South West told to ‘speed up delivery’

The Department for Transport (DfT) has written to the South West Regional Assembly and to the strategic transport authorities to express disappointment at the slow progress been made to deliver major local transport schemes in the region – the DfT stated that the region’s outturn spending for 2007/8 was ‘very disappointing’ and warned that the continued under-spending by the region was ‘unsustainable’ in the long term. The underspend on major local transport schemes in the region for the year ended 31 March 2008 amounted to thirty-five per cent of the Regional Funding Allocation for transport for the twelve month period – the region only spent money on one of the eight major local authority schemes for which DfT funds had been made available in 2007/8.

Taxi-based rural public transport to be trialled?

The Commission for Integrated Transport (CfIT) is urging the Department for Transport to launch a competition for a seven-year trial in a rural area of ‘TaxiPlus’, a shared taxi service - CfIT claims that a shared taxi service could offer rural residents a superior public transport service to conventional bus services and at similar costs to public funds. It proposes that the trial should take place in a new unitary authority (e.g. Cornwall, Wiltshire) or in a shire district where the council imposes no quantity restrictions on taxi licences. The TaxiPlus model would see vehicles operating to a published timetable on a fixed route, provided that someone has made a booking at least one hour ahead – fares would be similar to existing bus fares and services could divert to pick-up and drop-off on a door-to-door basis. The CfIT studied the Fare Car scheme in Devon and the Connect2 services in Wiltshire, while formulating proposals.

First refurbished Voyager in service

The first of the fifty seven class 220 and 221 Voyager trains which are to be refurbished by CrossCountry has returned to service – the refurbished trains will have fourteen or sixteen extra seats and up to thirty-three per cent more luggage space, following the removal of the shop. The former stowage areas for cycles have been converted into galleys to provide a trolley service for standard class customers and at-seat service for first class customers – a dedicated bicycle and luggage storage area has been fitted in the space previously occupied by the shop. Cross Country now have three refurbished high speed trains in service, with two more to enter service at a later date.

A potential solution for ‘low’ railway platforms?

There are a number of ‘low’ railway platforms in the South West of England where customers encounter difficulties in alighting from or boarding trains – Network Rail has now developed a glass-reinforced plastic ‘hump’ to allow easier access to and from trains stopping at ‘low’ platforms. The ‘hump’ cost sixty-five thousand pounds to develop and installation is estimated at twenty-five thousand pounds per platform. The ‘hump’ solution is currently been tested for a minimum of six months on a ‘low’ platform at Harrington station, on the railway line between Whitehaven and Workington in Cumbria.

And finally,

The South West of England Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) has declined to finance a thirty million pound scheme to extend the narrow gauge Lynton and Barnstaple Railway to operate between Blackmoor Gate and Lynton – the SWRDA considers that there are better projects to improve the local economy of North Devon