Welsh Rail Users Hit Back!

Send Your Rail Protest to the Heart of Government!

Rail passengers in Cardiff are being urged to punch out their frustration at the state of railways, as part of a new campaign from Friends of the Earth. Travellers using Cardiff Central Station on Thursday 18th April between 7.30 and 9.30am will be invited to hit out at a giant punch bag to vent their anger at train delays. And every rail user in Wales is being urged to punch out a text message to the Government to make sure politicians know how they feel.

FOE local groups in Abergavenny and Crickhowell, Chepstow, Conwy, Pembrokeshire and Torfaen will also be taking action around their local railway stations. Contact details from FOE Cymru or FOE Media Unit in London.

Friends of the Earth is calling on Chancellor Gordon Brown to invest more money in the country's rail system and give rail travellers a reliable, safe and efficient train service. In Wales, this could mean the go ahead for several key projects, which the Strategic Rail Authority currently say it cannot afford until after 2010.

These schemes would include:

1. Signalling and track improvements to enable increased line speeds along the North Wales coast to 100mph plus. At present new 125mph trains being introduced on the London to Holyhead service can only travel at 75-90mph along this key inter-city route
2. A loop at Dovey Junction (upgrading at Dovey J) on the Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth line to enableat least an hourly service to this important tourist and university town
3. A tram (light -rail) system serving Cardiff, the Valleys and the airport

Friends of the Earth is calling on rail travellers in Wales to back their campaign by sending a text message to the Treasury or by sending an email.

Neil Crumpton, Friends of the Earth Cymru's transport campaigner, said:
"We want the Chancellor to put more money into this country's railways - if he fails to do this he will be robbing passengers of the rail services they deserve. We hope that people in Wales will take up this campaign and let the Government know how strongly they feel about the current state of the trains. Good public transport is essential if people are to be offered an alternative to using the car. Travelling by train causes less environmental damage and relieves congestion on the roads. A reliable, safe and efficient rail service would be good news for everyone."

Notes

• 35% of the public would travel less by car if train services were better (Commission for Integrated Transport)
• Only 14% of the public think enough investment is being made in the railways to meet the needs of passengers (55% think there isn't enough investment and the rest don't know) (Commission for Integrated Transport)
• Only seven out of ten (71%) of trains ran on time in the last 3 months of 2001 compared with almost eight out of ten (79%) in the previous 3 months. 'On time' means not more than 5 minutes late for local and regional trains, and not more than 10 minutes late for intercity (Strategic Rail Authority)
• Trains pump out less carbon dioxide per passenger mile than other forms of transport. For a trip from London - Manchester, a plane pumps out 7 times as much CO2 per passenger as an electric train and a car pumps out 4 times as much (Commission for Integrated Transport). Moving one tonne of freight by road produces 5 times as much CO2 as moving it by rail (Railway Forum).