Salisbury train depot wins award for fifth consecutive year

The engineering team at the Salisbury depot of South West Trains has won a rail industry award for the quality of maintenance of diesel trains for the fifth consecutive year – the Modern Railways ‘Golden Spanner Award’ was awarded to the depot for the most reliable pre-1995 diesel multiple unit fleet, the class 159 units which operate trains between London Waterloo and Exeter St Davids via Salisbury and services between Romsey and Salisbury via Southampton Central. The Salisbury depot of South West Trains also won a ‘Silver Spanner Award’ for the largest improvement in the reliability of pre-1995 diesel multiple unit trains – a massive sixty-seven per cent improvement in the reliability of the ‘inherited’ class 158 fleet (the reliability of these particular trains is 2.38 times better than the comparable units maintained by First Great Western!).

First Great Western continues to operate ‘unreliable’ trains

The annual survey of traction and rolling stock fleet reliability has revealed that First Great Western (FGW) continues to operate highly unreliable trains, by comparison with the other train operating companies in Britain - the FGW class 143 Pacer trains caused delays of five minutes or more due to a technical or maintenance defect every three thousand and thirty-five miles during the year ended October 2009 (by comparison, an Arriva Trains Wales class 143 unit travelled seven thousand miles between attributable delays).

The comparative data for other rolling stock in the FGW train fleet was as follows:-

Average miles travelled between delays of five minutes or more due to a technical or maintenance defect for the year ended October 2009:-

• Class 142 units: 4,560 miles (Arriva Trains Wales: 6,245 miles)
• Class 150 units: 4,519 miles (London Overground: 10,739 miles)
• Class 153 units: 5,628 miles (London Midland: 7,597 miles)
• Class 158 units: 7,696 miles (South West Trains: 18,369 miles)

High Speed Trains: 12,548 miles (East Coast: 13,337 miles)

Further fall in journeys by bus

The Department for Transport (DfT) has reported that the number of passenger journeys by bus and light rail in the English non-metropolitan areas (which excludes Greater London and the six Integrated Transport Authority areas) fell by 3.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2009 (1 July to 30 September), compared with the preceding three months (1 April to 30 June) – passenger journeys have now fallen for four consecutive quarters. The number of passenger journeys by bus and light rail in the English non-metropolitan areas has now increased by 8.25 per cent over the last four years (third quarter of 2009 compared with third quarter of 2005).

Keep railway lines ‘open’

Network Rail and the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) have announced an initiative that by 2012 it will not be necessary for weekend rail customers to use road replacement services on twenty key routes, which account for sixty per cent of all passenger journeys on Saturday and Sunday – the twenty key routes include the following three corridors in South West England:-

Birmingham New Street – Cheltenham Spa – Bristol Temple Meads – Exeter St Davids – Plymouth

Cardiff Central – Bristol Temple Meads/Bristol Parkway – Swindon – Reading – London Paddington

London Waterloo – Southampton Central - Bournemouth – Poole - Weymouth

Chard Junction land sale halted

The proposal by BRB Residuary Limited to sell, at auction, land adjacent to the former railway station at Chard Junction on the railway line between Axminster and Crewkerne has been halted, to give Somerset County Council the opportunity to purchase the site.

First Great Western returns ‘surplus’ rolling stock

First Great Western (FGW) has returned six ‘off-lease’ high speed train mark three buffet carriages to Angel Trains for storage at Eastleigh – a further ten former buffet carriages will be returned to the lessor in 2010. FGW is currently installing miniature buffets in nineteen standard class carriages in high speed trains.

Somerset poster promotion

A poster campaign at major railway stations in London promoting Somerset bas a tourist destination has resulted in the doubling of visits to the advertised website.

And finally,

Officials in the Department for Transport (DfT) rail division have repeatedly stated that the diesel unit on the bi-mode Inter-city Express Programme (IEP) trains will be expected to ‘top up’ the tractive effort under the electric wires, with the engine been used for about thirty per cent of the time – Chris Mole, the DfT parliamentary under-secretary of state, has, however, advised a member of parliament in writing that ‘the diesel engine will be switched off and will not consume any fuel under electric wires’!