Swanage connection gets funding


Harman’s Cross station on the


Swanage Railway heritage line


improvements, as it is planning to re-signal the route through Dorset in 2012.


Dorset and Purbeck councils found the money with just hours to spare – it will come partly from a tax on future developments in the area. The Swanage Railway is one of


by Paula Bedminster


A branch line severed by British Rail in 1972 is to be re-connected to the national rail network, allowing regular services. At present, a restricted freight-


only line allows a handful of trains each year to creep at 10 miles an


hour from Worgret junction, west of Wareham, onto the heritage railway. The little-used freight track leads to sidings for an oil terminal at Furzebrook. Network Rail gave a consortium


of local councils, rail and tourism groups until the end of July to come up with £3m to fund signalling


the region’s most popular tourist attractions, bringing £10m a year to the Purbeck economy. The 30 staff and 500 volunteers who run the railway have long held the ambition of running timetabled diesel-hauled services onto the main line at Wareham, connecting with South West Trains services on the London to Weymouth line. They also want to run trains to Poole and Bournemouth. The successful outcome has surprised everyone involved. Until the last moment it had seemed unlikely the money would be found, with local authorities facing big spending cuts. ‘We hope to run seven trains


a day,’ explains Mike Whitwam, director of the Swanage Railway. ‘That’s roughly one every two hours.


Rail ‘much cheaper than car travel’


Travelling by train is much cheaper than going by car, according to new research by the University of Southampton.


A study of hundreds of journeys shows that for a family of four people using a railcard, taking the car is twice as expensive as going by train. For a single business traveller, the car is three times more costly.


The university’s Transportation


Research Group, commissioned by Atoc, found that four out of five trips worked out cheaper by rail. Simon Blainey, who led the


project, said: ‘Travelling by rail is sometimes perceived as being an expensive choice, but in many cases it is far more economical than driving, even before the costs of car purchase are taken into account.’ Blainey tested 208 travel scenarios on 32 routes with journeys planned on the day, and then three, 10 and 45 days in advance. The research considered the full costs of car travel, including fuel, tyres, maintenance and parking charges.


Blainey concluded: ‘For the individual business traveller, rail has a large and significant cost advantage over car travel when departing on the shoulder of the morning peak, with car travel, on average, twice as expensive when tickets are purchased on the day


of travel, and over three times as expensive when tickets can be booked 45 days in advance. ‘Even when complete flexibility


of arrival and departure times is required (ie travelling at the height of the peak periods) there is, on average, no significant difference between the costs of rail and car travel. ‘The situation is less clear-cut


for leisure travellers. Rail travel was found to be slightly cheaper than car travel for two adults travelling together. ‘Rail’s cost advantage was


greater when a family of four travelled together using a Family and Friends Railcard, with car travel, on average, between 32 per cent and 114 per cent more expensive.’ The findings are in contrast to


comments from passenger groups, who have pointed out that since privatisation, the cost of rail travel has risen faster than the cost of motoring in real terms.


We are in the final stages of building a new signal box at Corfe Castle, which will be connected directly to Network Rail.


‘This is about turning a tourist


attraction into an everyday railway, and in particular it is about opening up an area where the roads are extremely congested in summer.’ There will be further costs involved if the line speed on the freight-only section is to be increased.


‘This is ticking all the boxes,’


says Alan Power, chairman of the Swanage & Purbeck Hospitality Association. ‘It brings employment, it boosts the economy, it improves the environment and it makes it possible for people to reach higher education from this small, relatively inaccessible coastal town. As well as bringing more tourists, it helps students and job seekers to get out to Poole and Bournemouth.’ The Swanage Railway, working


with South West Trains and Network Rail, believes the services, withdrawn almost 40 years ago, will be running again by 2013.


Passenger numbers up


n


The number of passengers using UK railways is


increasing steadily, representing a turning point for the rail industry, according to research by Atoc. During the first six months of


the year, the number of passenger journeys rose by 33 million – more than five per cent, according to t he figures.


This significant increase in


demand for rail travel has not been witnessed since before the recession. During the first quarter of the


year, passenger journeys rose by 4.4 per cent year-on-year, while journeys rose even further during the second quarter (April to June), up to 6.1 per cent.


Meanwhile, twice as many


passengers and double the current amount of freight are predicted to be using the railways by 2035, according to Planning Ahead, a new document prepared by an industry steering group led by Network Rail, Atoc and the Rail Freight Operators’ Association.


PAGE 6 SEPTEMBER 2010


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