EMT at it again

East Midland Trains are continuing to upset and bully the people of Sheffield with their ridiculous tactics of denying people access to the bridge across the station. They seem determined to alienate as many people as possible.

Following article is on page 2 of tonight's Sheffield Star.


08 February 2010

By Nick Ward

FURIOUS campaigners have slammed railway bosses for stopping people without tickets crossing the Sheffield station footbridge.

The move, on Friday evening, comes just months after campaigners won their fight against an application to install ticket barriers to stop anyone without a ticket using the bridge.

Stagecoach, which owns East Midlands Trains, applied to install barriers to improve security and stop fare dodging but faced a massive protest when the plans were announced in 2008.

Sheffield Council's planning board rejected the scheme in November.

Protesters were angry the barriers would prevent residents from using the station footbridge as a route between the city centre and Norfolk Park.

Members of campaign group Residents Against Station Closure say they are furious after the bridge was closed to anyone without a ticket on Friday evening.

Protester Graham Wroe said: "The six members of a city planning board unanimously voted to reject the scheme after receiving nearly 1,250 objections - and slammed the station operator for pursuing the plans despite such overwhelming opposition.

"But now EMT are continuing to disrupt pedestrians journeys, forcing people to use the unlit and dangerous covered bridge which has no disabled access, or take an extremely long detour to get round.

"On some previous occasions when EMT have carried out ticket checks they have issued pedestrians with tickets to enable them to cross the bridge. On this occasion they failed to do this and forced everybody to walk round.

"We are calling a meeting of Residents Against Station Closure on Monday February 15 at 7pm at Victoria Methodist Church, Stafford Road, to discuss our response."

Fellow campaigner Mark Halsey has written to East Midlands Trains saying: "I wish to complain at being stopped on the footbridge at Sheffield station this evening.

"This is despite the fact that Sheffield City Council, when you applied to install barriers, made it clear that while you are entitled to run a penalty fare scheme, this only applies to the platforms on which your trains operate and that you can at no time prevent pedestrians from using the footbridge over the station.

"I would like an explanation as to why your staff and company think that the civil law doesn't apply to them."

East Midlands Trains said the ticket checks were part of an ongoing plan to prevent people trying to travel without a ticket and have been carried out for a number of months at Sheffield station. These ticket checks are also carried out in other stations across the East Midlands Trains network.

Loads of good comments on the website
http://www.thestar.co.uk/headlines/Outrage-as-residents-hit-by.6051230.jp
and a very supportive editorial
Don't alienate Sheffield folk.
EAST Midlands Trains are right to be concerned over fare dodgers, who deprive the company of vital revenue which, in turn, threatens its role as employer to thousands of people. But it is not acceptable that their campaign to stop people travelling without a ticket should result in pedestrians being prevented from using a footbridge at Sheffield railway station, which is what happened the other evening when the rail company ..carried out a ticket check operation.
An application for ticket barriers at either end of the footbridge, in effect restricting its use only to train passengers, has already been thrown out by Sheffield City Council, which felt the apparatus was out of keeping with the character of the railway station.
In reality, though, this decision would have been driven equally by sympathy for the campaign against the loss of the footbridge to general use.
For the rail company to unilaterally close off a well used and much appreciated thoroughfare which not only links a major part of Sheffield with the city centre but also joins Hallam University with its bespoke tram stop, is to ignore the feelings of the public at large. The irony is that they no doubt sympathise with the company in its plight against fare dodgers.
We would appeal to them to find an alternative way to achieve their goal without alienating Sheffield people.

Victory!

In case you haven't yet heard the news, the Planning Board today unanimously rejected East Midlands Trains proposal to install barriers at the station. Further more , EMT were advised that they shouldn't bother appealing against this decision. I think a celebratory drink is in order! Thank you everyone who has played a part in this campaign.Together we have won a victory for common sense and ordinary Sheffielders over the money grabbing corporate interests of EMT who want to privatise our public space.

We have won this battle, but the war may not be over. EMT are threatening to continue with the "human barriers". RASC will not stop campaigning until EMT stop preventing people from crossing the bridge. The next meeting of RASC will be at Victoria Methodist Church, Stafford Road, on Monday December 7th at 7pm. Hope to see you there.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/8374527.stm

Planning Board Meeting

The Planning Board will be meeting on Monday November 23rd at 2pm to discuss East Midlands Trains plans to install barriers at the station and prevent pedestrians walking through.Residents Against Station Closure will be meeting outside at 1.15pm. Please bring banners and anything that will make a loud noise.There will be speeches from many of the key objectors to the plans, and you can then attend the meeting and support our speakers. The Council officers have recommended rejecting EMT's proposals- you can see the documents regarding this here.
http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/your-city-council/council-meetings/planningboards/citycentresouthandeast/agendas-2009/agenda-23rd-november-2009

However, this means we have won a battle, not the war! We have to keep the pressure on to ensure we keep our safe accessible route to the city centre.

Battle for the Bridge

The battle for the station bridge continues this week with a Residents against Station Closure meeting at Victoria Centre, Stafford Road on Tuesday at 7pm. There are two good letters on the issue in this weeks Telegraph, the first from Valerie Bayliss points out that East Midland Trains are facing both ways as they have supported an application to restore the listed restaurant room on platform 1.The application states "the pedestrian link through the station is central to the city regeneration strategy as it provides a direct route for future occupants of the Park Hill redevelopment scheme to access the Golden Route into the city centre." Recent passenger counts show an average of over 100,000 passengers (sic] passing through the station each week. Valerie says that this application has in effect been endorsed by East Midlands Trains as occupiers of the station - clearly the restoration could not happen without their co-operation. The second letter from RASC stalwart Viv Ratcliffe returns to the issue of democracy and asks who has the right to make the decision on the bridge. If EMT get away with there plans, going against the wishes of all the councillors in Sheffield from all 3 parties (Lib Dem, Lab and Green) and all the MP's, it really will show how little power politicians now have as so much of our infrastructure has been sold off.

As EMT now push forward their plans to shut the bridge I suspect we will be organising further protests.The will of the people must prevail!

Successful protest!

Many thanks to everyone who turned up yesterday, to express our anger at East Midlands Trains policy of preventing pedestrians walking through the station. There is excellent coverage in the Sheffield Telegraph , the Star


There is also news of a new possibility- revamping the old bridge to make a new safe secure route for pedestrians.

(see the Star) It will be interesting to see how this develops, but was is clear is that EMT must stop barricading the bridge while plans are being made.

Green opinion poll hopes

Great news today on the opinion poll front-see the Green Party website
Many people are supporting our practical politics and an interesting coalition is building to ensure the Greens beat the BNP, keeping the fascists out of Europe.

The Star campaign on the station continues, with this interesting article. Its a bit harsh on the good people of Dore, many of whom I am sure are very willing to pay for tickets if the train companies provided the staff to collect them! As Geraldine reiterates in the article, no one is objecting to the train companies ensuring that they collect their fares- indeed, for the good of the railway service, we wish they would get their act together and collect them. However this doesn't mean they need to inconvenience the 2500 non rail travellers that use the station everyday (according to a recent SYTPE survey.)
This comment from "Dore resident" is very telling.
"We are actually quite frustrated by the ongoing humiliation that we have to go through on daily basis, thanks to the inadequate management from Northern Rail. The trains are often late or cancelled with very sporadic announcements, and we are unable to buy tickets on the train due to the short distance between Dore and Sheffield. Every morning we get off the train with concern that we may not be able to present our tickets at the station, if we were asked to do so. The after-work train to Dore leaves from Sheffield at 5.15 pm which renders it impossible for a great majority of us (working till 5pm) to purchase the ticket to Dore from the Sheffield train station in a timely manner."

It is high time the station authorities put a stop to this nonsense and found a way to collect all the fares without destroying the open station which used to be one of the things that made Sheffield great.

I have written my speech for the demo on Wednesday and am looking forward to seeing what happens. A large crowd are expected, so please come and join us. 5pm, front of station. We will cross the bridge!

Rail privatisation has failed the public.

Last night Sheffield Green Party passed the following resolution.
"Sheffield Green Party supports the use of non violent direct action to assert our right to walk across the bridge at Sheffield Station, which was paid for with £7 million pounds of public money." Councillor Rob Murphy has also written to the press supporting the campaign, but explaining how the Green Party policies differ from the other two parties, whose privatisation policies got us in this mess in the first place. Many Green Party supporters will be attending the demonstration on Wednesday 20th at 5pm.

Dear Sir,

I would like to make clear that the Green Party completely oppose the gating of the footbridge at Sheffield Railway Station. However unlike the other parties represented on the City Council we believe the problem is a result of the government's policy of handing control of public services over to private companies. That a private company can stop the people of Sheffield using a bridge that has been paid for with taxpayers money, is a disgrace.
Once again rail privatisation has failed the public. Government subsidy of the railways has grown massively, fares continue to rise faster than inflation, and ticket prices are a confusing mess. The government has even been forced to buy new rolling stock for the train operators (Who find it more profitable to run overcrowded trains than to invest in extra carriages and passenger comfort).
The actions of East Midland Trains are damaging to Sheffield and it's public transport system, but that has little meaning to a large private company aiming for maximum profit from it's franchise. It is time for government to act, to prevent the gating of the walkway and to work towards regaining public ownership and control of our rail network.

Yours sincerely,


Cllr Rob Murphy (Sheffield Green Party Transport Spokesperson)

This was the scene last Thursday as EMT decided to bar members of the public from the station. I was informed that I was not allowed to take photos, and was not allowed to cross the bridge as I didn't have a ticket. The members of staff barring my way weren't even checking the tickets of the people coming out of the station, so they weren't there to catch fare dodgers, which would have been a useful activity, they were just there to stop people using the station.

On Saturday the Green Party leafleted outside the station and collected petitions for RASC. In the picture is European MEP candidate Steve Barnard, Graham Wroe and Eamonn Ward.

Here is the coverage from the BBC website.

EMT madness

the PR team at East Midlands trains have certainly got a fight on their hands! Here is some of the coverage following their disastrous decision to stop the good people of Sheffield from walking through the station.

Sheffield Star 7.5.09

Sheffield Star 8.5.09