Friends of the Derwent Valley Line - Microsoft



Friends of the Derwent Valley Line

Minutes of 2012 Annual General Meeting

Held at the Brunswick Inn, Derby on Tuesday 16th October 2012

Present:

Ernie Marchant (EM) (Chairman) Alastair Morley (AM) Harry Bird (HB)

David Rayner (DR) Robin Lumb (RL) M Gent (Ripley TC) (MG)

Chris Darrall (CD) Jay Khetami (EMT (JK)

Rodney Thorne (RT) Ian Ambrose (IA)

Apologies – Bob Pennyfather, Allan Dare, Helen Crane, John Jarman, Freda Raphael, John Weaver, Paul Wright, Angela Elkins, Robert Burton (EMT)

The meeting stood in silence in memory of Geoff Errington.

1) Minutes of last AGM (11/10/11) – accepted..

2) Matters arising – No matters arising

3) Chairman's Report – (attached)

EM summarised the year and thanked everyone for their hard work.

Congratulations were offered to Alastair Morley for his successes at the ACoRP national awards.

It was planned to get a draft report on the case for Belper mainline stops out before Christmas.

4) Treasurer's Report (with agenda ) – HB said that there had been no movement on the FDVL funds. The accounts also included separately the Funds of the Matlock Station Adoption Group where there had been an increase of £1200, being grants towards additional planters. The installation of the planters took place after the 2012 accounts had closed, and the 2013 accounts would show further income & expenditure on this project.

5) Election of Officers – the following were elected unopposed to the FDVL committee for 2010/2012:

|Post |Name |

|Chairman |Ernie Marchant |

|Treasurer |Harry Bird |

|Secretary |David Rayner |

|Webmaster |Harry Bird (from 2013) |

|Membership Sec |Robin Lumb |

EM said that he would remain as Chaiman for 1 more year, but would definitely not stand again in 2013.

6) Steering Group- John Jarman had tendered his resignation from the Steering Group, and EM recorded the Group’s sincere thanks to John for his contribution. Rodney Thorne agreed to join the Group.

AM noted that attendance at FDVL Open meetings had been mainly Steering Group members . In it’s early days FDVL had been a focal point for passenger dissatisfaction of the train service. Now there was a reliably hourly service thanks in part to FDVL’s 2006 Strategy Document, its contribution to the CRP and relationship with the TOC’s concerned. As passenger numbers were double those in 2006, AM suggested FDVL should

• survey its membership to establish what were their outstanding issues

• seek to promote membership to the enlarged passenger community

It was agreed to progress this at the next Steering Group.

7) Electrification

EM asked the meeting to consider a number of issues relating to the possible electrification of the branch from Ambergate to Matlock. Whilst electrification of the Midland Mainline is included in the projects to be undertaken by Network Rail in Control Period 5 (CP5) 2014-2019, this does not include the branch from Ambergate to Matlock which is the subject of further analysis.

Whilst FDVL supports the electrification proposals, outstanding questions are:

• Is there a business case to electrify the branch?

• What are the engineering issues?

• Do the concepts in the NR Alternative Solutions Strategy have any relevance? –i.e. battery powered vehicles, lighter Overhead Line (OLE) structures etc

• Does the Strategic Freight Network (SFN) still have the DVL as a future route?

• What might the mainline electric timetable look like and how would DVL services connect?

• How might electrification impact on the business case for additional mainline stops at Belper? – believed to improve the case.

• Do the Derwent Valley Heritage groups support electrification?

Following discussion the following conclusions were reached:-

• The first principle should be to protect and enhance the existing service and connections- i.e what is best for passengers

• In the short/medium term this would most likely be achieved by early bidding for additional compatible DMU’s from areas where cascades were likely.

• The use of the branch as a testing ground for the development of battery trains carried too much performance risk to a reliable train service.

• The electrical power supply & distribution arrangements for mainline electrification should be designed to have capacity for any future electrification of the branch.

• Re-modelling of Ambergate Jct to permit 40mph ‘turn out’ speed should be pursued as part of Derby area Re-signalling .

EM thanked those present for their thoughts

8) 2013 Timetable

AM brought to the meeting’s attention a number changes to the 2013 Timetable.

• Variations due to planned engineering works on the mainline north of Derby on WEEKDAY evenings

o 11 Feb 2013 – 24 March 2013 & 19 May 2013 – 16 June 2013

o NORTHBOUND

▪ The 20:11 departure from Nottingham (20:56 from Derby) will terminate at Ambergate with a Bus connection for stations to Matlock

▪ The 22:16 departure from Derby will be a Bus replacement throughout

o SOUTHBOUND

▪ The 21:39 departure from Matlock will be replaced by a Bus departing Matlock at 20:59 and connecting into a 21:30 train from Ambergate (arr Derby 21;48)

▪ The 22:55 departure from Matlock will be replaced by a Bus at 22:25 which will connect at Derby for a train to Nottingham

• On Saturdays trains will leave Matlock at xx:38 and arrive Derby at xx:12 ( connections to London OK)

• The 14:54 Derby-Matlock will be 14:50 (but the 11:54 remains unchanged)

9) Passenger Information

A number of those present expressed their concern about the failure of EMT to sensibly display posters explaining the changes to train services during the current mainline engineering works i.e.

• Posters were removed although engineering was continuing

• As changes affected early & late trains and the posters were in cases inadequately lit (and were in too small a font) they were difficult to read …if passengers managed to find them!

• Details of where replacement buses could be found were unclear.

• The use of standard posters at each station was confusing as not all stations were affected in the same way.

• The CIS screens / announcements were not being used to give clear local advice.

JK (for EMT) noted the concerns, and explained that they were obliged under Franchise Commitments to display posters with details of Engineering works 7 days in advance. There were insufficient display cases to meet this commitment and keep in place “local” changes which ran for longer periods. Usually other cases with “less critical” information were utilised. He agreed to take back our comments to Paul Mobbs who is the Customer Support Manager (CSM) for the DVL .

Next Meetings:

Steering Group 13 November

Open meeting 11 December

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