Assurance of continued Severn Beach Line funding
Date: September 2010On 14 September, FOSBR held an event at Clifton Down station to urge a deal between the Council and First Great Western for continued funding of the Severn Beach Line with at least the current level of service.
The event was covered by BBC Radio Bristol’s Breakfast with Steve Le Fevre, which included interviews with Gary Hopkins of Bristol City Council and Julian Crow of First Great Western, as well as Rob Dixon and Christina Biggs from FOSBR.
BBC News reported on the event in Bristol councillor commits to Severn Beach line future (14 September 2010), which quotes Gary Hopkins (BCC) as follows:
“There is absolutely not one jot of a chance of a cut in the service. . . . We are very conscious of the vastly improved performance on the line since the money’s actually been put in. The line clearly works, there is no question at all about that – in fact, the improvement in the number of people actually using the line is probably even higher than the ticket sales suggest. We’ve had amicable meetings (with FOSBR) and I’ve had letters of thanks from them for the commitments that we’ve actually given. It’s fair enough to draw attention to the success of the line – we want to continue that and actually work with them [FOSBR] to make certain that actually improves further.”
The article also quotes Julian Crow (FGW):
“We are discussing the renewal of the contract in a very constructive and amicable manner. The service has been enormously successful. [I can’t] discuss what's going on within, what are effectively commercially confidential negotiations, but I say I certainly wouldn’t want to be alarmist about the future of the line. It’s effectively a continuation of the existing contract and Bristol City Council would obviously want to make sure they’re getting good value for money for their rate payers – any council would do that. We’re obviously keen to continue operating the service with them and that’s the background to which the discussions are going on.”
The Evening Post covered the story in its article Campaigners call for quick railway action (15 September 2010), which includes the following:
Mr Hopkins said the council had a duty to get the best deal for the taxpayer, but that it would be signed in plenty of time. He said: “The service will be at least as frequent and hopefully will increase, and we need to know what the cost of that will actually be.”
He also said he agreed with FOSBR campaigners that if there was a more reliable and frequent evening service, the line would be used by even more passengers.
He said: “At the moment there is a gap in the middle of the evening and late on. If there is confidence that it will run all the way through the evening, people will have confidence to use the Severn Beach line.”
Ellie Banks, a First Great Western spokeswoman, said: “We are in negotiations with Bristol City Council regarding our contract and the services we run in the Severn Beach area. We’re pleased with the growth in passenger figures along the line and it is quite possible that there may be more services added in the near future.”
To follow this up, Christina Biggs of FOSBR wrote a letter to Evening Post, published on 22 September 2010 under the heading Welcome assurance:
“Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways welcomes Councillor Gary Hopkins’s assurance that the present level of service on the Severn Beach line will continue after the current contract between Bristol City Council and First Great Western ends in May 2011 (“Campaigners call for quick railway action”, Sept 15).
“We also welcome the news that the council is considering improving the service on the line. Any improvements, especially more evening trains or extending services across the city, would be very much appreciated by passengers.
“When the 40-minute service was originally planned in 2007, its introduction was delayed by six months because of the time taken to negotiate the contract. Now that the contract needs to be renegotiated, we have been anxious that there should not be a similar delay. We are therefore pleased to learn that negotiations have started.
“The 60 per cent increase in ticket sales since 2007 should make it possible to reach a deal that will benefit all parties. Since First now receives substantially increased revenue from the line, it should be possible both to reduce the council’s expenditure and to introduce improvements.”