The MLAG (Marsh Link Action Group) will be holding its AGM this Friday April 15, at Rye Town Hall and the formal meeting will start at 7pm with presentations, followed by questions, at around 7:15pm (to allow attendees to get to the meeting by train).
The speakers at the AGM will be:
- Martin Grier, Head of Drivers, Southern Railway who will be commenting on the past year’s performance, problems (and solutions ?) encountered and, perhaps, MLAG’s objectives;
- Paul Best, Senior Strategic Planner, Network Rail who will comment on recent infrastructure developments in the area (in particular the MarshLink line). Of particular interest to MLAG at the moment, he is heavily involved in assessing infrastructure requirements that would affect the viability of a direct Javelin service from London to Rye, Hastings and Bexhill. He may also be able to inform us about a consultation that is soon to take place in which views of the public are sought on such matters as the proposed Javelin service;
- Ray Chapman, Chairman of East Sussex Rail Alliance (of which MLAG is a member) who is a driving force behind bringing the Javelin service to the MarshLink and now a member of the High Speed Working Group recently established to bring this proposal to fruition; and
- Roger Blake, Director of Railfuture who will have an independent view on rail opportunities and developments (noting that the stated role of Railfuture is “to campaign for a bigger, better railway in Britain”).
Come to the meeting if you have any issues with the current Marsh Link services you’d like to share, or if you want to hear about or comment on the latest proposals for the Javelin service. You may find the current proposals are somewhat different to what they were at last year’s AGM.
Meanwhile, MLAG’s new website (still on www.mlag.org.uk) should be operational by the time of the meeting but is formally still under development
Stuart Harland is Chairman of MLAG. Photo: Rye News Library
