Hello all, below is the minutes from our recent meeting last week on the 21st of February. Thank you to those members who managed to attend.
Held in Place Shaping Room Block B Enfield Civic Centre.
Chair Dave Cockle.
1. He welcomed everyone to the meeting and apologised that Ray Knight the Chair was not
available.
2. Apologies had also been received from Robert Taylor and John Prior
Members present Sean Corillo, Peter Jeffrey, Peter Smith, John Williams, Philip Ridley and
Cllr Peter Falleart?
3. The minutes of the last meeting held on 25th Nov 2022 were agreed upon as an accurate record.
It was noted that the petition to allow Freedom passes to be used before 0900 was not
approved.
3. Update from train operating Companies.
(i) Greater Anglia.
The Class 317 and 379 trains have been withdrawn from WA. Our new Class 720 was
introduced in WA last summer. These new trains, built by Alstom in Derby are now
operating on all WA routes and are proving popular.
They are not yet in a position to publicise any changes to the May 23 timetable.
Train Performance. Train services in East Anglia have continued their record-beating
run of performance. The Moving Annual Average is currently 93.1%. Our new trains are
credited with handling the challenges of the “leaf fall” season significantly better than our
old fleet. They possess dynamic traction control systems and improved Wheel Slide
Protection as well as automatic sanders.
Tottenham Hale has seen a transformation, with works there having been undertaken by
both ourselves and LUL. The new concourse area has now been opened up and our new
The ticket office is open
(ii) London Overground.
Performance over the last 6 periods has been good. 95% plus. The previous 4 periods
were poor caused mainly by National Rail strikes.
They couldn’t give any information about step-free access at Silver Street but promised
an update for the next meeting.
There is no update on the plan for 6 tph at Edmonton Green. We have asked
Charalambos MP to pursue.
(iii) Great Northern.
They report that at Enfield Chase they had between 85% and 90% on-time between
May and December. They also report that cancellations were on average nearly 6%
during this period.
Industrial action is still ongoing.
For the future, they said that from May 2023 there would be better coordination of the
Metro services give a more evenly spread timetable with the addition of Cambridge
to Kings Cross trains stopping at Alexandra palace which would improve service
especially when there were events.
Palmers Green station step-free access. They reported that Network Rail intended to
start work in Autumn 2023 with a completion target of June 2024. No detailed plans
have yet been published and stakeholder discussions have not yet started.
Enfield Chase stairs are due to be improved by the end of March.
The waiting room at Finsbury Park is now open after the leaking roof had been
repaired.
(iv) London Underground.
There was no update from London underground but we are aware that New Piccadilly
line trains are now being built.
5 Update on the Bus Service.
The 125 buses are now all electric.
Passenger numbers are now 83% of pre-endemic.
The review of the 456 bus has recommended some fixed stops on Bincote road. However, the
process of approving fixed stops requires coordination between Enfield Council and TFL and
finally getting budget approval. A process which can take considerable time.
The idea of terminating the 456 at Crews Hill Station was again discussed but it is unlikely to
be pursued unless Enfield council takes an active interest.
6. Feedback from the Enfield Council Environment Group Meeting.
This meeting is made up of 3 groups which originally had their own meetings. Transport
is normally last on the agenda and rarely mentioned.
The last meeting had transport on the agenda but the TFL representative expected to join
the meeting was cancelled. Consequently, the transport agenda item was dropped.
The chair of the meeting did give feedback to ETUG saying the forum was a good place
for all community groups to provide information but their priority was to use community
groups to spread the word about what they were doing. They didn’t say how this information
was to be given. Doug Wilkinson was delegated to contact TFL about bus services
Action for ETUG to liaise with Doug Wilkinson about our bus issues and also to make
contact with the Chairman of the meeting to find the best way of both getting Council
views on Transport and how best to raise any ideas we have.
7 ETUG Website.
Sean reported that the website was not on Google search and so has very few Hits.
Facebook has more audience participation but it is not enough.
We need to discuss how to publicise both in a more proactive manner.
8 AOB.
There was no other business
The date of the next meeting is Wednesday 24th May at 19.00
in the conference room at the Civic Centre
