The Badger in the 4 Foot - A New Job on the Railway

"As one door closes, another one opens", someone once remarked.
The blog has been quiet in recent months, but I haven't lost interest! Rather, I've been concentrating on a new job in the world of public transport.
For more years than I care to remember, both on a voluntary and paid capacity, I've been involved in passenger representation. My roles firstly at Bus Users UK and in more recent times at Passenger Focus have been fascinating.
Since losing my role at Passenger Focus through enforced budget cutbacks, I was determined to stay in public transport. Whilst the industry has its fair share of critics, I believe passionately in the product, in all its various guises. Yes, there's always more to do, and provision of public transport transport in this country is often a complex web of responsibility, but its such an important sector. That's why, when I walked out of the revolving door at Passenger Focus last year, I wasn't walking out of public transport for good.
So when the opportunity to work in public transport on the front line became available, I jumped at it!
For 15 years, I worked in the NHS, initially as a hospital porter. I loved the job back then and missed the "front line" service, even though I had some wonderful times at Bus Users UK and Passenger Focus.
The chance to work on the railways, providing the service, was something I had to try.
The Parry People Mover is something unique in the railway world. It's actually designated a railcar, and provides a high frequency service (every 10 minutes) on the Stourbridge branch line. And here was an opportunity to drive it!
I'd long been a fan of the Class 139 (to give it it's correct terminology). It's flywheel technology means that it's much more environmentally-friendlier than the large diesel class 153 unit it replaced. It runs more frequently than its predecessor and it has a flat-level entrance making it much more easily-accessible for buggies and wheelchair users. it's a perfect solution for small branch lines such as Stourbridge, and the hope is that it can be the catalyst for more reopening of disused railway lines.
But to drive it, I'd need to go through the training course!
First up, a psychometric test. These are several elements of tests, including concentration, memory and logic. Some of my fellow candidates failed and I'd convinced myself that I too hadn't made it! They're tough! Then a structured interview in which I had to describe an emergency situation. I was fairly mentally exhausted at the end of the day!
Having survived the opening hurdle, its then on to learning the rules and regulations of the railway. And there are lots of them.
The first thing that struck me about the railway is the emphasis put on safety. As passengers, we take for granted the safety of our railways, but it really is the most important element of the job. Signals, methods of work, who does what, who doesn't do what, the phonetic alphabet (yes, I can do it all the way through!) - it all has to be learnt and tested on.
I obtained my personal track safety competency - the highlight of which was walking on the track at Kings Norton with CrossCountry Voyagers passing at speed - a lesson in understanding that, even at short distance, you can't hear trains approaching until they're really close. That's why Network Rail's education work in keeping schoolkids off the track is so vitally important - you won't get a second chance if a train hits you.
Back at Stourbridge Junction, the theory work ongoing, the practical work of actually driving the class 139 was the next step. I'd had a go on the private section of the track next to the depot, but now was my time to take it down the three-quarters of a mile single line down to Stourbridge Town!
Of course, safety being the number one priority, this would be in the dead of night, no passengers on board and the destination display set decisively to "Not In Service"!
And so it was, myself and the instructor, set off from Stourbridge Junction at gone midnight, through the first set of points at 4mph, gradually rising to 10mph on my first trip, down a gradient of 1 in 63 to the deserted Stourbridge Town. And we repeated this. All night long.
The line speed is 20mph, so hardly "High Speed Rail" (!) but it's certainly a bit hairy when you see a badger in the 4 foot (between the rails) looking at you! There's all sorts of wildlife on the branch line, including foxes, magpies, a buzzard (named "Leighton" by the drivers) and a ginger cat who leaves his tail tantalizingly on the rail until the last possible moment in a cheeky "man v cat" battle of mind games.....
Several overnights ensued in order to get used to the feel of handling the railcar and then it was time for the next stage - driving under supervision in public service.
At 0547 one dark wintry morning before Christmas, I trundled down the line from Junction to Town, carrying my first passenger! I don't think he was bothered, his book keeping him entirely engrossed.
Many more shifts carried out, under supervision, I gained confidence in driving with the comfort and safety of my passengers uppermost in my mind, even though the cat was still playing games and the fox liked to skip along the rail before diving off into the undergrowth.
More workbooks, more assessments, more supervised driving hours until, early in January, I was finally deemed ready to be passed out to drive unsupervised as a fully-fledged member of staff.
The job also involves checking tickets and helping passengers and its great to see our regulars on a daily basis. In many aspects, there's a real community feel to the operation, with a regular team of staff carrying, mostly, regular travellers. We see them going to work in the morning, and we see them coming home at night, off to the shops, even returning, suitcase-laden, from their holidays!
The 0330 alarm call for the early shift has little glamour attached to it (!) but I'm enjoying the experience tremendously!
And I'm still "jumping back over the fence" and helping to represent passenger interests in the world of buses as a volunteer with Bus Users UK - a role I first took up over 20 years ago when it was still known as the National Federation of Bus Users!
Now - tickets and passes please.....

Brum's Moving On.....

Over the years, I've often been critical of Birmingham's seemingly half-hearted commitment to public transport. I've watched enviously places like London and Manchester pushing on with making the public transport user's lot better. For years, Brum appeared not only to stand still, but to actually move backwards by removing the bus priority on Tyburn Road - what did that tell us about the City's intentions towards public transport?
Now, for the first time in my living memory at least, things appear to be on the up.
£800m is being spent on us bus, train, tram and plane passengers and it's looking very interesting.
New Street Station has long been in need of a facelift. Why should railway stations not be places where you'd like to spend some quality time? I've often taken time out in places like Manchester Piccadilly and Berlin's Hauptbahnhof to have a bite to eat or drink. St. Pancras' Eurostar terminus surely sits proudly at the top of the list for the modern day theatre of railway romance. One of my favourite haunts is the delightful Centenary Lounge within the surrounds of the gorgeously restored Birmingham Moor Street. Lovely staff serving lovely food and drink as you watch the world go by. Hopefully we'll soon start to feel good about New Street, rather than the chaotic turn off it often portrays.
Birmingham Airport too is expanding. Whilst I'm more in favour of short hops around the UK and close neighbours in Europe being made by train (bring on HS2 as soon as possible, I say!), for longer journeys to different continents it would be great to go from Brum. For a relatively short time, Ryanair used to fly from Brum to Frankfurt Hahn, close to the Mosel Valley - my favourite German destination. How convenient it was to hop across to Birmingham Airport and in a couple of hours I was drinking the locals wine. Mr O' Leary withdrew that route and now, the trip to Stansted is more of a consideration for my German jaunts. Which is why, for selfish reasons in this example, I can't wait to see HS2 come to Birmingham. To link this into the existing HS1 would mean Brum to Germany becoming a really attractive proposition by rail.
And then there's the Metro. Ah, our dear Metro. Who'd have thought that, over 10 years ago when I rode on one of the first trams, we'd still be waiting to add bits to it. It's a damning indictment on the way us Brits do light rail that we're getting excited over a small extension to the Metro from Snow Hill through the heart of the City to New Street. Welcome, yes! By why does it have to take so long? We should be building a whole network of Midland Metro lines by now.
Nevertheless, excited I am. Cities need trams. It makes a statement of intent that public transport is important.
But the Metro City Centre extension is not without some concerns. I was interviewed on BBC WM a few days ago regarding not the positive side of the Metro extension, but the downside of kicking large numbers of buses out of Corporation Street to accommodate it. Centro are taking the opportunity to reconfigure most of the City Centre bus stops because of this and grouping services into "hubs". My view is that, whilst upheaval is always unsettling for some, we may be able to benefit from simplification. For example, if I want to catch a bus from Birmingham to Dudley, I can hedge my bets across 5 different bus routes, departing from large numbers of locations right across the City Centre. Now, whilst that may be beneficial depending on where I am in the City, it also means that I'm constantly wondering why the bus at my preferred location hasn't turned up. Should I walk to another location and try a different service? Or stay where I am in the hope that it turns up? By grouping services together into hubs, I can potentially stand in the "hub" and take my pick from several different services going to the same location. This already happens in the City Centre for several groups of services, but the hub idea may develop on that. And the longer-term plan to introduce a Statutory Quality Partnership Scheme for all buses using the City Centre (similar to Nottingham) can only increase the quality of the service being provided. What a pity the radio interview only focused on what it considered to be a negative impact.
Then there's the "Sprint" initiative, bringing tram-like buses to the City Centre. Initially planned to run from 5-Ways to Walsall using the excellent bus priority along the A34, this service will bring high quality service, with priority at traffic lights, and a real step-change from what we already have. It might even be the prelude to a Metro extension along a similar route.
This is all great news for the public transport user and proves what can be done if the vision is there, but more importantly the will to see it through.
I'd still like to see more improvements "at the coalface" such as more bus priority, and more enforcement of existing bus-only areas - in fact I've been really pleased to see the Police actively enforcing entrance to Corporation Street on two occasions in recent weeks.
We mustn't also forget the "Shiny New Trains" running through the City, introduced by London Midland, really upping the journey experience forv those using the Snow Hill lines, and the recent upgrade to Chiltern's services further afield to London, reducing the journey time, simplifying the fare structure and of course selling the best bacon rolls anywhere on the rail network! The bus operators too are placing new buses onto the network, some of them with hybrid engines that provide the cleanest, greenest emissions yet.
Add to this the long-awaited Oyster-style Smartcard and public transport will not only be more attractive and reliable, it will be simpler and de-mystified for many people.
Things are looking up in Brum for us public transport users. Long may it continue!

Back To The Future - How Trams Are Back In Vogue

Has anyone else noticed how trams are quietly making their way up the transport agenda in Britain?
It wasn't so long ago that they were regarded as expensive bits of kit that no one really wanted to fund. A "glamorous" addition to a City Centre's transport portfolio, which somehow made us look more European, new tramways seemed to cause more heartache amongst stakeholders during the procurement and construction process (if it ever got that far) then almost anything else. It's certainly true that Edinburgh's new tramway is an appalling advertisement of how not to build a new system.
For years, we've had frustrations here in the West Midlands. For as long as I can recall, there has been talk of a strategic network of tram lines across Centro land. To date, we have just the one, from Wolverhampton to Birmingham, which largely utilises an old rail line. Almost everyone agrees that a network of lines is the way to go. Yet whilst the French take a City and build several lines in the space of a few years, we have talked and talked until we're blue in the face about extending Midland Metro to the point whereby the half mile extension into the City Centre is a huge cause for celebration. We shouldn't even be batting an eyelid at this. The real talking point should be the additional 4, or 5, or 6 new lines that we need to demonstrate that we're serious about public transport in this area.
I'm as excited as anyone about the City Centre extension - seeing trams on our City streets certainly makes a statement. But progress elsewhere is painfully slow.
But is all this "can't do, won't do" attitude changing?
Centro has always been positive about promoting a new network of trams.
Now it seems that Government - led by Transport Minister Norman Baker - are warming to trams.
As well as the Birmingham City Centre extension, HM Gvt has given its blessing to extensions to the Manchester and Nottingham networks, an upgrade to Blackpool's iconic tramway, modernisation of the Tyne & Wear system, and projects to investigate the feasibility of "tram-train" operation (trams that run on both street-level and existing heavy rail lines) on Sheffield-Rotherham and St.Albans-Watford lines. Locally, a similar "tram-train" operation remains an idea for Stourbridge Junction-Brierley Hill journeys along a lightly-used freight line. Vehicles such a version of the highly-successful Parry People Mover could be used.
This is all very welcome stuff.
The Department for Transport has produced a report entitled "Green Light for Light Rail", which, although noting that "building light rail systems has become expensive", acknowledges that they can also "help improve the attractiveness of public transport in major conurbations...promoting economic growth and reducing carbon through modal shift."
UKTram is a consortium of PTEg (Passenger Transport Executive Group), CPT (Confederation of Passenger Transport - the industry group), Transport for London and the Light Rapid Transit Forum. They have been asked to produce a report on how to reduce costs through standardisation and harmonisation of design. This surely makes eminent sense. The example of the Midland Metro Italian trams is one that should never have come to this - each one is now supposedly "unique" part-wise. To have a framework or template of procurement and harmonisation across different UK systems is how it should be.
Another aspect UKTram will look at is the major cost implication of diverting utilities running beneath the proposed tramway.
Norman Baker is also planning to Chair a Light Rail summit, and DfT will start consulting on how capital funding for transport schemes can be devolved to Local Authorities - a catalyst Centro is interested in to try and kick start a revival in funding Midland Metro extensions.
Trams are good. They give a City that certain "wow" factor and give a subliminal message that the City is serious about transport. Whenever I'm in Europe, City tramway systems fascinate me and I'm always impressed how so many people use them. For some reason I don't really fathom, there is less "stigma" attached to catching a tram then a bus, especially for irregular users. In the UK, just look at how trams have transformed Nottingham City Centre. Coupled with exceptional bus services in that City, there is a feeling that public transport is taken really seriously there. Ditto Manchester.
Horses for courses, maybe. Trams won't work everywhere, and sometimes there are cheaper options, such as the impressive Guided Busway in Cambridge. But for City Centres and large conurbations, the tram makes a statement.
Let's hope Norman Baker and UKTram can push on to a position where trams are once again seen across many of our UK Cities, providing quality public transport.

High Speed YOU!

The debate continues to rage. High Speed 2. Why "waste" all that money when all we need to do is get up half an hour earlier.
Just one of the comments I've heard in this, the great transport debate of our times.
Brum to London in 49 minutes catches all of the headlines. It's fast, it's sexy, and panders to our childhood dreams of superfast travel, making the world a smaller place. But for me, the 49 minutes is almost a side issue. The real benefit of a new rail line is the capacity it provides address our ever increasing demand for rail travel.
Recession? What recession? I'm still - even now - bemused whenever I'm on the train as to where everyone is going. Board a Virgin service at Birmingham New Street on a wet September Tuesday lunchtime - a service, let's not forget, that has a 20 minute frequency to London - and it's still full. There is more demand now for rail travel than ever. You'll have to go back to the golden age of steam (before Dr. Beeching got rid of thousands of miles of track) to find any similar demand. Even though we're confused and often annoyed at ticket prices, we're still very much living in the "age of the train", as Sir Jimmy Saville used to gargle.
And demand on the Birmingham - London market is relentless. Chiltern are an increasingly important player with their Marylebone alternative, London Midland now run 3 trains per hour down the West Coast Main Line with their stopping service, to add to Virgin's tilting Pendolino offering. And still the trains are packed.
The "alternative" to HS2 comes in the suggestion of upgrading the West Coast Main Line. Cheaper than HS2, say its advocates. But effective? I can't see it.
We spent the best part of 10 years upgrading the West Coast Main Line not so long ago. Do we want to go through all that again? And there's only so much you can do with what is still, effectively, a Victorian-based design. And the end result of another decade of drilling, hammering and goodness knows what other disruption will barely scratch the surface of what we really need, which is capacity to address our future demands. The West Coast Mainline suffers because it's virtually full, with fast trains, slow trains and freight trains.
Is HS2 a pure vanity project? That's the kind of argument that is still being put forward. Of course it's big, bold and in your face - but by golly public transport sorely needs this! Why don't we scrap the HS2 idea and spend the money on boring, mundane, but really important local public transport, some cry? Take away the gorgeously-pouting HS2 and we're left with the ugly duckling of local buses and trains - both are vitally important, but here's something radical - why don't we invest in both? Local transport may be boring, but it's absolutely vital as the backbone to our society - and it'll be here long after the economic crisis has been and gone. Indeed, it's vital to our long-term recovery as a nation.
Once HS2 has it's own track, the WCML can be used with increased capacity for new services and links, attracting even more people to the benefits of using the railway to get from A to B. A sensible way forward?
I can't see any reasonably effective alternative.
HS2 isn't about some mythical creature that isn't welcome here. It's about me and YOU having our future transport requirements invested in. It's long overdue. It isn't solely about getting from Brum to London in 49 minutes. It's about linking our nation's great Cities like never before, opening up all sorts of possibilities, not only for business, but for leisure and visiting. It's about saying, eventually, we don't need to rely on environmentally-damaging flights to Europe - linking HS2 with the existing HS1 gives us a real alternative to reach Europe. In the next 2 years, DB will start to run trains through the Channel Tunnel, with one-train journeys possible from London to Frankfurt, Cologne and Amsterdam. Add connectivity to HS2 and the possibilities are impressive indeed.
The future of the railways through HS2 is exciting. Let's hope Transport Secretary Philip Hammond MP is minded to kick-start this dream into a much-needed reality.

Excuses, excuses.....

There's a story in today's media doing the rounds about how rail passengers are apparently getting increasingly irate about the "excuses" (or lack of) related to delays.
Passenger Focus are all too aware of the need for good communication when something goes wrong. They've carried out research on this.
My own experience of this varies quite tremendously. I've sat on trains in the middle of nowhere which have ground to a halt and heard nothing from anyone in authority about what is going on. Equally, I've received good information about any problems, both in stations and on board.
This week, we've heard about how London Midland have won an award for their use of Twitter to update real-time travel information. Equally, I have been able to follow the saga - quite late into the evening - of cows on the line affecting Chiltern Railways services; another supremely excellent service using Twitter.
But it's often easy to forget that, whilst a good few thousand of us follow Chiltern and London Midland on Twitter, we're still talking very much about a minority sport here.
Good, easy to understand information for travellers is essential. I actually agree about the "sincerity" associated with seemingly apologetic comments - in Birmingham New Street, for example, you can quite often hear a computerised voice "apologising" for "the delay to this service". OK, in the finest traditions of British manners, it may be - but it doesn't really mean anything - and when delivered by a hard-drive, it means less still.
But travelling on the rail network is a two-way experience. Yes, we all get frustrated about rail delays, but I'm still intrigued to see grown adults acting like spoilt children, spitting out their dummies because of delays. Do these people quite honestly believe that the rail industry sets out to cause misery and delays every day? What about the passengers who forced open a door recently and proceeded to walk along the track, because of delays? I don't know how good (or otherwise) the information was to these people, but what a mindless thing to do. Railways are a safety-critical environment - would we rather have (admittedly frustrating) delays, or suffer the nightmare of something far worse if the industry were more lax about safety?
SouthWest Trains are tackling the issue of information by looking at the whole issue again of how their staff keep travellers informed. Staff are receiving new training, having new procedures and are being issued with smartphones to keep them up to date first-hand with what is going on. Handy as tweets are, should the industry really be in such a position whereby I, as a passenger, might actually know more about a delay than the train manager? I can assure you that, on my travels, that's happened more than once!
So well done South West Trains for looking at this whole issue. Let's hope it's successful enough to be taken as a blueprint for other Train Operating Companies to improve the provision of information to passengers.

Shiny New Trains and Silver Dream Machines!

It's been a great week for rail travel in the West Midlands!
On Monday morning I rode on the very first public service to be operated by one of London Midland's brand new class 172 diesel trains - the 0755 towards Birmingham. Passenger reaction ranged from the completely non-plussed (head deep in Metro paper / Monday morning blues) to the genuinely excited and impressed! One lady jumped on with her friend and remarked about "how posh" it was!
And "posh" is quite fitting. The new trains are replacing 25 year old veterans that have served us well, but are quite long-in-the-tooth these days. You can't put a price on how positive the reaction is to seeing carpet on a train on the Stourbridge Line!
The new trains feel a lot roomier and certainly have better legroom for us 6'7" long-suffering rail travellers! And gone is the "3x2" seating arrangement that I don't think ever worked properly and not many people, if they were honest, liked.
The one thing I'd have liked to have seen would have been power points (for my ever-flat iPhone!) but I guess that these trains are seen as short-distance commuter ones rather than longer-distance.
There are initially 2 trains in service for the first week, with the rest of the new stock appearing gradually over September & October until they should all be in service by Christmas.
"Shiny New Trains" is how London Midland describe them!

On the same afternoon, I was invited to "afternoon tea" on one of the first Chiltern Railways "Silver" Mainline services from Birmingham Moor St to London Marylebone.
For quite a few years now, the Chiltern service was seen as the slower, cheaper alternative to the fast, tilting, sexy Pendolinos, introduced in a blaze of glory by Sir Richard Branson, with a fast end-to-end journey time and often a premium price tag to match. There's no doubt that, if speed is your thing, Virgin's 20 minute frequency is still top dog.
But only just.
When Chiltern started operating some peak time journeys all the way through from Stourbridge Junction to London Marylebone, I sat up and took notice. Slower, maybe, than Branson's red bullets, but a real alternative to changing in Brum and, to my mind, a prettier journey through the Chiltern hills to what is probably London's most civilised terminus - Marylebone. None of your 1960s Euston-style blandness here. It's quaint Edwardian charm is still something that attracts me whenever I pass through. And it was cheaper.
The Chiltern service might have appeared at first cheap & cheerful (there's no shop on board like Virgin, although they do sell the best bacon rolls on the network, bar none!) but they have steadily repositioned themselves as a real alternative. Whilst consistently recording high levels of punctuality and reliability (albeit on a quieter line than the West Coast Main Line) the quality of service on offer has now been further bolstered by the introduction of some "silver" trains, as part of their newly-branded "Mainline" offering. Ironically, these are older ex BR coaches, although extensively refurbished (and formerly part of the now-deceased Wrexham & Shropshire service) and receiving wi-fi as part of the new "Business Zone" offering - an attempt to provide an element of first class, without the first class premium price. There's no free food, but it feels a little bit more special with its wider seats and larger tables. It's really a play on the airlines "premium economy" idea, and for a simple on-board £20 upgrade, it'll be interesting to follow it's success as an idea.
There has been extensive engineering works (as we regular Chiltern travellers have experienced in recent months!) but the pain has definitely been worth the pain. Trains can now run substantial parts of the line at 100mph, and this crucially brings Chiltern's end to end service within a very reasonable touching distance of Virgin's. Sir Richard should be looking over his shoulder - Chiltern's offering overall is a very competitive one now.
I interviewed Chiltern's Chairman for my radio show, the ever-energetic Adrian Shooter CBE, who's energy and enthusiasm for the railways has obviously inspired the Chiltern project to what it is today. Who else could espouse the virtues of High Speed 2 and the promise of 49 minute journeys Brum-London from what would seemingly be a rival operation to his own, and we believe him?
Chiltern has a longer rail franchise than most, in return for providing such long-term improvements, and this ought to be a blueprint to be repeated elsewhere, where it is possible to do so. Back in the not-so-distant past, the service from London Marylebone to Birmingham barely made an hourly frequency. Birmingham Moor St was a jungle wilderness, surrounded by weeds, a sorrowful sight. Today, Moor St is a delightful City Centre station, providing a facility to London every half an hour during the day. Some turnaround.
To complete the great day for Midlands rail travellers, London Midland also announced faster trains, simpler fares and a 20 minute daytime frequency on its own Birmingham (New St) to London (Euston) services.
I travel on all 3 rail operators services regularly to the capital and back. I am regularly amazed at the seemingly insatiable demand for rail travel between the 2 Cities. The train operating companies have responded well to the demand, but I remain convinced that, in the long-term, we need High Speed 2 as further capacity.
But that's for the future.
Today, let's salute the improvements in rail travel for both local commuters on the Stourbridge Line and for those going further afield to London. As a nation we're often quick to criticize our railways - let's appreciate them when they do something right!

The need to keep it Human

Much ado in the press regarding supposed proposals to close huge numbers of rail station ticket offices and leave it all to the machines and the Internet.
Some interesting figures regarding this story have appeared. Over the last 5 years:
- the number of tickets sold through the Internet has risen by 210%
- the number sold through ticket machines has risen by 89%
- the number sold at rail stations has fallen by 12% and now accounts for 35% of all tickets.
But are we really all comfortable with this?
I buy tickets online. Not all of the time, but there are some good deals to be found - but only if you have significant amounts of time to go searching for them, and then are willing to trundle through websites that aren't the easiest to understand. And then you aren't really sure if you've actually got the best deal.
As for ticket machines, fine. But I recall the one at Stourbridge Junction being out of action more times that I would feel comfortable with.
A human being at the rail station around the clock provides reassurance. Removing ticket staff would surely encourage more ticketless travel amongst some who might consider the use of technology far too much hassle to travel from A to B. Public transport should be in the business of doing the very best it possibly can to make travel easy to understand, simple to use and cost-effective. Losing ticket office staff may help the balance sheet, but it isn't going help long-term.
Passenger Focus research regarding London Midland's recent proposals to reduce ticket office hours shows that, overwhelmingly, people value human beings in ticket offices. These further proposals, buried deep in the McNulty report, should be treated with concern and not simply be waved through.
Our ticket office staff a vital and valuable members of the rail network. They shouldn't be sacrificed for autonomous Internet sites and self-service ticket machines.