Below are the minutes from our recent meeting. Apologise for the delayed post and we thank those who attended.
Minutes of ETUG Meeting: 25th Nov 2022 at 19:00hrs.
Held in Council Chamber - Enfield Civic Centre
Chair Ray Knight
Members present
Sean Cirillo
Dave Cockle
Louis Grannie
Peter Jeffrey
Peter Smith
Apologies received from Cllr Peter Fallart, John Prior, Philip Ridley,
Robert Taylor and John Williams.
1. Minutes of ETUG Meeting held 24th Aug 2022
The minutes were agreed as an accurate record.
2. Matters arising from Minutes previous meeting.
There were no matters arising.
3. Update from Train Operating Companies (TOC's)
(i). Greater Anglia (GA) - GA had been voted Train Operating Company of the year in the National Rail Awards. This was partly to it being one of the few companies to renew its entire fleet of trains. It also had an impressive average public performance measure (PPM) of 94%. PPM is trains arriving at destination within five minutes of right time.
Journeys were rising again over 80% and increasing. Commuter also increasing but only just over 70% of pre-pandemic level.
126 out of 135 stations now had community engagement with station adopters. Station adopters typically undertake gardening and brighten up stations with art work.
Ten car trains were now operating on certain peak service trains with selective door opening where the platforms are too short to accommodate the full train length. There are posters on platforms as well as on board train announcements/displays detailing which coaches to travel in.
(ii) London Overground (LO) - London Overground's PPM was 90%. Their PPM is measured as being within three minutes of right time, unlike the other TOC's where the measurement is within five minutes.
The main source of delays were driver related. A new post of Driver Delivery Manager had been created at Chingford Depot in order to get to the root cause of these delays.
A Temporary Speed Restriction imposed near Stoke Newington as a result of a leaking Thames Water pipe had caused some delays.
There had been a number of cancellations on one day as
a result of a Rail Maritime & Transport (RMT) picket line outside Chingford Drivers' Depot. The Drivers are
in a different union but would not cross the picket line. This issue is being dealt with at a director level.
(iii) Great Northern (GN)
Great Northern (GN) - GN's PPM was 86.6%. They were still blighted by train driver shortage caused by a huge backlog of training. Covid had prevented two persons being in a driving cab simultaneously.
Train cancellations were now running at 3.8% down from 10.5% in the Summer Leave period.
A scheme to refurbish the stairwells and entrance to
Enfield Chase Station was being put together as
part of an underspend scheme.
A station adopters scheme had been successfully established at Gordon Hill and some nice public artwork had been created.
(iv). London Underground (LUL) - The existing Piccadilly line trains date back to 1973 and ninety-four new air-conditioned tube trains train are currently being constructed. Introduction of these new trains will be in mid-2025.
Due to TfL's budget deficit there is no available funding for a signalling upgrade of the line. Although the new trains will be more comfortable, it will to be possible for them to reach their full performance potential until a signalling upgrade takes place.
A temporary speed restriction of 30mph had been imposed on the surface section of the line between Arnos Grove and Cockfosters as a leaf fall control measure.
4. Bus Service Update.
(i) The Central London Bus Review would have led to widespread cutbacks and withdrawal of certain bus routes. A fierce campaign opposing the cuts led to 80% of the proposals being scrapped in particular the proposals to amend the 259, 279 and 349 bus routes in Enfield.
(ii) It was noted that Route 491 was now going into the North Middlesex Hospital Grounds. This has led to a reduction in journey times. We will now seek for Route 456 to do the same.
(iii) There was some confusion which way Route 456 was taking round the Rosewood Estate (Clockwise/Anti Clockwise?), which is all hail and ride. Some road resurfacing work had been undertaken. The bus stand markings had then been repainted on the opposite side of the road. ETUG has written to Enfield Council, Traffic & transportation on the matter.
(iv) There had recently been a petition to Parliament seeking abandonment of the restriction on use of Freedom Pass before 09:00hrs. The restriction had originally been applied as a Covid measure to reduce the loading of buses during the morning peak.
(v) Route W9 had only recovered to loadings of 61%
pre-pandemic. This was low compared with other
routes. It was suggested that consideration could be
given to reduce the frequency of route W9 to
every 20 mins and in compensation boost the route
456 to every 20 mins. Peter Jeffrey from the
Crews Hill Residents' Association stated that he felt
there was not a demand for an increase frequency
on Route 456.
(vi) There was brief discussion on delays to Route 191
in South Street Ponders End caused by car
parking restricting the road width.
5. Feedback from Environment Forum Meetings
There have been no transport topics on the Agenda at
the last two meetings.
"Improving Bus/Train interchange at the Borough's
eighteen National Rail Stations" had been put
on the Agenda for the 26th January meeting at ETUG's
request.
Some specific items have been put to Council Officers
before the meeting in order that they can
respond:-
(i) A concerted effort should be made to reinstate the
bus turn round facility at Crews Hill Station
to extend the Route 456 there.
(ii) Visual and Audio announcements to be made on
Route 191 at the Chase Side/Enfield War
Memorial stop "Alight here for Enfield Chase Station."
(iii) Consideration to be given to provide decent
interchange at Ponders End Station with
Route 313 being diverted along Meridian Way/Wharf
Road. Now is the time to look at this as in connection
with Network Rail's "Ponders End Loop" project the
existing pedestrian
footbridge across the railway lines and Meridian Way
is to be rebuilt. It is our view that the design
of the new bridge should allow buses only to turn in/out
of Wharf Road by means of a signalised
junction and/or rising bollard.
(iv) We are also asking for improvements to interchange
at Brimsdown Station with route 307.
A proposed development of the former Station Tavern
could be used as an opportunity to bring
the bus terminus adjacent to Brimsdown Station.
(v) Similar improvements are requested at New Southgate
Station. The Station is getting increasingly
busy with a new "Cross London" Peak Hours train service to
Sevenoaks in addition to the existing
Moorgate services. The bus stops are located some distance
from the Station and there is an opportunity
to locate the bus stops outside the Station Forecourt.
6. ETUG's Website
It was suggested that ETUG explore using Twitter. Ray Knight
spoke of an easy to use system called Padlet.
Sean said he would look into both of these.
7. AOB
ETUG is still seeking a Secretary In the interim ETUG Committee
Members would all take it in turn to produce
meeting minutes.
Four meetings will be arrange for 2023 in February, May, August
and November. Dates to be advised.
Ray Knight thanked everyone for attending, closing the Meeting
at 21:00hrs
