INSTITUTE OF TRANSPORT ADMINISTRATION

SOLENT CENTRE NEWSLETTER

2017 ISSUE NO. 1

WELCOME

I welcome you to the latest edition of the Solent Centre newsletter. Hopefully, you will find it of interest.

You will find reports on recent centre events and some local and not so local transport news,

Details of the Solent Centre Annual General Meeting being held in April are also given.

SUBSCRIPTIONS 2017

May I respectfully remind you that membership subscriptions for this year were due on 1st January.

IOTA WEBSITE - SOLENT CENTRE PAGE

The Solent Centre page on the Institute website is now being edited by members of the centre committee. Therefore, itwill be regularly kept up to date to ensure that all centre activities (events, reports on meetings etc) are accuratelyreported.

Can we respectfully suggest that centre members and anyone else who are interested refer regularly to this page for allinformation regarding to the activities of the centre.

SOLENT CENTRE AGM

The Solent Centre Annual General Meeting is to be held on Tuesday 25th April in the training room at Lucketts Travelin Fareham. The meeting will commence at 19.30hrs.

The paperwork for this meeting is attached. If you would like to be nominated to serve on the Centre committee or ifyou have any matters that you would like discussed, please let Roger Brown know by no later than Friday 7th April.

Light refreshments will be provided.

INSTITUTE AGM & NATIONAL COUNCIL MEETINGS

Solent Centre representatives will be attending these meetings that are being held in London on Saturday 29th April.

STEAM PINNACE 199 In January. for the first of this year's open meetings, Commander Martin Marks OBE (RN Retired) gave a presentationon the refit of Steam Pinnace 199.

Steam pinnaces were normally carried in pairs on board battleships and the purpose of the vessel was to provideprotection for the ship whilst it was at anchor in non dockyard ports, it carried a 3pdr Hotchkiss gun forrard as adeterrent against fast enemy launches and torpedo boats.

This steam pinnace was built for the Royal Navy at J. Samuel White’s yard in Cowes in 1911 and on acceptance in theRN was allocated to one of the capital ships, probably HMS Monarch. The RN lists showed 634 of these vessels were in service in 1914 and No. 199 may well have been at the Battle ofJutland in 1916.

These vessels were always ‘commanded’ and driven by a Midshipman and were initially coal fired with an Admiralty3 drum steam boiler providing power to a compound steam engine, possibly built by Mumfords of Colchester, aspropulsion.

After the war she was converted to an admiral’s barge and had a counter stern and brass funnel added.

Little is known about this pinnace after HMS Monarch was decommissioned in 1925, but she may have been used adockyard launch.

In 1949 she was sold and stored in Weevil Lake on the Gosport side ofPortsmouth Harbour. In 1952 she was bought for conversion to a houseboatand taken to the Thames and still under ‘coal power’.

Renamed Treleague she remained on the Thames for some years and hersteam engine and boiler were removed and replaced with a petrol engine.

She was finally sold to an antique dealer for £5 and restoration commencedsoon after. However funding was inadequate and the bare hull was acquiredby the Royal Naval Museum (now the National Museum of the Royal Navy)in 1979 for restoration.

A pinnace boiler and suitable compound engine were found at HMS Sultan,the Royal Navy Engineering School and work on restoration could began atthe then Maritime Workshop in Forton Lake Gosport, formerly part of HMSSt Vincent.

In 1964 she was recommissioned and was used for VIP transport, at that timeshe was moored in the Mast Pond of the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth.

The vessel remained there until 1998 when she was transferred again to the Maritime Workshop in Gosport, this timefor a complete refit.

This refit required a complete overhaul including the retubing of the boiler, the repair of major parts of the hullplanking, a new keel, recaulking of the upper deck and a complete overhaul of the main engine.

All this work has been undertaken by volunteers ably assisted by a paid shipwright and generous donations from theNational Lottery and other sources of grants, including gifts from many local businesses connected with the marineindustry.

The work is now complete and not without many untoward snags and she is now afloat in No.4 Boathouse in theHistoric Dockyard and ready to steam.

The fuel today is diesel and the crew of 7 when she is in service dress in the ‘rig of the day’ for the RN of theEdwardian period, the stokers in ‘duck’ whites and the remainder of the crew in blue jackets and white trousers andwhite canvas shoes.

This pinnace has been lovely restored to excellent working order and her armament restored to that it can fire blankcartridges and once she is fully up and running later this year will be a fine example of the last pinnace from the 1 st

World War in full working order.

Martin’s presentation was well attended and proved very interesting and informative.

HAMPSHIRE COMMUNITY FIRST RESPONDERS

A small but select group of members and friends attended the February open meeting, it was a presentation on theCommunity First Responder initiative (CFR) by Richard Coates, a Public Governor of the South Central AmbulanceNHS Trust.

The First Responder initiative has been running for over 10 years in Hampshire and has become an establishedelement of the trust.

The responders are all volunteers, who freely give their timeto provide a high quality of basic life support and treatmentin advance of the attendance of an ambulance.

In this trust area there are two control rooms, one atOtterbourne in Hampshire and the other at Bicester inOxfordshire, where both 999 and 111 calls are received.

From there the appropriate resource is despatched dependanton the nature of the emergency.

There are also specialists in the control rooms including doctors, midwives and clinical experts who can be calledupon to give expert advice as and when needed. Heart attacks are coded as ‘Red 1’ and given utmost priority with aresponse time of 8 minutes, and lesser emergencies reduce the coding to ‘Red19’ with a response time of 19 minutes.Falls for example are given a ‘Green’ code with a response time of an hour.

What CFR's do:- Early Access – somebody witnesses an event and dials 999

Early CPR – must be carried out right away and can extend the time a person is in cardiac arrest to be able to recoverby supplying oxygenated blood to the vital organs until the heart can be restarted.

Early Defibrillation – in a lot of cardiac arrests the heart muscles contract too fast and lose their rhythm. Defibrillationby shocking the heart causes the heart muscles to reset themselves and start beating in rhythm again.

Once an ambulance is on scene and/or a paramedic then advanced Cardiovascular Life Support can be provided to thepatient and is very important to the recovery of the patient and will have only limited effect if earlier links in the chainas above are broken.

CFR's have developed throughout the Trust area to include Thames Valley andHampshire and in particular Richard concentrated on Hayling Island in Hampshirewhere he is one of a group of twenty responders.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) also provide CFRs in Hampshire from SouthwickPark and RAF Odiham as does Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service from certainmostly rural retained fire stations.

CFR's provide their own vehicles and are trained to drive with ‘blue lights and they also charge the Trust for theirservices. Some CFR's (as at Hayling Island) attend in a marked car paid for by local donations.

Each CFR carries and Automated External Defibrillator (AED) and a backpack containing an oxygen cylinder andadditional first aid equipment. The AED is an automatic device which ‘shocks’ the heart when it has stopped beatingcorrectly. The shock resets the heart which hopefully allows it to start beating in rhythm again. The units are foolproofand will not allow a shock to be delivered unless the unit detects that the heart is not beating properly.

The equipment bag contains a cylinder of oxygen with masks for delivery to the patient, who has stopped breathing,100% oxygen and to inflate their lungs. There are also dressings, bandages, tape, and gloves and so on in the bag. Thisis everything the CFR will need until an ambulance crew arrives.

The Trust trains its CFRs to a very high standard and starts initially with a 2 day course and they also undergo regularupdates and additional training from time to time. It must be emphasised that although the equipment is initiallyfunded by the Trust the CFRs are run as a charity and local communities are encouraged to fund raise and contribute tothe funds to buy additional equipment and support the scheme as a whole.

Richard kindly put himself forward a ‘patient’ and asked one of our group to give treatment with an AED as if he weresuffering a heart attack. This was a very practical and worthwhile demonstration as to how straight forward andeffective the use of the AED can be by just following the automated instructions.

Public AEDs are now becoming much more wide spread and once a member of the public has called in a suspectedheart attack the control room will be able to inform them where the nearest AED is situated and the key code to use tounlock the box containing the equipment.

There is now also an app called ‘save a life’ which amongst other things gives a map of the area to the phone userindicating the whereabouts of the nearest AED. The evenings presentation brought to the fore the need for CFRs, the need for an immediate and professional responseto an emergency situation especially where cardiac arrest is suspected and is borne out by the statistics where CFRsattend over a 1000 calls a year on Hayling Island alone. VISIT TO HAMPSHIRE & IOW AIR AMBULANCE BASE

On Thursday 23rd March, a small group of members and guests visited the recently opened new base for theHampshire & IOW Air Ambulance which is located at the Thruxton Aerodrome near Andover.

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance provides prompt Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS)to the people of Hampshire and the Island, the service is funded solely by donations. It flies seven days a week, 365days a year and is available for 19 hours a day from 0700hrs to 0200hrs the next morning.

It currently costs over £230,000 a month to keep it flying and is an H135 helicopter specially built by Airbus and is ona lease from Babcocks. The leasing arrangement also includes the supply of a pilot, maintenance and a trainingprogramme for the crew.

The crew consists of a pilot, a paramedic and a doctor. All of the crew members work a 12 hour shift and all the pilotsare ex military helicopter pilots, the paramedics are volunteers from the South Central Ambulance Service.

The doctors are drawn as volunteers experienced in emergency medicine and normally work either at the mainhospitals in Southampton or Portsmouth. There are two forward facing seats in the helicopter and the pilot sits in thefront right hand seat, with the paramedic seated to the front left and he also has the duties of navigator. The doctor isseated in the rear compartment right next to the stretcher and all the necessary medical equipment.

The service ensures that a seriously ill patient is conveyed to hospital asquickly as possible and this will have a dramatic effect of the well beingand the early recovery of the patient. Ambulance Control on receipt of amedical emergency will dependant on the serious nature of the call, and thepossible inaccessible position of the injured patient will determine whetherit is deemed necessary to send the helicopter to the incident.

Once the decision to deploy the helicopter has been made then the on watchcrew are alerted by radio bleep and text and within 4 minutes they will beairborne to the casualty. They are capable of reaching most locations inHampshire within 15 minutes and flights to the Isle of Wight take around20 minutes.

The helicopter which is a twin engined Eurocopter 135 T which typically flies at 140 MPH. There is a fourth seat atthe rear of the aircraft which can be occupied by a second doctor or a family member of the patient.

The 135T is powered by two Turbomeca Arrius 2BPLUS engines, has a range of 432 nautical miles and an enduranceof about four and a half hours. It is fitted with two Garmin GPS systems, moving map displays, two iPads, a powerline detection system, night vision goggles and a Trakka Systems A800 high intensity searchlight.

The on board doctor is able to sedate patients, provide blood transfusions and administer anaesthetics as required. So,a patient with serious trauma can be assisted in their recovery which is particularly important in the ‘golden hour’ justafter any serious accident. This air ambulance works well with the neighbouring similar services in Thames Valley and Dorset and Wiltshire, andis also available for the transfer of seriously ill patients from one hospital to a centre of excellence where they canreceive the best treatment possible.

In addition to the helicopter this service now has a road vehicle, a Volvo XC90 fully equipped as the helicopter and itis based at Eastleigh in Hampshire, this vehicle is deployed on the mainland in a similar fashion to the helicopter.

Our visit coincided with the helicopter being on site and we were able to have a very interesting and thorough briefingon the equipment and the operation of the helicopter from the three duty crew.

Incidentally, this is the 10th year that this air ambulance has existed and the anniversary will be celebrated on 1st July.

With a government grant from Libor funds they have been able to move into their new purpose built premises in theairfield. A far cry from the two portacabins from which the service was first started. The second floor of the newfacility has a training suite where simulations can be produced of every situation which could be encountered by thecrew on arrival at a typical accidfent scene and the trauma being experienced by the patient(s).

Last year the service raised £6.72m to run the service and the target for this year is £7m which will be raised mostlythrough donations from the public and some corporate sponsorship.

This was a truly interesting and worthwhile visit enjoyed by all who attended.

A BUSY CRUISE SEASON FOR PORTSMOUTH

Following a successful 2016 summer season the schedule for 2017 for Portsmouth is looking healthy. To date, 47cruise ships are booked to use the facilities at Portsmouth, a rise of almost a 25% on the 34 ships that visited this year.

In June 2017 a ‘six star ship’ the Crystal Symphony, which is 238 metres long, will call as she starts a cruise toReykjavik before returning to Portsmouth. The vessel is described as ultra luxurious with a stunning selection ofpenthouse suites and staterooms.

Viking Cruises is another operator visiting Portsmouth, being a well knownname in river cruising that has recently branched out in to ocean cruising.Viking Star will call in September 2017 and at 228 metres in length will beanother large caller for 2017.

It will be the newest vessel to visit having only entered service in 2015. She willbe on a cruise tracking the ‘Trade Routes of the Middle Ages’ calling atPortsmouth on a journey from Norway to Spain.

The ‘yacht’, Le Soleal is another new visitor for 2017. Just three years ago she was privately owned and still has thevery stylish interiors and will call in April with more than 200 passengers enjoying a cruise from Dublin.

The growing trend for explorer cruises continues with National Geographic bringing the Explorer and the Orion backto Portsmouth so that passengers can experience a selection of museums and historic attractions whilst on passageincluding those in the Solent area.

In addition Silver Explorer and Ocean Nova will be making several visits during the summer season.

UPGRADE TO WATERLOO STATION

The promised upgrade to Waterloo Station will commence early in 2017, £800 million is being invested to provide abig package of improvements for passengers travelling by train to and from the station.

The number of passenger journeys on the lines in to and out ofWaterloo has more than doubled in the last twenty years to 234million and is expected to increase by a further 40% by the year2043.

Work is already in hand to rebuild platforms 20-24 (the formerWaterloo International Terminal) so that they can all be utilised.

Platforms 1-4 will be extended so that they can accommodate 10coach trains and there will be new track and signalling at thecrucial approaches to the station.

The whole redevelopment at Waterloo will improve facilities and give the travelling passenger 30% more space duringthe busiest times of the day.

Further to the above, a number of stations on the Reading line will get longer platforms to accommodate the longertrains. Thirty new trains will provide 150 extra carriages between Waterloo and Windsor.

There will also be improvements at depots and maintenance facilities to look after the network’s bigger fleet of trains.

ABP SOUTHAMPTON OPENS NEW FRESH PRODUCE STORE

ABP Southampton and Solent Stevedores have invested £8.3m in upgrading the cool store terminal and expanded thechilled store’s temperature range and storage capacity.

This gives the Stevedores the opportunity to handle a wider variety of chilled fruit and other high value products allthe year round in Southampton, the majority of which comes from the Canary Islands.

The main storage area of the building now features energy efficient lighting, rapid action doors, multiple storagecompartments, and a brand new cooling system that can operate at different temperatures in different parts of thebuilding.

The upgrade is progressing with the creation of an integrated pack housefacility that will become operational in February 2017 and support a teamof over 40 specialist fruit packers.

ABP has added two new harbour mobile cranes and the Stevedores havepurchased new pallet cages and a fleet of high capacity fork lift trucks toimprove the handling capacity for fresh produce at the port.

Solent Stevedores has recently signed a 20-year deal with ABP to operate the Fresh Produce Terminal which hopefullywill support the port’s capital investment programme as well as continuing to ensure that Southampton continues asthe UK’s second largest and most efficient container terminal in the UK.

LONDON MAYOR SETS OUT DANGEROUS LORRY MEASURES

The most unsafe HGV’s are to be banned from London’s streets by 2020. The world’s first Direct Vision Standard is tobe introduced as pledged in the Mayor for London Sadiq Khan’s manifesto.

The idea is to make London’s roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists by removing the most dangerous lorries from thecapital’s roads by 2020. Transport for London’s (TfL) Direct Vision Standard will use a star rating system from 0 to 5to rate construction and other heavy goods vehicles based on the level of vision that the driver has directly from thecab.

Under the plans to be consulted on shortly the most dangerous vehicles will be banned from London’s streets entirelyby 2020. These vehicles would be the ‘zero star rated’ using the Direct Vision Standard. Only those vehicles with 3stars or above (a good rating) would be allowed into the capital from 2020. Recent data shows that HGV’s were involved in 22.5% of pedestrian fatalities and 58% of cyclist fatalities onLondon’s roads in 2014 and 2015, despite making only 4% of the miles driven in the capital.

The restriction of a driver’s field of direct vision by vehicle design has proved to have contributed to many of thesefatalities.

There are around 35,000 zero-rated HGV’s operating on London’s streets and they were involved in 70% of the cyclistfatalities in the last 3 years. It is this type of vehicle that the Mayor has pledged to remove from London’s streets by2020.

As of the new financial year 2017, TfL and the Greater London Authority will adopt the new direct vision standard inall future contracts to ensure that no trucks with poor direct vision are in future used in any supply chain.

Likewise, the Mayor is to work with developers and councils to encourage them to do the same.

CHRISTMAS UPGRADE ON THE RAILWAY IN HAMPSHIRE

Whilst most people were tucking into their turkey, Network Rail’s orange army spentChristmas renewing a railway bridge in Bramley, Hampshire.

The existing bridge which sat in 900 acres of MoD land was around 150 years old andhad reached the end of its life.

The new £1.9m bridge supporting the lines between Basingstoke and Reading willimprove the reliability for passengers and will reduce the amount of disruption causedby necessary regular maintenance of the old structure.

Across the country, Network Rail continued with its Christmas and New Yearupgrades, investing £103m on nearly 200 projects.

SOUTHAMPTON AIRPORT INTRODUCES NEW SECURITY SCANNING

In December last year Southampton Airport introduced a new security non-evasive body scanning facility as a result ofregulations introduced by the Department of Transport (DfT).

The scanner can detect a wide range of threats in a matter of seconds to protect passengers and will be used alongsidethe existing screening systems.

The scanner which is made by Rohde and Schwartz, it uses millimetre technology with a much lower power outputthan the portable handheld devices currently in use.

The Airport is the fourth in UK to introduce this new type of security scanner. When a passenger passes through the scanner it will produce a generic,mannequin style image which will highlight those areas that may require furtherinvestigation. There is no health risk posed by the scanner.

The image is automatically deleted after it is cleared by a Security Officer.

Finally, the scanner is designed in such a way as to maintain the privacy of the passenger.

RAILFREIGHT DIRECT FROM CHINA

Over the past few years, China Railway have been transporting freight and cargo via the famous Silk Road railwaywhich links 12,000 kms of track via the Trans Siberian Railway.

An exciting development has just taken place with the first train going fromYiwu to London (Barking)

It left China on 1st January and arrived at it’s destination in the UK on 18 th

January. This new service provides an opportunity to send and receive railfreight to and from China with faster delivery and at a lower cost.

In comparison to air freight the saving is 50% and in relation to sea freight thetime saved is between 12-14 days.

There are two key rail routes, the first goes north from China and connects with the famous Russian Trans Siberianand then heading west across Kazakhstan.

A key junction in the system is Yekaterinburg where there are further links into Europe.

For example journey times are as follows:-

China to Poland 12 days China to Hamburg 15 daysChina to Moscow 18 days. China to London 16-18 days

Fast customs clearance has been set up and so when the goods arrive in Barking they are released much quicker thanthe traditional and more expensive air or sea freight.

The Barking rail depot expects to receive one train a week from China from now on.

NEW SHIP ON ORDER FOR BRITTANY FERRIES

French operator Brittany Ferries has ordered what may well be one of the cleanest and most environmentally friendlyships to operate in UK waters. It is due to be launched in 2019, it is a roll on/roll off vehicle and passenger vessel powered by liquid natural gas(LNG).

The 42,000 GRT ship will be built by Flensburger inGermany and will operate alongside Brittany Ferriesexisting cruise ferry Mont St Michel on the servicebetween Portsmouth and Caen, which provides up tothree daily return sailings.

The 185 metre vessel will be capable of carrying up to 1,680 passengers, 130 semi trailers or 550 cars and 64 trailers.

BUSES GOING CONTACTLES S

Hampshire County Council (HCC) has recently announced that nearly 900 buses across Hampshire are to benefit fromcontactless payment technology which will allow passengers to pay for tickets with their debit or credit cards.

This has been made possible due to £900k funding from HCC and a further £700k from the bus companies.

These devices will be installed on Bluestar, First, Stagecoach and Unilink services with buses being equipped startingin May. Using a card will make paying for a bus fare easier for passengers and quicker for bus drivers, speeding upoverall journey times. Passengers can of course still pay with cash should they wish to do so

VISIT TO NEW CROSSRAIL DEPOT AT OLD OAK COMMON

On a bright and sunny afternoon on Thursday 16 th February a group ofBranch Line Society members gathered at the site of the new Crossraildepot at Old Oak Common in West London for a tour of the partcompleted depot.

Bombardier Transport UK awarded Taylor Woodrow the £142m contractto design and construct the 9 road depot for the Crossrail flee. It will beable to accommodate 33 trains whilst routine maintenance is carried outwith each train being 9 carriages in length.

There is capacity to the west to be able in future to extend the shed toaccommodate 10 carriage trains should the need arise.

Energy at the depot is generated and stored using a hybrid renewables system including photovoltaic cells (solarpanels) on the roof, solar heated water, and ground heat pumps which use the energy created by the foundations andthe 15,000 cu m. mass of concrete which forms the depot foundation. There are therefore no overhead or suspendedheaters whatsoever throughout the depot.

The train wash will have 2 roads and a capacity to service 12 trains an hour and 70% of the water used will berecycled.

The offices and train simulator, and control room are all sited on the 1 st floor above the maintenance part of the trainshed. The control room has an excellent view to the east and over the approach roads to the shed and stabling sidings.

Bombardier’s contract with Transport for London (TfL) is to supply, deliver, and maintain the 65 new 200m longtrains, providing 760 UK jobs and 60 apprenticeships. Once the project is complete there will be a further 80 jobs onthe maintenance side.

Bombardier is manufacturing and assembling all the trains at their Derbyplant and the first is due to be delivered in May this year. The new fleetwill be progressively delivered well in advance of services commencingthrough Crossrail’s central section in December 2017.

These new class 345 Crossrail trains will be serviced and maintained atthe depot and besides the under cover train shed there are 32 x 9 car longstabling sidings outside with most of the overheads lines already in place.

The tour of this new facility took us in to the train shed where the roadsare all complete except for the rails and some infrastructure.

Then on to the roof of the shed for a magnificent view over the whole new depot including the entrance at the east endand the stabling sidings.

To the south is the currently used Old Oak Common depot which may eventually become the HS2 depot and further tothe south over the GW main line North Pole depot which is earmarked as the new depot for the Intercity ExpressProgramme (IEP) trains (Class 800 & Class 801) which in due time will run on the Great Western mainline.

These are being built by Hitachi at their new facility at Newton Aycliffe in County Durham. The Class 800 is thehybrid diesel and electric version and the Class 801 is the pure electric version with supply from overhead power lines.

Looking further ahead, there will be more new construction work on this site as the plan is to build a new stationprovisionally named New Queens Park to serve the proposed HS2 line. The current ‘old’ Old Common Depot will bedemolished and rebuilt to serve the HS2 line from London Euston to Birmingham and this new station will provide amajor transport interchange with a number of other main line and commuter rail services, including Crossrail and theGreat Western Main line.

The planned HS2 line would be in a tunnel at the Old Oak Common site, with the Great Western Main Line andCrossrail tracks on the surface.

Looking further into the future the planners have in mind to build residential tower blocks and offices over most if notthe whole of the site, which in turn may well lead to some very prestigious developments, Old Oak Common couldwell become a very sought after location.

The visit enabled the group to gain a greater insight into the vastness of the whole project of Crossrail let alone thefuture developments that are planned for the site and I think Brunel would be very proud of what is being achieved atpresent let alone what is planned, especially as site was in steam days a very important GWR depot.

NEW RAILWAY STATION IN HAMPSHIRE

A new railway station has been proposed to serve the forthcoming Welborne development near Fareham in Hampshire.Discussions have been held between Fareham Borough Council and Network Rail about various options forconnecting the new development to the existing railway network.

The new station would be on the existing Eastleigh to Fareham line on the site of Knowle Halt, which opened in 1907and closed in 1964. More discussions will be held in the coming months.

MAJOR INVESTMENT BY LUCKETTS TRAVEL

The Lucketts Group have announced £7.5m of investment to its fleet of vehicles and this marks a new phase ofinvestment and expansion.

There will be 26 new vehicles in all. They will consist of:-

6 Scania Interlinks2 Mercedes Benz Tourismus14 National Express Levantes2 minibuses2 mini coaches.

Twelve of the vehicles will operate with the core brands of Coliseum in Southampton, Worthing Coaches in Sussexand Lucketts Travel in Fareham. This is the largest investment in the 91 year history of the fleet, now 130 vehiclesranging from 6-seater chauffeur cars, 63-seater luxury coaches to 70-seater buses. Overall, this will allow the Group tolook towards the future with ambition and confidence, and we wish them every success.

PORTSMOUTH HITS TWO MILLION PASSENGERS

More than two million passengers passed through PortsmouthInternational Port in 2016. 2,045,074 passengers were recorded lastyear at the port and that is an increase of 3% on the 2015 figures.

This shows that more than two million passengers have chosenPortsmouth for their journey to France, Spain or the Channel Islands.

Brittany Ferries have also seen a rise in passenger numbers, with aten year record for those crossing to France in 2016. In particular therecords show a 31% year on year increase in the number of peopleusing the Cherbourg route.

Further statistics on passenger records show an increase of 7.6% in the number of people making the crossing toBilbao with Brittany Ferries, and an increase of 4.35 in those heading to the nearby port of Santander. Portsmouth isnow known in the ‘holiday trade’ as Britain’s Best Connected port.

HM COASTGUARD AT LEE ON THE SOLENT RECEIVES NEW HELICOPTER

The Hampshire base of the Coastguard at Lee on the Solent has takendelivery of the first of 11 new helicopters which will eventually be suppliedto five coastguard bases across UK.

The £20m Leonardo AW189 built at Yeovil in Somerset is the first of twothat will operate out of Lee on the Solent, near Portsmouth. Initially therewill be training missions before starting operational duties in April.

Meanwhile the existing AW 139 helicopters will continue to operate.Bristow Helicopters operates the UK search and rescue (SAR) helicopterservice on behalf of HM Coastguard.

These new 11 helicopters come with the following statistics:-

Capacity is six seated plus two stretcher cases, 300ft twin winch with a maximum load of 600lbs, the rear cabin folds down from the roof, leaving the floor space clear of any obstructions, maximum speed is 169 knots, cruising speed is 145 knots and a flying range of 200 nautical miles

The remaining nine AW189s will be in operation at Prestwick, Lydd, St Athan, and Inverness by May 2019.

CHICHESTER TRANSPORT SOCIETY

The Chichester Transport Society meet at the West Sussex County Hall in Chichester on the first Wednesday of eachmonth commencing at 19.00 hrs.

IOTA members and anyone interested in the presentations would always be welcomed.

The speakers at their forthcoming meetings are as follows:-

Wednesday 6th April - Presentation by Michael Pym on 'Sir Nigel Gresley and the A4s'.

Wednesday 3rd May - Presentation by Chris Austin, 'Disconnected, Broken Links in Britain’s Rail Policy'.

FORTHCOMING SOLENT CENTRE EVENTS

The centre events for the second quarter of 2017 are detailed below:-

Tuesday 25th April - Solent Centre AGM (details given earlier in this newsletter).

Light refreshments will be available at this meeting. Please contact Roger Brown or Mike Schmidt if you are attending the Annual General Meeting.

I would like to thank to Mike Schmidt for providing the various and interesting articles for this newsletter.

If anyone has anything they would like to see published in forthcoming editions of the centre newsletter or anysuggestions for presentations or visits, please contact either Roger Brown or Mike Schmidt.

Disclaimer

Any facts stated, or opinions expressed in this newsletter are the sole responsibility of the contributors. The Institute ofTransport Administration cannot be held responsible for any loss or injury sustained in reliance thereon.

Roger Brown, Mike Schmidt,Solent Centre Secretary Solent Centre Media OfficerTel: 01489 690256 Tel: 01329 310365Mob: 07717 016311 Email: mike.schmidt@virgin.netEmail: roger.brown-iotasec@ntlworld.com