SALRUA www.salrua.org.uk

Solihull and Leamington Rail Users Association

Should commuters expect a seat?

The train operating companies should be customer-focussed and respond to the expectations of their customers.

It would have been obvious to the train operating companies when they took on the franchises, that there are more people who want to travel during peak hours than off-peak.

In their profit forecasting they should have made allowance for the fact that more carriages are needed at peak times and will lie idle at others.

If the Government wants to influence people's transport choices away from the car, the alternatives need to be civilised and comfortable. Being crammed into too short and too infrequent trains is not going to encourage anyone to forego their car.

The Department of Transport may think that we should travel off-peak, if we want a seat but in reality most people still have to be at work at fixed times, and if you try travelling off-peak the frequency of the service drops.

Read about all SALRUA's aspirations and expectations for local rail services below.

SALRUA Expectations and aspirations for rail services

SALRUA Committee, December 2006

 

 

Birmingham to London Marylebone service.

Two trains an hour in both directions on Mondays to Saturdays and an adequate Sunday service.

Clock face departures. One train an hour should be an express service.

Running times to be best achievable, whilst recognising that small stations still need access to local towns. The express services should be under two hours from Birmingham to London. Fares to be more economical than the Birmingham to Euston service to take account of slower running times.

Due to the length of the journey, especially on the slower services, refreshments should be available on the train, as passengers joining at other than termini and large stations do not have opportunity to purchase at the station.

All trains should include stops at Moor St, Solihull, Dorridge, Warwick Parkway, Warwick and Leamington.

There also needs to be a means of collecting passengers from the smaller stations to travel to London and dispersing them on return from London. This could either be by one London train an hour to call additionally at Lapworth and Hatton or by means of a local service (see below).  Southbound this should run ahead of the London bound train to connect at Leamington, and northbound departing Leamington shortly after a returning train from London

Local rail between Birmingham and Leamington Spa

This is a major radial route into Birmingham passing through a densely populated corridor and congested road network. Rail services are essential for travellers from all stations into Birmingham and for travellers going between the smaller stations (Tyseley, Small Heath, Acocks Green , Olton, Widney Manor, Dorridge, Lapworth and Hatton) and the towns on the route (Leamington, Warwick Parkway, Warwick and Solihull) both at peak commuting times and at other times of day and evening for access to leisure and essential services not available in the villages and suburbs. Services to London should not be at the expense of maintaining frequent local connections. All stations should receive an hourly service at minimum in each direction during the course of the day and evenings either by way of a London stopping service or a local service. This is not being achieved by the December 2006 timetable where stops have been withdrawn at Lapworth, and Hatton. Where demand warrants it, services should be more frequent than hourly. Stations between Birmingham and Dorridge should be served by a minimum of three trains an hour (roughly evenly spaced) during the day, and two an hour in the evening, at roughly half hour intervals. Additional trains need to serve all stations at peak commuter times to provide choice in travel times and sufficient capacity for all passengers commuting to and from Birmingham. In the current timetable this is not achieved in the early mornings where there is a large gap at Dorridge between the 06:11 and 06:53

Leamington to Stratford service

A frequent regular service is necessary on this route, at least hourly, either as a direct London train or timed to connect with other London services to provide a convenient two way schedule. If demand warrants it, the frequency should be increased to half-hourly.

Stratford-on-Avon Service to Solihull

We wish to see a weekday service on this route at the beginning and end of the day to serve passengers travelling to Stratford College from Solihull, Dorridge and Lapworth, which are in its catchment area.  Currently 3 school buses travel from Dorridge to Stratford each day. At other times of day improved connection times at Hatton would allow passengers to travel between the two towns. These services should not be at the expense of existing services travelling from Birmingham to Stratford via Shirley.

 

Cross Country Services

SALRUA would like Cross Country services to continue to include stops at Leamington and some trains to additionally stop at Solihull, thus alleviating the need for Solihull passengers to change stations in Birmingham. Travel to distant parts of the Cross Country route should be available from Solihull and Leamington without the need to change trains at intermediate stations.

 

Birmingham Snow Hill Station

It is our opinion that Platform 4 at Snow Hill station should be returned to heavy rail use to help alleviate congestion problems and allow for future growth.

Birmingham Moor St.

Connection of the two heritage platforms into the network should be progressed as soon as possible to alleviate congestion and allow for future growth.

Other stations

Regular inspection of stations and remedial action needs to be taken when any of the stations fall into a poor state of repair. Currently there are problems with graffiti, peeling paint in underpasses, a rotting footbridge (Dorridge),weed infested platforms (Small Heath), boarded up buildings (Tyseley) etc. Improvements need to be made. Demand for cycle parking should be monitored and increased as needed.

Train Capacity

Trains should be of sufficient length and frequency to allow all passengers to have seats. Although services in the current timetable, when services are running normally, are largely not overcrowded, local and national Government initiatives, such as road pricing, congestion charging or dramatic changes to road and petrol tax could alter this. Growth forecasts for rail passenger traffic should be regularly reviewed and be taken into account in planning services and rolling stock requirements. For this reason we would like to see franchise lengths of at least 15 years to allow for long-term planning.

Car parking

Car parks at many stations between Leamington and Birmingham are regularly full. More car park provision is needed. Again growth forecasts need to be heeded. The knock-on effects on car-parking at larger stations need to be heeded when planning the number of calls at smaller stations.

Customer information

Audible and legible, accurate and timely information for passengers is of the essence. The automated public address announcements at Widney Manor and the system recently installed at Snow Hill with very clear displays and automated public address with staff intervention are better than the existing facilities at other stations. These should be upgraded to the same standards. Full use should be made of systems installed but not operational, e.g. loudspeakers at Lapworth.

Round Warwickshire service

Kenilworth is a large country town sitting astride the Coventry to Leamington line and yet has no station. As a town Kenilworth is pretty well self-contained with most amenities but it does depend heavily on places like Coventry, Leamington and Birmingham for employment, services and big town shopping hence producing considerable road borne commuting and general traffic. SALRUA fully supports proposals to build a station at Kenilworth. We recognise, however, the limitations of the track capacity and fully support any plans to double track further sections of the line. A useful service could then be provided connecting Stratford, Leamington, Kenilworth, Coventry, Nuneaton and Coleshill.

Track Capacity Birmingham to Leamington

We welcome the planned Birmingham to Leamington resignalling in 2007 with a faster (60m.p.h.) Tyseley junction, but also hope the quad-tracking has not been permanently abandoned as an idea.

The Strategic Rail Authority did include in their annual reports for some years the proposal to re-lay two additional lines between Tyseley and just south of Dorridge. In our opinion quad tracking with its ability to permit parallel running would improve the capacity of the route to meet growing passenger numbers. It can be built on a mainly existing track bed and therefore is a sensible and economic way of meeting the demands of a society where green issues are coming more to the fore, which, with appropriate available services, should result in less use of private transport and more use of public services. The SRA scheme allowed for quad tracking to south of Dorridge but we would like to see that down to immediately north of Lapworth for the following reasons

• Trains ex-Birmingham terminating at Dorridge currently park up on what will become a through line and so could well need to have special facilities constructed for such parking.
• Until the late 1970s four tracks ran to Lapworth so the track bed and platforms exist, with pedestrian access over the current footbridge.
• Trains could be parked on a third platform at Lapworth and simultaneously give Lapworth a much improved service by allowing it to benefit from the frequent service from Birmingham, currently reversed at Dorridge. This would ease parking problems at Dorridge, currently used by many Lapworth residents.
• The extra three miles or so of track will permit a longer stretch of parallel running and so increase the capacity of the system by allowing fast trains to overtake slower ones rather than delaying each other between Dorridge and Tyseley as they do now.

As an absolute minimum the present empty trackbed should be protected from development so that tracks can be reinstated if passenger numbers continue to grow.