Great Western Coffee Shop

Herefordshire campaigners vow to keep fighting to stop twin track bid being derailed

There's no ^two ways^ about it, a much-wanted twin rail track between Hereford and Ledbury won^t be along any time soon.

The failure of the project to make the latest five-year plan for public transport in the West Midlands is offset only by the 1,000-plus response to a petition in its favour that went to regional rail bosses in Birmingham recently. So with the signal seemingly stuck on red, the twin track campaign is looking to a new route that takes it straight to Whitehall with Jesse Norman, Conservative parliamentary candidate, on board.

It was Mr Norman who got the twin track petition going and then sent it along to Centro ^ the passenger transport executive for the West Midlands ^ with Herefordshire Council^s consultation response to the plan setting out structural improvements to the region^s rail network over the next five years.

That the petition should call on the secretary of state to support twin-tracking shows how far Rail for Herefordshire (RFH) has come, bold enough now to take out billboard ads at Hereford station and directly compare their key cause to the city^s planned outer distributor road, but completed at a fraction of the price. With so much attention on far bigger ^ and arguably more attention-grabbing ^ projects, public transport in Herefordshire had to take a back seat.

Now, RFH sees a chance to make up for lost time and an opportunity of moving county transport policy away from its apparent reliance on roads.

Mr Norman^s hands-on approach to twin-tracking strengthens support for the scheme long shown by the man he hopes to replace, Hereford^s current MP Paul Keetch. With this claim on cross-party consensus, RFH can avoid splits that so often see the county^s transport schemes come apart at the seams and boast London connections to rival First Great Western.

It was just under a year ago that Peter Strachan, route director for Network Rail, told Mr Norman that there was a strong case for twin-tracking between Hereford and Malvern, with the present 11-mile ^bottleneck^ stretch of single track seen as the biggest barrier to better rail links between Hereford, London and Birmingham.

The best Mr Norman came away with, though, was confirmation that the work was ^under consideration^ in the 2009-2014 phase of national rail investment.

The problem, of course, is the tunnels at Ledbury and Colwall, the adaptation of which would push the cost up considerably. There is another major tunnel near Evesham that would need work. But to RFH, the twin track is the lead in to all that could be done with the county^s rail services.

RFH secretary Becky Roseff said: ^The twin tracking is the most important thing. Without it, it is impossible to improve the London and Birmingham service. They can^t put on more Trains, and those they have are always at risk of delay or cancellation ^ though this has been getting better.^

RFH chairman Gerald Dawe pitches the wider context to directly compare twin-tracking to Hereford^s proposed ring road, the funding for which is effectively on hold. ^We calculate the double line could be re-instated for about ^20 million, a fraction of the price of the (ring) road. If we are serious about reducing congestion and carbon emissions, reinstating the twin track is essential,^ he said.

WHAT DOES RAIL FOR HEREFORDSHIRE WANT FOR THE COUNTY^S RAIL SERVICES?

With twin-tracking as the top priority, RFH^s other immediate issues are:

■ More stations ^ one at Pontrilas for the Golden Valley and Hay-on-Wye and maybe another at Withington to serve fast-growing communities north-west of Hereford and the Whitestone business park.

There is also talk of re-opening the station at Moreton-on-Lugg.

■ Overcrowding ^ particularly the number of carriages on rush hour services, especially during term time. Rush hour trains run by Arriva Trains Wales and London Midland can get pretty packed, occasionally to a wholly unacceptable degree.

More carriages on these trains is the simplest solution.

■ Fares ^ Too high, as simple as that. More than ^4 for a single between Hereford and Leominster alone. The latest example is socalled super off peak fare to London via Newport, up to ^68 from ^57 in the past month. RFH wants clarification from rail companies of their pricing policies and better ticket deals from the county^s stations.

■ Better connections for London between Hereford and Newport and Birmingham-Hereford-Leominster, which often need almost the maximum waiting time of one hour.

■ A better approach to Hereford station, which RFH says needs more than the ^bike rack and pedestrian crossing^ that took nearly 10 years to get. One bus stop instead of two, a 10mph limit, a decent walking route to town and better signposting would be a start.

■ Sunday services by London Midland. RFH acknowledges that the company is working on solutions that were recently hampered by a one-day strike over Sunday working conditions for train staff.

FACTFILE

Hereford-Ledbury twintracking had strong support when Leominster Town Council met to debate the draft rail development plan. Members chided the overall plan for its lack of ambition, but there was enthusiasm for the idea of opening up Moreton-on-Lugg station and maybe even reinstating the Leominster-Kington line for quarry traffic.

There was disappointment, though ^ and not a little frustration ^ at Leominster station seemingly missing out on much-needed needed improvements at the expense of Ludlow. Campaigners felt that disabled access in particular needed addressing.

The apparent absence of any direct service from North Wales to London via the West Midlands to link up with Eurostar was also noted.

Despite the fact that it is because of Labour and Gordon Brown that no UK person has lost any money from their banks,

Let's not get political - except to say that Gordon B, Tony B,the Millibands et al. and the rest should, in my humble opinion, be shot.

The man who means we are still in recession as they fudged the predictions...?

The man who means we are still in recession as they fudged the predictions...?

Brown acted quickly and saved the banks. Blame the bankers for the unavoidable penalty.

Perhaps Brown did make mistakes, but his actions since the recession started have to be admired. If we were in a Tory government, with a do nothing approach, we would be in even greater a mess. And who's to say that a Tory gov wouldn't have made the same mistakes as Brown.

The Tories have been getting away with murder. Recently, Osbourne's proposed budget had holes in it to the sum of billions, but it only featured in one day's news. And that's the man who'll be chancellor?

Hmm.  Are you criticising George Osborne's proposed budget for having holes in it - or the press for not picking holes in it?  ;D

So you would shoot the man who saved Northern Rock, who prevented any UK people loosing any savings.

Flight taxes hiked to bail out banks: It's nothing to do with environment, says Darling

Flight taxes are being raised to help bail out the banks, Alistair Darling admitted yesterday.
 
In an extraordinary intervention, the Chancellor said the higher air passenger duty being introduced tomorrow was needed to plug gaps in the national finances. He made no attempt to justify the move  -  which will add ^340 to the ticket for a family of four flying long haul - on environmental grounds, the official reason for the tax.
 
Airlines warned yesterday that the tax would cost thousands of jobs and do nothing to combat global warming.

Addressing journalists in Newcastle, home of the failed bank Northern Rock, Mr Darling said: 'I am quite blunt about it, we need to raise money to pay for some of the things we have done. If unemployment goes up there is a cost obviously to the family, there is cost in increased benefits, Northern Rock has cost a lot of money. What we are doing is putting a pound on to your average ticket, which about three quarters of people travel on. And you consider the cost of an air ticket, I don't think a pound is that unreasonable. In the North East, we have spent billions on a bank for very good reasons. We could have stood back and said "There you are, tough luck". We didn't because that was the wrong approach.'

And who's to say that a Tory gov wouldn't have made the same mistakes as Brown.

High Street banks to be broken up

Chancellor Alistair Darling has confirmed that Lloyds, RBS and Northern Rock will be broken up and parts sold to new entrants to the banking sector.

He said there could be three new High Street banks in the UK over the next three to four years as a result. But the chancellor said he would only sell parts of the banks when "the time is right", to ensure taxpayers get their money back.

There is speculation that buyers might include Tesco and Virgin. In order to boost competition, the banks' assets will only be sold to new entrants to the UK banking market and not to existing financial institutions.

As part of the stipulations of EU state aid rules, the UK was always facing the prospect of having to sell off at least parts of those banks which it bailed out last year. Now it looks as if that sell off process is to begin in earnest.

Though the Chancellor says he has not yet decided which brands are to be hived off, RBS, Northern Rock and Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) will now be broken up in some form. This means that individual brands within those banks, such as Cheltenham & Gloucester and the TSB (LBG), as well as Williams and Glyn (RBS), could be sold off.

The unanswered question now is whether the Treasury jumped or was about to be pushed by Brussels.

The new banks will be standard retail operations concentrating on deposits and mortgages.

Mr Darling said this was the best way to ensure "proper competition and choice". He said having just "half a dozen big providers was not acceptable". The new entrants would "have a clean sheet to come in and do things differently", he added.

The chancellor also said the government would be splitting up Northern Rock into two parts by the end of the year, with a view to selling off one part within the next three to four years. The government had already said it wants to sell off the part of Northern Rock that holds savers' money, carries out new lending and holds some existing mortgages. He also said the government was keen to divest some of its holdings in RBS and Lloyds.

The government currently holds a 70% stake in RBS and a 43% stake in Lloyds after last October's bail-outs.

BBC business correspondent Joe Lynam says the latest move represents "a gilt-edged opportunity for non-UK retail banks, especially from the US, to get a firm foothold in the highly profitable British banking market for as low a price as could be imagined a few years ago".

The Conservatives said the break up of the state-owned banks had already been "well trailed". A spokesman added: "We have called for more competition in banking, and for government stakes to be used to strategic effect to that end."

The Lib Dems Treasury spokesman Vince Cable welcomed more competition in the banking sector but said there should be no urgency to the sales. "We need to be careful that when these split-ups occur, the prime cuts are not offered to private investors and the scraps left to taxpayers," he said.

There were also concerns expressed about the timing of the sell-off.

Treasury select committee chairman John McFall MP said the assets should not be sold off for less than their market value. "It is important to ensure that we get taxpayer return for this bail-out. I'm relaxed about the timescale. I do not want to sell off [bank assets] at a cheap price, I don't want a fire sale," he told the BBC.

Peter McNamara, former head of personal banking at Lloyds TSB and managing director of the Alliance and Leicester, said that restructuring the banks in the current climate could in fact prove counter productive. "Half the banks in the UK are suddenly going to be reorganised when you could argue their day job is to support industry and consumers during the recession. Without that support, we are more likely to have a steeper rise in unemployment," he said.

The government needs permission to break-up the banks from European competition commissioner Neelie Kroes. Last week, the EU approved the plans for Northern Rock to be split in two.