RailFuture Awards, 4th November 2017, Leicester

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Railfuture Conferences

"Railfuture holds two national conferences each year, usually in the summer and autumn (in addition to its AGM^▸ (Annual General Meeting) for members). We aim only to cover our costs. The conferences are competitively priced, to be within rail users' price range, and are open to everyone"

Details at http://www.railfuture.org.uk/conferences/

Although open to everyone and typically very flexible if a group should choose to change its delegates, I received an email yesterday evening as follows:

Dear delegate,

Our Leicester conference "Dynamic Triangle - The East Midlands' Crucial Role In National Rail Connectivity" is just a week away but we have received news concerning your attendance and arrangements on the day.

Due to security concerns regarding another event at our venue, only delegates named on our attendance list will be able to enter the theatre, and this list is required by 10am on Monday morning. Therefore please let me know before that deadline if you are considering allowing another person to take your place.

Once Monday's deadline has passed, we will be unable to amend the attendance list.

We do hope this does not cause you too much inconvenience and apologise for this issue - unfortunately it is due to circumstances completely beyond our control.

Regards,

Sign of the times; when we accepted events at "our place", we had no requirement on the people making the booking to provide us with a list of names 5 days ahead, nor did we ever restrict / control who attended an event because of who else was booked in with us.

I would suggest that anyone who's not yet booked and wants to attend should book today (Sunday 29th October); I am taking a pragmatic view and will be attending to support the Melksham Rail User Group's entry into the awards.

Venue: Curve Theatre
Room: Seminar Rooms at the top of the building
60 Rutland St, Leicester
Postcode: LE1 1SB

Begins at 10:45, registration from 10:00, finishes by 17:00

Speakers:
Jake Kelly, Managing Director, East Midlands Trains (talking about Ten Years of East Midlands Trains and Rail Services in the East Midlands) Twitter Image Facebook Image Wikipedia Image
Mark Winter, Chief Executive Officer, UK^▸ (United Kingdom) Rail Leasing (talking about A small railway business in the heart of Leicester)
Rob Daffern, Director and Principal Engineer, Furrer + Frey GB^▸ (Great Britain) (talking about Electrification: what is it and why do you want it?) Twitter Image
Jim Seymour, Transport Strategy Manager, Derbyshire County Council (talking about Ilkeston - All Change) Twitter Image Facebook Image
Tom Ingall, Great Central Railway (talking about Reunification Progress on the Great Central Railway) Twitter Image Facebook Image
Dr Terri Eynon, Member for Coalville, Leicestershire County Council (talking about Case for the National Forest Line) Twitter Image
John Legrys, Member for Coalville, North West Leicestershire District Council (talking about Case for the National Forest Line) Twitter Image
Sean Sheahan, Member for Measham, North West Leicestershire District Council (talking about Case for the National Forest Line) Twitter Image

Sir Peter Soulsby, City Mayor of Leicester, will formally open the conference

[grahame]

Melksham Rail User Group entry, Best Campaign (category 6)
"Getting people to try the train for the first time"

http://atrebatia.info/rf_2017_6.pdf

[grahame]

Excellent conference organised by the East Midlands branch of RailFuture - can't praise them highly enough.  Superb place to hold the meeting too; great shame that the management crammed in conflicting events which impacted on the product delivered to RailFuture, and staffed it with a team who did their best but provided a service with significant scope for improvement had they been so directed. I'm sure the other event was far more important to The Curve than we were.

One of the great things about rail "campaigning" - working for improvements in public transport - is that it's rarely competitive.  I find that events such as this allow me to listen and learn - to store up good and bad experiences, to make new contacts, and to come back with ideas and possibilities.  It's also a chance to see who has had the luck to with the 1000 club prizes this year, to see who and what attracted the judges in the RailFuture awards, to make new contacts and to renew older ones.

I am reminded that a train on the Southminster branch used to run "ThX" - Thursdays excepted - and wonder if such a scheme could be useful on any line (e.g. the TransWilts) where there's a path used by a Network Rail test train every sixth Thursday that has precluded the running of an extra train between the 15:12 and the 17:36.  Apparently people are pretty accepting of an explanation that the engineers need the line so, sorry, we can only add the extra service on four days.

Jake Kelly, Managing Director of East Midlands Trains told us how their local services - when they took over from Central and Midland Main Line - were suffering from 20% cancellations on Sundays, and that the company running the franchise now has turned that around so that there are no longer cancellations on Sundays. That gives me heart that full operation of a weekend service is possible even in 2017, and makes me wonder if I should suggest that some of the folks from our TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) ask him how he's done it.

Over lunch an tea breaks, very interesting to meet a chap who's son live in Melksham.  Alas - he uses the train from Chippenham when he travels to London.   Reason being he "has to" get the car out anyway as he's "too far" to walk to the station ... and Chippenham offers a much more frequent service. At Melksham, we're gone from an un-useable service up to one that works for some people; good to have another reminder - if slightly stark - that we've a long way to go yet both on frequency and links to the station.

Awards presented after lunch. Category 1 (newsletter) - gold awards to the Far North line and to the Tarka^▸ (Line from Barnstaple to Exeter) line.  Category 2 (Web Site) - The South East Northumberland Rail User Group (SENRUG) commended, Maidenhead / Marlow - Silver and Strourbridge - Gold. Category 3 - (new groups) Commended - Hadley Wood. Gold - Chinley and Buxworth.  Category 4 - (Campaign).  Commended - Chesham Area. Commended - Chinley and Buxworth. Silver - Hadley Wood. Gold - Melksham Rail User Group. Category 5 (Campaigner) - Franchesca of Chinley (or, yikes, was that Hadley Wood?). Category 6 - (Judges Special Award) - to the New Stations Fund. Conrgratulations to all the winners

Terri Eynon and John Legrys told of issues in North West Leicestershire and the need for a rail link. I can indeed confirm from personal trips to Ashby de la Zouch that the journey there by train involves a walk across Burton upon Trent to the bus station followed by a 40 minute bus ride, which they recon should be a 14 minute train trip.   Their telling of really deprived areas in the south of their district and jobs available in the north is imbalanced - although totals of population and jobs look good, it really isn't if there's no public transport to get people to their jobs.  Stories of DWP telling people that there are jobs in the district and withdrawing benefits.  Not sure how true those stories are, but its a good reminder for our own poorest areas to ensure that there's something such as a bus to get the to the Bowerhill employment area or to the station to head for work in other towns.

Tom Ingall told us about bridging the gap between the two sections of the Great Central that are preserved - utterly interesting to look at the planning and engineering and issues involved; altered to issues if (perhaps) the section from Bradford Junction to Thingley Junction is ever re-doubled.

Jim Seymour, talking about the new station at Ilkeston, brought the term "overshadowed towns" to my attention.  And also reminded me of the economic development power of a station in terms of tourism, house values and bringing businesses to the town.

Huge "Thank You" to the national RailFuture team, and the East Midlands team too - for a fascinating day; I know a little of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to organising, administering, promoting and presenting such a day - and I know from having fallen flat on one or two elements in the past just how hard it is to come up with something this good - well done, one and all!

[ChrisB]

The requirement for names in advance was *not* a Railfuture requirement but came from the other hirer whose event involved children & parents, and thus Security 'needed a list of attendees' presumably for vetting against the sex offenders database.

Not sure whether that happened, but in the event theclist wasn't used at all on the day andcanyone wanting access to RFs event were directed suitably without requesting ID or ticket. So management sticking oar in when those on the ground on the day (their staff & hired security) obviously felt they knew better!

[grahame]

The requirement for names in advance was *not* a Railfuture requirement but came from the other hirer whose event involved children & parents, and thus Security 'needed a list of attendees' presumably for vetting against the sex offenders database.

Suitably explained in the text I quoted, save that there was no indication what the other event was, so the list could have been needed for vetting for terrorists, sex offenders, or political opponents looking to sneak in via RailFuture and heckle at a rally.

The requirement came to us from RailFuture, but I do agree that it wasn't RailFuture itself, but rather the organisation from whom it contracted venue supply and hire, who made it a condition of the booking.  And rather like GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have to take the immediate rap for NR^» (Network Rail - home page) failures when a train can't run, RailFuture do have to take responsibility for the terms and conditions imposed by their suppliers; if they don't like the terms and conditions, they have the option of going for another venue which (in practical terms) GWR can't do if they don't like something from Network Rail.

Very bad form to accept a booking under one set of Ts and Cs and impose another condition late in the day.

Very bad form (of a venue) to impose conditions set by one hirer onto another hirer.  Perhaps RailFuture should have asked for a "no under 12s " condition on the other event?

Not sure whether that happened, but in the event theclist wasn't used at all on the day andcanyone wanting access to RFs event were directed suitably without requesting ID or ticket. So management sticking oar in when those on the ground on the day (their staff & hired security) obviously felt they knew better!

I noticed that;  all the attendees at the Railfuture event were escorted (not just directed) to an isolated enclave within the venue where we remained all day, and perhaps no names on the list had given any cause for concern so that check, together with the escorting through to and from our area, was considered sufficient.

I remain of the view that it would have been better to have chosen a venue in the first place where requirements of one event were going to be imposed on another parallel event, but I accept that the vetting list requirement was probably not made as clear as it should have been to the RailFuture team when their booking was accepted.

[ChrisB]

The requirement for names came very late in the day (within a month of the event, when tockets had been on sale for at least 6 months) & there was no other venue within the budget. It was either go with the demand or cancel.

I & others weren't escorted, indeed I managed to get out several times forca smoke without any escort, as did several others. You may have been unlucky in that respect. Rf weren't impressed with the venue either