About time ...

As you may have seen in the local media FOSBR is running a postcard campaign to reopen the rail line to Portishead and the line between Avonmouth and Bristol Parkway via Henbury. Funding will become available from the government for transport priorities in the South West region in the new year. We want the West of England Partnership (ex-Avon authorities) to include them in the bid. Only items high up the regional list will receive funding. Previous funding bids have been exclusively road-based. Since the government have refused to allow Network Rail to fund these schemes, this is the only way. We think that we have a good chance, but need your support.
The postcard is now available on the FOSBR website here.

Please print it from the website, fold it in half and tape it together before you send it to the West of England Partnership. Sorry, but you'll need to provide a stamp!

Besides getting people out of their cars and into quick and efficient public transport, there are several good reasons to support the campaign

These rail links would provide a cross-city service and a new link between the Severn Beach line and Bristol Parkway.

There has been much talk about Rapid Transit. This is the original rapid transit: Filton Abbeywood to Temple Meads in 8 minutes & Parson St to Stapleton Rd in 12 minutes!

Greater Bristol rail stations have seen passenger numbers double in the ten years to 2004/5. There have been further significant increases since then. Since Bristol City Council put money into the Severn Beach line to increase the service in May, numbers increased by 30% in three months. The demand is there.

Portishead's traffic and that into Bristol along the A370 is notorious. The Henbury line runs close to major employers including Rolls Royce, Airbus and Royal Mail at Filton and would provide a public transport alternative where none may exist at present.

Road accidents!

The West of England Partnership (representing ex-Avon authorities) estimate that congestion costs local businesses £350 million a year.

Government funding will be allocated for new transport schemes in the new year but our local decision-makers must submit a bid for it prioritising the schemes they want. This gives local councillors the chance to show that they are interested in schemes other than roads and buses.

For those who see such things as important, at roughly £20 million this proposal compares very well with road schemes.

What you can do:

Please send the postcard to the West of England Partnership.

If you want physical (rather than electronic) cards to send or to give to other people please let me know and I will arrange to get them to you. The more people who are involved the better.

Please foward this email to your friends and anyone who may be interested.

If you are involved with trade unions or other organisations please would you ask your colleagues to send cards and if the organisation will issue a statement of support as that would be wonderful!

For those interested, there is a Facebook group about the Portishead Railway campaign which can be found here. There is a copy of the postcard available here too.

Originally posted on somerset and dorset

norfolk transport modernisation

(Photos Salhouse on Sheringham BR branch, 30.7.1984)

If you think restoring Bath to Bournemouth has some issues for the future spare a thought for the Norfolk Orbital Railway which plans to link the BR Norwich-Sheringham line to the North Norfolk and Mid-Norfolk Railways. This will create a huge loop around northern Norfolk, bringing modern transport back to this neglected corner of England and operating both commuter and heritage trains. I can foresee that their biggest problem will be line capacity.

There was a programme on TV about this last night. Most were in support of it, but amazingly Peak Oil was only mentioned once!

Originally posted on somerset and dorset

boris bottles it

Poor Boris Johnson. The one person further to the left than Ken Livingstone ... and poor London's stuck with him.

What's the duffer gone and done now? Only cancelled nearly 3bn quid's worth of tramway development in London. What is he thinking of? And to replace these superb schemes - more buses (LOL!) and more provision for walking and cycling (cheap).

It's simple. A city isn't a city without trams. It's a joke. The problem was the plans just scrapped by Boris were nowhere near ambitious enough. London doesn't need a few km of tramways here and there, but a huge network reaching every corner of the city, plus extensions into commuterland, to totally replace the road network. Perhaps backwards-looking Boris simply doesn't get it.

London WILL get its trams, or die. It's just going to take a few more years than expected.

Bye bye Boris. You were fun for a week or two ...

Originally posted on Panther Bites!

radstock petition

I've no idea why in 2008 this should be needed anywhere, least of all a large urban area like Radstock/Midsomer Norton, but here we go!

We now have little time, perhaps only two weeks in which to save the land required for this link for use as a proper connection to the national network. If you feel strongly about ‘green’ transport or regeneration of the small rural town of Radstock, please go to www.northsomersetrailway.com/ and sign the petition. Of course, if you have already done so, please accept my thanks and apologies.
I am sure you will understand if I ask you to pass on this message to your friends and colleagues.

Yours sincerely,

George Bailey
North Somerset Railway, North Somerset Heritage Trust

Originally posted on somerset and dorset

majorca shows us how!

Not a tram, but at least looks right! The Soller Railway takes to the street in Palma.



Typical off-peak bus loadings between Palma and Arenal.


Old fashioned bus in the streets of Palma.

Current public transport option (expensive, slow and infrequent) on the future tram route (Palma-Airport-Arenal).

The authorities on Majorca have realised that the island needs to embrace rail to move forwards. At the moment there is a diesel worked line from Palma to Inca and Manacor. This is (currently) all that remains of a more extensive network - but restoration has already taken place between Inca and Manacor. There is also the (mainly) tourist route from Palma to Soller, and the tramway onwards to Port Soller. These two systems have adjacent terminals in Palma, off the Placa d'Espanya. There is also the newly opened metro line from Palma to the University.

But this is just the start. There are plans to build a route to Alcudia linking to a coastal light railway linking C'an Picafort and Puerto Pollensa. In the south there are proposals for another (more southerly) route linking Palma and Manacor, together with a metro line around the west of Palma.

Most interesting to us, as we've just returned from the area, is the advanced proposal for a tramway linking Palca d'Espanya to the airport and then on to the Playa de Palma and on to Arenal.

We used the buses to get from our hotel to Palma, and they were a nightmare. And this was in the off-peak low season! Many buses simply sailed through the bus stop showing a 'Bus Complet' board, meaning totally full. We waited in Palma for an hour and ten minutes for a bus back to Playa - all were full, and this on a route with a bus every ten minutes! And at three in the afternoon.

This is a sure sign of a route's viability for tram replacement! Trams handle far more passengers than buses ever can. There are plans to start building this line within a year. To me that's still too long!

After Peak Oil Majorca will, if these plans (and more) come to fruition, cope pretty well with the movement of freight and passengers in an energy-poor world. We may no longer be able to fly there, but hopefully in twenty year's time we'll be able to take the ferry from the mainland, pick up a tram at the port and reach every part of the island by sustainable transport.

Originally posted on Panther Bites!

what rail revival means!

These are scenes taken in Swanage last Wednesday - an ordinary mid-week day out of season. Watch the way the crowds spill off the train and into the streets (and shops!)

The Swanage Railway is a 'real' railway, many of the visitors use the train to avoid the narrow streets and high parking charges in Swanage. The trains run nearly every day of the year. But there again, why shouldn't they? Swanage is a fairly large seaside town and it was mad to take it off the network in the first place. I actually travelled on the last day it was in socialist ownership, 2 January 1972. I'd also travelled a few weeks before that and it was a sad sight. The line was just one long siding, Swanage station was decrepit and the trains were all but empty. That was nationalisation in action. There was no local management, no scope for local enterprise and no vision. BR was just desperate to get rid of this branch line. That was the 60s and 70s for you.

Today many medium to large seaside resorts still have no railway. Bude, Ilfracombe, Lyme Regis, Hunstanton, Mablethorpe, Hayling Island, Padstow (incredibly!) and many more. As the oil runs out they will be stranded just as visitor levels would naturally increase - all these towns need to be reconnected now, not in 10 or 20 years time. With the end of civilian air travel we'll still need our holidays, and we'll need the trains to get where we're going. This craven government needs to own up and start rebuilding the network or, better still, make sure local initiatives do the job for them.

going underground

There are plans to divert freight traffic from the roads to rail in western Germany which will involve setting up 'miniature' railways in tunnels and transfer freight on pallets to them. This will be an excellent way to free up roads and to reduce pollution and oil wastage. But it's hardly a new idea! Chicago was years ahead on this, with 60 miles of tunnels freeing up the roads. But the lines - unbelievably - closed!

Even backwards London had a wonderful system that took traffic off the roads - the Post Office Railway. Amazingly this line was closed (or rather mothballed - even Britain isn't THAT stupid!) in May 2003. Expect reopening very soon!

the dinosaur tendency

Okay, I'm straying off transport here, but it is relevant!

One of the saddest things I encounter these days is when someone who I have up to now regarded as reasonably intelligent starts spouting the old myths and denials that until about five years ago were coming from Climate Change 'sceptics'.

In the context of Peak Oil this usually involves reeling off a list of exotic (and incredibly expensive!) alternatives to cheap oil - tar sands, the Arctic, biofuels, hydrogen, electric cars etc - and assuming that technology will solve the energy crisis 'like it always does'. Tell them that we've never been in this position before and they don't get it. They've been conditioned to believe that life, ever since we emerged from the prehistoric swamps, has been an endless and exponential journey of 'progress'. Explain that this has never been the case, that it's been two steps forward and one step backwards, or that countless civilizations have completely collapsed, and again they don't get it.

Notice that nobody denies that cheap oil is running out any more. Oil at $120+ a barrel has stopped that lunacy. But too many people still believe that technology will 'save' us. They won't understand that technology itself depends on an ever-available supply of cheap oil to keep going.

But give them time. Cheap oil is now, I believe, a thing of the past. We have no choice but to totally reorder the way we live our lives to take this fact into account. We all know people that were arch Climate Change deniers just five years ago, who now are some of the biggest advocates for alleviating Climate Change. The more people think about what is happening the more they will come round and start planning for a real future, rather than one of flying cars, space travel and a worldwide middle class.

roads - an exercise in nostalgia

Roads today - congested, full of untrained drivers, expensive and killing the atmosphere ...



Already a common sight, and becoming commoner.



Soon those of us left with the means will have little choice but to use one of these.



What will replace roads.

Roads are an endangered species, not just cars, lorries and buses. Very few people seem to have twigged this yet, even within Transition. The problem is that roads need a certain level of traffic to make them viable. Within a few years traffic will have fallen off so far thanks to Peak Oil that in most cases it will not be economically viable to maintain roads, particularly bearing in mind that roads themselves need oil to be built and maintained. There will be a vicious downward spiral as more and more cars lay idle in drives and as the clamours for reinstated rail get louder and louder. The tax take will fall and roads will begin to fall into disrepair. Soon many will only be suitable for 4x4s - ironically! Some roads will be converted to railways, others to cycleways or bridleways, but most will simply vanish.

This is why I believe there is no long term future for any form of powered road transport as the oil runs out. There is no way the alternatives, even if they can be made to work economically, would ever be on the same scale as the internal combustion engine. There will be a point when government will have to take the unpopular step of closing roads. So talk of biodiesel, fuel cells and electric cars will all fall at this hurdle, even if it were possible to produce small quantities of them (and find the raw materials, energy and skills to build them) there will be nowhere for them to run.

The land transport future is clearly walking, cycling, horse, light rail (electric) and heavy rail (electric and steam). Transport policy has to revolve around these options, assigning any others to the pages of the petroleum interlude history books.

Tavistock gets ready to rejoin the network

1972 - old rails and a southern green sign - and no trains to Callington!


1972 - Bere Alston.


1972 - the current branch destination, Gunnislake.


1973 - Bow station on the section towards Exeter.

There is a real buzz in Tavistock as reinstatement of their railway, closed 40 years ago, comes even closer to fruition. The deal is that 750 homes get built alongside the line with the route reinstated back to Bere Alston. The cost is a mere £18.5 million, and much of this is for legal arrangements etc. The actual cost of physical restoration of the line is a good deal lower. The road from Tavistock down to Plymouth is a nightmare in the rush hour, this really is a no-brainer.

Of course the route never should have closed in the first place. As well as serving both Tavistock and Okehampton the Plymouth-Exeter line was very useful as a diversionary route when the vulnerable coastal route between Dawlish and Teignouth was blocked. This is now a regular occurence with sea level rise. When the route is blocked then most of Devon and Cornwall is cut off from the rest of the country. The closure was also particularly stupid as much of the line remained in any case - the stretch from Plymouth to Bere Alston for the Gunnislake trains, and the stretch from Crediton to Okehampton for passengers trains (to 1972, since reinstated) and beyond to Meldon for freight. What were they thinking of? And why cut Tavistock off just for the sake of a few miles?

Of course with Tavistock in the bag talk is now of rebuilding the whole route. I suspect that within ten years serious consideration will also be given to restoring the Teign Valley route (Exeter to Newton Abbot) to provide yet another alternative to the coastal route. This route is hardly likely to be able to cope with future traffic even WITHOUT Peak Oil - with most of us forced out of our cars within the next ten years it can't come a minute too soon!

And how long before Bude, Padstow, Bideford and Ilfracombe are clamouring for the return of their trains?

rail + cycle, never rail v cycle!

A dinosaur comment near Bitton, spotted this week. Whether it's the work of a petrolhead hippy, a demented cyclist, an ironic trainspotter or a NIMBY local, it's very wrong! (Notice also the spelling error). In reality rail and cycle are the twin drivers for future transport. Cycling is low or nil energy intensive, healthy and has no great impact on the environment. Rail will serve other uses - carrying large amounts of freight between communities and taking people further distances than they can cycle. In many cases rail and cycleway will run alongside each other.

I used to be very active in a rail reinstatement group, but there was a huge amount of suspicion about Sustrans. But Sustrans have a clear policy on rail reinstatement which I'm unable to improve on!


This is the Bristol-Bath cycleway, which is apparently the busiest in the UK. For about three miles the Avon Valley Railway runs alongside. This railway will inevitably link Bristol and Bath again in the future.


This is the Norton Radstock Greenway between the two towns. This is built on an old railway track and is level and popular with both walkers and cyclists. Hopefully one day it will link Frome with South Bristol again - with both bikes and trains. The Radstock-Midsomer Norton conurbation has a population of over 25,000 but, incredibly, has NO railway. Once both towns had two stations each. Midsomer Norton South station has been magnificently restored and trains should return to Radstock from the south within ten years. There are also plans to restore the line between Frome and Radstock.


Seen yesterday on the walkway, a friendly robin! You'd probably neither have the time or chance to photograph this on a road.

a cheap way of getting trains from a to b!

Just run 'em down the road! This is done even today, and in the USA of all places. This is Michigan City where the interurban trains run right down the street - an incredibly cheap and easy way of introducing rail that avoids land costs and new engineering. Although this film is from 1995 this line is not only still running but flourishing, using electricity and hardly seeming to bother road traffic. After Peak Oil with far less traffic on the roads this will be an increasingly common sight, allowing railways to reach places easily and linking markets and populations quickly and cheaply.

relaunch!

Too many blogs, that's my problem! Which explains the long gap between posts. But this one (formerly 'rail revival') is now about to relaunch!

Yesterday we went to our first Transition meeting, for Transition City Bristol. It was clear that here were a group of people that knew what they were talking about and who were willing to look positively at the HUGE changes that lie ahead for us all. They were as far removed from the tree-hugging hippy lefty stereotypes that often haunt 'environmental' groups as possible! These were business people, academics, family types, good solid level-headed characters all. But then there is a big gap between environmentalists and those of us that look beyond everyday mundane issues like recycling and towards the huge economic and structural changes that the end of cheap oil, coupled with wildly unpredictable weather, are going to bring.

Transition is currently very much a horizontal development, but to my mind it also needs vertical structures as well, offering expert information and ideas on the elements of the transition that will be of great importance - food production, law and order, education, health, protection from the elements and, of course, transport.

I think Transition Transport UK is the first development along these lines. At the moment it's just a facebook group and a blogsite - but it will grow, just like the Transition movement has!