Pembrokeshire Rail Travellers' Association - Milford Haven Town ...

Pembrokeshire
       Rail Travellers’ Association
                    NEWSLETTER 110 MARCH 2019

This newsletter contains information which has already been made
available on our facebook page since the last newsletter (NL109, Sept
2018). To see news sooner, or to comment on the articles, please ask to
sign up to our facebook page – only takes minutes to do.

Editorial
The last newsletter was produced in September 2018. Since then, the
Arriva Trains Wales contract to operate the railway has ended (October
13th) and Transport for Wales has taken over (October 14th). Sincere
thanks are due to Arriva for their service over the last fourteen years.
Sometimes their hands were tied because of the fixed nature of the
contract (for example, the limited number of trains reduced flexibility at
busy times), but on balance, I felt that they gave us good service in
Pembrokeshire. We are promised even better with the new deal. In fact it
is probably a good time to input requests.

The autumn season produced a quite atrocious performance – trains were
getting wheel flats from slipping on wet leaves. The rumour in the railway
press was that this had been caused by the wrong kind of anti-slip fluid!
Network rail’s track cleaning trains (run at dead of night when everyone is
asleep) had been given a new type of ant-slip gel to put on the rails. While
this worked well with trains fitted with anti-slip control, ATW’s trains were
not, and were therefore prone to slipping. Train services were severely
pruned. For several weeks, Milford was seeing only four trains a day, at
00.18, 05.55, 07.05 and 23 whatever. And for a while after that the 07.05
was running only to Cardiff, waiting at Swansea to become the 0910
stopper and arriving in Cardiff about half an hour later than expected.
Even, today, as I write the 07.05 only goes as far as Cardiff, where you
must change if you wish to carry on to Newport and the Central Wales line,
but at least it is due to reach Cardiff at the timetabled time.

New timetable
The new timetable which appeared in December last year only differed
from the previous one in just a few details, the odd minute here or there.

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New fares
As usual, there were fare increases at the turn of the year. David Watts
has produced an updated fares booklet. Paper and email members will
receive a copy with this newsletter. It has been on the facebook page for a
few weeks now.

New “station café” at Milford?
You may have spotted that Costa has opened a new Drive through/Sit in
coffee shop in Milford Haven. It is just beyond the buffer stops at the
station, accessed from the roundabout. Rail Passengers may like to know
that it is open from 05.30 (25 minutes before the first daytime train) until
21.30 every day. More information on
https://www.facebook.com/Milfordcostadt/
offee shop
Pembrokeshire stations
From this point on, the news works backwards in time. TfW is doing a
survey of stations across Wales to discover where improvements might be
made. They have contacted Pembrokeshire County Council for their view
on stations in Pembrokeshire, and PCC have asked us for our view. We had
a separate committee meeting about this and sent the PCC three
documents, one on stations, one on car parking and one on bus links to
trains. Today (19th March), I completed a survey we had received from an
agency, asking what we thought of Network Rail. This was fairly generic,
but I also wrote some supporting information and sent this off too.

Smoke and mirrors
Down at Milford station today (some weeks back), the 11.08 was formed of
two-coach set 175.003, built nearly twenty years ago, and sporting its
smart new TfW livery. A lady emerging from Tesco, turned to her friend
and said “Ooh look, there’s one of those nice new trains”. This could be
worth a moment’s thought, and perhaps discussion over a pint! There are
no new trains at present, but a couple of (old) trains, one two car and one
three car, have been painted in a new red and white livery, which I find
quite attractive. I generally favour a livery where the windows (dark) are
incorporated into a dark-painted strip along the side to make the coaches
look longer and sleeker. To see one of the units in action, click below….
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/first-train-transport-
wales-livery-15256289

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Rolling stock modifications
Writing in the February edition of Modern Railways (March one now out),
Rhodri Clark makes some interesting observations on the content of the
TfW contract documents which have recently been published.
     Pacers (to be phased out by the end of 2019) will receive some
        minor exterior rebranding soon.
     Other units will have full interior and exterior rebranding by end
        2021
     One class 150/2 has already received PRM (Persons with reduced
        mobility) modifications. (Let us know when you spot it!)
     All units will have wheel slip protection by Autumn this year (an
        announced advance on the plan).
     A performance improvement programme for Class 153s is to
        complete this year.
     Also, the 153s (bay seats only) and the 158s and 175s (all seats)
        will have power supply points included in their interior
        refurbishment by the end of this year.
And finally, you will be aware that there is internal haggling while the
cause of any delay is attributed either to Network Rail, the Rolling stock
company or the operator. This may result in money changing hands from
whoever ends up with the blame. This amounts to about £800,000 per
year. But it costs about £1m a year to manage this money. The suggestion
is that this bureaucracy might be removed and greater emphasis placed on
improving performance all round, rather than swapping money. These
notes are condensed from an article which covered a full page.

Whitland level crossing (read to end of article!)
The Western Telegraph last week reported that the Whitland level crossing
would be
- closed from 10pm Feb 15th,
- opening daily 6am-8pm 18th-22nd,
- then closing again Feb 23 - March 3
- re-opening March 4 at 6am
I am assuming this just means closed to road traffic, as the trains are still
running, but worth a check as the days go on. The purpose is to replace
barriers and lights. The following week, the same newspaper reported that
the project had been put on hold

Bridge replacement at Merlin’s Bridge
Over a couple of weekends, late January and early February, the two
railway Bridges over Pembroke Road and Dredgeman’s hill were replaced.
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New bridges were assembled in areas near to the site, then lifted into
place. The first one is described further in
https://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/17372461.merlins-bridge-
roads-reopen-after-rail-bridge-replaced-but-another-one-will-be-in-place-
next-month/ , the second in
https://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/17437939.merlins-bridge-road-
between-haverfordwest-and-milford-haven-closed-as-railway-bridge-
replaced/
This seemed to go according to plan, but the PRTA was most annoyed at
the replacement bus activity. Obviously the trains could not run over the
bridges during the weekend. The bridges are just a mile south of
Haverfordwest station. Rather than run trains as far as Haverfordwest,
they were terminated at Whitland. Replacement buses ran to
Haverfordwest via Clunderwen and Clarbeston Road, adding an hour to
journeys. We have commented on this to TfW. While trains continued to
run from Whitland to Pembroke Dock, those to Fishguard were also
replaced by buses. Meanwhile Journey check was saying that everything
was hunky dory with the train service – presumably because it thought
everyone knew it was really buses! You will recall that several lorries had
run into the old bridge on Dredgeman’s Hill. The new bridges are a foot
higher than the old ones. We are contacting the county council to discover
how helpful this will be at reducing bridge strikes and their impact.

Transport Focus
Transport Focus continues to send us monthly reports. The most recent
one contained an article of great relevance to train travel in Wales.
https://www.transportfocus.org.uk/news-events-media/news/new-welsh-
rail-operator-must-deliver-promised-improvements-warns-passenger-
watchdog/?fbclid=IwAR1rC8DvuVf0NLYiUBS4iN82AkU5iSimHbyLGGMDXYd
BihunBo-vYcl-4bU

TfW – claims for late arrivals
From 29 January 2019, the point from which our customers can claim
compensation for delayed journeys has been reduced from 30 minutes to
15 minutes. For more information, please visit https://tfwrail.wales/delay-
repay-compensation where you can claim online or pick up a
compensation form from your nearest ticket office. Delay Repay offers a
wide choice of repayment options, including bank transfer and Paypal.
Don’t forget to keep your ticket to make a claim. If you claim online you
can also opt to donate your compensation to our chosen charity
railwaychildren.org.

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Stakeholder meeting in Carmarthen
TfW ran a Stakeholder meeting in Carmarthen in October – a miserably
wet day on which the 9.30 start meant catching the 7.05 from Milford. The
walk up town for breakfast, and then back down to the meeting created a
really sodden look. I would guess that several of the smarter-looking
participants had actually travelled there by car! The presentation was very
much in the style of. Here are our targets – tell us what you want – we will
involve you all the way. My notes from the meeting include the following…
What was particularly in it for Pembrokeshire
 350 more passenger spaces into Swansea each morning rush (sounds
  like two extra trains over the last stretch, so the trains may not start
  from here)
 Pembroke Dock will get one extra train on Sunday
 Dec 2019 Fishguard will increase from 6 to 7 trains per day
 More station adopters (yes, we can do more work)
 New community rail partnership for west wales (must sign up for this)

Anyway, they really want to involve us at every stage, and we really were
important, nothing was impossible and it surprised me there were no
hand-outs to bring home, nor was there any email address to contact them
at. I did ask, and was given the email address of the Stakeholder manager.

Since then, there has been little direct contact. It is probably time to
contact them about our requirements for the new trains.

Bristol
The line from Bristol Parkway down to Bristol Temple Meads has been
redoubled – it was once four track, became two-track for many years, and
has now reverted to four track. This should reduce delays to trains from
Cardiff approaching Bristol (on the route of your journey from
Pembrokeshire to Devon and Cornwall).

Off the rails
20th October saw the publication of the report into the incident in which an
oil train from Robeston West was stopped at Llangenech having caused
extensive damage to sections of rail during the first part of the journey in
October 2017. As always, this was a thorough and objective report, which
is good reading – I won’t try to summarise!
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5bc4abc0ed915d0
ae0044a43/R172018_181016_Ferryside.pdf?fbclid=IwAR34W_yb
OCVeD1P6HnopvTW9oT-o7kDxdxGbrA6eHeM7u22C5QRPh9Ao8Tg
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Pembrokeshire Rail Travellers' Association
A voluntary association of people who travel by train in/to/from
Pembrokeshire, or who have an interest in promoting rail travel.
                    “Helping Pembrokeshire travel by rail.”
The PRTA aims to increase the use of the railway in Pembrokeshire by
securing improvements to:
• Rail services – times, fares, trains, cleanliness, staff politeness, train-
train connectivity, punctuality, reliability, special offers
• Rail infrastructure – stations, cleanliness, seating, shelters, toilets, track
and signalling
• Connectivity with the train – interchange between car, bus, bicycle and
train on your journey from A to B.
Public awareness and perception of the railway – ensuring everyone is
aware how good rail travel is in all the above respects
Membership: People who share our objectives and wish to support us as
we try to achieve them.

Journey check
Following the report from Last newsletter, there has been more of the
same. Journey check reported in the middle of Monday afternoon on the
retiming of some Sunday trains. It is such a shame, as it is a very useful
facility. Real time trains is a good place to look at the progress of trains on
the day. Link up to…
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/advanced
type in the name of your station, some times and a day (in that order) and
press the button to reveal all that is planned and happening. Once you
have the list of trains you can click on the train descriptor and watch the
train’s progress. Wednesday 20th March should see the Network Rail
Measurement train visit Pembroke Dock (0542 for ten minutes) Fishguard
Harbour (0850-0902) and Milford Haven (0956-1006). Happy spotting!

The future
Members can get their news earlier, and in full colour, by asking to join the
facebook page. And there is still a vacancy on the committee for
membership secretary/treasurer. The next newsletter is likely to be around
May time, when the timetable next changes for the summer.

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