Welcome to your society's new name and logo, designed by Phill Ruffell of netmark.co.uk, the website company which along with Deltic Computers is sponsoring our website.
We hope the website - also sponsored by Chiltern, GNER, Virgin and Travel Infosystems - will become an essential tool for campaigning.
The national executive decided on 11 November that the Railway Development Society should adopt a new name for day-to-day campaigning purposes.
It was agreed that the new title should be short, easy to remember and modern. From the four best ideas, Railfuture, Rail Action, The Rail Campaign and Rail Voice, Railfuture was chosen with a clear majority as the most forward-thinking, fresh and positive choice.
It is felt that with a catchier name we are more likely to attract new members to the organisation, be more memorable to the public and better able to get our message across. RDS will remain the society's official name.
One of the exciting features of the new Railfuture website is an online petition - 2001 A Rail Odyssey - which will go to the Government, Railtrack and the Strategic Rail Authority, calling for better rail services. We will also be able to poll members and the web-surfing public about their views.
As more and more members use computers, the website will enable members to keep up to date with what the society and its officers and other members are doing and to take part in discussion on rail.
We hope that journalists will be able to find out what rail campaigners are doing and use the information on the website to counter the effect of years of dubious propaganda campaigns by the road lobby.
It will be possible for members and journalists to search the site and the Newslines for particular topics. Already we have some of our policy documents loaded up on the Railfuture site. More will be added as they are published.
There is also information about branches in the contacts page but we hope that soon each branch will have its own web page linked to the Railfuture site. It is also planned that every branch will be given a template to make it easier for some branches to get started. Of course RDS Wales has had its own site for several years.
There will be links to the Railwatch site and other rail-oriented sites.
By the time you receive this Railwatch, Railfuture will have been launched. Please use the name immediately.
Please note that when using the name Railfuture in your letters or documents, it should be spelt with a capital letter and as one word. Please use the lower case version only as a logo.
For those with computers, you should be able to download the logo from the website to incorporate into your word processing documents. Those without computers can access the worldwide web in many public libraries or at a cyber café.
Together we can now work towards a Railfuture!
You can e-mail Railwatch editor Ray King or e-mail Deltic Computers with comments about the Railwatch Web pages
for all your IT needs