Redlands Liberal Democrats

First Great Western Public Meeting

As luck would have it I was struck down with laryngitis yesterday, just in time for the public meeting I helped organise on FGW, so, as it was I wasn't able to give voice to my ongoing frustration with FGW's substandard London-Reading train service quite as much as I would have liked. Luckily there was a microphone at the meeting!

The presentation given by Andrew Haines, Chief Operating Officer, was pretty much as expected, with lots about 'jam tomorrow' i.e. things are improving and in ten years things will be much better. Like many people who spoke at the meeting, I spend my life hoping I won't have to use these trains every day for the next decade at the current level of service.

Needless to say there was some very good questions put to Mr Haines by regular commuters about stuff all of us are very familiar with: overcrowding, over-priced tickets and lack of reliability. The general message Mr Haines was getting was:

"The current service you are providing is not value for money compared to other train services into London"

I made the point that at present FGW is more accountable to its shareholders than the 6,000+ people who travel from Reading to London daily on its trains and that this was the reason the Lib Dems in Reading tabled a motion to Council in the first place: as an attempt to bridge the accountability gap.

I also said that, as a season ticket holder, I did not find being offered off peak perks made up for the constant delays etc we have to put up with. I may be in a minority on this one but how often am I likely to want to go to Cornwall for a day trip (for £10)? Give me a guaranteed 25 minute journey into London every day and you can keep your cream teas!

Myself and a number of others present pressed Mr Haines to return to Reading in the near future to update us about service improvements, and to listen once again to people who use his trains.

It is likely another meeting will be held in a year (I would have preferred 6 months, but anyway).

Afterwards I met the local blogger behind Reading Roars who has written up a good account of the meeting here.

Overall, the turnout at the meeting was slightly disappointing: something we can learn from if we hold future meetings.

I was also surprised and disappointed that none of the Labour Councillors present (including the Lead Member for Transport), bothered to put a single question to Mr Haines on any issues relating to the quality of his train service.

It was also notable that our local MP and Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Reading East failed even to turn up to the meeting to listen to commuters' concerns.

This is sad when you think of what a massive issue the current poor train service is to people you talk to who live in Reading and says a lot of local 'representative' democracy in the town. As a councillor I think it is vitally important that the borough Council debates issues that are relevent to local people.

Rest assured that the Lib Dems will continue to keep the pressure on FGW to improve it's Reading services, as well as doing all we can to ensure that the views of Reading's travelling public continue to be heard.

First Great Western: Have your say!

You may remember the Lib Dem campaign earlier in the year calling for First Great Western (FGW) to be held to account for it's poor performance. The Council backed our call unanimously and we are pleased to invite you this Thursday to a public meeting to discuss this issue.

This is a very important event and I believe the first of it's kind to be held in Reading.

First Great Western is officially the UK's worst-performing rail company, and thousands of people travelling from Reading to London every day (and I should know as I am one of them!) have had to put up with increasing fairs and declining standards.

Plenty has been written in the press etc about this issue but the Lib Dems in Reading felt that it was high time that Reading commuters were given a chance to quiz FGW bosses and for FGW to explain to us what they planned to do to improve the experience of travelling on their trains.

This one-off Special Scrutiny Meeting will be held this Thursday at 7pm in the Victoria Hall, at the Town Hall in Reading. Cllr Ricky Duveen and I, both commuters, campaigned for this meeting to be held at a sensible time and at a convenient venue so that people commuting to and from Reading station could attend.

If you cannot attend the meeting but would like to submit a question please use the Council's online form which is available here.

New 'cleaner' buses

RBC have just introduced a fleet of new buses to replace those on the No. 17 route. So what's so special about that? Well, they run on ethanol which when burnt in a combustion engine emit lower levels of carbon dioxide.

This is a good start, and the RBC officers have thought this through by opting for ethanol from an industrial waste stream. Locally, it will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released from buses in Reading.

The ethanol they are using is made by fermenting by-products from the sugar beet refining process. Although ethanol does indeed give off less carbon dioxide when burnt in an engine (60g per MJ Vs. 85g per MJ for petrol), unfortunately, the fermentation process also yields carbon dioxide - and requires electricity leading to further carbon dioxide emission.

Despite the  higher octane value you also need about 50 % more ethanol to drive the same distance using petrol. So the new No. 17 have larger tanks - so can carry fewer people and has less room for disabled travellers.

The other problem is that to supply the EU with enough ethanol to replace petrol, about 70-80 % of the worlds food crops would have to be converted to fuel crops. It is this land usage change which is the most controversial - leading to high food costs and reduced supply.

Furthermore, although using ethanol as a fuel doesn't lead to particulate emission NO2 can be emitted which can cause photochemical smog.

But as I said at the beginning, this is a good short term project until new technologies such as fuel cells become available.

Bus Shelters and Anti-social Behaviour

First of all congratulations to Glenn who joins Daisy and I as Councillor for Redlands, and thanks to everyone who gave him their help and support!

Bus stops and shelters in the ward seem to be a real focus of anti-social behaviour. We have reported repeated vandalism on Erleigh Rd, Addington Rd and Redlands Rd. This vandalism often takes the form of graffiti, sometimes it involves the destruction of parts of the shelter (e.g. smashed glass or burnt litter bins). Sorry to say I reported another incident yesterday.

What is also now happening is that young people are drinking before they head into town, which means that when they wait at bus stops to travel in, they can be very noisy. This intimidates passers-by and annoys local residents. I myself have been shouted at while passing the bus stop in Craven Road after dark.

At the upcoming Redlands and University Neighbourhood Action Group, we will be studying a bus stop problem in a nearby ward, which has been highlighted by the Police, and coming up with a plan of action. I will commit to following up with the learnings from this to other stops in Redlands, to start to bring this problem to an end.

Holding FGW to account...

I attended a meeting of the Council's Corporate,Community and External Affairs (CCEA) Panel this evening, of which I'm a member.

Following last month's successful Lib Dem motion to Council on First Great Western's poor performance, tonight we were discussing how a public meeting might be structured.

I disagreed with Labour councillors the majority of whom seemed to want to keep public participation and this event to a minimum (why?) and argued that Reading commuters should be allowed to have their say. For some reason these councillors seemed to think that the meeting should comprise of experts and pre-submitted questions from members of the public who would be given 'a slot'.

I argued that any meeting should not be allowed to become a PR presentation about the future of Reading Station by Network Rail, but that it should stay focussed on the key issue of the day: the shocking performance of FGW. Rail travellers in Reading are always being promised 'jam tomorrow' of one form of another, whether it be Crossrail or improvements to Reading Station. This doesn't necessarily make people feel any better when they are having to put up with poor performance now. 

The meeting secured by the Reading LIb Dems is the first chance Reading commuters have had to put FGW on the spot and it is this accountability which has been fundamentally missing so far. I declare an interest here as an 'angry commuter' myself, but I feel strongly that it is in the public interest for this issue, which effects thousands of Reading's travelling public, to be debated in public.

I also pointed out in the meeting to those councillors (both Labour and Tory) who fear a heated meeting on this subject, that it is actually in the Council's interest to be seen to be leading public debate and discussing those issues which really matter to people in Reading (rather than appearing to be insular and self-serving which is alway a risk in politics). 

There was consensus however that any public meeting should be followed by a kind of action plan by FGW detailing improvements (if any) they would be making to performance to benefit Reading commuters, with a view to a further report perhaps 3-6 months hence. Monitoring will be important to ensure that FGW honours any promises.

Interestingly, the Tory councillors continued with their 'what will a public meeting with FGW achieve?' line. Maybe they should talk to the thousands of Reading residents who use their services every day and who feel they have little say over these services. I think most would argue that it's about time FGW faced the music (after all most other public services have to), and as Ruth Kelly and Alistair Darling have said, FGW are on the last warning to improve or lose their franchise. Even if RBC is not in a position to make acutal demands of train companies or other private bodies, it can make it's presence felt as the representative body of the Reading population as a whole and add it's voice to the chorus of disapproval across the Country about FGW's services.Privatised or not, our rail services are still pretty much public services and accountability must come with that. 

Our transport spokesman, Cllr RIcky Duveen, ended the discussion by pressing for the FGW public meeting to be held in a suitable venue (i.e. one large enough!) and at a suitable time (so that Reading's beleaguered commuters are able to attend!)

I will post the date of the meeting and other details here when I have them.

Campaigning for better bus services in Redlands

The Evening Post has an article today about Reading Buses' plan for cheaper bus travel on Sundays.

This is good news, but Reading Buses needs to go further: Kirsten and I have had lots of complaints from residents about the cost of bus travel in Reading and there is no doubt that this is putting a lot of people off from leaving their cars at home.

Despite moves last year to introduce free bus travel for teenagers, I think more needs to be done to make bus travel cheaper. Last time I checked the Facebook group against fare rises on Reading buses had over 600 members.

The trouble is, some parts of Reading are not served by a bus service on Sundays. My constituents who use the 19 Bus service from Erleigh Road into town being one group. One Redlands resident contacted me about this a few weeks ago and I share her frustration. Buses on 'Premier Routes' may be excellent but more needs to be done to improve bus services outside or on the edge of town.

I have written to Reading Buses Chairman Cllr Tony Jones twice about this and am currently waiting a response from him. I am also investigating the impact of recent changes to bus timetables that Reading Buses brought in recently to see if we can get more buses later in the evening on Route 19, so people can get home from town to Redlands after 6.45pm - a reasonable enough request I would have thought.

This issue came up in the consultation as part of the changes. This is what Reading Buses said in response:

"A number of respondents requested improvements to frequencies at rush hours and during the evenings on Services 20 and 21 and also on Services 18 and 19, together with links to Winnersh Triangle,

Royal

Berkshire

Hospital

and a Sunday service on the Loddon Bridge Fasttrack service.  Whilst we currently do not have the resources to improve service levels further, these suggestions will be reviewed when the opportunity arises to further improve services in the Earley and

Lower Earley

areas."

A predictable response I suppose. I will post any updates on this issue here.

Success as low floor buses arrive on Routes 63 and 64

IMG_0556, originally uploaded by cllrdaisybenson.

Great news this week as Reading Buses brought in the first ever accessible buses on Route 63 and 64 which link Reading and Woodley Town Centres. This follows campaigns by Lib Dems in Woodley and Reading.

I became aware of this issue after I was contacted last summer by a young mum from the London Road area who explained to me her difficulties getting on and off buses on Routes 63 and 64 with a young child and push chair. She was frustrated that the Woodley-Reading bus routes didn't have accessible buses when other bus service by Reading Buses did.

I got in touch with Tony Jones, Chairman of Reading Buses, about the problem and to his credit he and his new Chief Executive, James Freeman looked into the issue straight away.

I'm pleased to say that a few months on they have delivered on their promise to  me to get low floor buses on the road on Routes 63 and 64 as soon as possible. Very nice of them to paint the new buses Lib Dem orange too!

Beth Rowland, Lib Dem Leader of Woodley Town Council , has been campaigning for improvements to bus services between Woodley and Reading for many years and as a regular bus user she was as happy as I was to see the buses finally arrive.

Now to lobby Tony and James to improve the timetable on Route 19  so my constituents travelling home from the centre of Reading can get a bus after 18:45pm in the evening - not too much to ask is it?!

Better news on FGW

First Great Western Trains has announced today that it is to pay for more trains and better passenger compensation. This follows the paltry amount offered to season ticket holders in January.

We'll have to look at the detail, but I do hope that Reading passengers will get a fair deal. What everyone really wants (inlcluding me!) is a more reliable train service, and to a certain extent pledging 'jam tomorrow' by way of financial compensation will only go a small way to appeasing FGW customers.

The Reading Lib Dems kickstarted the local debate on FGW's performance last week.

I'd like to think we did our bit to add more pressure on this poor performing train operator to up it's game.

The public meeting the Council is now organising following our motion will give Reading's rail users their first real chance to hold FGW to account.

First Great Western to face the music

I'm pleased to say that the Lib Dem motion to Council on First Great Western's poor performance attracted all Party support on Tuesday evening. I joked that I had stood many times on the train to London with Members of both Parties (including the Leader of the Council!), due to the overcrowding problems.

On a more serious note I said that it was up to the Council to take a lead on issues that matter to Reading residents and send a message to FGW that the services they provide are not up to scratch.

As a result of our motion, a special meeting of the Council's Corporate Community External Affairs (CCEA) Panel will be set up and FGW will be invited to meet its critics - namely Reading commuters - in an open meeting.

I will post details here  of the meeting when I have them. I hope as many people who take the train from Reading station every day will attend and make their voices heard. I will do my best to ensure that the timing and location of the meeting is convenient (i.e. in the evening).

It will need to be somewhere large  enough. How about the Town Hall?

Lib Dem Motion to Council on First Great Western Trains

The Lib Dem Group on Reading Borough Council has tabled a motion to Council on First Great Western Trains to be debated tomorrow evening at 6.30pm at this month's Council meeting. Motions to Council are basically devices that any political group on the Council can use to get a topical issue on the agenda.

Cllr Ricky Duveen, our transport spokesman, is introducing our motion. I will second the motion and speak in the debate. As a regular commuter between Reading and London who has suffered the delays, overcrowding and fare rises experienced by Reading commuters, I have wanted us to raise FGW's diabolical performance for a long time - ever since I was elected in fact. I have seen what passenger groups have done in Bath and Bristol and would like to see Reading's MPs and other bodies do more to demand better service from FGW on behalf of local rail users.

A local resident living in central Reading emailed me about the performance of FGW trains as long ago as 2006, and underlines exactly why we have tabled this motion:

1. There are simply not enough seats to go round in standard class (firstclass always has places)

2. Far too many seats are pre-booked on Friday evenings which means season ticket holders miss out on seats again despite paying a much higher fare.

3. Costs are set to rise!! I wouldn't mind if this guaranteed me a more relaxing journey in the morning instead of the usual scrum to get the one or two available seats only to have to stand in cramped and uncomfortable conditions.

4. It feels like Reading commuters are subsidising everyone elses journey.We pay £3,500 pa for a 25 minute journey (when its running on time)

5. The 25 minute journey rarely happens.... the trains are poorly maintained, I got wet from a leaking window the other day and stuck on atrain for well over an hour on one journey as the brakes on the last carriage had failed.

I think it's really important that this major transport issue which affects the quality of life of so many Reading residents is debated by the Council. Transport is after all a local as well as national issue.

The Council ought to be discussing this type of thing regularly, including those issues which are on the fringes (or even outside) of the Borough's boundaries but nonetheless will have big impacts - the expansion of Heathrow is another example. Topical motions are a good way of debating current issues as can be seen by the recent Lib Dem motions on Post Office closures and empty homes.

Our FGW motion is very timely: Passenger pressure group More Train less strain reported today that FGW has been taken into special measures by the Department for Transport. This follows Alastair Darling's comments last week.

I've attached our motion below:

'This Council believes the First Great Western's performance in running the commuter route to London is well below par and that its are overpriced.

This Council recognises the bottleneck that is Reading Station and is 100% behind the reguilding project but also recognises that thousands of commters should not have to wait until this project is completed before receiving a fair deal.

This Council notes that:

a) The 9.5% increase in fares from Reading to London in January 2008 took the cost per mile of commuting to 38p, twice the cost of the cheapest costs in to London and even the cheap routs are hugely expensive compared to rail travel in Europe;

b) First Great Western also run the most overcrowded trains into London, running at 8.2* over capacity in 2006 (the year for which we have records);

c) First Great Western has a very poor record of customer satisfaction, despite the £200m of investment, slumping further in last year’s National Passenger Survey to a customer satisfaction rating of only 74%, against 90% plus for the best companies;

d) First Group made an annual profit of £108.8 million on its rail services in 2006 (up 36.7%) and increased its overall revenue from its operations to £3.7 billion (up to 22.4%)

in view of the above, this Council proposes:

a)      To direct the Chief Executive to write to the Chairman and Managing Director of First Great Western expressing the Council’s dismay at the poor service and overpriced fares and asking what improvements can be expected following the disastrous year of 2007 and

b)      To organise a public meeting in Reading and invite First Great Western to meet the long suffering commuters face to face

I really hope this motion gets all Party support tomorrow night.