News
This news section (and our Facebook page) will publish the latest developments soon after they happen. All letters mentioned below are available to read and/or download from the 'Documents and Links' page, unless otherwise stated.
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Update 20 October 2017 - Further delays on promised public consultation
On 19 October at a meeting in Goring, chaired by John Howell MP, senior Network Rail (NR) managers told the Goring & South Stoke Railway Action Group (RAG) that they are delaying the local consultation meetings they had originally planned for earlier this year - the new proposed dates will not be before Spring 2018.
After a period of denial, Network Rail finally agreed in early 2016 that they had not consulted properly on the electrification of the Great Western Mainline and that they would consider retrofitting (ie replacing), the infrastructure they were putting in, with other versions that had less detrimental visual impact on the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. They commissioned Balfour Beatty and a landscape visual impact consultancy to design new, less obtrusive metal work over the track within the Goring Gap area and to assess any visual improvement.
Design work was started with a plan to present the new gantry designs to local residents during a consultation process when they had the new options prepared. NR told RAG that a budget was set aside for possible retrofitting the selected new design(s) throughout the whole stretch of track which lies within the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs AONBs, some 20kms from Pangbourne to near Didcot. These consultations were advertised to be held at the beginning of this year at several localities in the area, however, the day before the first one in Goring was scheduled NR postponed all the meetings. This was after an independent design advisory group and RAG persuaded NR that their proposed designs were not significantly better than the existing ones and that more work and improved options were needed. NR concurred and said that once this further work was completed they would rearrange the meetings ‘in due course’. These meeting have never been rearranged but NR have finally said on 19 October that they are planning them for ‘Spring 2018, at the earliest’.
Several other issues were discussed, including other mitigation options such as structural changes to ‘declutter’ the gantries, screening them with planting and possibly tinting the metal work.
You can find the minutes of all previous meetings, including this latest one, on this website, together with the whole background to this electrification process and RAG's negotiations with NR to reduce the visual impact of the gantries since October 2015.
News of the dates of the public consultations will be advised on this website and via Genie newsletters and other media as soon as they are arranged.
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12 December 2016 - Network Rail’s Public Consultation
Coming in January/February - Have your say!
For the past few months, Network Rail has been undertaking work on the new electrification designs (and on the visual impact that these might have on the two relevant Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty).
RAG has seen the eleven gantry designs that Balfour Beatty is producing for Network Rail and is considering for a potential retrofit. After detailed engineering analysis and cost evaluation, it plans to reduce these to three or four possible designs to put before the general public as part of its (very late) consultation process.
As yet, RAG has not seen the short listed designs, but is pressing for these to include non-portal type structures such as wire-head spans and more slender T-shaped designs. We believe that using these non-portal type structures is the only way to make a meaningful improvement to the aesthetic appearance of the current bulky and over-engineered gantry design.
Network Rail will first show the short-listed designs to the ‘Design Advisory Group’ (the group of local statutory bodies that are working with Network Rail, which includes the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs Conservation Boards) during December.
Network Rail has put some of the information relating to the remedial evaluation it is undertaking, and the impact that electrification is having on the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs AONBs, on its website: (www.networkrail.co.uk/great-western-route-modernisation/oxfordshire/). It includes maps, a list of the early options generated for potential retrofit (not the short-listed ones as yet), comments from the Design Advisory Group and some images from Balfour Beatty's evaluation workshops. The plan is to add more information onto this site as it becomes available.
Network Rail has also confirmed that the Public Consultation regarding the Great Western Mainline Electrification issues will commence on 21st January 2017, with drop-in meetings at various localities throughout the AONBs that have been affected by the work.
Network Rail has stated that the process will be in two parts, the second phase being ‘Drop-in’ meetings, which will incorporate feedback from the first phase, scheduled for March/April 2017. Network Rail has proposed a number of venues in the parishes affected, including Goring, Streatley, South Stoke, Cholsey, Moulsford, Pangbourne & Basildon.
Network Rail is contacting Parish Councils and Village Halls directly to arrange venues and dates. Please look out for the official notifications from Network Rail so that you can plan to attend and make your views known. As with the previous consultation in October 2015, representatives of Network Rail will be in attendance to answer questions and get feedback from the public.
The specific dates for each venue will obviously be announced at fairly short notice, so we suggest that people interested in attending these meetings should sign up on this website to get advance notice of the dates and venues. Go to ‘How to Help’, then ‘Join our Mailing List’, and will we email the details directly to you.
It is essential that the maximum number of people adversely affected by the electrification work attend these meetings and make their feelings known to Network Rail, as this may have a major bearing on whether it ultimately fulfill its promises and stated intentions to use the money it says it has put in its budget to undertake the retrofit. If only a few people attend these meetings, it will Network Rail the perfect excuse to do nothing, justifying its actions (or lack of them) by quoting the poor turnout at the consultation meetings showed that the public have accepted the current design and can’t justify public money being spent of replacing the existing functional system.
The recent announcements by Network Rail on deferring parts of the electrification work will not have a significant impact on our AONB stretch of track. They have put back the electrification of four branch lines to 2024 and beyond, including the Henley branch line and the Didcot to Oxford branch line. However, the electrification work on the mainline track (from London - Cardiff) will continue with a current timetable for completion scheduled for end 2018,but this appears an optimistic forecast. The knock-on effects mean that Network Rail has had to order more bi-mode trains (hybrid electric and diesel) for the mainline service.
RAG’s next meeting with Network Rail is planned for January 2017. We hope to know the firm dates for the public consultation dates soon, hopefully before Christmas. Watch this space!
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30 August 2016 - NR reveals new infrastructure designs for AONBs
Since RAG’s negotiations with Network Rail’s to improve the current electrification design in the AONBs began, NR’s stance has moved steadily from a position at our first meeting on 6 May 2015 of a firm ‘no compromise’ policy on the re-design of the infrastructure to the presentation by NR on 14 July of a shortlist of 10 new potential design options. So, it appears, some significant progress.
From the new options by Balfour Beatty, commissioned by NR to produce more acceptable designs, one or perhaps a mixture of these, could be retrofitted throughout the whole 20kms of track within the AONBs as NR now has told RAG they have a budget for this remedial work.
The removal of all the existing gantries and wiring to retrofit a new, less obtrusive design, and the considerable costs involved, of course, could have been totally avoided back in 2012/13. Had NR appreciated the law’s requirement to ‘conserve or enhance’ the natural beauty of AONBs, it would have not installed it’s standard gantry design. Also, had South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC) taken the opportunity to challenge NR’s ‘Permitted Development Rights’ for the AONB' (which it relied upon to do this work) and ask NR to submit a full planning application, the installation of the current design could have been avoided at the outset. SODC didn’t do this and essentially gave approval for this major adverse impact on our landscape before NR had completed the detailed electrification design in December 2014. So, RAG is fighting a rearguard action. But that is all now history and we, at last, have some alternative designs!
The 10 candidate designs (cut down from an original 79 concepts) include ‘Wire-head spans’ (ie slimmer stanchions with wires across the track instead of the ugly solid metal crossbars we currently have), Cantilevers (single stanchions either side of the track), and also centrally-sited T-shaped stanchions with slim arms across the tracks. None of them, it must be said, are exactly aesthetic, or will preserve or enhance the natural beauty of the landscape, but they are better than the design we have at present and would cause significantly less visual impact on the iconic views we used to enjoy. NR is also undertaking a new Landscape Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA), which it is carrying out in parallel with the new design project. The next stage for NR is to further assess the new designs in terms of engineering viability and cost and to then select 3 or 4 or so workable designs to present to the public.
Disappointingly, the timing for these consultation meetings has slipped again and are now scheduled for late 2016/early 2017. These will now be conducted in two phases in order to ensure your feedback is properly built in to the process. This further delay is partly because the Cotswolds AONB, also affected, is now involved in the process. NR admitted at our last meeting that they are going about the planning and public consultation process for the Cotswolds “the right way round”, which is as it should have been with us. NR has held several meetings with the newly formed ‘Design Advisory Group’ (which comprises the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs AONB planning officers, SODC and Natural England), with a view to getting professional input to the design process and visual impact assessment. Because we are a campaign group, and not a statutory body, RAG will not be attending these design meetings but NR has accepted our request to give us the minutes and visual material from these meetings in order to give us confidence that the work is progressing in the right direction. The minutes of these meetings, the Design Brief and the Phase 1 Design Preliminary Review of Options will be put on the NR website shortly and also on this website, once NR has publically released the material.
So, some encouragement but some frustration too. The next RAG meeting with NR should be in October when it is hoped that NR will have ‘acceptable’ new designs and details of the timing of the all important public consultation process.
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10 May 2016 - At the latest RAG meeting (the 5th) on 5 May with Network Rail (NR) in Goring, detailed information was sought by the Railway Action Group (RAG) and other attendees, about Network Rail’s (NR) plans on the potential removal of the existing ugly gantries and the retrofitting of a new, more aesthetic, design. NR have now commissioned new designs and the public will be able to view and comment on these at forthcoming public consultation process in late summer.
Some while ago, RAG had persuaded NR’s Chief Executive Officer (Mark Carne) to write a letter to the Conservation Boards of the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs AONBs to reaffirm NR’s intention to retrofit a better design of infrastructure after they have completed their testing of the current overhead line equipment (OLE) on this Goring Gap section of track. Although there are caveats, the significance of this letter (sent on 5 May 2016 and copied to RAG) from the head of NR cannot be understated and the whole document may be found under the ‘Documents & Links’ section of RAG’s website. The key section reads “ I also re-affirm that should the outcome of the design options and the public consultation highlight that Network Rail should undertake retrospective works to alter or replace the installed apparatus, Network Rail intends to undertake such works as are necessary, subject to costs and the agreement of funding”.
The ‘guarantees’ that we are seeking from NR clearly depend on two things. Firstly, as many people as possible turn out for the formal public consultations to look at these new designs to show NR that the public consultation demands that they take retrospective action and secondly, that the money that NR have put aside in its budget is ‘agreed’ to be spent for this purpose. The public consultation is now scheduled for September. Details to be published when available. This last meeting in Goring, chaired by David Bermingham, was well attended with representatives from five Parish Councils (Goring, South Stoke, Pangbourne, Upper Basildon & Moulsford), two members for the Council for the Protection of Rural England, (CPRE) a senior planning representative from SODC and John Howell MP present.
NR managers confirmed that they are well under way with moving from concepts for new designs to more practicable designs. These include ‘wire-head spans’ (instead of the heavy solid horizontal metal structures currently being used) and thinner, more tubular versions of the upright supports. The new gantry designs will then be tested for visual impact using a specialist contractor and then narrowed down to 3 or 4 designs that have been checked for engineering, safety and reliability requirements. Throughout this process the local statutory bodies and RAG will be consulted with regards to reaching a mutually acceptable set of designs. Then the designs will be shown to the general public at the formal consultation, which will be a 6-week programme within the AONB areas affected. We also established that the testing of the infrastructure and the new trains will be a two-phase process. Once the national test track (Reading to Didcot) is complete and ‘goes live’ on 28 May, the infrastructure testing (gantries and overhead wiring etc) will be completed by the end of September. Assuming this is satisfactory, then the new Hitachi electric trains themselves will be tested by the manufacturer’s engineers. This final phase ‘may’ be completed by the end of 2016 or thereabouts.
However, despite these positive steps, RAG continues to have concerns about whether NR will deliver on their promises in a year or so from now, given the huge budget over-run on the GWML electrification. NR re-affirmed that there is now a line in the overall £2.8billion GWR electrification budget* for the Goring Gap/AONB refrofit. (*part of Sir Peter Hendy’s (Chairman Network Rail) Report to the Secretary of State for Transport on the replanning of Network Rail's Investment Programme - ‘Enhancements Delivery Plan, Update January 2016’). That doesn’t guarantee, of course, it will be used for that purpose. We are therefore still engaging with an environmental law firm to pursue a potential formal challenge to the validity of NR’s Permitted Development Rights (PDRs) for the whole project and also the probability that it has not paid sufficient regard to protecting the natural beauty of the AONBs. The next meeting with NR should be in mid-June and by then it is hoped that we will have had a preview of the new designs the public will be able to choose from in September.
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9 March 2016 - Network Rail has written to the Railway Action Group (9 March 2016) confirming its commitment to retrofitting a suitable new design of electrification gantries throughout the whole AONB section of line (some 20kms from near Pangbourne to near Didcot) and that it has made financial provisions in its overall budget for this potential work.
NR’s CEO, Mark Carne, is to give his high level endorsement of this in a letter to the AONB Conservation Boards (to be placed on this website shortly). In addition, NR has also published the ‘Statement of Intent’ that RAG received in October 2015 on their website, along with a revised statement of the plans for the Goring Gap section of the line: http://www.networkrail.co.uk/great-western-route-modernisation/oxfordshire/
RAG has also received confirmation in writing that 'Network Rail has made financial provision for potential retrofit works within the overall £2.8bn budget for electrification between Maidenhead and Cardiff.'
At a meeting on 11 March, Network Rail discussed with representatives from The Chilterns AONB, North Wessex Downs AONB and Natural England and an environmental consultancy (2B Landscape Consultancy Ltd), its progress in developing new electrification designs for the Goring Gap/AONB area. Network Rail has appointed Balfour Beatty to undertake the review of options for less visually impactful designs which can be retro-fitted in the AONB area. This review will include a Landscape Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA) which will be undertaken by 2B Landscape Consultancy Ltd. Balfour Beatty will also undertake all the technical feasibility work required to ensure the new designs meet all the exacting specifications required to comply with Networks Rail’s safety and interoperability standards - and the cost of replacing the existing gantries and plant and replacing them. At some point (tba), Balfour Beatty will produce a report, with recommendations, which will then go the Department for Transport for its ‘approvals process’.
The outline schedule RAG has been given for the full Public Consultation is summer 2016, when the proposed designs will be on show at the various local venues (tba).
NR is continuing to install the current design between Reading and Didcot, but this work should be complete by September 2016, ready for the testing programme of the new Hitachi electric trains soon after. Once testing has been completed (timetable unknown), RAG understands that this test track area will be potentially retrofitted with a new, lower visual impact design at some point afterwards, assuming a design is acceptable to RAG and the AONBs.
RAG is continuing to challenge the way that Network Rail has carried out, or rather not carried out, ‘due process’ in getting approvals and planning permissions for the electrification programme in this AONB area. RAG has instructed a leading environmental and public law firm to send a second letter to NR arguing that its approval process for its ‘Permitted Development Rights' is fundamentally flawed.
At the next RAG/NR meeting in Goring (planned for late March, RAG is hoping to see real signs of progress with the alternate designs that NR/Balfour Beatty are working on and a timetable for the consultation process this summer.
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15 January 2016 - BBC NEWS Network Rail apologies for Goring Gap gantries. Network Rail has apologised for building large new gantries in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty without consulting nearby residents
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-35321340
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14 January 2016 - Goring Gap issue raised in the House of Commons. See Hansard report below:
Column 1006
John Howell (Henley) (Con): May we have a debate on the activities of Network Rail in landscape-sensitive areas, such as the area of outstanding natural beauty in which the Goring Gap sits? Nobody wants to hold up electrification, but sensitivity in such areas over the installations that are used to carry the electrification wires would be very much appreciated.
Chris Grayling: I am aware of the concerns that my hon. Friend raises. Indeed, I walked through the Goring Gap recently and saw the work that is taking place on the line. The electrification of the Great Western main line is great news for people in his constituency and, indeed, in south Wales, so it will be of benefit to the constituents of the shadow Leader of the House. It is long overdue. When Labour was in power, only 10 miles of railway were electrified. We are now doing the job properly. However, my hon. Friend is absolutely right that Network Rail needs to be careful and thoughtful in areas of outstanding natural beauty to ensure that this essential work does not damage the landscape.
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14 January 2016: The 4th RAG meeting took place in Goring with Network Rail.
(Minutes available soon. See minutes of the previous 3 meetings in the 'Documents & Links' page).
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24 December 2015: A letter was sent to senior Network Rail managers, including the CEO, Mark Carne, on behalf of the Railway Action Group (RAG) by a legal firm, identifying possible breaches of the law and requesting NR's position of these issues prior to the next NR/RAG meeting on 14 January 2016.
(Letter not available for public view at this point).
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9 December 2015: A letter was sent to The Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin MP, and the Rail Minister Claire Perry MP, from the heads of the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs AONBs requesting an urgent meeting with them to resolve the issue of the inappropriate electrification design being installed by NR and the lack of response by NR to previous requests for remedial action. The letter insisted that cast iron guarantees were given that the existing installations would be replaced and an appropriate budget was ring-fenced for this purpose.
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23 October 2015: Public Drop-in meeting held by Network Rail: There was an excellent turnout in South Stoke Village Hall, with about 700 local residents taking their first opportunity to talk to Network Rail managers about the electrification design in the Goring Gap. After running out of feedback forms twice during the day and needing to get further supplies from their Swindon Head Office and then asking RAG to photocopy even more, hopefully Network Rail will understand the strength of feeling against it current ugly design and the need for change.
RAG members and local residents were filmed by ITV Meridian and That’s Oxford TV and news bulletins went out throughout the day. BBC TV and BBC and other Radio stations also transmitted news of the issue in the Goring Gap, so the whole issue is now getting up a head of steam!
Thank you to everyone who turned out on the day. We hope to make the Network Rail 'Feedback form' available in various places, including online, for people who weren't able to make it to South Stoke on 23 October.
See BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-34581751
BBC TV South News on 20 October 2015: The 6.30pm and 10.30pm news bulletins featured RAG leader, Ian Haslam, and Chilterns AONB Planning Officer, Dr Lucy Murfett, in a report on Network Rail's inappropriate infrastructure and how NR is responding to pressure to consult properly and possibly retro-fit a new, better design through the Goring Gap.
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21 October 2015: Letter was sent to Simon Maple (Network Rail's Route Programme Sponsor, Great Western Modernisation) thanking him for the 'Statement of Intent' to undertake remedial work but requesting a re-issue of the document without the caveats that the undertaking is subject to funding availability. The letter pointed out that Network Rail has a legal duty to comply with the law (ie Section 85 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000).
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19 October 2015: Network Rail (NR) sent a 'Statement of Intent' letter undertaking to start a proper consultation and to retro-fit a new overhead electrification design in the 2 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and Goring Gap, subject to the outcome of the consultation, which is to start in 2016, and funding approval.
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14 October 2015: 3rd Meeting with Network Rail (NR) held in Goring.
At the meeting with 4 senior NR managers in Goring Village Hall, the Railway Action Group (RAG) had a robust exchange of views and some significant concessions from NR were achieved. RAG has asked for these verbal pledges to be put in writing in a ‘Statement of Intent’, so that we can be assured that there will be definite changes to the current situation as we understand it (this is basically that NR would undertake ‘remedial action’ only if it was found to have breached environmental law). Prior to this meeting RAG sent a letter to Mark Carne, NR’s CEO, the day before (see below). NR also announced at the meeting that they had agreed to ‘roll back the clock’ and start a proper consultation period with all stakeholders, a process that NR have accepted hadn’t happened when it should have done several years ago. The details are to be advised, but it will probably be an 8-week period starting in January 2016. RAG’s negotiating team included the Planning Officer from the Chilterns AONB, the Director of the North Wessex Downs AONB, a planning consultant, chairmen of Goring and South Stoke parish councils, a county councillor, along with the leader of RAG and other members of the group.
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13 October 2015: Letter sent to Mark Carne, Network Rail’s CEO, to state that RAG and its allies in this dispute have taken legal advice and have been told that RAG would have a strong case against NR and that RAG was prepared to challenge NR in court, if necessary, to stop the current installation and get changes made to the inappropriate electrification design within an AONB.
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Update 20 October 2017 - Further delays on promised public consultation
On 19 October at a meeting in Goring, chaired by John Howell MP, senior Network Rail (NR) managers told the Goring & South Stoke Railway Action Group (RAG) that they are delaying the local consultation meetings they had originally planned for earlier this year - the new proposed dates will not be before Spring 2018.
After a period of denial, Network Rail finally agreed in early 2016 that they had not consulted properly on the electrification of the Great Western Mainline and that they would consider retrofitting (ie replacing), the infrastructure they were putting in, with other versions that had less detrimental visual impact on the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. They commissioned Balfour Beatty and a landscape visual impact consultancy to design new, less obtrusive metal work over the track within the Goring Gap area and to assess any visual improvement.
Design work was started with a plan to present the new gantry designs to local residents during a consultation process when they had the new options prepared. NR told RAG that a budget was set aside for possible retrofitting the selected new design(s) throughout the whole stretch of track which lies within the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs AONBs, some 20kms from Pangbourne to near Didcot. These consultations were advertised to be held at the beginning of this year at several localities in the area, however, the day before the first one in Goring was scheduled NR postponed all the meetings. This was after an independent design advisory group and RAG persuaded NR that their proposed designs were not significantly better than the existing ones and that more work and improved options were needed. NR concurred and said that once this further work was completed they would rearrange the meetings ‘in due course’. These meeting have never been rearranged but NR have finally said on 19 October that they are planning them for ‘Spring 2018, at the earliest’.
Several other issues were discussed, including other mitigation options such as structural changes to ‘declutter’ the gantries, screening them with planting and possibly tinting the metal work.
You can find the minutes of all previous meetings, including this latest one, on this website, together with the whole background to this electrification process and RAG's negotiations with NR to reduce the visual impact of the gantries since October 2015.
News of the dates of the public consultations will be advised on this website and via Genie newsletters and other media as soon as they are arranged.
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12 December 2016 - Network Rail’s Public Consultation
Coming in January/February - Have your say!
For the past few months, Network Rail has been undertaking work on the new electrification designs (and on the visual impact that these might have on the two relevant Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty).
RAG has seen the eleven gantry designs that Balfour Beatty is producing for Network Rail and is considering for a potential retrofit. After detailed engineering analysis and cost evaluation, it plans to reduce these to three or four possible designs to put before the general public as part of its (very late) consultation process.
As yet, RAG has not seen the short listed designs, but is pressing for these to include non-portal type structures such as wire-head spans and more slender T-shaped designs. We believe that using these non-portal type structures is the only way to make a meaningful improvement to the aesthetic appearance of the current bulky and over-engineered gantry design.
Network Rail will first show the short-listed designs to the ‘Design Advisory Group’ (the group of local statutory bodies that are working with Network Rail, which includes the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs Conservation Boards) during December.
Network Rail has put some of the information relating to the remedial evaluation it is undertaking, and the impact that electrification is having on the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs AONBs, on its website: (www.networkrail.co.uk/great-western-route-modernisation/oxfordshire/). It includes maps, a list of the early options generated for potential retrofit (not the short-listed ones as yet), comments from the Design Advisory Group and some images from Balfour Beatty's evaluation workshops. The plan is to add more information onto this site as it becomes available.
Network Rail has also confirmed that the Public Consultation regarding the Great Western Mainline Electrification issues will commence on 21st January 2017, with drop-in meetings at various localities throughout the AONBs that have been affected by the work.
Network Rail has stated that the process will be in two parts, the second phase being ‘Drop-in’ meetings, which will incorporate feedback from the first phase, scheduled for March/April 2017. Network Rail has proposed a number of venues in the parishes affected, including Goring, Streatley, South Stoke, Cholsey, Moulsford, Pangbourne & Basildon.
Network Rail is contacting Parish Councils and Village Halls directly to arrange venues and dates. Please look out for the official notifications from Network Rail so that you can plan to attend and make your views known. As with the previous consultation in October 2015, representatives of Network Rail will be in attendance to answer questions and get feedback from the public.
The specific dates for each venue will obviously be announced at fairly short notice, so we suggest that people interested in attending these meetings should sign up on this website to get advance notice of the dates and venues. Go to ‘How to Help’, then ‘Join our Mailing List’, and will we email the details directly to you.
It is essential that the maximum number of people adversely affected by the electrification work attend these meetings and make their feelings known to Network Rail, as this may have a major bearing on whether it ultimately fulfill its promises and stated intentions to use the money it says it has put in its budget to undertake the retrofit. If only a few people attend these meetings, it will Network Rail the perfect excuse to do nothing, justifying its actions (or lack of them) by quoting the poor turnout at the consultation meetings showed that the public have accepted the current design and can’t justify public money being spent of replacing the existing functional system.
The recent announcements by Network Rail on deferring parts of the electrification work will not have a significant impact on our AONB stretch of track. They have put back the electrification of four branch lines to 2024 and beyond, including the Henley branch line and the Didcot to Oxford branch line. However, the electrification work on the mainline track (from London - Cardiff) will continue with a current timetable for completion scheduled for end 2018,but this appears an optimistic forecast. The knock-on effects mean that Network Rail has had to order more bi-mode trains (hybrid electric and diesel) for the mainline service.
RAG’s next meeting with Network Rail is planned for January 2017. We hope to know the firm dates for the public consultation dates soon, hopefully before Christmas. Watch this space!
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30 August 2016 - NR reveals new infrastructure designs for AONBs
Since RAG’s negotiations with Network Rail’s to improve the current electrification design in the AONBs began, NR’s stance has moved steadily from a position at our first meeting on 6 May 2015 of a firm ‘no compromise’ policy on the re-design of the infrastructure to the presentation by NR on 14 July of a shortlist of 10 new potential design options. So, it appears, some significant progress.
From the new options by Balfour Beatty, commissioned by NR to produce more acceptable designs, one or perhaps a mixture of these, could be retrofitted throughout the whole 20kms of track within the AONBs as NR now has told RAG they have a budget for this remedial work.
The removal of all the existing gantries and wiring to retrofit a new, less obtrusive design, and the considerable costs involved, of course, could have been totally avoided back in 2012/13. Had NR appreciated the law’s requirement to ‘conserve or enhance’ the natural beauty of AONBs, it would have not installed it’s standard gantry design. Also, had South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC) taken the opportunity to challenge NR’s ‘Permitted Development Rights’ for the AONB' (which it relied upon to do this work) and ask NR to submit a full planning application, the installation of the current design could have been avoided at the outset. SODC didn’t do this and essentially gave approval for this major adverse impact on our landscape before NR had completed the detailed electrification design in December 2014. So, RAG is fighting a rearguard action. But that is all now history and we, at last, have some alternative designs!
The 10 candidate designs (cut down from an original 79 concepts) include ‘Wire-head spans’ (ie slimmer stanchions with wires across the track instead of the ugly solid metal crossbars we currently have), Cantilevers (single stanchions either side of the track), and also centrally-sited T-shaped stanchions with slim arms across the tracks. None of them, it must be said, are exactly aesthetic, or will preserve or enhance the natural beauty of the landscape, but they are better than the design we have at present and would cause significantly less visual impact on the iconic views we used to enjoy. NR is also undertaking a new Landscape Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA), which it is carrying out in parallel with the new design project. The next stage for NR is to further assess the new designs in terms of engineering viability and cost and to then select 3 or 4 or so workable designs to present to the public.
Disappointingly, the timing for these consultation meetings has slipped again and are now scheduled for late 2016/early 2017. These will now be conducted in two phases in order to ensure your feedback is properly built in to the process. This further delay is partly because the Cotswolds AONB, also affected, is now involved in the process. NR admitted at our last meeting that they are going about the planning and public consultation process for the Cotswolds “the right way round”, which is as it should have been with us. NR has held several meetings with the newly formed ‘Design Advisory Group’ (which comprises the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs AONB planning officers, SODC and Natural England), with a view to getting professional input to the design process and visual impact assessment. Because we are a campaign group, and not a statutory body, RAG will not be attending these design meetings but NR has accepted our request to give us the minutes and visual material from these meetings in order to give us confidence that the work is progressing in the right direction. The minutes of these meetings, the Design Brief and the Phase 1 Design Preliminary Review of Options will be put on the NR website shortly and also on this website, once NR has publically released the material.
So, some encouragement but some frustration too. The next RAG meeting with NR should be in October when it is hoped that NR will have ‘acceptable’ new designs and details of the timing of the all important public consultation process.
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10 May 2016 - At the latest RAG meeting (the 5th) on 5 May with Network Rail (NR) in Goring, detailed information was sought by the Railway Action Group (RAG) and other attendees, about Network Rail’s (NR) plans on the potential removal of the existing ugly gantries and the retrofitting of a new, more aesthetic, design. NR have now commissioned new designs and the public will be able to view and comment on these at forthcoming public consultation process in late summer.
Some while ago, RAG had persuaded NR’s Chief Executive Officer (Mark Carne) to write a letter to the Conservation Boards of the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs AONBs to reaffirm NR’s intention to retrofit a better design of infrastructure after they have completed their testing of the current overhead line equipment (OLE) on this Goring Gap section of track. Although there are caveats, the significance of this letter (sent on 5 May 2016 and copied to RAG) from the head of NR cannot be understated and the whole document may be found under the ‘Documents & Links’ section of RAG’s website. The key section reads “ I also re-affirm that should the outcome of the design options and the public consultation highlight that Network Rail should undertake retrospective works to alter or replace the installed apparatus, Network Rail intends to undertake such works as are necessary, subject to costs and the agreement of funding”.
The ‘guarantees’ that we are seeking from NR clearly depend on two things. Firstly, as many people as possible turn out for the formal public consultations to look at these new designs to show NR that the public consultation demands that they take retrospective action and secondly, that the money that NR have put aside in its budget is ‘agreed’ to be spent for this purpose. The public consultation is now scheduled for September. Details to be published when available. This last meeting in Goring, chaired by David Bermingham, was well attended with representatives from five Parish Councils (Goring, South Stoke, Pangbourne, Upper Basildon & Moulsford), two members for the Council for the Protection of Rural England, (CPRE) a senior planning representative from SODC and John Howell MP present.
NR managers confirmed that they are well under way with moving from concepts for new designs to more practicable designs. These include ‘wire-head spans’ (instead of the heavy solid horizontal metal structures currently being used) and thinner, more tubular versions of the upright supports. The new gantry designs will then be tested for visual impact using a specialist contractor and then narrowed down to 3 or 4 designs that have been checked for engineering, safety and reliability requirements. Throughout this process the local statutory bodies and RAG will be consulted with regards to reaching a mutually acceptable set of designs. Then the designs will be shown to the general public at the formal consultation, which will be a 6-week programme within the AONB areas affected. We also established that the testing of the infrastructure and the new trains will be a two-phase process. Once the national test track (Reading to Didcot) is complete and ‘goes live’ on 28 May, the infrastructure testing (gantries and overhead wiring etc) will be completed by the end of September. Assuming this is satisfactory, then the new Hitachi electric trains themselves will be tested by the manufacturer’s engineers. This final phase ‘may’ be completed by the end of 2016 or thereabouts.
However, despite these positive steps, RAG continues to have concerns about whether NR will deliver on their promises in a year or so from now, given the huge budget over-run on the GWML electrification. NR re-affirmed that there is now a line in the overall £2.8billion GWR electrification budget* for the Goring Gap/AONB refrofit. (*part of Sir Peter Hendy’s (Chairman Network Rail) Report to the Secretary of State for Transport on the replanning of Network Rail's Investment Programme - ‘Enhancements Delivery Plan, Update January 2016’). That doesn’t guarantee, of course, it will be used for that purpose. We are therefore still engaging with an environmental law firm to pursue a potential formal challenge to the validity of NR’s Permitted Development Rights (PDRs) for the whole project and also the probability that it has not paid sufficient regard to protecting the natural beauty of the AONBs. The next meeting with NR should be in mid-June and by then it is hoped that we will have had a preview of the new designs the public will be able to choose from in September.
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9 March 2016 - Network Rail has written to the Railway Action Group (9 March 2016) confirming its commitment to retrofitting a suitable new design of electrification gantries throughout the whole AONB section of line (some 20kms from near Pangbourne to near Didcot) and that it has made financial provisions in its overall budget for this potential work.
NR’s CEO, Mark Carne, is to give his high level endorsement of this in a letter to the AONB Conservation Boards (to be placed on this website shortly). In addition, NR has also published the ‘Statement of Intent’ that RAG received in October 2015 on their website, along with a revised statement of the plans for the Goring Gap section of the line: http://www.networkrail.co.uk/great-western-route-modernisation/oxfordshire/
RAG has also received confirmation in writing that 'Network Rail has made financial provision for potential retrofit works within the overall £2.8bn budget for electrification between Maidenhead and Cardiff.'
At a meeting on 11 March, Network Rail discussed with representatives from The Chilterns AONB, North Wessex Downs AONB and Natural England and an environmental consultancy (2B Landscape Consultancy Ltd), its progress in developing new electrification designs for the Goring Gap/AONB area. Network Rail has appointed Balfour Beatty to undertake the review of options for less visually impactful designs which can be retro-fitted in the AONB area. This review will include a Landscape Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA) which will be undertaken by 2B Landscape Consultancy Ltd. Balfour Beatty will also undertake all the technical feasibility work required to ensure the new designs meet all the exacting specifications required to comply with Networks Rail’s safety and interoperability standards - and the cost of replacing the existing gantries and plant and replacing them. At some point (tba), Balfour Beatty will produce a report, with recommendations, which will then go the Department for Transport for its ‘approvals process’.
The outline schedule RAG has been given for the full Public Consultation is summer 2016, when the proposed designs will be on show at the various local venues (tba).
NR is continuing to install the current design between Reading and Didcot, but this work should be complete by September 2016, ready for the testing programme of the new Hitachi electric trains soon after. Once testing has been completed (timetable unknown), RAG understands that this test track area will be potentially retrofitted with a new, lower visual impact design at some point afterwards, assuming a design is acceptable to RAG and the AONBs.
RAG is continuing to challenge the way that Network Rail has carried out, or rather not carried out, ‘due process’ in getting approvals and planning permissions for the electrification programme in this AONB area. RAG has instructed a leading environmental and public law firm to send a second letter to NR arguing that its approval process for its ‘Permitted Development Rights' is fundamentally flawed.
At the next RAG/NR meeting in Goring (planned for late March, RAG is hoping to see real signs of progress with the alternate designs that NR/Balfour Beatty are working on and a timetable for the consultation process this summer.
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15 January 2016 - BBC NEWS Network Rail apologies for Goring Gap gantries. Network Rail has apologised for building large new gantries in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty without consulting nearby residents
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-35321340
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14 January 2016 - Goring Gap issue raised in the House of Commons. See Hansard report below:
Column 1006
John Howell (Henley) (Con): May we have a debate on the activities of Network Rail in landscape-sensitive areas, such as the area of outstanding natural beauty in which the Goring Gap sits? Nobody wants to hold up electrification, but sensitivity in such areas over the installations that are used to carry the electrification wires would be very much appreciated.
Chris Grayling: I am aware of the concerns that my hon. Friend raises. Indeed, I walked through the Goring Gap recently and saw the work that is taking place on the line. The electrification of the Great Western main line is great news for people in his constituency and, indeed, in south Wales, so it will be of benefit to the constituents of the shadow Leader of the House. It is long overdue. When Labour was in power, only 10 miles of railway were electrified. We are now doing the job properly. However, my hon. Friend is absolutely right that Network Rail needs to be careful and thoughtful in areas of outstanding natural beauty to ensure that this essential work does not damage the landscape.
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14 January 2016: The 4th RAG meeting took place in Goring with Network Rail.
(Minutes available soon. See minutes of the previous 3 meetings in the 'Documents & Links' page).
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24 December 2015: A letter was sent to senior Network Rail managers, including the CEO, Mark Carne, on behalf of the Railway Action Group (RAG) by a legal firm, identifying possible breaches of the law and requesting NR's position of these issues prior to the next NR/RAG meeting on 14 January 2016.
(Letter not available for public view at this point).
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9 December 2015: A letter was sent to The Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin MP, and the Rail Minister Claire Perry MP, from the heads of the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs AONBs requesting an urgent meeting with them to resolve the issue of the inappropriate electrification design being installed by NR and the lack of response by NR to previous requests for remedial action. The letter insisted that cast iron guarantees were given that the existing installations would be replaced and an appropriate budget was ring-fenced for this purpose.
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23 October 2015: Public Drop-in meeting held by Network Rail: There was an excellent turnout in South Stoke Village Hall, with about 700 local residents taking their first opportunity to talk to Network Rail managers about the electrification design in the Goring Gap. After running out of feedback forms twice during the day and needing to get further supplies from their Swindon Head Office and then asking RAG to photocopy even more, hopefully Network Rail will understand the strength of feeling against it current ugly design and the need for change.
RAG members and local residents were filmed by ITV Meridian and That’s Oxford TV and news bulletins went out throughout the day. BBC TV and BBC and other Radio stations also transmitted news of the issue in the Goring Gap, so the whole issue is now getting up a head of steam!
Thank you to everyone who turned out on the day. We hope to make the Network Rail 'Feedback form' available in various places, including online, for people who weren't able to make it to South Stoke on 23 October.
See BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-34581751
BBC TV South News on 20 October 2015: The 6.30pm and 10.30pm news bulletins featured RAG leader, Ian Haslam, and Chilterns AONB Planning Officer, Dr Lucy Murfett, in a report on Network Rail's inappropriate infrastructure and how NR is responding to pressure to consult properly and possibly retro-fit a new, better design through the Goring Gap.
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21 October 2015: Letter was sent to Simon Maple (Network Rail's Route Programme Sponsor, Great Western Modernisation) thanking him for the 'Statement of Intent' to undertake remedial work but requesting a re-issue of the document without the caveats that the undertaking is subject to funding availability. The letter pointed out that Network Rail has a legal duty to comply with the law (ie Section 85 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000).
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19 October 2015: Network Rail (NR) sent a 'Statement of Intent' letter undertaking to start a proper consultation and to retro-fit a new overhead electrification design in the 2 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and Goring Gap, subject to the outcome of the consultation, which is to start in 2016, and funding approval.
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14 October 2015: 3rd Meeting with Network Rail (NR) held in Goring.
At the meeting with 4 senior NR managers in Goring Village Hall, the Railway Action Group (RAG) had a robust exchange of views and some significant concessions from NR were achieved. RAG has asked for these verbal pledges to be put in writing in a ‘Statement of Intent’, so that we can be assured that there will be definite changes to the current situation as we understand it (this is basically that NR would undertake ‘remedial action’ only if it was found to have breached environmental law). Prior to this meeting RAG sent a letter to Mark Carne, NR’s CEO, the day before (see below). NR also announced at the meeting that they had agreed to ‘roll back the clock’ and start a proper consultation period with all stakeholders, a process that NR have accepted hadn’t happened when it should have done several years ago. The details are to be advised, but it will probably be an 8-week period starting in January 2016. RAG’s negotiating team included the Planning Officer from the Chilterns AONB, the Director of the North Wessex Downs AONB, a planning consultant, chairmen of Goring and South Stoke parish councils, a county councillor, along with the leader of RAG and other members of the group.
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13 October 2015: Letter sent to Mark Carne, Network Rail’s CEO, to state that RAG and its allies in this dispute have taken legal advice and have been told that RAG would have a strong case against NR and that RAG was prepared to challenge NR in court, if necessary, to stop the current installation and get changes made to the inappropriate electrification design within an AONB.