South: End of the line?

Katie Inman
Politics Show South

Is this the end of the line for rural railways? Hundreds of villagers in Kent are protesting at plans to cut the number of rail services.

High speed Intercity prioritised

The Strategic Rail Authority wants to cut the number of services running through rural stations in order to improve journey times to London.

Commuters in the villages of Hollingbourne, Harrietsham, Lenham and Charing are going to see their weekly services fall from 370 to 30 trains per week.

Under the current plans the village of Beltring would be left with only one train in each direction on Saturdays.

Is faster, poorer?

Paul Latham, of the SRA, said that they have been lobbied quite hard for faster journey times to destinations in Kent.

"With the track infrastructure we have, in some cases the only way to achieve this is to have some services stopping at less places, the lightly used services".

Local residents believe that cutting the number of rural services is going to lead to a decline in rural life.

They say that they will struggle to get to work and will be forced to use their cars which will cause more pollution and more congestion.

It is not only in Kent where the future of rural rail services are in jeopardy.

Uneconomic?

Stopping services on branch lines curtailed

The SRA say that some branch lines are no longer economically sustainable and that if their future is to be secured local people need to be involved in running their local stations.

The SRA are proposing that some local branch lines should be run as 'micro franchises'.

Local volunteers could be involved in marketing the station, selling tickets, opening commercial schemes in the station buildings and raising money for the repair and maintenance of the station house and platforms.

The train operators would continue to be in charge and maintain safety standards.

The scheme is currently being piloted on six lines and if successful then 60 branch lines which make up 12.5% of the network and include 420 stations could become 'community railways'.

The SRA admit that their plans are partly motivated by a desire to cut the £200m annual subsidy provided by the Government to branch lines.

Network on the cheap?

Bob Crowe from the Rail, Maritime and Transport union has accused the SRA of using "jumble sales and tea parties" to fund parts of the transport infrastructure.

"The SRA want to run parts of the network on the cheap by using a group of people who should be enjoying their retirement."

The SRA say that community railways have been a great success in Europe.

On the Bitten Line in Norfolk, where local volunteers have taken ownership of the station, passenger usage has increased by 140% in the last seven years.

What do you think?

Should local people be responsible for supporting their local stations in order for services to continue?

Should be Government continue to subside local stations so that rural communities are not forced into their cars?

Politics Show

Let us know what you think. That is Politics Show Sunday 16 May at Midday.

You can have your say by contacting us using the form below.

And don't forget to watch Politics Show, with presenter Peter Henley, on BBC One on Sundays at Noon.

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