January 2001

Beleaguered Northern Spirit finally unveil new train (24 Jan 2001)

Transport service descends into chaos (11 Jan 2001)

Pressure mounts on Pickles for next election (1 Jan 2001 )

Beleaguered Northern Spirit finally unveil new train

Northern Spirit finally rolled out the first of it's 16 new trains yesterday, as invited guests were given a run to Leeds. The trains, costing £60 million, are intended to replace the old Class 308's operating the Wharfedale and Airedale routes. But it may still be some time before ordinary passengers can enjoy them.

Northern Spirit, a subsidiary of transport giants Arriva, take over a revised rail franchise next month. Arriva originally won the franchise for the newly privatised Northern Service in March 1997, but last year Chairman Gareth Cooper complained:

"The Northern Spirit rail franchise is a significant loss making business."

This was at the same time Arriva announced a £200 million pre-tax profit on a turnover of £1.5 billion, mostly from privatised transport services. Helpfully, the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority (SSRA) negotiated a change to the terms of operation to make the franchise more profitable.

Arriva Plc was formed in 1996 from the former Cowie Group, after it bought up the British Bus Group to become the 3rd largest bus operator in the UK. It's major stock holder is Prudential Portfolio Managers Ltd, owners of the Bradford Kirkgate shopping centre which last month banned motorbikes from its car park, directly against the stated aims of the local Integrated Transport Strategy.

See: previous posting
See also: Arriva Plc's own website
See also: Hemscott's company profile on Arriva Plc.

Transport service descends into chaos

15 brand new trains, due to start service for Northern Spirit at the beginning of the new year, are currently standing idle as the local train service descends into chaos. There are, apparently, not enough drivers qualified to drive them.

Meanwhile, fleets of busses have had to be drafted in to ferry weary passengers along Airedale and Wharfedale as train after train is cancelled. Northern Spirit blame protracted development at Leeds City station.

KDIS tried repeatedly to contact Northern Spirit's "Customer Services Consultants" over a 2 week period, but without success.

Restructured bus routes have added to the misery, along with ever growing traffic congestion. It seems the local "Integrated Transport Strategy" is failing.

At the same time, MP Chris Leslie's hopes for a final start to the expensive "Bingley Relief Road" scheme may be derailed as a complaint to the European Commission has been officially registered. The complaint, which centres on the government's "about turn" on the road scheme through their 1997/98 Roads Review, was submitted by the Bingley Environmental Transport Association (BETA) and is now being investigated.

BETA chairman, Professor Richard Butler, said:

"As far as I know, it is the first complaint to the European Commission about the conduct of the 1997/98 Roads Review. The outcomes of this complaint will have great significance in view of the government's abandonment of any pretence of implementing the much trumpeted Integrated Transport Policy and reversion to a policy of pandering to the motorist."

The road scheme succeeded in the review process on the basis that it would have a "positive effect upon local air quality". This was based on a report Chris Leslie commissioned from Bradford Council's Pollution Unit.

But KDIS was able to show that this report was deliberately misleading, using only a carefully selected measuring point. In fact, the road will increase pollution over Bingley as a whole, pushing the noxious peak towards residential areas.

See feature: "Road to nowhere"
See also: BETA's briefing notes on their EC challenge to the UK Government over Environmental Impact of Roads.
See also: Northern Spirit's "award winning" web site?
Send your complaint directly by e-mail to:  customerservices.ns@ems.rail.co.uk at Northern Spirit.

Pressure mounts on Pickles for next election

Eric Pickles, the former controversial leader of Bradford Council and now shadow Tory Social Security minister, is to be challenged in the coming General Election by fellow MP Martin Bell.

Pickles is also likely to face inquiries from the Parliamentary ombudsman following complaints from some of his constituents about his "appalling conflict of interests", which arose after hundreds of members of the Peniel Pentecostal Church captured control of a number of Tory ward branches.

Pickles became MP in April 1992 after being selected for the 4th safest Tory seat in the country - Brentwood and Ongar in Essex. But many local tories were astonished when members of the Peniel church, described as a "disturbing religious sect", moved en masse to take control of certain branches of the local Tory Association.

The sect, led by former cop and "miracle worker" Bishop Michael Reid, has pumped thousands of pounds into Pickles' local Tory camp.

Bell, who ousted disgraced former Tory MP Neil Hamilton at the last election, has the support of those Tory activists ousted by the sect.

See: Previous posting.
See also: "Sects, power and miracles in the Bible belt of Essex" - Observer, 31 Dec 2000.
See also: Pickles own website.
See also: Peniel Pentecostal church
See also: The Pickles Papers

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