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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 17 February 2009 14:32 |
The original Committee of TRUG joined forces following the crisis which arose from the re-signalling of the line by British Rail. The crisis came about by the decision of the then managers to terminate all trains via the Thurrock routes at Barking while the work was carried out, resulting in a period of two months with no through services into London for passengers. A public meeting was called and held and was attended by in excess of 100 people. As a result of this public support the Committee started to liase on a regular basis with the management of British Rail responsible for the local services and the travelling public was at last able to voice its opinions, albeit on a small scale.
The Committee was then strengthened a year later following the decision by the car park managers to sell daily tickets to Grays Station Car Park. It is a little known fact that the purchase of a season ticket to a station car park does not guarantee a reserved space, merely the right to use a space if it is free. As a result the decision to sell daily tickets to all comers regardless of whether they were using the trains resulted in a group of some 30 people who had paid for season tickets but could not park in the car park. The timing of this sale of daily tickets was also made at a time when Thurrock Council took the decision to increase dramatically its daily parking charge in an attempt to prevent commuters from parking in the town centres. Following a vigorous and sometimes nasty campaign, TRUG succeeded in getting the LTS management to agree to season ticket only parking before 9.30 a.m. at Grays and this policy is still in place today.
When the issue of rail privatisation came to the agenda, the Council seized the opportunity to use the expertise of TRUG’s railway experts throughout the privatisation process and the group of individuals who had been campaigning on behalf of the travelling public of Thurrock found itself attending many meetings with MPs, Councillors, County Councils, passenger representative bodies in London and Essex and of course the management of LTS rail who provided the services through Thurrock. This was a massive workload but handled efficiently by the Committee who consisted of only seven people. This Committee had a good relationship with the then management of LTS and also with the local Council.
During this golden period TRUG campaigned heavily on the safety issues for the line, culminating in the hosting of a meeting attended by local politicians and MPs, police and senior rail management to discuss the situation. As a result of this meeting LTS management employed the first of the private security guards and commenced installation of monitored station and on_board CCTV. A campaign for better communications and on_screen displays was then started and this resulted in the provision of extra loudspeakers and display screens at most of the stations in Thurrock. TRUG was also involved in the battle for the introduction of “swipe” machines to enable swift credit card payment – amazingly until around 4 years ago the stations did not have modern credit card facilities available and any transaction over £50 meant a telephone authorisation had to be sought resulting in long queues to purchase tickets.
TRUG also fought and won the battle for the reinstallation of train services via Purfleet, Rainham and Dagenham Dock on Sundays. These services had been withdrawn prior to the re-signalling work and the now privatised company did not wish to reinstate them. It took months of hard work and persuasion by TRUG but eventually the stations were reopened on Sundays.
During this period TRUG also battled for a better service for the now opened Chafford Hundred Station and Ockendon. Until privatisation there were no through trains at any time of day to London and the new management were keen to have at least a few. TRUG’s timetable expert suggested timetable amendments, which allowed these services to be facilitated, and they were introduced into the timetable as an experiment. The rest as they say is history.
Unfortunately, the successes achieved by TRUG in the first three years of its existence proved its downfall. Firstly the travelling public, enjoying a better service for the first time in years, did not continue to attend the public meetings with c2c, and then a change in the set up of the Council as unitary status approached meant that it appeared TRUG was no longer needed. As a result in the fourth year of its existence it was decided by the Committee of TRUG that it should no longer continue.
Unfortunately the new council officers in charge of the transport issues did not follow up the results achieved by TRUG. This was partly because it was felt that the railways were now in private hands and that the Council could not interfere with commercial matters, and partly because due to their own heavy workloads they were unable to follow up on meetings which TRUG committee members had attended on the Council’s behalf. Put simply it was not fully appreciated how much work was done by TRUG to assist the Council. However as the Council has an obligation to make sure rail services through the Borough run correctly they communicated with the relevant bodies by mail.
In the summer of 2001 a new crisis hit the rail travellers of Thurrock in the shape of the work to rule and strikes by the train guards. As a result a couple of the old TRUG Committee members approached local senior Councillors regarding the possibility of reforming a rail user group. They were keen to do so and as a result a public meeting was held which agreed the reformation of TRUG.
This new TRUG takes a different form to the old one. It works closely with the local Council in a partnership for the benefit of all rail travellers within the Borough. A senior council officer represents the Council on the Committee, albeit that he is not an officially elected member. TRUG is supported at the highest level by the Portfolio holder for Transport within the Borough, and also by the elected Councillors. As a result it has been possible to reopen channels of communications with the Regional Passenger Committees who represent the passengers of Thurrock and Rainham, c2c management and Network Rail, the Strategic Rail Authority and other rail organisations. TRUG is now passing regular reports to our local MPs who are always keen to hear what is happening and happy to assist on bigger issues.
This latter is particularly important. Large projects need to go through political channels and it is essential that TRUG is able to pass details of the needs and requirements of Thurrock’s travelling public to those who have the ability to state our case with Government ministers who hold the funding for major projects. It is important that we continue to work closely with the local Council because it has the wherewithal to ensure that these issues are dealt with and listened to.
TRUG sees itself having a bright future now that it has the backing and support of most of Thurrock’s travellers. However it still needs information and help from the travelling public and it is hoped that this website will encourage them to relay their experiences to us.
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