The pilot project

The Community Rail Development Strategy

In 2004 the former Strategic Rail Authority consulted on the proposed new Community Rail Development Strategy. The response was positive and in November of that year the Strategy was launched.

As part of the Strategy it was decided to put particular effort into a number of Pilot Lines around the country, chosen to demonstrate how it may be applied in different contexts.

The Lines chosen were:

Seven objectives were established for the Abbey Line Pilot and work has been taken forward by a Client Group consisting of the Partnership, Network Rail and Department for Transport.

Success and disappointment

The pilot has been successful in demonstrating that community rail principles can be implemented on what is basically a commuter route on the margins of the London Conurbation.

There has been considerable growth in patronage - up around 22% since the establishment of the Partnership - 11% in the last year with patronage now at around 500,000 journeys p.a. Stations have also benefited from greater community involvement, local authority and rail industry investment.

A key issue on this line has been the frequency of the service. Currently trains generally run to a regular 45min frequency. An increased frequency would obviously be more attractive, and assuming a train every 30 minutes, the timetable would be much easier to remember.

Whilst a more frequent service would bring in extra revenue, it would also cost more. The two key drivers of cost are:

  1. the extra track and signalling required to allow two trains to pass
  2. the extra costs of running an additional train

The Client Group - with input from all of the members - have met regularly over the last three years and have worked up options for delivering extra services using the money available.

Unfortunately, whilst the costs have been reduced from earlier projections, it has not been possible to get a value for money solution to date, with both the capital and ongoing expenses exceeding the funds available.

So where do we go from here?

The Partnership and the wider Client Group have not given up on the idea of improved frequencies - but in the short term there is little prospect of progress working with convential heavy rail technology. We therefore intend to take the following steps:

  1. Write up the experience to date of work that has been done to investigate a higher frequency service - we do not want to waste what went before
  2. Continue to take forward the wider work of the Partnership (promotion, community involvement etc)
  3. Proactively seek opportunities for new approaches that may enable the delivery of the enhanced timetable at a lower cost.

At this stage, the most likely way forward for an enhanced frequency would appear to be using lighter rail technology.

The Department for Transport, Network Rail and Northern Rail are currently taking forward a trial of Tram-Train Technology on another Community Rail Line in Yorkshire which may demonstrate a viable alternative to conventional heavy rail. Tram-Trains (rail based vehicles which can run on both light and heavy rail systems) are already in use in Europe and should be running in Yorkshire in 2010.