan to overhaul signalling.

The government and rail regulator have yet to approve Network Rail's £2bn programme which would be spread across the next five to eight years.

Other track upgrades will also be carried out while the work to improve signalling takes place.

Passenger boost

NR's major projects and investments' director Simon Kirby said: "This is great news for millions of passengers who will find their journeys significantly improved.

"Investment on this scale will reduce delays by improving the reliability of the railway. This will mean long-term benefits from a better rail network for different regions across the country."

Network Rail said the deal involved making long-term commitments to suppliers which gave them the chance to invest in developing technology.

It also said the scheme gave Network Rail long-term cost guarantees, which would help it achieve cost targets.

If its longer-term plan is given the go-ahead, there will be further investment in signalling in southern England, south Wales, the Midlands, and Scotland.

See also:

Rail signalling systems to be overhauled

icWales: Oct 9 2006

A £318 million overhaul of rail signalling systems over the next three years was announced today by Network Rail (NR).

The deal involves five separate contracts and is part of a £2 billion signalling programme that NR hopes to introduce over the next 5-8 years.

The five contracts for the next three years are for North Thames (£50 million), South Thames (£48 million), East Midlands (£73 million), West Midlands (£105 million) and Glasgow (£42 million).

NR’s major projects and investments’ director Simon Kirby said: “This is great news for millions of passengers who will find their journeys significantly improved. Investment on this scale will reduce delays by improving the reliability of the railway. This will mean long-term benefits from a better rail network for different regions across the country.

“Delivering efficiently with the right supplier is hugely important. We have made long-term commitments to suppliers, giving them the opportunity to invest in the development of technology. In return, we have received long-term cost guarantees, helping us to achieve our cost targets.”

Upgrades, such as bridge improvements and track renewals work, will take place alongside signalling work to maximise use of the access to the track and minimise disruption for passengers.

The £2 billion plan is subject to rail regulatory and Government approval. If it gets the go-ahead, NR plans the following signalling project investment:

* £500 million in south west England;

* £400 million in South Wales including Newport and Cardiff;

* £350 million in the West Midlands – the first phase will be in Leamington followed by Water Orton;

* £250 million in the East Midlands – the first phase is in North Erewash, followed by South Erewash;

* £250 million in south east England – Colchester to Clacton is the first scheme to go ahead. The next phases are in East Kent, Canterbury West and North London Line;

* £200 million in Scotland, beginning in Glasgow.

More than £160 million of work has already been awarded for schemes at Port Talbot, Portsmouth, Coventry and Basingstoke to ensure the prompt delivery of passenger benefits.

See also:

£2bn signals rail improvements

The Engineer Online: 09 October 2006

Network Rail’s plans to invest almost £2bn in six major signalling schemes took a major step forward today with the award of four multi-million pound signalling framework agreements.

Network Rail claims that the new signalling systems will deliver substantial benefits to passengers and freight users, increasing reliability and reducing delays. Cost reductions around 26% for unit costs over the next three years are anticipated.

Network Rail’s Director, Major Projects & Investments Simon Kirby said: ‘This is great news for millions of passengers who will find their journeys significantly improved. Investment on this scale will reduce delays by improving the reliability of the railway. This will mean long-term benefits from a better rail network for different regions across the country.

‘Delivering efficiently, with the right supplier is hugely important. We have made long-term commitments to suppliers, giving them the opportunity to invest in the development of technology. In return, we have received long-term cost guarantees, helping us to achieve our cost targets.’

Upgrades, such as bridge improvements and track renewals work, will take place alongside signalling work to maximise use of the access to the track and minimise disruption for passengers.

The new signalling systems, which will replace systems dating back decades, will be designed by Network Rail’s specialist in-house team.

See also:

Invensys's Westinghouse signs three contracts with Network Rail

AFX: 9th October 2006

LONDON - Invensys PLC's subsidiary Westinghouse Rail Systems said it has been awarded a national framework agreement by Network Rail, which includes the supply of Type A signalling projects in Scotland, the East Midlands and the West Midlands.

Over the first three years, Westinghouse said the combined value of Type A contracts alone is estimated to be 220 mln stg, covering approximately 2,320 Signalling Equivalent Units.

The framework agreement takes immediate effect and will run through to 2011, with the option of an extension to 2016.

Posted on 04:28 PM | Permalink

USA TODAY: 10/9/2006
By Dennis Cauchon

"Big Four #2," an old railroad tunnel near Welch, W.Va., will have its top blown off to make way for modern freight trains.

Norfolk Southern Railway locomotives pull a train of double-stacked containers. The railway is involved in a corridor project, which will include undertaking one of the biggest tunnel-expansion projects in the nation's history.

The Norfolk Southern Railway will "daylight" the 174-foot-long tunnel as part of one of the biggest tunnel-expansion projects in the nation's history. The railroad will raise the heights of 28 tunnels, stretching more than 5 miles in total length, through the Appalachian Mountains.

The tunnel raisings, invisible to motorists and even most local residents, will have a profound effect on East Cost shipping and the economies of some of the poorest Appalachian communities.

This new "Heartland Corridor" will clear the way for automotive trains and double-stacked freight cars to travel directly from the busy port at Norfolk, Va., to Chicago. It will cut a half-day and more than 200 miles off the trip.

Consumers will save money because double-stacking trailers on freight trains reduces shipping costs about $500 per cargo container. It should lighten highway traffic, too, because each train replaces about 300 trucks.

Most important, it will give poor mountainous areas in West Virginia a chance to enter the global marketplace. Smaller rail tunnels, built early in the last century, made it impossible for mountain towns to compete for manufacturing plants that require access to modern freight trains.

"It's all about height," says Patrick Donovan, executive director of the West Virginia Public Port Authority.

Big Four #2 is the only one scheduled to have its roof taken off to create the Heartland Corridor. Most tunnels are round and will have their ceilings "notched" to make them square and able to handle bigger trains. The project also will clear 22 other obstacles, such as a bridge overpass in Ironton, Ohio. The project is to be completed in 2009.

Federal aid helps project

The rail tunnels are used heavily now for hauling coal. They will be expanded 1 or 2 feet to nearly 21 feet in height, tall enough for two 91/2-foot cargo bins stacked atop each other. Containers that size — a worldwide standard — can be transferred from ships and unloaded to trucks for delivery.

"We can make money on this route when we double-stack," Norfolk Southern Vice President Robert Martinez says. "If we can't, the business is marginal."

The federal government is paying $95 million of the $150 million cost of raising the tunnels, which are on private property owned by Norfolk Southern.

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W. Va., a House transportation committee member, was key in getting the rail project included in a six-year, $286 billion highway appropriation in 2005.

"We consider it pork," Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, a non-partisan group, says of the rail tunnel project. "The (Bush) administration did not ask for the money, and the project did not compete under the usual formula to determine who deserves federal grants."

Tim Lynch, senior vice president of the American Trucking Associations, says his group did not object to the Heartland Corridor. "But we have concerns that the Heartland Corridor will beget 20 other railroad projects that are funded from the Highway Trust Fund, paid by highway users," Lynch says.

Unlike the trucking industry, railroads own their rail lines and the land underneath them.

Norfolk Southern calls the Heartland Corridor an example of a public-private partnership. The governments of West Virginia, Virginia and Ohio also are expected to contibute. Norfolk Southern will spend $46 million on the tunnels.

"In the absence of public money, this project wouldn't go forward," Martinez says. "Norfolk Southern couldn't justify the investment."

About 15% of the nation's rail lines are cleared for double-stacked freight cars, says Jim Blaze, an economist at Zeta-Tech Associates, a transportation consulting firm in Cherry Hill, N.J.

"The cost savings from double-stacking are tremendous, but clearance projects can cost hundreds of millions of dollars," he says. Overpasses, trees, power lines and other obstacles limit the height of freight cars on most rail lines, especially those off major routes, he says.

Double-stacked freight cars have become the standard of international trade since the 1980s. Huge ships bring standardized cargo containers — typically 40 feet long and 81/2 to 91/2 feet tall — to the USA from China and elsewhere. The containers are transferred to freight trains for trips of 500 miles or more, then put onto trucks for delivery.

The Heartland Corridor is the biggest major railroad line that has not been cleared for double-stacked containers and trains carrying new cars. Norfolk, where the corridor starts, handles more standardized containers than any other East Coast port.

Some barriers remain

Some tunnels on other key rail lines are too small for modern cargo:

• A CSX tunnel in Baltimore blocks double-stacked cargo.

• A Canadian Pacific tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, can't handle auto trains.

• A tunnel under Bellows Falls, Vt., blocks double-stacked trains traveling between the Northeast and Montreal.

Vermont is spending $2 million in federal money and $500,000 in state money to lower the floor of the historic 400-foot-long stone arch tunnel, built in 1851 under the Green Mountains. "We're clearing the way for a new automotive train from (the port) in Davisville, R.I., so it can move cars to Canada," says Dick Hosking, railroad manager at the Vermont Agency of Transportation.

West Virginia plans to build a major cargo-transfer station in Prichard to take advantage of the new trains on the Heartland Corridor and capture some international trade.

In Ohio, Norfolk Southern plans to invest about $60 million — half of it federal funds — to build a large transfer station in Columbus.

"The Heartland Corridor is a big step in what's coming in the future," says Gil Carmichael, a former head of the Federal Railroad Administration.

He says the country is slowly creating what he calls Interstate II, an alternative to interstate highways that will move cargo faster, have more capacity and use giant new rail yards to connect ships, trains and trucks.

"Trucks and highways can't handle all this freight," Carmichael says. "We've got to get these trains moving 70 to 90 miles an hour. The Heartland Corridor connects the East Coast to the Midwest. That's progress."

Posted on 08:17 AM | Permalink

TMCnet: October 09, 2006
By Patrick Barnard, Associate Editor

Pass the tapas and pour some champagne. Then open up my laptop and log onto the internet … as the idyllic Spanish/French countryside rolls past my windows outside …

If you’re a world traveller, you’ve probably already heard about the LGV Perpignan-Figueras, a new high speed rail line, currently under construction, which will connect the French and Spanish rail systems. Work began on the 44 km passenger/freight line in late 2004 and it is expected to be completed in 2009. Once completed, it will interconnect with two other yet-to-be-completed high speed rail lines, the Barcelona-Figueras and Montpellier-Perpignan lines, thus integrating it with the Southwest Europe High-Speed Train Axis (and completing much of the trans-European transport network initiative promoted by the European Union). As a result of this new rail line, travellers will be able to get from Paris to Barcelona in 5 hours, 35 minutes, and from Perpignan to Madrid in 3 hours, 50 minutes – a significant reduction in travel time.

It is said to be the first international high-speed rail line in Spain.

Facilitating communications for the new rail line’s operators - as well as the passengers - is Nortel’s IP communications technology. Nortel recently signed a contract with TP Ferro, the consortium handling the Perpignan-Figueras project, to provide the communications infrastructure for the new rail line. Most critically, the GSM-R network will provide communications throughout an 8 km tunnel cutting across the Pyrenees, which is being constructed as part of the project.

"Nortel’s GSM-R solution allows the complete integration of vital rail communications between the GSM-R networks of the French Réseau Ferré de France (RFF) and the Spanish Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias (ADIF)," said Victor Sanz, project director, IFP Figueres-Perpignan. "Interoperability of communications is a key element of the trans-European rail system that is designed to reduce travel times across international borders significantly for all kind of railway users."

The GSM-R standard, which was developed specifically for railway communications, is now in use on more than 35 different rail systems in Europe alone. The wireless platform is generally considered the best alternative to in-track cable systems and is ideally applied to regions where there the geography/topography doesn’t lend itself to laying down cable. By placing base station towers along the tracks, spaced apart by 3 to 4 km, one can achieve a high degree of redundancy, as well as higher availability and reliability. Interestingly, most high-speed trains are actually controlled by these systems and cannot operate without them. The train’s central control system is always connected to the central office’s system via a circuit switched modem – and in the event connectivity is lost, the train simply stops. The train conductors use these systems to talk to everyone up and down the rail line (and on the interconnecting lines).

GSM-R delivers key features for railroad operators including group calls, voice broadcast, location-based connections and call pre-emption in the event of an emergency. It also supports applications such as cargo tracking, video surveillance and passenger information services.

GSM-R has become so widely adopted that it is now recognised by the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) as the standard communication technology of the rail industry.

Nortel has been providing GSM-R technology to the world’s busiest international railway systems for years. In fact, the company has provided this technology and related support to Europe’s three largest railway operators - RFF in France, Network Rail in Great Britain and Deutsche Bahn in Germany. It has also deployed GSM-R networks for railway lines between Bilbao and Santander for Spain’s Adif.

"GSM-R provides railway operators and infrastructure owners with improved voice and data services tailored for railway operations, supporting high-speed train operation of up to 500 kilometers per hour," said Michel Clement, president Southern Europe and Africa, Nortel. "GSM-R improves operational communication and helps to advance staff performance and employee safety through safe and uninterrupted communication in day-to-day operation."

Posted on 07:38 AM | Permalink

The Associated Press: October 9, 2006

BRUSSELS, Belgium European Union regulators Monday granted antitrust clearance to a rail freight joint venture between a unit of Luxembourg-based steel giant Arcelor SA and the country's national railroad company SNCFL.

 The venture, CFL Cargo, will take over the transport of goods currently handled by SNCFL subsidiaries in Luxembourg, Germany and Denmark and transport within the Grand Duchy currently handled by two units of Arcelor Profil.

 "The transaction would not significantly impede effective competition" in Europe, the European Commission said in a statement.

 Arcelor is the largest user of railway freight services in Luxembourg.

Posted on 04:22 PM | Permalink

The Towanda Pennsylvania Review: 10/09/2006

An out-of-state man accused of illegally operating his vehicle on railroad tracks in the Sayre/Athens area has been sent a summons to appear before Magisterial District Judge Michael Shaw.

According to information filed in Shaw’s office, Daniel Dulaney Carter, 59, of Covington, Ky., has been charged by Norfolk Southern Railroad police with endangering another person, obstructing highways and other public passages and criminal trespass. Carter is accused of illegally operating his 1995 Dodge pickup truck — which is equipped with high-rail wheels — on the railroad tracks at various locations in the area.

Police reported receiving notification that a maintenance crew had run off a high-rail vehicle at milepost 272 on the Lehigh Secondary Line in Sayre on Sept. 23. Police said that the driver of the vehicle produced identification, naming him as Carter. The crew advised Carter that he should not be driving on the tracks.

A few days later, police continued, they interviewed George Blackman, who was one of the crew members who spotted the pickup truck being driven on the tracks. Blackman informed the authorities that he was heading home from work, and as he passed the old train station in Sayre on South Lehigh Street, he spotted a high-rail vehicle that had no markings on the Lehigh Secondary Track. Blackman said he reported what he saw to track foreman Chuck Roberts. Both men went outside and spotted the Dodge pickup heading south on the tracks in reverse gear, according to the report.

Roberts and Blackman caught up with the vehicle at the Walnut Street crossing in Athens. Blackman reported that when the vehicle reached the crossing, the driver drove off the tracks without stopping to disengage the high-rail equipment. When the vehicle was off the tracks, the driver stopped, got out and attempted to disengage the high-rail equipment. Roberts told the police the driver appeared to not know what he was doing — because the normal way would be to stop the vehicle and to disengage the high-rail equipment while the vehicle was on the tracks.

When he asked the driver for some identification, Roberts said, he produced a Kentucky driver’s license, identifying him as Daniel Carter. Roberts said Carter informed him he was inspecting a bridge that was farther down the track.

When he told Carter he was going to report him to the authorities, Roberts said, he left the area in a hurry.

According to the reports. Carter is not an employee of Norfolk Southern Railroad.

Carter is scheduled to appear before Judge Shaw on Nov. 14.

Posted on 04:20 PM | Permalink

Sunderland Echo: 09 October 2006

THE city's direct rail route to London faces more delays because Grand Central won't have the trains it needs in time for the launch date.

The company originally hoped to launch the service, which will run direct from Wearside to the capital three times a day, on December 10.

Grand Central has agreed the purchase of three high-speed trains from Porterbrook Leasing.

But these are due to undergo a full refurbishment and re-engineering programme to have them ready for main-line duties in 2007, with more than £5million to be spent on the stock over the coming months.

Now a question mark hangs over the start date of the service as the company works to find trains to plug the gap between the planned launch date and the completion of work on the trains already secured by Grand Central.

Ian Yeowart, managing director of Grand Central, said that the long-term future of the service is now secure.

"The long-term was the priority as there is no point in starting a service that we wouldn't be able to continue six months down the line – the service is now guaranteed for the next 12 years," he said.

"We are working hard to secure short-term suitable rolling stock, and in particular colleagues at National Express, Maintrain, Porterbrook Leasing and Angel Trains are trying to ensure stock can be made available for a start prior to our own trains coming out of works".

Mr Yeowart said that there was every chance that the service would still start on time, but the launch date may be delayed until early 2007.

Grand Central is expected to make a further announcement on the start date for the new services in the next few days after further discussions have taken place.

Meanwhile, financial experts fear rival train company GNER could soon go off the rails.

It was reported at the weekend that the East coast mainline operator would have no choice but to give up what is left of its 10-year franchise and hand over day-to-day running of the route to the Government, possibly by the end of the week.

Department of Transport officials have confirmed they already have a plan in place to take over control of the route should GNER decide to back out of its £1.3billion agreement.

The rail firm's parent company Sea Containers has debts of £340million and has only six days left to find £60million owed to creditors. If they don't find the money the company could be forced into liquidation, which could mean trouble for GNER.

Posted on 04:04 PM | Permalink

The Sunday Times: October 08, 2006
Jack Grimston and Jon Kirk

SOARING salaries for top civil servants and bosses of state companies have created a new breed of public sector “fat cat”, new research has indicated.

Pay for the most senior directors working for the state rose last year by 7.4%, twice the national rate of wage increase, according to research by Incomes Data Services (IDS), a pay consultancy.

The highest-paid employee in the study is John Armitt, chief executive of Network Rail, which runs Britain’s railway infrastructure. Armitt’s salary and bonus of £878,000 — rising to more than £1m when pension contributions are included — means that he has overtaken Adam Crozier, chief executive of Royal Mail, at the top of the league.

While Armitt and Crozier run organisations that have to compete with private sector businesses, the pay packets collected by some top civil servants have led to accusations that they are receiving “rewards for failure”.

The highest-paid civil servant in Britain is believed to be Richard Granger, responsible for the NHS’s new computer system, which has gone billions of pounds over budget. He is paid at least £280,000 a year, about £100,000 more than Tony Blair.

Steve Tatton, editor of the IDS study, said the size of pay cheques being handed to top officials, many of them brought in from the private sector, was now causing problems.

“The top people in the public sector are definitely catching up with the private sector now,” said Tatton. “The people who come in from outside do not want to take pay cuts and this is creating tension with the existing officials whose pay is being held in check.”

Tatton’s research analysed the pay, including bonuses, for the best-paid executives in the 48 Whitehall agencies and 28 other public bodies. The study did not include civil servants in the main Whitehall departments, whose salaries are far more tightly controlled than in the agencies.

The study covers quangocrats — such as Ed Richards, who was appointed earlier this month to head Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator. He is expected to be paid a similar amount to Stephen Carter, his predecessor, who earned £369,417 plus benefits giving him a total package of £440,000.

The study also covers heads of organisations such as the BBC, Royal Mail and Network Rail — which maintains it is not a state body at all. Executives running these organisations are the most highly paid group, with large parts of their packages tied to performance because they claim they have to compete with the private sector.

The most controversial payments are those to officials seen as running failing organisations. Granger, 41, was brought in from the consultancy Deloitte in 2002 to run Connecting for Health, which is designed to provide hospitals, trusts and GPs with a single computer system for managing patients’ treatment. The project has so far cost double its initial projection of £6 billion and is more than two years behind schedule.

Following a request under the Freedom of Information Act by the website silicon.com, the Department of Health has now disclosed that Granger is paid between £280,000 and £285,000. A health department spokesman denied Granger was overpaid, adding: “The IT programme is one of the biggest projects in the world and his salary reflects this. He would earn a lot more in the private sector.”

Others paid high amounts for running failing organisations include Stephen Geraghty, chief executive of the Child Support Agency, who is paid £177,000, 20% more than his predecessor. In July, Alan Johnson, then work and pensions secretary, announced the agency was to be abolished. It has been repeatedly criticised for its failure to channel support payments from absent fathers to single mothers.

Tony Collins, editor of Computer Weekly, said he believed too much was expected of private sector executives moving into the government. He said slow decision-making meant they had far less opportunity to make far-reaching changes than when working for companies.

“They are very different types of job,” Collins added. “In the private sector, if you screw up, the chances are you will get sacked. In the public sector, the chances are ministers will try to cover up what happened.”

Posted on 09:01 AM | Permalink

Info Link: 9 Oct 2006

With over 1,000 MRG series railway pedestrian gates now installed in Australia and New Zealand, Magnetic Automation’s MRG gate was the logical answer for South Australia’s first automated railway pedestrian crossing.

The project was worked in conjunction with Magnetic Automation’s distributor in Adelaide, Total Gate & Door Automation.

The MRG gates work on the following principle: when a train approaches the crossing, a Sonalert located in the drive mechanism sounds, followed by the closing of the gate to prevent access across the tracks and exposing the emergency exit.

After the passage of the train, the Sonalert stops and the gate opens under power, once again exposing the walkway permitting access across the tracks and, at the same time, closing off the emergency exit.

The design of the automatic pedestrian gate is highly vandal resistant and all components are of robust construction.

Posted on 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

UNESCAP News: 6 October 2006
Press Release No: G/43/MCT/01/2006

From Armenia to Viet Nam, an 'iron' version of the famed Silk Road will move a step closer to reality next month when Asian transport ministers sign an agreement under United Nations auspices for a trans-continental rail network to link their capital cities, ports and industrial centres, and facilitate international trade and tourism.

Bangkok (United Nations Information Services) -- Asian Ministers of Transport will give reality to the dream of connecting their capital cities, ports and industrial centres by rail when they gather on 10 November in the Republic of Korea to sign the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway (TAR) Network. The signing ceremony will be a highlight of UNESCAP’s Ministerial Conference on Transport scheduled for 6-11 November in Busan.

The Trans-Asian Railway Network Agreement constitutes another step towards the identification of a trans-continental, integrated, international, intermodal network to facilitate international trade and tourism. A similar agreement under UNESCAP’s auspices on the Asian Highway Network came into force in July 2005.

“Through these two Agreements, UNESCAP will usher in a new era of cooperation and partnership for regional integration,” said UNESCAP Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su ahead of the signing.

According to UNESCAP, conditions are right for a continent-wide rail revival in Asia.

“With 60 per cent of the world’s population generating 26 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product, Asia’s demand for efficient transport is greater than at any time in its history,” noted Mr. Kim.

Busan is a major access point in the network that starts on the Pacific seaboard of Asia and ends up on the doorstep of Europe. It comprises 81,000 km of railway lines that were selected as vital arteries by 28 countries and provide regional connectivity as well as linkages to Europe.

UNESCAP experts believe that port efficiency can be enhanced through the integration of rail and shipping to avoid port congestion. This is particularly relevant in Asia, home to 13 of the world’s top 20 container ports. It is also of crucial importance to landlocked countries whose access to world markets is heavily dependent on efficient connections to the region’s main international ports. Twelve of the world’s 30 landlocked countries are in Asia, and ten of them are members of the Trans-Asian Railway Network.

The TAR Network is expected to have a significant impact on the region. To date, much of the region’s economic development has taken place in coastal areas. As part of the development of the TAR Network, members have already begun to identify stations of international importance that will have similar functions as ports away from coastal areas, or ‘dry ports.’ The development of these stations into ‘dry ports’ could play an important role in spreading the benefits of globalization and creating employment opportunities for local populations.

“The Agreement lays a framework for coordinated development of internationally important rail routes,” said Mr. Kim. “A working group proposed under the Agreement will be a forum for transport policy makers and railway managers to define a common vision, adopt joint programmes of action and, most importantly, identify investment requirements and sources.”

The signing ceremony for the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway Network will mark the achievement of a negotiation process initiated by UNESCAP in 2004. The Agreement was finalized in November 2005, and adopted by its members at the Commission’s annual legislative session held in Jakarta, Indonesia in April 2006.

The member countries of TAR Network are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Viet Nam.

More information on the International Agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway Network is available on the UNESCAP website at:http://www.unescap.org/ttdw/index.asp and http://www.unescap.org/ttdw/MCT2006/index.asp.

More information on the Ministerial Conference on Transport is available at: http://www.mct2006.or.kr/00main/main.htm.

Headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) is the largest of the UN's five Regional Commissions, in terms of population served and area covered. The only inter-governmental forum covering the entire Asia-Pacific region, it aims to promote economic activity and social progress in the region’s developing countries.

Posted on 08:39 AM | Permalink

The Tribune: October 7, 2006,
Chandigarh, India

Suspected anti-talk Dimasa militants today killed 13 Railway personnel in a remote jungle near Hatikhuli, about 12 km from Lumding railway junction.

According to preliminary reports, an NF Railway team of 20 personnel was proceeding in four vehicles beyond Mandaksa railway station for inspection work when it was ambushed by the militants.

The first two vehicles managed to slip away but the ultras, who were on a hill top, ambushed the remaining two killing all the occupants. According to an official report, there was an encounter and the rebels took away the weapons of the railway security men.

They killed 11 personnel on the spot while two others died later. The dead included six RPF jawans and two NF Railway engineering staff. The rest were engineering staff members of contractors working on the gauge conservation work.

This has been the biggest attack on the NF Railway officials in the past few years and the work on gauge conservation between Lumding-Badarpur has indefinitely come to a halt.

The anti-talk Dima Halam Daoga (DHD) faction ‘Black Widow’ has been operating in the area for some time and specifically targeting the railway installations.

Already all the major contractors have stopped work demanding adequate security as they were constantly being threatened. Work had been suspended for nearly a month and resumed only a few days ago.

Meanwhile, DHD chairman Dileep Nunisa condemned the incident saying anti-talk and anti-peace force had been trying to derail the process by creating violence.

Posted on 07:56 AM | Permalink

The Scotsman: 8 Oct 2006
BRIAN BRADY WESTMINSTER EDITOR

TRANSPORT secretary Douglas Alexander has been told to stop meddling with rail routes, amid a new threat to a vital service linking Scotland with the south of England.

Changing trains: Douglas Alexander is overseeing plans to curtail direct routes from Scotland to south-west

Tory transport spokesman Chris Grayling mounted a furious assault on the "absolutely bonkers" plans to curtail the direct route from Dundee to south-west resorts, during the Tory conference in Bournemouth last week.

The government has made an early start on putting the franchise for the route out to tender, five years before it is due. But it has emerged that the popular direct route will be lost, with passengers having to change at Birmingham New Street and wait for separate services to other parts of the country.

Passenger numbers on the Virgin Cross Country routes have almost doubled to more than 22 million a year since 1997, but they face disruption in the coming months after Darling decided to offer the routes for franchise renewal five years ahead of schedule.

Although he insisted the changes would not mean cuts for rail users, it has now emerged that the unique Scotland-Cornwall service will be cut. The Penzance-Dundee train, which stops at a series of cities, including Birmingham, Preston and Crewe, is the only direct service linking Scotland to the south of England without passing through London.

But under Labour's proposal all journeys will end at Birmingham. "This shows why we need to get the fingers of ministers out of the operation of the railways," Grayling complained during a transport fringe meeting at the Tory conference.

"It will mean more people hanging around in New Street station making their connection when the station is already overcrowded. Cross Country train services are going to be split in half.

"What is ridiculous is this is a decision taken by the government. Why should ministers be deciding whether we get through services or not, when it is something the train operators themselves can decide?"

Virgin's own research reveals three-quarters of passengers using the route stay on after Birmingham, whether en route to Scotland or southern England.

And research amongst rail passengers shows that if forced to swap trains at Birmingham, the majority would think twice about going by rail.

The change will mean passengers, many with heavy luggage, will have to cross over the station's footbridge to reach another platform.

Critics fear the proposals would also add to overcrowding at New Street, which is already so bad that Network Rail, the stations owners, has been forced to close it several times for health and safety reasons.

Chris Gibb, managing director of Virgin Cross Country, which is bidding for the new franchise, would not criticise the government's proposals. But industry sources have branded the proposed changes - which also include hiving off routes from Aberdeen to Cornwall and Glasgow to Brighton to a separate franchise - as baffling.

Gibb said: "The Department for Transport is currently carrying out a consultation on the Cross Country network.
"They have proposed that on a journey like that, you will have to change at New Street.

"We await the results of that consultation. They have their own reasons stated in the consultation for that change."

The new franchise would begin on November 11 next year. Virgin had expected to hold its franchise, which runs 184 services, until 2012.

Four operators are bidding for the tender, which merges part of Cross Country with parts of the current Central Trains franchise.

A Department for Transport official conceded that "some passengers ... will have to change trains".

She added: "We expect bidders to let us know how they will assist those changing trains at Birmingham New Street."

Passenger Focus, the rail consumer watchdog, quizzed 32,000 Cross Country passengers about the changes, which also involve the potential loss of services from Bournemouth and Coventry to the north-east.

Some 44% of passengers already have to change trains at least once in their journey - and most insist another change at Birmingham New Street might put them off.

Those surveyed warned that changing trains and chasing empty seats would also be an issue, and 92% said delays in one service could see them missing their connection in Birmingham.

Posted on 02:12 AM | Permalink

Transport Briefing: 09/10/06  

Grand Central is expected to miss its planned launch date of 10 December this year for the company's long-awaited new London-Sunderland rail link.

After a prolonged but ultimately successful campaign to be allowed to run trains along the East Coast Main Line, the open access operator is now struggling to obtain the rolling stock required for the new service.

The company has yet to sign a deal to get the rolling stock needed to bridge a gap until late 2007 when trains from leasing company Porterbrook will be available.

Grand Central had initially proposed to temporarily lease rolling stock from Midland Mainline. However, the Department for Transport has vetoed this plan in case bidders for the new East Midlands franchise, which will include the current Midland Mainline routes, require this rolling stock to be ready for when the new franchise begins on 11 November 2007.

Grand Central is expected to make an announcement on its revised start date later this month. The company's deal with Porterbrook means trains will be running by the December 2007 deadline required by the Rail Regulator.

Posted on 01:59 AM | Permalink

Express & Star: 8th October 2006

Train passengers face railway chaos across the West Midlands tomorrow - because of a lack of drivers.

Widespread disruption is likely after Central Trains admitted it was “critically short” of staff.

Bosses blamed the shortage on a large number of drivers failing to volunteer to work on Sunday, which is outside their contracted working hours.

There are usually more than 150 train drivers who volunteer, but as a result of the shortage passengers in Wolverhampton, Walsall, Birmingham, Lichfield, Rugeley and Redditch will be worst hit. Maintenance work by Network Rail is also set to make matters worse .

Among the affected lines are:
* Wolverhampton to either Birmingham or Walsall - no trains

* From Lichfield, Rugeley or Walsall into Birmingham New Street - no trains

* Wolverhampton to Stafford - delays because of engineering works

* All cross city south trains from Redditch to Selly Oak in Birmingham - cancelled because of engineering works.

Bus services will be operated from train stations instead, but not all services will have a replacement bus.
Mike Haigh, Central Trains’ business development director, said: “This Sunday an exceptional number of drivers have not volunteered to work.”

Posted on 01:54 AM | Permalink

German Press Agency: October 6, 2006

Berlin- After a third day of disrupting German rail travel with token strikes, unions threatened on Friday to call an all-out strike if the state-owned railways do not offer a cast-iron guarantee that there will be no layoffs in the next four years.

Norbert Hansen, leader of one of the two unions, Transnet, issued a deadline of October 24, telling the Saturday issue of the newspaper Die Welt that token strikes would continue till then.

Travel was disrupted Friday in the Munich area when drivers walked off the job and shunting yard crews blocked lines. The strikes began last week. Commuter and express services near Berlin had been disrupted on Wednesday.

The strikes are aimed largely at the German government, which is contemplating spinning off parts of the state-owned rail company.

An existing job guarantee by the Deutsche Bahn rail company for 130,000 of its staff till 2010 may not apply to parts of the workforce transferred to any new company.

New round of German rail strikes disrupts trains in Bavaria

Associated Press: October 6, 2006

BERLIN Strikes by railway workers in southern Germany on Friday disrupted train services in Bavaria and beyond, unions and the country's rail operator said.

The Transnet and GDBA unions said more than 150 employees walked off the job in the early morning in Nuremberg and Munich, two major hubs.

 The walkouts, part of a dispute over plans to privatize the rail network, followed similar warning strikes over the past week in Berlin and in western Germany.

 Rail operator Deutsche Bahn said delays to regional and long-distance trains continued after the strikes ended at 7:30 a.m.

 Germany is moving ahead with long-standing plans to sell up to half of Deutsche Bahn, the country's last big privatization.

 However, the company and labor unions are dismayed that the government is considering selling only the transport operations and keeping the rail network in public hands.

 The strikes center around Deutsche Bahn's argument that it cannot honor existing job guarantees for about 130,000 of its employees through 2010 unless it retains ownership of infrastructure such as tracks and stations.

Posted on 11:25 AM | Permalink

Kommersant: Russia's Business Daily Online - Oct. 7, 2006
by  Sergei Chereshnev

Following on from his analysis of Russian Railways 1991-2000, Russian financial journalist, Sergei Chereshnev brings us up to date. To this day, the Russian Ministry of Railway Transport remains a state within state.

PRESENT

These are not empty words; the railway department can have whatever it wants. In addition to its own transport operations on its 17 railways, it supports polyclinics, housing stock, depots, stores, and a telecommunications network. However, although the main figures in railway transport, as before, are concentrated in the Ministry and reform of the monopoly has not yet started in earnest, the railways can no longer dispose of these riches at their discretion.

Rate Blitzkrieg
The Ministry of Railway Transport obtains much of its profit from freight transport. Various estimates have been given for the amount of profit both within the monopoly and outside it; however, the Ministry's own official figure of 55.3 billion rubles of net profit for 2000 is a better guideline. The Ministry's total revenues are almost never published, but they are at least twice as much, since MRT spends no less than 20 billion rubles a year on subsidizing passenger traffic, and the railways have estimated their investment program for 2000 at 80 billion rubles. At the beginning of 2001, Nikolai Aksenenko, the former head of MRT, managed this money like a virtual autocrat.

Since MRT is a state structure, its revenues must be automatically included in budget revenues and spent at the government's discretion. However, in practice, the money has seldom left the industry, and the question "Who owns railway transport?" is merely rhetorical. It belongs to the Ministry. Nikolai Aksenenko ignored his opponents' opinion. MRT included social facilities, the Transtelekom project, support of sports teams, and its own press in its investment program. Incidentally, the newspaper Gudok (Whistle) is the only paper in the country with the letter "e" in its type face. However, in his three years as Minister, Aksenenko acquired a lot of enemies, who mounted a successful attack on the monopoly's position. The beginning of 2001 can be considered a reference point, when the formulation of rates for domestic operations (65% of the total volume) was divided between Il'ya Yuzhanov, the head of the Antimonopoly Ministry, and Viktor Khristenko's government commission.

Nevertheless, the tastiest piece of the pie, rates for export-import transport (revenues of more than 135 billion rubles), remained in Aksenenko's hands. These rates were three times higher than general schedule #1001 and were invariably collected from the consignor in Swiss francs. Freight transport to ports was also charged export rates, even though it was carried out on Russian territory. In addition, MRT, which represented the Russian Federation's interests in the tariff agency of the CIS, also dictated its terms there.

On April 28, after the minister had returned from a meeting with Vladimir Putin and announced that the president had approved his department's reform program, it looked as though these revenues would no longer be collected from MRT. This was because the reform program, worked out behind closed doors at the Ministry with the help of consultants from Arthur Andersen, contained the premise that huge capital investments of no less than 785 billion rubles over ten years were needed in the industry. Aksenenko himself believed that the railways would stand up without new investments.

After the meeting between the minister and the president, the government's approval of MRT's reform program on May 21 already seemed routine. A bolt from the blue struck the monopoly in June, when Premier Mikhail Kasyanov approved the unification of domestic rates. All transport on Russian Federation territory would be paid for in rubles according to a single schedule. The first deputy head of MRT, Aleksandr Tsel'ko, estimated losses to the railways from this move at 20 billion rubles. Nikolai Aksenenko demanded a 33% increase in domestic rates (he could no longer do this independently). However, the deputy head of the Ministry of Economic Development, Andrei Sharonov, announced that that the principles of formulating rates according to MRT's criteria were long since outdated. Oleg Deripaska, the general director of the Russian Aluminum holding, demanded the direct participation of exporters in this process, in which he was fully supported by the president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), Arkady Vol'sky. Domestic transport ended up costing 17.5% more.

From then on, as Sergei Loparev, the director of the Association of Shipping Agents, put it "it was clear to everyone that rate increases would become a regular event," because MRT was now demanding compensation for passenger transport of up to 31 billion rubles per year from federal and regional budgets. The result was a 30% increase in ticket prices. Mindful of freight rates, Nikolai Aksenenko steadfastly demanded new increases from the government. "After the crisis of 1998," he said, "MRT lost 186 billion rubles on artificial rate restraint. If they won't meet us halfway, we'll stop subsidizing other industries." However it was Gennady Fadeev who profited from the fruits of his eloquence: the government agreed to another rate increase only toward the beginning of 2002.

However, an even more important outcome of Nikolai Aksenenko's defeat on rates was that his opponents understood that it was possible to fight the monopoly and its Minister. In three years, he had acquired plenty of opponents. Metallurgists disliked him for charging them the highest transport rates possible; power companies, for his refusal to repay debts; carriers, for the lack of clear-cut rules of the game on the market; ship owners, simply as a competitor; and everyone together, because of his inability to consider contrary opinions. In six months, such a powerful antirailway lobby had formed that it had to be taken into consideration both during the preparation of industry reforms and its basic laws and during discussion of an investment program.

Don't Hide Your Money
Anatoly Chubais, the head of RAO UES of Russia, struck MRT a telling blow by going after the return of railway debts (more than 3 billion rubles) to power companies. It took Chubais only two months to publicly prove to Nikolai Aksenenko that MRT owed the power companies and not the other way around. The biggest winners in the conflict were the mass media, which accurately fixated on the mutual accusations of "ineffective management" of the parties. The only loser was Nikolai Aksenenko, whose reputation was seriously damaged.

Almost simultaneously with these events, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation completed an audit of MRT and uncovered the existence of six special funds out of which department money was spent for no fixed purpose (a total of about 50 billion rubles). This amount was exactly equal to the money allotted from the federal budget for development of the industry and compensation for passenger transport. The violations included the purchase of apartments and cars for bureaucrats. On October 19, the Prosecutor General's Office charged Nikolai Aksenenko under Article 286, Part 3 of the Criminal Code ("abuse of official position entailing serious consequences"). The investigators were interested in the 70 million rubles earmarked for the "Northern Delivery" program and the 11 billion rubles that MRT had not paid to the budget.

The main industry events of the last months of 2001 unfurled without the minister, who was on a "routine vacation so as not to hinder the investigation." As later events proved, no one was able to defend the monopoly's position as successfully as Nikolai Aksenenko. A discussion of two bills that were supposed to regulate the rail transport market after 2003 (Railway Transport Regulations and "On the Fundamental Statutes of Railway Transport Operations") dragged on, and MRT was not able to introduce them to the State Duma on time. This could entail a speedy disruption of the schedule for carrying out the industry reform program.

Premier Mikhail Kasyanov sent MRT's investment program for 2002, whose developers had requested 168 billion rubles, back for revision. Nikolai Aksenenko returned from vacation expressly for this meeting and afterwards went to the hospital. On January 3, 2002, he submitted his resignation after receiving a diploma from the Premier and an instituted legal action from the Prosecutor General.

The first deputy head of MRT, Aleksandr Misharin, believed that the program would not be cut back after the revisions. However, all the experience of 2001 showed that although the government was listening attentively to MRT's proposals, it would heed its opponents in making its decision. Returning to the helm of MRT after five and a half years, Gennady Fadeev inherited a still-undefeated monopoly but significantly reduced powers, smaller revenues, and larger budgetary debts at all levels. Mikhail Kasyanov demanded the repayment of 30 billion rubles of federal budget debt in ten years, the same period in which Fadeev had to carry out reforms guaranteeing all companies equal access to the railway infrastructure.

Personnel Revolution
During his short tenure in the post of Minister, Gennady Fadeev has spoken guardedly about the prospects of reform, but compared to his predecessor, he has said nothing at all.

According to Fadeev, MRT's primary task is the fastest possible repayment of the accumulated 30-billion-ruble budgetary debt, in four years rather than in ten. He has also managed to speak very definitely about the 168-billion-ruble investment program for 2002: it will be reviewed, but all of its main projects will be retained, meaning that MRT has not given up its dream of a bridge to Sakhalin Island.

MRT's total needs for four years amount to no less than 198 billion rubles, but last December, Nikolai Aksenenko calculated that the Ministry's profit for 2001 was about 32 billion rubles. The difference between wishes and resources is obvious. Therefore, it is not inconceivable that all reforms for 2003 will be confined to its legislation part, especially after rumors appeared that FSB representatives (the Federal Security Service, the KGB's successor) disagreed with the law on RAO Russian Railways. Incidentally, participants in discussions of the law at Il'ya Klebanov's government commission have not even attempted to disprove them.

However, it is unlikely that either the President or the Premier gave tacit approval to halt the reform. Therefore, immediately after Gennady Fadeev became Minister of Railway Transport, other candidates began to be predicted for the post. Government employees have successfully cultivated this version by their anonymous comments or their refusal to comment.

According to these political forecasts, former head of the October Railway Aleksandr Kuznetsov is the leading contender.

Attempts by Vlast' to determine the likelihood of Gennady Fadeev's replacement in the government apparatus have added another indirect contender for the post of head of MRT, Vladimir Yakunin, the current Deputy Minister of Transport. Among his colleagues, he has the authority of a person who is close to the President's family. However, the fact that Yakunin has never worked on the railways argues against this version: in MRT's entire history there has never been a "Varangian" (i.e., an outsider) at the helm of the department.

The third and most private forecast anticipates a real personnel revolution in the monopoly, right up to complete replacement of the board members. Then, the team members' previous job will not matter.

The three scenarios agree only in the time period: this should happen before February. The mildest version of the personnel revolution assumes the temporary appointment of Aleksandr Kuznetsov and Vladimir Yakunin as Gennady Fadeev's first deputies, which could happen even before this issue reaches our readers.

TRENDS

"The industry's existence depends on the progress of reform." Ex-minister Nikolai Aksenenko loved to repeat this phrase. Today, however, the schedules for both the first phase of reform and all the other phases are under threat of disruption.

The main argument of the authors of the reform program (besides MRT, they include well-known consultants from McKensey, Arthur Andersen, and the company Modern Business Technology), who proposed a period of ten years, was the miserable situation of the railways. The experts concluded that before making any changes, a lot of money would be needed (785 billion rubles over ten years) to renew the pool of worn-out cars and outdated equipment and to introduce new technologies. Otherwise, investors would not invest their money in Russian railways. The plan was to carry out the reform itself in three phases.

In the first phase (2002-2003), RAO Russian Railways (RR) is supposed to be separated from the Ministry of Railway Transport, and all the infrastructure of tracks, stations, depots, and rolling stock will pass to it. The process is to be carefully ordered by legislation. Private companies will be permitted only on the transport market and will have to develop a 25% niche.

Even at this stage, reform has started to slide. The schedule for preparing the laws regulating the activity of RAO Russian Railways (see "The Present") has broken down. The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) became the main defender of the interests of private companies, simply because, in the opinion of Sergei Losharev, director of the Association of Shipping Agents (ASA), the Ministry would be forced to consider the influence of this organization. The transport commission at RSPP was headed by the director of Russian Aluminum, Oleg Deripaska, who voiced the main complaint about the "reform laws": "Instead of one monopoly, another one will appear. Private carriers will have to compete with a colossus."

The majority of active carriers belonging to ASA agree with this theory. The ASA is still unhappy that the rights of shippers are poorly defended in the laws. Shipping companies (more than 2000) already operate on the railways, but they carry no more than 10% of the total freight volume of 1.09 billion tonnes. They are totally dependent on one MRT department, the Center for Corporate Transport Service (CCTS), which issues licenses to would-be competitors. For them, the figure of Aleksandr Velichko, the head of CCTS, is perhaps more important than the minister: he decides the fate of a player in the transport process, and according to the reform program, this power over the railways will pass to RAO RR.

The expediting market has developed by leaps and bounds in the past two years, in spite of the dominance of a number of companies close to the leadership of MRT, such as Transrail AG (see "History"). In 1999, there were hundreds of companies, and today there is no room to develop this sector. Sergei Lopashev told Vlast' that there were simply not enough rail cars for everyone, and investing private funds in a pool of rail cars (average cost of $25 000-30 000) did not pay. CCTS was supposed to provide discounts for the use of its cars, but the rates were determined arbitrarily and did not defray expenses. Shippers were offered old cars for purchase, but they were not interested. RAO RR, which would get ownership of both tracks and locomotives according to the reform plan, would become still another main player in a renewed market, but even with its worn-out stock, it would easily eliminate its competitors.

Shippers, who will be the main players in a future open market, do not want to invest money in railway infrastructure under these rules of the game. In this case, RAO RR will really have to find billions in order to the support the infrastructure of the lines. Otherwise, the shortfall of rolling stock due to wear and obsolescence will reach 70% by 2008 at the present rate of renewal, a fact that even MRT acknowledges.

However, the program has already been approved. Under Nikolai Aksenenko, MRT not only refused to change its basic principles, but also refused to even discuss them. Deputy Minister Anna Belova announced at the end of December that even assuming a belated introduction of the bills in the State Duma, there may still be time to complete the first phase of the program by 2003.

It is quite possible that Gennady Fadeev will manage to convince the government of the need to speed up preparation of the laws. Then RAO RR will get ready for the second phase of reform (2004-2006), when passenger transport will be separated from the new monopoly and privatization of construction and repair enterprises will start. The end of passenger subsidies at the expense of freight transport suits RSPP and Oleg Deripaska perfectly. However, this is the only part of the plan on which both the authors of the program and cargo owners agree. Many disagree with the fact that companies will not be allowed to take part in the privatization of MRT assets before 2004. Compromise appears to be impossible: this issue is also firmly fixed in the main principles of the program.

There is simply no one to stick up for passengers. The end of cross subsidization means a minimum 38% increase in ticket prices (today, passengers pay 62% of the actual cost of a ticket, according to MRT). The way things are going, this will happen no later than 2006.

There are almost no arguments about the third phase of reform (2006-2010), after which RAO RR will retain only the function of regulator of an open shippers' market and responsibility for maintaining the lines themselves. However, one reform program aimed at 2005 has already been conveniently lost in the corridors of MRT (see "History").

Posted on 10:26 AM | Permalink

Kommersant: Russia's Business Daily Online - Oct. 7, 2006
by Sergei Chereshnev, Marina Kochetova

Russian railways are the longest in the world, with a total length of 86,000 km. Russian railways also rank second in length of electrified lines: 40,300 km. The industry employs 1.3 million people, or nearly 2% of the entire working-age population of Russia. You can read an analysis of current trends in Russians Railways here.

Today, 80% of domestic freight traffic (more than 1 billion tonnes per year) and 40% of passenger traffic (1,418.1 million people) are carried on the main lines. The main lines transport 98.6% of iron and manganese ores, 92.3% of ferrous metals, 87.2% of the coal, 88.1% of the total volume of fertilizer output, and 45 million containers. The Trans-Siberian line is the fastest route for delivering containers from Asia to Europe: the shipments cover a distance of more than 10,000 km and eight time zones in nine days.

According to forecasts of the Ministry of Railway Transport, revenues from freight transportation in 2001 should amount to 304.1 billion rubles, with a net profit of 54.5 billion rubles.

The Ministry also has the longest system of state-of-the-art fiber-optic lines: 19,000 km.

Six research institutes, six design offices, and ten institutes of higher education employing more than 7000 scientists, including 580 Doctors of Science, form part of the industry.

HISTORY: 1990-2000

In spite of a string of rather noisy scandals, the character of Russian railway operations has scarcely changed over the past ten years. Three heads of the Ministry of Railway Transport (MRT) have been able to maintain the industry's complete monopoly, reserving the right to dictate transport rates and regulations to producers. The reasons for both the Ministry's present-day successes and its problems were taking shape even in the days when it was a closed, quasi-military structure. It is interesting that the need to prepare for market relations was recognized at MRT even before the collapse of the USSR, and that the post-Soviet period began a year earlier for the railways.

1990
In February, the first attempt was made to attract Western investors to develop the Baikal-Amur Railway (BAR). The deputy minister of the USSR Ministry of Railway Transport, Vladimir Butko, signed a protocol with the president and executive director of the American company Burlington Northern Inc., Gerald Greenstein, on creating a joint enterprise to run the BAR. However, American experts who visited the line refused to implement the project, saying "The BAR is operable, but it's a sloppy operation."

In April, the Warsaw Pact countries almost completely stopped deliveries of passenger rolling stock to the Soviet Union: Hungary stopped deliveries of diesel trains; the GDR, deliveries of Ritz passenger sleeping cars and regular cars; and Czechoslovakia, deliveries of ChS-8 electric locomotives. The first conflict between the Ministry of Railway Transport and the press was connected with this situation: Minister Nikolai Konarev gave an order prohibiting the transmission of information on the shortage of cars and locomotives. The problem of renewing passenger rolling stock exists at MRT to this day.

In December, the Ministry of Railway Transport of the USSR, along with the Polytechnical Museum, was one of the first founders of the Russian Commodity Exchange. In the same month, Minister Konarev was the first to openly announce the possible severance of transportation links with the union republic of Lithuania.

1991
The division of the USSR's pool of rolling stock began in April; it stretched out for several years and was the cause of many intergovernmental disputes in the CIS. In contrast to the situation with the maritime fleet, accurately keeping track of transfers of railway cars between enterprises in the collapsing Union was extremely complicated. The cause of the "wild redistribution" of railway cars, when the new owners had no aversion to concealing and appropriating them for themselves, was a transport workers' strike in Georgia. For the first time, the USSR Ministry of Railway Transport prohibited shipments of national economic production to this republic.

In September, President Yeltsin issued the decree "On the Creation of a High-Speed St. Petersburg-Moscow Main Passenger Line."

On November 23, Yeltsin formed the High-Speed Line (RAO HSL) joint stock company by decree. Aleksei Bol'shakov became the company's first general director. RAO HSL's history was confined to one five-year period; its bankruptcy cost the state treasury $500 million in losses.

1992
In January, President Yeltsin signed the decree "On the Formation of the Ministry of Railway Transport of the Russian Federation." Gennady Fadeev was appointed Minister.

On February, 14, a rail transport council of CIS member states was set up. The council's main tasks were to coordinate rail transport at the intergovernmental level and to work out consistent principles for its operations. This was the first attempt to redistribute railway property in a civilized manner.

In April, Boris Yeltsin signed the decree " On the Special Features of Managing Enterprises and Rail Transport Facilities in the Russian Federation." The decree stated specifically that rail transport was "a single production unit."

On July 17, 1992, the president signed a decree, according to which RAO HSL received ownership or trust management of controlling blocks of 23 enterprises from the state. These were mainly engineering enterprises that had previously belonged to the military-industrial complex. The technical and economic justification for constructing a high-speed line was written at the Lengiprotrans Institute (a state research and design institute). The estimate for the project was $3.5 billion, but this amount steadily increased with time.

In October, talks were held between the Ministry of Railway Transport and the German company Deutsche Waggonbau AG on building double-deck passenger cars in the CIS. According to official information, the talks were successful; however, not a single car was ever built.

1993
In January, MRT made the decision to establish a joint venture in Switzerland to service transit goods. Zheldoreksport (the company had been formed by MRT as early as 1989) was registered with its Western creditors as JV (Joint Venture) Transrail AG. The charter capital of the joint venture was organized on a parity basis, with Zheldoreksport contributing $270 million. JV Transrail AG forced the signing of freight transport contracts with the railways of former union republics, i.e., the Azerbaijani, Georgian, and Central Asian railways (which united the Turkmen, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz railways). In the same year, the Russian portion of Transrail's shares went to MRT without compensation. Later, when laws prohibiting state structures from having a share in commercial enterprises were passed, the Ministry board decided to transfer these stocks directly to 17 Russian Federation railways. MRT used the same share distribution scheme in 1997 in creating ZAO Transtelekom.

At a press conference in February, Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Valentin Stepankov told about abuses uncovered at the Kuibyshev, October, North Caucasus, Southeast, Trans-Baikal, Kemerovo, and Moscow railways. The Prosecutor's Office initiated and investigated approximately ten criminal cases; the Prosecutor paid particular attention to the case of Anatoly Zaitsev, head of the October Railway, who was accused of illegal participation in the activity of a Russian-Finnish joint venture. Zaitsev received a salary of $1100 and 25 000 Finnish marks (about $5000) per month from the enterprise. MRT head Gennady Fadeev reprimanded Zaitsev in an order and obliged Ministry employees to withdraw from all joint ventures. The same month, the Ministry of Railway Transport set up a special institution of freight agents. The carriers were given the opportunity to make use of preferential rates when transporting freight, provided they collected cash from debtor clients, which was to be transferred to the accounts of MRT branch offices. The Swiss firm Transrail received the rights of general carrier. From then on, it was the sole, unconditional leader among expeditors and freight agents for transit goods.

In March, MRT increased the price of a trip on suburban trains by three times. At the end of the year, MRT verified that the number of passengers caught without tickets had increased nine times and for the first time gave a figure for losses from passenger traffic: 20 billion rubles.

At a briefing in July, the head of the Main Administration of Internal Transport Affairs of the Russian Ministry of the Interior, Anatoly Romakhov, reported a sharp worsening of the crime situation in rail transport: rail transport accounted for 86% of the total number of transport thefts.

In December, the Samara Regional Court sentenced Valentin Khazansky, director of Volzhtranstop, a Ministry of Railway Transport energy company, to three years conditionally with a one-year probation period for official forgery and abuse of official capacity. This was the first case involving a senior manager of an MRT structure to be brought to trial.

1994
In May, the government issued a resolution "On Indexation of Freight Rates and Charges for Cargo Handling Performed by Rail Transport of the Russian Federation in 1994", which granted the Russian Ministry of Railway Transport the right to revise and set freight rates and cargo handling charges independently. MRT's monopoly on rates lasted until 1999, when the right to formulate rates reverted to a government commission.

In August, the head of MRT, Gennady Fadeev, reported that Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin was scheduled to approve a general agreement on joint actions to stabilize prices and reduce mutual defaults on payments, which had been signed by the chief executives of MRT, the Ministry of Energy, Roskommetallurgii (Russian Federation Metallurgy Committee), RAO UES, and State Enterprise Rosugol' (Russian Coal). The prototype of a single rate agency for natural monopolies remains only on paper.

In November, an unprecedented act of sabotage was committed in Moscow. Two powerful bombs were exploded on a railway bridge over the Yauza River. As a result, the bridge and the railway bed were partially destroyed and one person was killed. Traffic was paralyzed for four days.

1995
In May, the 23rd annual session of the International Organization for Railway Cooperation (IORC) was held in Hanoi; a delegation from the Russian Ministry of Railway Transport took part in the activities. The session was devoted to the construction and operation of transcontinental transport corridors was discussed at the session. Russia concluded agreements on the creation of two such corridors: Berlin-Minsk-Moscow and Helsinki-St. Petersburg-Kiev-Chisinau-Bucharest-Plovdiv. Neither of these routes received international status at a European conference in 1998, because the participating governments admitted that the infrastructure was not in place.

In November, the dacha of Minister of Railway Transport Gennady Fadeev, located at the Health-2 horticultural association in Shchelkovsky District, Moscow Region, was robbed. Fadeev estimated the loss at 5 million rubles (about $1100).

In December, the first stage in the preparatory work on development of the so-called Eastern Line from Finland to Russia was completed. An agreement between the transport ministers of the two countries proposed to first rebuild the existing line and then build a new route for high-speed passenger trains. The new route has still not been built.

1996
In March, the head of the Central Electoral Committee, Aleksandr Ivanchenko, promised at hearings in the State Duma to "investigate the management of the Ministry of Railway Transport, where they're being overly zealous about collecting signatures in support of Boris Yeltsin, which has led to numerous complaints from citizens." In the same month, Boris Yeltsin granted the request of MRT head Gennady Fadeev to transfer control of the federal blocks of shares in diesel locomotive factories to his department.

In April, the Ministry of the Economy and the Central Bank proposed the creation of a federal railway service that would operate on a commercial basis. Minister Fadeev labeled the project an attempt to break up the state railway transport system. In his words, "the idea of corporatizing and privatizing the Russian railways comes from Western creditors and the IMF, and certain forces in the government are recklessly supporting them." This reckless supporting force was Vice-Premier Vladimir Kadannikov. At a meeting of the standing government committee for improving the payment system, he declared that "MRT has a stranglehold on the entire economy of the country" and "it's impossible to undo the knot of problems associated with MRT's monopoly-it has to be cut." Five and a half years later, Vladimir Putin returned the minister's portfolio to Gennady Fadeev, who had lost it in August 1996, precisely in order to "implement a program for reforming the railways and turn them into corporations."

In June, the MRT board adopted the "Main Directions of Development and Socioeconomic Policy of Rail Transport to 2005." They provided for selective freight-rate reductions for Siberia, the Far East, and Kaliningrad Region and discounts on agricultural shipments throughout the entire country. After the crisis of 1998, everyone forgot about the first "reformative" document.

In June, the Moscow government decided to collect rent from the Moscow and October railways for the land under the rail beds and embankments. Previously, the railways had only paid a land tax of 4000 rubles per hectare per year; now they would have to pay 20 000 times more. With MRT's support, the railways filed a suit in the Moscow Court of Arbitration demanding the repeal of the disastrous resolution. Gennadi Fadeev won against Yury Luzhkov in the case. This was his last success in the post of Minister; in August, Anatoly Zaitsev, the chief of the October Railway, was appointed the new head of MRT. Zaitsev announced that MRT's primary task was engineering control over the construction of a high-speed main line, whose development would lead to "a breakthrough in science and technology." By that time, the first head of RAO High-Speed Line, Aleksey Bol'shakov, had moved up to the post of Vice-Premier.

In August, the chief of MRT's main passenger department, Valery Shataev, announced a project for the creation of a federal passenger company responsible for organizing and financing passenger traffic in Russia. The aim of creating this company was to move to independent financing of passenger traffic in Russia by means of both internal earnings and subsidies. This was the first, and to this day the only, attempt by the railways to make passenger traffic pay for itself.

1997
In January, a draft of the resolution "On Measures to Stimulate Economic Development in the Baikal-Amur Railway Region" was approved at a meeting with Vice-Premier Oleg Lobov. The idea of reviving the economy of the region by de facto transferring it to MRT's control was approved at the meeting. AO BARinvest, with headquarters in Tynda, was supposed to be involved in developing the territories; the company had been set up by the railways, and MRT was naturally in charge of its operations. The Ministry could have become the sovereign master beyond the Urals in February after a scheduled meeting with Oleg Lobov, when 1.5 million sq. km of territory belonging to BAR were transferred to MRT. However, this decision did not take the form of official documents.

In April, Nikolai Aksenenko was appointed Minister of Railway Transport of the Russian Federation; within two years, he had risen to the rank of Vice-Premier and "Boris Yeltsin's possible successor." Aksenenko's first serious step in this post was to hold a tender for construction of a station for the new St. Petersburg-Moscow high-speed railway at a cost of $200 million. The winners were Taylor & Woodrow and Skanska.

In June, the head of MRT issued an order making AOZT Baltic Construction Company (BCC) the sole general contractor for reconstruction of the St. Petersburg-Moscow main line without holding a tender. BCC's original founders were the Tekhnopolis and Stroikomplektservis companies (the latter owned 99.2% of the shares of ZAO Eurosib, which was headed by the Minister's nephew, Sergei Aksenenko).

On November 8, the president issued Decree #1201 "On Improving the Structure of Rail Transport in the Russian Federation". The decree ordered the privatization of "second-level" MRT enterprises, i.e., repair, construction, and contracting companies. Controlling blocks of shares were to remain in the hands of the state.

In the same month, the Kuznetsky Metallurgical Combine (KMC), one of two Russian rail manufacturers, categorically refused to take part in bidding for the delivery of rails to MRT, because it was not satisfied with the terms of the tender. Evegeny Braunshtein, the combine's general director, advised that KMC and the Nizhny Tagil Metallurgical Combine, were planning to conduct their own auctions after offering rails to "certain potential customers," although in Russia, besides MRT, they were able to sell rails to the administrations of only 17 railways. Aksenenko did not even bother to react to KMC's initiative.

In December, Vice-Premier Boris Nemtsov announced to MRT's board that reform of the railway industry would start at the beginning of 1998.

1998
In January, MRT approved a concept for structural reform of federal rail transport. According to this concept, all enterprises and companies in the MRT system had to have their own balance sheets and keep accounts divided according to type of activity. MRT was to organize the management of financial resources. In addition, there were plans to reduce funding of passenger transport via freight transport and switch to subsidies for separate categories of passengers. On January 29, the government approved this concept. Although it was never carried out, the concept is notable for the fact that, as was the case two years later, MRT was planning to shift the burden of passenger transport onto the shoulders of the regions.

In April, the critical financial state of the October Railway (OR) was the cause of organizational shuffles. Anatoly Zaitsev, the head of (OR), who had returned to this position in 1997 from the post of Minister of Rail Transport, was reprimanded and fired along with his deputy. A version of the story that appeared in the media claimed that there was more than just the personal enmity of Nikolai Aksenenko toward his predecessor hidden behind the feud between OR and its ministry: the story was that OR's financial interests were at cross purposes with the interests of Aksenenko's nephew, Sergei Aksenenko, who headed the Eurosib industrial and financial group. A fight flared up around Baltic Bank (OR owned 49.7% of the bank's shares), because Eurosib, which owned 24.5% of Baltic Bank's shares, had not repaid bank loans of $1.4 million and 55 billion rubles.

On May 14, Aleksandr Kuznetsov became head of the October Railway.

On May 27, the All-Russian Rate Convention and Conference of Railway Transport Service Users and Employees began. The "Support Agency" as railway men themselves called it, nevertheless became history: at the convention, Nikolai Aksensenko made the first announcement about the creation of private operating companies.

In July, President Yeltsin rescinded the decree " On the Creation of a High-Speed St. Petersburg-Moscow Main Passenger Line." The project departed this life, leaving Russian taxpayers with debts of $500 million.

In spite of RAO HSL's sad end, Nizhny Novgorod and St. Petersburg announced plans in August to create their own high-speed lines. Nizhny Novrogorod's plans included the launching of special high-speed train service to Moscow, while St. Petersburg took aim at the capital of an adjacent country, i.e., Helsinki. Aleksandr Kuznetsov, head of the October Railway, proclaimed the "Speed" program, which envisaged reconstructing the St. Petersburg-Helsinki route and preparing it for high-speed trains.

In September, MRT refused to take rubles as payment for export shipments. Nikolai Aksenenko made the Swiss franc the currency of Russian railways for export shipments in his telegram #722. The State Antimonopoly Committee took MRT to court and won the case at all levels; however, MRT simply ignored all the court decisions.

In November, MRT surprised everyone with a new initiative to reanimate the "Komsomol (Young Communist League) project of the century." The mining of commercial minerals, which would have provided new work places, was supposed to have been developed around the Baikal-Amur Railway, which was virtually unused at the time.

1999
In May, Sergei Stepashin formed his own government. Vladimir Starostenko became head of MRT during Nikolai Aksenenko's brief tenure as Vice-Premier.

In July, the still-unliquidated RAO High-Speed Line and the Transmash factory (Tikhvin, Leningrad Region) reported the completion of construction of the first Sokol-250 Russian high-speed train. By that time, the development of HSL's St. Petersburg-Moscow route had been frozen, but this did not prevent the "assimilation" of $15 million with MRT's support. The plan was to launch the new train on the Moscow-St. Petersburg line, but even test runs along this route have so far been postponed.

In September, Minister of Railway Transport Vladimir Starostenko was fired. He was replaced by Nikolai Aksenenko, who also kept the post of First Vice-Premier for himself. Within a month, the Antimonopoly Ministry approved MRT's decision to set up operating companies, but it obliged Aksenenko to co-ordinate with it all changes in rate policy. The operators were only allowed to work "in specific areas" so that the shortage of railway cars would not migrate to another region and a given consignor would not be left without cars.

2000
In January, the Antimonopoly Ministry began an investigation involving MRT and the state enterprise Roszheldorsnab, accusing them of coordinated actions to limit competition. Nikolai Aksenenko had granted Roszheldorsnab (a company that supplied fuel and parts for MRT) the exclusive right to buy and sell scrap metal generated at MRT enterprises and preferential rates for transporting it.

On January 20, Nikolai Aksenenko's career reached its peak, when Vladimir Putin proposed making the Minister a member of the Presidium at a government session.

However, on February 4, Vladimir Putin excluded Aksenenko from the Security Council along with Viktor Khristenko, Aksenenko also lost his post as First Deputy-Premier. About two weeks later, on February 15, Aksenenko suggested to Aleksandr Kuznetsov that he voluntarily quit his post as head of the October Railway. Kuznetsov refused, and he was fired for "consistent failure to perform his duties." Even rumors of Kuznetsov's "friendly relations with the President" did not help him keep his job.

In March, MRT took the first steps toward privatizing its property. By a special agreement with MRT, the operating companies were offered the chance to buy old railway cars. In return, MRT gave these companies discounts on the base railway freight rate, admittedly for routes specified beforehand by the Ministry.

In May, MRT proposed a new reorganization plan for passenger transport: passenger directorates would be established at each of the 17 railways, and these directorates were supposed to be united into the state corporation "Passenger Transport." At the same time, the sale of passengers cars to private operators was supposed to begin. However, none of the companies expressed an interest in buying even one passenger car.

At an MRT board meeting on August 16, Nikolai Aksenenko first presented a concept for reforming his natural monopoly that became the basis of a future government program. However, there was an important difference: of the two transport ministries, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Railway Transport, Akseneko's concept proposed keeping one-the Ministry of Railway Transport. The dispute between RAO UES of Russia and Aksenenko's department began at the same time. UES demanded that MRT repay debts amounting to 3.5 billion rubles. On August 24, Aksenenko and head of RAO UES Anatoly Chubais sat down at the bargaining table. It was decided that MRT would repay its debts up to April 1, 2001. For the next eight months, RAO UES and MRT carried on a PR war in the media by correspondence on the theme "Who owes whom?"

On October 18, Premier Mikhail Kasyanov sent MRT's reform concept back to Nikolai Aksenenko for revision. The source of the Premier's main complaint was the proposal to keep railways out of competition in the transport industry. However, on November 4, at a meeting with Vice-Premier Viktor Khristenko, Aksenenko and Minister of Economic Development German Gref concluded a "nonaggression treaty" and agreed not to divulge the secrets of MRT's reform program until the Premier had approved it.

They only had to wait nine days. On November 9, Mikhail Kasyanov informed President Vladimir Putin that the reform concept was ready. There would be a lot of carriers, but RAO Russian Railways would nevertheless remain the main one. This day could be considered the start of the creation of the full-fledged Ministry of Railway Transport reform program.

Posted on 09:36 AM | Permalink

The Herald: October 06 2006
CALUM MACDONALD

‘Fat Controller’ banned from railway club admits assault

A railway enthusiast deposed as chairman of a heritage society during a bitter and protracted power struggle yesterday pleaded guilty to assaulting a member of the group.

Geoffrey Evison, 52, pushed the man as he tried to force his way into a meeting of the Friends of Riccarton Junction, which had banned him from attending.

Evison, a founding member of the railway preservation society and its chairman until he was ousted, found his way blocked and so tried to force his way into the room.

In the process, the 30-stone former train guard, nicknamed the Fat Controller, pushed society member Peter Betts against a wall.

Police officers were on hand to witness the incident because Evison had called them in advance to demand they stop the meeting in Newcastleton Village Hall, Roxburghshire, from taking place.

Officers told Evison they were unable to stop the meeting, but attended, fearing there may be trouble.

They watched as Evison, who travels the country selling railway memorabilia, walked towards the entrance of the hall, demanded entry and then deliberately walked up to Mr Betts and collided with him.

Evison was fined £125 at Jedburgh Sheriff Court yesterday after pleading guilty to an assault charge of pushing Mr Betts to the body, whereby he was pushed against a wall.

Friends of Riccarton Junction in happier times

Juliet Petrusev, prosecuting, explained Evison had previously been chairman of the society but was no longer a member after being expelled.

She told the court Evison had discovered a meeting of the society, which was set up to restore part of the disused Waverley Line between Hawick and Carlisle in the Borders, was taking place from which he was banned.

She said: "This incident is part of an ongoing feud between the accused and the Friends of Riccarton Junction, a group of railway enthusiasts, who meet in the Hawick area."

Greg McDonnell, defending Evison, said his client had only been exercising his right by attending the meeting of the society, of which he was a founder member, adding that it had been wound up in its current form.

Evison's association with the Friends of Riccarton Junction was characterised by dispute and scandal.

There was an attempt to usurp Evison and allegations were made about financial irregularities.

The assault incident at the meeting in August happened just six days after the expiration of a deferred sentence handed down to Evison in February.

Then, he was up in court on a charge of breach of the peace after telling a bank manager who had closed the society's account that he should be "put up against a wall and shot".

Evison, of Westfield Avenue, Berwick-upon-Tweed, was still chairman of the Friends of Riccarton Junction at the time and lost his temper when a member who had been expelled had managed to have the society's bank account frozen.

Evison marched into the Melrose branch of the Bank of Scotland and made the staff call the manager of the Newcastleton branch, whom he threatened over the telephone.

He was admonished when he appeared in court in February and had sentence deferred for six months for good behaviour.

He was subsequently expelled from the society and six days after the deadline for his deferred sentence passed he assaulted Mr Betts at the meeting in Newcastleton.

Sheriff Kevin Drummond said that whatever the rights and wrongs of the dispute between members of Friends of Riccarton Junction, he had a duty to protect public order.

He told Evison: "Curiously, sentence had previously been deferred until August 21 to be of good behaviour when you were admonished and yet six days later you engaged in this kind of behaviour."

Posted on 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Local London: 5th October 2006
By Beena Nadeem

More London Underground staff have been attacked on the Northern Line than on any other Tube line.

Statistics reveal more than 500 assaults on Northern Line staff were committed over the past 18 months - around ten a week on the so-called misery line' alone.

Commuters using the service are also the third most likely to be assaulted in London, with 57, according to figures from Transport for London (TfL) covering the same period of time.

Of the 531 attacks on staff, eight were against off-duty personnel. The second most targeted London Underground employees work on the Piccadilly Line, with 363 attacks. Jubilee Line staff suffered 300 attacks.

Although there is no breakdown to show the worst-hit Northern Line station for staff assaults, TfL confirmed that of 13 Northern Line stations in the borough of Barnet, there were 85 attacks in the 12-month period between March 2005 and March 2006.

The figures were published following a question to Mayor of London Ken Livingstone from London Assembly member and Barnet councillor Brian Coleman.

Calling for a tough stance on people who attack Tube staff, Mr Coleman said: "I travel on the Northern Line regularly and, while it is beset with problems and highly frustrating, the under-performing service is absolutely no excuse for assaulting London Underground staff, and there should be a zero-tolerance policy in place to punish offenders."

Mr Coleman also called for TfL to use its recently granted powers to issue ASBOs to remove troublemakers' from the transport service, although TfL is yet to apply for any ASBOs.

A spokesman for TfL said: "In the last year, staff assaults dropped by 4.5 per cent and assaults on passengers dropped by 17 per cent. The vast majority of these incidents relate to verbal abuse - obviously this is something we still take very seriously.

"The Tube is, overall, an extremely safe form of public transport. Three million journeys are made each day on the Tube. The network is a safe environment."

Posted on 08:47 AM | Permalink

Hold the Front Page: 05.10.2006

The Herts & Essex Observer has achieved a campaign victory following the tragic deaths of two teenage girls who were hit by a train as they negotiated an unmanned level crossing.

Olivia Bazlinton and Charlotte Thompson were killed last December as they used the crossing at Elsenham station in Essex, prompting calls for locking gates from the Observer and the parents of the two girls.

The Observer launched the Get It Locked campaign, demanding that a locking system be introduced to prevent people using the crossing when a train was due.

Initially, Network Rail said locking the gates would make the crossing less safe and even urged the Observer to stop the campaign.

But Network Rail has now announced that a locking system will be installed at the crossing, along with the building of a footbridge.

Observer news editor Sandra Perry said: "There is no doubt that our campaign played a major part in helping to get Network Rail to act in this way.

"It shows what can be achieved when the newspaper and readers rally round a cause and feel so strongly about something that they just won’t let go.

"The girls' parents have also praised the campaign and the support of our readers and, while the outcome won't bring back Olivia and Charlotte, it at least means that this crossing will be much safer in the future and will hopefully prevent other families suffering such a tragic loss of life."

During the campaign readers showed their support for the Observer's fight and chief reporter Toby Allanson presented a 3,500-strong petition to Network Rail.

Posted on 08:41 AM | Permalink

Thanh Nien: October 6, 2006

France has signed an agreement with Vietnam to provide €200 million (US$253 million) for an urban rail project in Hanoi.

French Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry Christine Lagarde and Vietnamese Deputy Planning and Investment Minister Cao Viet Sinh signed the loan agreement in Paris last Wednesday.

The 12.5-km line, to link Hanoi railway station with the western suburban town of Nhon, is scheduled to become operational in 2010.

A 1.5 km portion of it, from Kim Ma Bus Station to the Hanoi station, will run beneath Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam (Temple of Literature). It is scheduled to carry 6,000 passengers per hour one way in the initial stage and double that by 2030.

Several pre-feasibility studies and technical assistance missions have been undertaken for the project with funding by the French government.

Construction of an urban rail system in Hanoi has been under consideration since 2002 when then Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong visited France.

The proposal was concretized in October 2004 through the signing of a joint declaration of cooperation during a visit by French President Jacques Chirac to Vietnam.

It is part of a Vietnamese government program to strengthen public transport.

Source: Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam – Translated by Ha Viet

See also:

France To Lend Vietnam EUR200 Million For Commuter Railway Project

Dow Jones: October 6th, 2006

HANOI -- The French government has signed an agreement to lend Vietnam EUR200 million for a Hanoi commuter railway project, a Ministry of Planning and Investment statement said Friday.

The project is expected to cost $450 million, funded by French low-interest loans and Vietnamese government outlays, with the rail system scheduled to begin operation in 2010.

"So far the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry of France has agreed to lend EUR200 million, and Vietnam is expected to receive additional loans from France for the project," a ministry official said.

Hanoi, a city of 3 million, currently has no commuter rail system, and the new project is aimed at easing the capital's traffic and air pollution problems, the official said.

The new system, with 12.5-kilometer of rail line linking the center of Hanoi to its outskirts, is projected to carry 6,000 passengers per hour by 2010, and 9,000 passengers per hour by 2020.

By Nguyen Pham Muoi, Hanoi Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; 844-825-0732; phammuoi.nguyen@dowjones.com
-Edited by Michael Kitchen

Posted on 08:40 AM | Permalink

Crewe Chronicle: Oct 4 2006
By Jan Roberts
 
EMERGENCY talks are under way after Bombardier announced up to 210 job cuts at its troubled Crewe Works yesterday.

The bombshell news was delivered by management only weeks after rail workers celebrated an £85m order they believed would secure jobs at the West Street site for 10 years.

Today they were still reeling after hearing about a new wave of jobs cuts which will leave many out of work by Christmas.

Bombardier bosses hope to shed most of the 210 positions through voluntary redundancy but cannot rule out compulsory job losses.

The site carries out repairs and maintenance to rail vehicles and management blame more reliable trains and a reduced workload for its decision to axe posts.

It says the job cuts are crucial to secure the long term future of the site.

A Bombardier Transportation spokeswoman said: 'The Crewe transformation plan includes a number of projects focusing on areas such as productivity, delivery and quality.

'There has been a substantial decrease in the available workload due to the increased reliability of new trains and the phase out of old legacy fleets.

'It is recognised that the site needs to restore profitability and build a sustainable operational advantage.

'This situation means that, unfortunately, there is a need to reduce the number of employees at the site by up to 210 people.

'We are confident this action will help deliver the necessary changes at Crewe, strengthening the site's position on the UK market.'

A number of job cuts were made in November but in June workers celebrated a major order from train operator First Great Western to re-vamp high-speed rail cars.

Work was split between the Canadian-owned company's sites in Crewe and Derby.

But staff were told it was not enough to prevent further losses. New job cuts will be made between now and April. They will be across all departments.

Union leaders are today holding crisis talks with staff.

Union convener Mick Roberts said: 'Bombardier has officially proposed 210 job cuts and myself and other union officials are meeting with the various shifts to discuss how we are going to deal with that many.

'It is devastating news and a huge blow but the company is stressing these cuts are necessary in order to safeguard any kind of future at the Crewe site.'

Posted on 09:34 AM | Permalink

London Evening Standard: 03.10.06

This is the moment an inspector throttles a suspected fare dodger.

Inspector throttles suspected fare dodger

The official puts both his hands round the man's throat while a colleague helps pin him to the ground by holding down his arms, legs and body.

A passenger waiting at Southend East railway station photographed the astonishing scenes on his mobile phone.

It is claimed the man refused to pay his fare, became abusive and spat on the inspector who then chased him along the crowded platform.

Commuters said the suspect was pushed on to the platform's concrete surface and held forcibly by two staff from the c2c trains company until police arrived. Bystanders were warned not to intervene.

The passenger who took the pictures said: "The gentlemanwas panicking and visibly experiencing problems with his breathing. He was trying to get into a position which would relax the grip on his windpipe but there was no reaction from the c2c staff.

"It was shocking. The method used to restrain him, holding the man with two hands around the throat and pinning his arms, legs and torso, was inappropriate and not consistent with approved control and restraint procedures." The suspected fare dodger was arrested by police on suspicion of travel fraud and threatening behaviour and released on bail.

The inspector has been put on backroom duties pending an investigation.

Passengers who are not able to show a valid ticket are warned they will be liable for a minimum £20 penalty fare. A c2c spokesman said the man had failed to stop when asked to produce a ticket so staff detained him. The spokesman added: "Until we can download the CCTV images and get some feedback from Essex police, the revenue inspector who is holding on to the person in the photos has been relieved of his public duties and will be working behind the scenes. We don't expect passengers when we ask them for a ticket to offer verbal abuse."

Fare dodgers are believed to cost the industry £210 million a year in lost revenue on London commuter routes. London Underground loses £25 million.

A spokeswoman for Travelwatch, London's passenger watchdog, said: "Obviously we want to see fare dodgers caught, but there are ways and means to do that appropriately."

Posted on 08:54 AM | Permalink

Wrexham Evening Leader: 05 October 2006

Transport Minister Andrew Davies has today been asked to support a bid by Wrexham Council for funding for a direct rail service from Wrexham Central to London Marylebone.

Eleanor Burnham, Welsh Liberal- Democrat spokesman for North Wales, and a prominent member of the recent Interim Rail Committee, praised the proposals for a high-speed service between Wrexham and the British capital, and is asking the Welsh Assembly Government to support the plan.

Last week the Leader revealed that Assembly funding may not be available for the project, which would see a direct link to the capital.

The shock news came in the same week as a £27 million pound rail project in South Wales was announced.

Earlier this year it was announced the newly-formed Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway Company (WSMR) plans to run five trains a day between North-East Wales and London from 2007.

The company said the journey time would be cut to three hours 15 minutes.

Travellers currently have to change trains in Chester, Crewe, or Birmingham, for a train into London Euston.
The planned service would stop in Ruabon, Chirk and Gobowen, as well as Shrewsbury, Telford, Cosford and Wolverhampton.

Ms Burnham said: “This high-speed service would be a fantastic opportunity for Wrexham. We need to continue the economic revitalisation of the area and this rail link would provide direct daily contact with a major centre for business.

“I understand the Welsh Assembly Government has stated it has no more funding to offer Wrexham, but I hope the minister will look for alternative ways to support this scheme..

“It’s would be thrilling to see the realisation of such an exciting project and I’m determined to continue to lobby all concerned to ensure this project succeeds.”

Posted on 08:45 AM | Permalink

Jerusalem Post: Oct. 4, 2006
By SYBIL EHRLICH

1.3 billion New Israeli Shekel (NIS) [= £160 million] investment in rail crossings should reduce accidents.

Israel Railways has started to build two grade-separated crossings, one in Binyamina and the other between Caesarea and Pardess Hanna, to increase safety and reduce the risk of road-rail crashes. The project is to cost about NIS 1.3 billion.

A total of 100 grade-separated crossings, with roads crossing either over or under the railway tracks, are planned to be built by 2009.

Meanwhile, IR is carrying out a long list of other safety improvements, including blocking off unofficial railway crossings, making physical improvements to crossings, employing inspectors and running a radio campaign emphasizing the need for safety at level crossings.

Several serious railway accidents in the past year and a half, in which 13 train passengers were killed and many injured, were caused by road vehicles stalling on the railway tracks.

Since the beginning of this year 30 road-rail crossings out of a total of 149 throughout the country have been closed. In addition, in the past two weeks radar detection systems have been installed at Atlit and Hadera. A similar system has been operating at Beit Yehoshua since the fatal accident there in June.

A bridge and supporting walls at Binyamina, where frequent fast trains pass through the town center, are expected to be completed within 10 months. The work at the Caesarea-Pardess Hanna industrial zone, where Road No. 651 crosses the railway, should be completed in 20 months.

Eleven further crossings used by farm vehicles throughout the country have been closed in the last few months.

The Traffic Department of the Israel Police is continuing its program of enforcement, issuing an average of 100 tickets weekly. At the beginning of August the police installed cameras at level crossings in Ashdod, Ramle and south of Zichron Ya'acov, and since then they have issued 820 tickets to drivers who crossed the tracks when warning lights were flashing.

Posted on 08:44 AM | Permalink

Business Day: 05 October 2006
Khulu Phasiwe

THE South African national railway safety regulator yesterday appointed 12 retired railway engineers as safety inspectors in a bid to stem the recent tide of freight and commuter rail accidents.

The regulator, set up two years ago, has not had permanent inspectors until now. It had an ad hoc structure which was overwhelmed by a recent spate of derailments and other train accidents.

Rail safety regulator CEO Mosenngwa Mofi said inspectors would conduct safety audits and inspections, undertake investigations and enforce compliance.

The regulator can serve notices on operators to stop operating if they fail to comply with safety standards.

Mofi said the 12 “seasoned” engineers would also mentor young black engineers as part of a skills transfer programme.

Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said government was concerned about the “unacceptably” high costs associated with the accidents and the high level of risk to passengers. He attributed SA’s poor railway safety record to ageing infrastructure.

“It is on this basis that government has taken major strides to address these concerns through, amongst others, increasing capital investments to improve our railways,” said Radebe.

Rail utility Spoornet said it would spend R7,2bn this year on new locomotives and to upgrade its infrastructure. The parastatal, which has ordered 110 new electric locomotives, said it would spend R31bn to overhaul its fleet and install signalling systems over the next five years.

The national treasury has also allocated R350m to recapitalise the new passenger rail entity that will be formed through the merger of Metrorail and Shosholoza Meyl.

Radebe said recently that there had been a “disturbing” number of accidents involving trains ferrying dangerous materials. In the past two years alone rail utility Spoornet had had 418 incidents of leaking tankers, 117 derailed tankers, 661 incidents of decanting and 53 cases of spillage, he said. Spoornet’s general freight business regularly transports hazardous sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, petrol, diesel, paraffin and jet fuel.

The transport department said it wanted the regulatory oversight of SA’s rail safety regulator extended to environmental aspects as well.

The department said in its national freight logistics strategy document that the railway safety regulator’s capacity was limited, with oversight focused mainly on systemic review rather than on the effective inspection of operations, infrastructure and personnel.

“The environmental oversight by the rail safety regulator is not effective,” it said.

“Spoornet does not have economic regulatory oversight exercised over it, other than that in specific areas, such as the determinations as to the rail costs for liquid petroleum products made by the (minerals and energy minister).”

In May last year, the dedicated coal export line running between the Richards Bay Coal Terminal and Mpumalanga coal mines was closed for a week following the derailment of a 150-wagon train.

A Spoornet inquiry found that “the accident could have been avoided had the driver stuck to the prescribed safety measures”.

Industry analysts said the causes of derailments included ageing rolling stock, poor signaling systems and driver fatigue.

See also:

Minister launches regulator to improve rail safety

SABC: October 04, 2006

Jeff Radebe, the transport minister, today launch the Railway Safety Regulator which is aimed at improving safety on trains. The sector has been plagued by crime and aging rolling stock. Train surfing by youths has also lead to the loss of several lives.

The regulator will ensure smooth operations and that trains are kept clean at all times. It will be tasked with ensuring that trains are safe and that defective doors, windows and lights are replaced. Radebe and his team of inspectors conducted the first inspections today.

However, while progress is being made in making trains safe, it is the criminal element that remains a primary concern. Radebe says by next year and 2008 they will be having 5 000 railway police in SA which will enhance safety and security in rail industry. The inspectors will identify any dangers and recommend appropriate action.

More than R2 billion will be injected into ensuring timely and reliable service. The news of the regulator will be welcommed by commuters who experience overcrowding and delays every day.

Posted on 08:37 AM | Permalink

The Times: October 04, 2006
By Angela Jameson, Industrial Correspondent

HUNDREDS of jobs at GNER, the train company that runs the London to Edinburgh high-speed service, are likely to be cut in the next fortnight as the rail company moves to reduce its cost base.

Pressure increased on the country’s flagship train service yesterday as Sea Containers, its parent company, had its shares delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

There are fears that Sea Containers will be forced to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors, since it has said that it may not be able to repay a $115 million (£61 million) bond that is due for repayment on October 15.

A spokesman for Sea Containers said: “We are all very focused on the October 15 deadline and our sales of non-core assets are progressing. The company is very focused on its survival.”

Staff cuts of at least 10 per cent among the 3,000 staff at GNER are likely to be announced within a fortnight. Chefs and other frontline staff are thought to be most at risk as the company cuts back its catering service.

Bob MacKenzie, chief executive of Sea Containers and executive chairman of GNER, is understood to have been spending a lot of time in York, at the rail group’s headquarters.

“There will be a reorganisation and some streamlining. That needs to happen to reduce the cost base, but there is no set plan and no talk of numbers yet,” the spokesman said.

Last month there was a cull of senior management at GNER as Jonathan Metcalfe, formerly chief operating officer, replaced Christopher Garnett as chief executive.

Rail unions believe that hundreds of lower-level jobs now will have to be cut if the company is to put its finances in order.

See also:

GNER set to announce hundreds of job cuts - report

AFX: 4th October 2006

LONDON - The UK rail arm of troubled transport group Sea Containers is likely to announce hundreds of job cuts in the next fortnight, according to a report.

Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) is likely to cut about 10 percent of its 3,000-strong workforce as it tries to reduce its costs in the face of the financial problems at its parent company, the Times reported.

Sea Containers, which is struggling with $610 million US of debt, may have to seek chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US if it is unable to repay a $115 million US bond due on October 15, the paper said.

GNER, which has run intercity trains from London King's Cross to Scotland since 1997, has struggled to meet payments to the UK government totaling around £1.3 billion sterling that it agreed when it won the right to run the franchise for a further ten years.

The franchise is facing lower-than-expected passenger revenues due to disruption from the London bombings in 2005, increased power charges and a prospective challenge from rival Grand Central, which controversially has been allowed to start competing services on the UK's East Coast Main Line (ECML).

Posted on 09:03 AM | Permalink

Washington Post: October 4, 2006
By Blaine Harden

KALISPELL, Mont. -- The famed symbol of the Great Northern Railway was a mountain goat perched on a rock in Glacier National Park.

That railroad's successor, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, now wants to lob artillery shells into mountain-goat habitat inside the park, which straddles the Continental Divide here in northwest Montana. The shelling would help control avalanches that sometimes threaten Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight trains, about 40 of which pass daily through mountains just south of the park's border.

Besides seeking federal permission for the occasional wintertime bombardment of the park, the highly profitable railroad stands to benefit from little-known legislation--passed in the Senate and pending in the House--that would spend as much as $75million in grants to pay for avalanche control.

The legislation was introduced by two senior Republican lawmakers from Alaska and written, in part, by an avalanche expert who is a paid consultant to the railroad.

Those that probably would benefit include state highway departments, ski areas and Burlington Northern Santa Fe, if it receives permission from the National Park Service to bombard the park. The consultant and a railway spokesman said BNSF had nothing to do with the crafting of the bill and has not lobbied for its passage.

Using artillery for avalanche control is a well-established practice in Alaska and parts of the mountainous West. The 105mm shells used are military ordnance that spray shrapnel.

But advocates for the national parks and some leading avalanche experts have criticized the request to bombard Glacier. They have said shelling of the park is aesthetically inappropriate and potentially harmful to wintering mountain goats, elk, deer, wolverines and endangered grizzly bears.

"There is a great hush over this park in the winter," said Steve Thompson, Glacier program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group that works to protect the parks. "It would be a travesty to fire howitzers into the heart of one of our wildest natural lands."

It is unknown whether shelling would wake hibernating bears.

The Bush administration has strongly objected to the cost of the proposed avalanche bill.

For most of the 100 years that trains have crossed the Rockies along Glacier's southern border, railroads have spent their own money to build and maintain snow sheds that cover the tracks. The sheds have worked well to protect passing trains, according to the Park Service.

Over the years, though, some snow sheds have been destroyed by fire. In addition, the park's snowpack has been shifting, requiring avalanche protection on new stretches of track.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe, a freight giant that is an amalgam of 390 railroads merged or purchased over the last 150 years, has chosen not to rebuild some burned avalanche sheds or to build new ones.

Though shelling is much less expensive, avalanche experts say snow sheds are a safer, more reliable way to protect long freight trains in mountain areas.

But artillery bombardment is an "efficient, proven practice used in potential avalanche areas in North America," said Gus Melonas, a BNSF spokesman. He said the snow sheds are "are time-consuming to construct and extremely expensive."

Don Bachman, president of the board of directors of the Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies in Silverton, Colo., said that "using explosives to release avalanches is not a surefire method to maintain a safe rail corridor."

The BNSF line near Glacier is a critical link in the Pacific Northwest's economy, carrying trains that often are a mile long. When snow blocks the line for 36 hours or more, traffic sometimes backs up to Chicago.

Posted on 09:00 AM | Permalink

Railway Market Magazine: 2 October 2006

It is more than probable that the company's Director will be General Gyula Gaál and deputy for strategy Pál Jendrolovics. It is speculated that the current deputy to the director general István Heinczinger will take over heading the company.

MÁV refused to comment on speculation. Mr István Heinczinger was pointed as a candidate for the director general's seat in the past - when Zoltán Mándoki was quitting and in September 2005 when Gyula Gaál was to become President of Hungarian Railways.

István Heinczinger worked in the past for Siemensa Hungaria S.A.

The task for the new director general is to completely reorganize the railways.

MÁV needs EUR 7.6 billion for development, 20% of the 47000 staff needs to be cut.

Since 1994 MÁV spent EUR 2.2 billion for development and the staff was cut by 45%.

A separate cargo company was created.

On 1 November 2006 the new Railway Code will come into force under which the whole railway infrastructure will be separated from MÁV.

The Capacity Allocation Office (Vasúti Kapacitáselosztó Hivatal) will be responsible for replying to operators applications for routes.

Currently the project of creating regional passenger operators is in progress. It is still uncertain how many of them will there be and if they will be state owned or private.

The Hungarian regions bordering other countries hope that they will be able to launch their own international connections.

Posted on 08:49 AM | Permalink

Bristol Rail Branch Circular: 9th October 2006

Dear Colleague,
Election: RMT National President - John LEACH
Election: RMT Executive (GGC) - Alex GORDON
Election: RMT Relief Regional Organiser (South) - Peter SKELLY

In the week beginning 16th October, you will receive ballot papers for these three important elections. I am writing to ask you to make sure you play a full part in the democracy of our union by completing and returning your ballot papers.

The second thing I want to ask is that you cast your votes for the three excellent candidates nominated by your Branch by writing the number "1" in the box beside each of their names on your ballot paper.

1 John Leach - Number 1

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1 Alex Gordon - Number 1

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1 Peter Skelly - Number 1

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We are proud of our strong and democratic union - a union, which fights for its members’ interests. These able and experienced candidates, with 64 years’ service to the union between them, are the people who will continue that tradition.

Please remember - cast your vote. Write the number "1" in the box beside our candidates on your ballot papers and post them in the prepaid envelopes provided.

If you have not received ballot papers by 23rd October, please contact RMT Bristol Rail Branch Secretary: Glen Burrows,
1 Blake Place,
Bridgwater,
Somerset TA6 5AU
Phone: 0776 499 4541
Email: bristolrail@rmt.org.uk or
call the RMT Helpline on 0800 376 3706 (have your membership number ready).

Posted on 10:00 AM | Permalink

RMT P2/1: 2nd October 2006

The RMT South Wales and West Regional Council recently passed the attached motion to be considered by the Wales TUC Executive as part of its deliberations to discuss its agenda with the forthcoming meeting with the Welsh Transport Minister.

I have written in similar terms to the South West TUC.

Yours sincerely,

Bob Crow
General Secretary

RMT South Wales and South West Motion to Wales TUC

"Recent changes to fares structures introduced by First Great Western mean that Saver fares are no longer available before 09.30 on weekdays.