Richard Pill’s Post

https://lnkd.in/exz6itXr BRTA wants local rail solutions and local rail reopenings. Yes, there is the bigger picture, but local connectivity into a joined-up national and international rail network is where it all begins for people and goods. We have the Channel Tunnel now, but we need more radial rail links and obital of #London for example to enable passenger and freight more by rail. The government should give any emergent new organisation for rail, the task of "decluttering the motorweay network of lorries and cars" and build the rail links to enable that. Likewise we need a new parallel railway for people and goods semi fast from Felixstowe- West Midlands alongside the A14. In the north, we have an agenda for reopenings, but the system is costing and failing to deliver, as if it was just about ticking boxes, #Colne-#Skipton would have been given the go ahead prior to this General Election, why the delay? There's about 20 other reopenings in the queue of a similar nature including Woodhead! Modern railways for modern markets and usage. Can't live on scenery or past glories, we need graft to resolve today's issues and invest in a rail-future.

We applaud the Greater Wellington Regional Council for upholding principles of accessibility on their bus network: "... on-board announcements are a step that is extremely important to getting closer to making our public transport the accessible network we want. "Accessibility is not merely a matter of convenience; it is a fundamental right." #AccessMattersNZ #AccessMattersAotearoa #AccessLawRightNow #accessibility #A11y https://lnkd.in/g-MHh4jW

https://lnkd.in/erSKRXQi BRTA wants people to write/email both The Owners of The Retail Park at Kempston (Bedford area) and request they and the Bedford Borough Unitary Council update the 2001 study which showed the idea of a station adjacent to the Retail Park on the Bedford-Bletchley Railway would boost rail usership by 100 extra people per day. It would also put Kempston area on the rail map, with Oxbridge Arc access, benefits and employment options more. What is to lose? See https://lnkd.in/erSKRXQi for our own Report. 23 tears is a long time and stats would be even more positive as land use parking restrictions kick in and congestion queues loom back to A6 Junction (Elstow). Modal shift can only come through modal choice and environment means rail like no other is required!

Reposting a great post from our fab supply chain lead Neil Statham - have a read. What do you think? Comment below. Don’t forget if you want to talk about joining our supplier network connect with Neil for a chat.

Last night I chaired a meeting of the Communities & Transport scrutiny committee, where we discussed a range of topics including: 📝 𝗩𝗖𝗙𝗦𝗘 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀: Reviewing the impact and future plans for our Voluntary, Community, Faith, and Social Enterprise sector, focusing on investment, capacity building, and fostering community power. 📊 𝗔𝗻𝘁𝗶-𝗣𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘆 𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲: Exploring the latest initiatives to support low-income households, including a new school uniform offer and the adoption of the socio-economic duty, which Stockport Labour have been pushing for. ❄️ 𝗚𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗚𝗿𝗶𝘁 𝗕𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁: Reviewing the current strategy and ensuring that our areas are adequately prepared for severe winter weather. 🛣️ 𝗔𝟲 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗼𝗿 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆𝘀: Delving into plans to invest in improvements to the A6 corridor, focusing on improving bus journey times and crossing points for pedestrians and cyclists.  🚋 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗥𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆: Discussing the future of public transportation in our region and how we can improve connectivity by investing in new and improved rapid transit, including securing Metrolink to Stockport. Most our time was focused on discussing the A6 corridor scheme, with the debate concentrating on whether the plans go far enough to encourage a real modal shift towards active travel and proactively contribute to the council's aim to become carbon neutral by 2038. A set of recommendations have been proposed by the committee to ask the Cabinet Member to consider what further measures can be applied during the development of the detailed design stage to ensure the scheme does as much as possible to promote and encourage a shift towards active travel. This is very much the beginning of the committee's work on this, with the topic of cycling infrastructure being the subject of our annual scrutiny review.  

🌟Building consensus to deliver social impact: how a new partnership between government and business will drive transformative change Our ambitious campaign to embed positive social impact in every corner of the country was the focus of our reception in Parliament yesterday, hosted by The Purpose Coalition in partnership with Lumo and Hull Trains, and attended by leading employers and Members of Parliament from across the country.  📊 Our new interim report, "Lowering Barriers to Opportunity: Current Innovations for a Better Britain," was launched, highlighting innovative efforts to drive equality of opportunity across the UK, especially in the most deprived areas. 🚆 Lumo and Hull Trains, pioneers in open-access rail operations, showcased their commitment to breaking down barriers and offering more affordable, sustainable, and high-quality rail services. Their initiatives are not just transforming travel but are also fostering regional growth and creating new job opportunities. 🌍 Chair of the Breaking Down Barriers Commission, Nick Forbes CBE, emphasised the need for collaboration between employers and the government to create a fairer, more inclusive future. 💬 Martijn Gilbert, MD of Lumo and Hull Trains, reiterated their dedication to connecting communities and supporting economic development through their rail services. Read more: https://lnkd.in/dwkZgCW6 #BreakingDownBarriers #SocialImpact #Community #RailInnovation #Lumo #HullTrains #PurposeCoalition #InclusiveGrowth #ThePurposeCoalition

"If you have no bus service or a rubbish bus service and it becomes free, you’re not helping someone" - Michael Pidgeon (Green Party councillor for Dublin) (more from his interview) Ireland is ripe for easy solutions: 1. Ireland should copy Brussels’ approach, where zebra crossings are usable on almost every street corner. This is one example of a relatively quick and low-cost way of improving transport infrastructure for people in the city and beyond.  2. Another piece of low-hanging fruit that Pidgeon believes should be tackled is improving bus priority. More here: https://lnkd.in/gxzE_tcP

Strategic direction is vitally important for any organisation - it helps define the core purpose and keeps the focus when there is so much noise around us. One of the priorities in our Waikato Regional Council 2023 - 2025 Strategic Direction, is Community Connections, which is described as: vibrant communities that are well connected with each other and to services. A key enabler of this strategy is the Waikato Public Transport Business Improvement Review. This review began in 2021, and continues to be worked through today. One of the steps in this journey of providing good Public Transport (PT) to a growing and diverse region is simplifying how we rate for PT. As part of the 2024 - 2034 Long Term Plan our Council resolved to collect a regional rate for public transport. This regional rating enables our strategy to be realised with better connected communities across territorial boundaries. We are now looking for feedback from our communities as to what that regional rate could look like. https://lnkd.in/gighCEbd From 1 July 2025, we’re changing the way bus, community transport and Total Mobility services are rated for in the Waikato region. These services provide access to education, employment, recreation, healthcare and more, while also helping to cut congestion, improve road safety and reduce carbon emissions. The cost of providing public transport is covered through a mix of fares, central government funding and rates. Our staff have been developing three regional rating models in partnership with local councils, and we now want to test them with our communities to see if we’re on the right track. When developing these three options, we’ve kept six principles in mind. Public transport is a public good: Good public transport benefits everyone, so we all pay something, even if we don’t use it. Fairness: What people pay reflects the benefits, costs and affordability of rates. Efficiency: The rating model should be simple to administer. Transparency: People should be able to understand how their rates are calculated. Future-fit: The rating model should be able to adapt to future changes in the transport network. Boundary-less: Services should meet community needs, regardless of city and district boundaries. The feedback we receive here will be collated and shared with regional councillors during a workshop in December. We’ll then refine the rating model options ahead of formal consultation with our communities in April 2025, before moving to regional rating from 1 July 2025 The survey closes at 5pm on Wednesday, 27 November https://lnkd.in/gighCEbd

A new timetable to be introduced on Sunday, 2 June, will see improvements for customers throughout the country, helping to ensure rail remains one of the easiest and sustainable ways to travel. There will be almost 100 additional services each weekday, including trains to new stations at Cameron Bridge and Leven, which form part of the reopening of the Levenmouth rail link. A significant part of the changes sees a completely new timetable structure for Inverclyde, with 30 extra services every weekday, a more frequent service between Glasgow and Wemyss Bay, and better connections between rail and ferry at Gourock. Journey times will improve from North Fife to Edinburgh, while the number of seats provided between the Kingdom and Edinburgh increase from just under 16,000 in each direction each day, to more than 19,000. This will help to deliver opportunities for local people, unlocking access to education, culture, entertainment, and employment opportunities, as well as attracting new business and investment. Further improvements for customers include: • New 0805 Prestonpans to Waverley to increase morning peak capacity for commuters in East Lothian. • More weekend North Berwick services strengthened from four to six carriages. • Glasgow to Neilston, Newton, and Cathcart Circle evening services will increase in frequency from hourly to half hourly. • Glasgow to Alloa evening services will increase in frequency from hourly to half hourly. • 1050 Inverness to Edinburgh and 1033 Edinburgh to Inverness strengthened from three to five carriages on Saturdays, to match what operates Monday to Friday.

The British Regional Transport Association (BRTA) is a voluntary-based association and relies on a growing local-nationwide membership able to take local-regional responsibility to work together flexibly and compliantly with us to make progress with this much needed local rail link. Nationwide and regionally, we should reasonably expect councils, regional bodies and central government to pick up on these opportunities and make progress and lead from the front. Instead we are highlighting them in the hope that key bodies and individuals can see the opportunity on and off the rail and work with us to bring it about. Good ideas and observation is not enough, we need collaboration and a joint effort to build the necessary coalitions, gather support and share the load and responsibility. BRTA has the power to facilitate, but it is local people upwards who have the ability to determine and push the railway through! The following may be observed: 1. BRTA is focusing on Guildford-Cranleigh-Horsham with an Arundel Curve for South Coast access to and from. If our effort is superseded by a larger body or campaign, they may do phases or a wide gamut with a new direct bridge over the Horsham-Arundel line and a new-build to Shoreham serving growing towns and populations between the two via the old route in addition to a curve for direct running into Horsham and on to the Arundel direction. 2. Local commute and visitorship from and to Guildford, Cranleigh and Horsham as a local focus would be advantageous given our precious few resources. 3. Regionally Reading and beyond to Brighton and Portsmouth respectively and a shuttle linking Gatwick-Three Bridges-Horsham-Guildford-Heathrow from the south, gives more flexibility. 4. North Downs Line is not undermined, it is doing a roaring trade, but needs infill third rail electrification and Thameslinks from East Croydon to run semi-fast into Guildford and maybe extended to Reading as well. That in turn frees diesel units for strengthening and additional services elsewhere. 5. Our AGM in July 2025 will be held at Guildford and we aim to have 2 principal speakers and all will be welcome to it. 6. It is naïve to think ‘instant’ for such projects as this, they are incremental in a context of some hostility to notions of reopenings both within and outside the rail industry and government itself. For example the Office for Road and Rail (ORR) have a policy against local level crossings for reopenings, demanding expensive bridges and duck-unders for new-build. That puts costs up and is disproportionate when evidence exists to indicate that as long as roadside abuse and proper maintenance is done, level crossings 98% are a safe, cheap and useful alternative. Bridges get bashed and concrete can erode over time with concrete cancer. 7. Please write/email to your MP’s and ask them to support BRTA where you live. https://lnkd.in/dyDcHUQF richard.brta@gmail.com