At the 2018 AGM on 29th November, Harborough Rail Users reviewed the past year’s activities and set the scene for campaign topics for the next year. 
Important decisions will be made over the next few months that will have a major effect on our station and train services for many years to come.

​The main issues for Harborough Rail Users are:

1. Market Harborough station, including the Access for All improvements and track realignment.  The new platforms are beginning to take shape and some of the new track has been laid.  It will be a major improvement on the present station, but we will continue to press for better access arrangements from the booking hall to the new platforms, better shelter, provision of facilities such as toilets for the southbound platform, and the promised cycle hub. 
2. The next East Midlands franchise.  We have submitted our detailed response to the Department for Transport consultation.  We have also met all three companies who are bidding and have given them details of what we hope to see in the next franchise, which is due to start in August 2019.   The government’s specification retains our essential two trains per hour service in each direction throughout the day. We need to retain a good mix of fast and stopping trains, combining regular fast services to London with stopping trains giving good connectivity to intermediate stations such as Kettering, Bedford and Luton Airport Parkway, plus good connections for Corby.  We have called for some timetable improvements such as earlier trains northbound in the morning, including Sundays, and later last trains southbound in the evenings.  The franchise specification requires the reinstatement of peak-time trains between Wellingborough and Bedford ‘as soon as reasonably practical’.
3. Electrification.  Though the scheme for the whole line north of Kettering has been cancelled, we await the decision on whether overhead wires or an underground conduit will be used to connect the Corby line electrification to the planned power substation at Braybrooke.  If overhead lines are to be installed, a further decision is awaited on whether that would then be extended for ‘the last mile’ into Market Harborough.  On a related note, decisions are awaited on rolling stock.  The franchise specification requires a new fleet of bi-mode trains for the main line, to be fully in service by the end of 2023.  We shall be taking a keen interest in the specifications for any new bi-mode or other trains that may be ordered.  There also remains the question of replacing or modifying the present HSTs to make them compliant with accessibility and other regulations that come into force in 2020, three years before full introduction of any new stock.

Last September, the DfT announced the next round of Access for All funding for railway stations.  Funds from a national allocation of £300m must be bid for by 'local delivery groups', which for Market Harborough means East Midlands Trains and Network Rail.  They are including additional accessibility enhancements for our station in their overall bid for the EMT network. 
HRU and Harborough MP Neil O'Brien have both submitted letters in support of this bid, which seeks funding towards an additional lift between the booking office and the new northbound platform, plus an accessible toilet on the new southbound platform.  The DfT is due to announce its decision in April 2019.

Steve Jones and Cliff Taylor of HRU met Phil Baildon of the Harborough Disabled Access Group and HDC Cllr Phil Knowles at the station on 11th October.  We discussed the station realignment scheme now work is under way on site, plus current plans and our respective aspirations for disabled access improvements at the station.  The meeting was prompted by the recent closure of the barrow crossing, plus assurances received from Network Rail about the design of the new footbridge and lifts at the station.  We confirmed that we share the same aspirations to ensure that the station will be fully fit for purpose once complete, including the additional features we seek.  A further meeting will be held with Network Rail in due course.

On 17th September 2018, Nusrat Ghani MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, wrote to all MPs outlining the latest allocation of funds under the Access for All programme.  This sets aside £300m for access improvements to railway stations as part of the government's Inclusive Transport Strategy, launched on 25th July.  The funding covers Network Rail's 'Control Period 6' (CP6): the five years from 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2024.  Bids for funds must be made by 'Local Delivery Groups' (LDGs), which usually means the local train operator and Network Rail.  The deadline for bids is 16th November 2018, with the results announced in April 2019.
Market Harborough has already had an allocation of Access for All funds for the planned footbridge with lifts; this is due to be built with the new platforms on the straightened line in 2019.  However, we seek further enhancements to the station's accessibility, in the form of:

• A lift between the booking office and the platforms
• Toilets on the new southbound platform.

Neither of these are included in current plans, though the DfT and Network Rail are reviewing the costs and benefits.
We in Harborough Rail Users have been liaising with Harborough MP Neil O'Brien about all this and he has written to East Midlands Trains seeking a meeting.  This is a first step towards getting a bid submitted for the additional enhancements to bring our increasingly busy station up to fully accessible modern standards. If recent growth trends continue, especially with all the new housing being built in the area, it will not be long before Market Harborough station sees over a million passenger journeys a year!  We need a station that fully matches that level of business!
Further information is on the DfT website at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/access-for-all-programme
and Network Rail https://www.networkrail.co.uk/communities/passengers/station-improvements/access-for-all/ 

For well over 100 years, there has been a barrow-crossing across the tracks at the south end of the platforms at Market Harborough.  However, with the opening of the new car park and step-free access to the southbound platform, the need to take disabled passengers across at track level from one platform to the other is much reduced.  This crossing is the last one on the whole line and there is a strong desire to close it and remove the obvious risk it involves. 
However, the need for all passengers to be able to transfer from one platform to the other remains.  Until the new footbridge is built (summer 2019), EMT are proposing a free accessible taxi between the respective station entrances.  This will be a temporary arrangement until the new bridge is open.  
In principle, HRU welcome the closure of the crossing as it is an anachronism on a busy main line in 2018.  However, we have sought assurances that the taxi arrangement will be properly accessible and user-friendly.  We do not want passengers to have to wait unduly and certainly not risk missing their trains.  EMT have undertaken to put in hand such arrangements. 
Further details are at:
https://www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/information/media/news/marketharborough/