View from the Chair

The MKBRUG committee is made up of a small band of folk from the MK area, who are campaigning for an improved rail travel experience, both North and South from Milton Keynes Central and Bletchley stations.
After three years of existence MKBRUG ,had achieved little.  This was not as a result of lack of effort.  More to do with the vagaries of the way our railways are run, resulting in the failure of the December 2008 timetable to deliver what had been hoped for by commuters and the withdrawal of many direct services to the North of our area.

A positive note is that we now have the modernisation of the West Coast mainline with the resultant restructuring of the lines from South of Bletchley to North of Milton Keynes Central and of course the well publicised total redesign of Rugby station – all of which SHOULD benefit travellers from our area.  We can look forward to a fast hourly service to Manchester, Birmingham and Chester via Crewe.  However, that’s about it.  Liverpool and stations North of Crewe (including Carlisle and Glasgow) have all but disappeared from the direct timetable and connecting services.  For the long suffering commuter there is practically nothing positive to look forward to.

So what is the MKBRUG doing?

• We’ve changed our name to MK Rail Users thus reflecting our responsibility to all users of rail within Milton Keynes and surrounding districts.
• We have launched a web-site which we hope will become a useful source of information for the rail travellers from Milton Keynes and Bletchley.
• We have undertaken a series of meetings with Train Operating Companies, Members of Parliament, MK Council, MK Partnership, and the Department of Transport

Name Change

Big deal, I hear you say.  A change of name reflects our change in emphasis and an the start of meaningful engagement with those who are providing or affect the services we use.

Meetings

London Midland

Our first task was to meet up with London Midland, the custodians of Milton Keynes Central and Bletchley stations and the provider of most travel opportunities to the South.

Our proposals to London Midland were that we see them as the major carrier to and from the South, both for commuter and leisure services.  I am sure you agree that a journey to London in the new Desiros with their large windows and airy ambience is much preferable to the cramped and claustrophobic interior of the Virgin Pendolino.  Whilst recognising that their services through the day are more than adequate MK Rail Users feel the commuter from Milton Keynes Central has to endure longer journey times than is desirable, and those from Bletchley, a reduced service since the changes introduced in 2004.  Add to this standing room only on many peak services our lot is not a happy one.

Our demand to London Midland was for those ‘fast’ services in the peak[2], that currently have stops South of Milton Keynes Central, to run on the fast lines all the way to Euston on the fast line with NO intermediate stops.  This would not only decrease journey times by up to 10 minutes but also would help in alleviating overcrowding.  The opportunity was also taken to voice our frustrations at poor timetable allocation (and no pocket timetables), totally inadequate publicity in Milton Keynes Central of the Xmas closures and the general unacceptable communication failures when the network itself goes down.[3]

The good news for Bletchley is that the December 2008 timetable delivers an improved service throughout the day with a good increase in services in the morning peak.  The bad news is that our proposals for Milton Keynes Central commuters came too late for December 2007.  London Midland effectively have to work with what they have been given when taking over the new franchise – but the fight goes on for future timetables.

Department for Transport[4].

Our meeting was with Stuart Baker, a career railwayman and the head of all matters rail at the Department for Transport.  MK Rail Users gained a good understanding of the impact and benefits the West Coast upgrade is designed to deliver..  One thing is certain Stuart does not have enough track, trains and therefore capacity to keep us all happy.  Add onto that the political pressures and you could describe his job as impossible.
Our presentation to the DfT was on 2 fronts.  London Midland Commuter services to the South and Northbound, via Virgin services, to all destinations in the Midlands and the North-West.

Taking the commuter services first, we were delighted to hear that, whilst our trains currently go slow line to Leighton Buzzard, the fast lines we cross to South of Leighton Buzzard (Ledburn Junction) are available to the train operator all the way from Milton Keynes Central.  History however has given us a service that only goes ‘fast’ after Leighton Buzzard.  With this news we have every hope that the campaigned for non-stop Milton Keynes Central – Euston can be a reality.  The DfT are certainly not adverse to this possibility.  However our interjection came too late to be able to influence the December 2008.  The fight now goes on to December 2009.

The Northbound services, sadly we learnt, have little scope for improvement.  With the timetable set to take advantage of the West Coast improvements all available paths have been utilised to the extent that should any additional stops be added to those services, the impact will be felt throughout the network, so tightly has the timetable been written.  However, one of our members, a regular traveller to the North, is studying the timetable in depth to see if any minor changes could facilitate an extra stop or two at Milton Keynes Central without any impact elsewhere.

Members of Parliament

Our meetings at Westminster with our two MPs have resulted in them both pledging us their full support for our campaign, you may have seen their contributions on the subject of MK rail services, in the press and on our own web-site.

Milton Keynes Transport Partnership

We have met with representatives of the Milton Keynes Transport Partnership and have been accepted onto this body as official representatives of rail users in Milton Keynes.  MKTP is a very important body in MK campaigning for and promoting improvements in the transport infrastructure in MK.  Many of the current MK infrastructure improvements you see are as a result of their activities.  A recent initiative has been to invite the Chief Executives of Virgin and London Midland to see at first hand the development of MK.  Our representative was an invitee at that latter presentation and made excellent contact with the executives who affect our services at London Midland.  In the coming weeks we will arrange meetings in further pursuance of our aims.

Campaigns

Strike Day Compensation

During the course of my tenure as Chair we have witnessed strike action under Silverlink and unfortunately were unable to help gain compensation.  Strike action almost came about under London Midland but was averted at the last minute.  However MK Rail Users are extremely concerned about the compensation issue and also the lack of forward information when strike action is threatened.  We know from the communications we have received that many of you were inconvenienced because of the lack of information on alternative arrangements.  In view of potential future action we will be taking these issues to London Midland.  With regard to compensation for future strikes, the policy is a political decree and we will therefore be looking to our MPs to help resolve this national problem.

Revenue Protection

We have also made representations to London Midland on the sometimes heavy handed revenue protection exercises.  Whilst we support London Midland in their fight against fraudulent travel, we do not accept that this should be at the inconvenience of the legitimate traveller.

Customer Communication

MK Rail Users is concerned at the poor level of customer communication when things go awry.  No doubt many of you, like me, have arrived at Euston to find that there are few staff available to assist, and those on duty ill informed on services available.  We will continue our lobbying of London Midland to ensure that improvements are made.

MK Rail Users Web Site

By virtue of reading this MK Rail Users update you also realise that we have launched our own website.  It is early days, but MK Rail Users hope that you like what has been done so far and we would welcome suggestions as to what you would like to see in the future.  (Contact our webmaster here)

I hope from what you have read here that you appreciate that MK Rail Users has been working on behalf of you, the rail users of Milton Keynes and Bletchley.  Visible improvements will take time to achieve, but we will keep you informed via this website on the representations we make and the positive results we aim to achieve.

Finally, we are but a small band of rail users with full time jobs, mainly in London.  All our efforts are made in our spare time and as such we are limited in what we can achieve.  If you feel you can help, please join us.  If you have issues you would like us to champion, please contact us.  The fight for a better rail travel experience for Milton Keynes goes on.