Chairmans Blog

Next year is MCRUA’s 25th Anniversary so we are looking to run our best Railtour ever – with something for everyone. Yes it is a time to celebrate ….

At last some Northern trains are getting CCTV, so no longer will Northern be the only train operator without any CCTV except on units transferred to them from other operators. Unit 323238 was the first to be fitted; the rest of their 17 class 323s are following. Here are some shots I took on a [...]

Rail in the North – Poster Invitation Looks interesting and it’s free to attend. It’s good to see so much focus going into developing transport systems in England elsewhere than just in London & the South East. See you there if you can make it!

Many of you will have seen our post about the replacement of the free bus link between Chester Station and the city with one where customers have to pay or use their English National Concessionary Bus Pass where they have one and it’s valid. We were very sorry about this, as were many others, but [...]

Those of you following the train service performance post and comments will be aware that over the last 9 months the main factors leading to poorer performance are infrastructure failures, shortage of traincrew, especially Piccadilly drivers, and continuing unit failures. In the last week, I’ve been on four trains where the unit has failed in [...]

The Mid Cheshire Line that runs from Chester to Manchester via Northwich has won three awards in the Cheshire Best Kept Station Competition and has on Wednesday also received government backing as a Community Rail Service. This will mean people in mid Cheshire will have a bigger say on their train service and access to [...]

Winsford has a bit of a haphazard service to Liverpool, better than some years ago, but still not hourly.  Daytime direct departures are 0610, 0641, 0705, 0743, 0805, 0906, 1106, 1306, 1406, 1506, 1706.  Some big gaps. Coming back from Liverpool departures are 1134, 1334, 1434, 1534, 1704, 1804, 1834, 1934, 2034, 2134, 2234 & [...]

Courtesy of an internal Network Rail source …. “All employees planning to dash through the snow in a one horse open sleigh, going over the fields and laughing all the way are advised that a Risk Assessment will be required addressing the safety of an open sleigh for members of the public.  This assessment must [...]

In BTP’s 12 days of Christmas, their 7th, 8th and 9th messages are not really for the law-abiding travellers who read our blog, but they give an indication of some of the problems faced: staff abuse [Click here ]; cable theft [Click here]; and violence on trains [Click here].

On the first day of Christmas British Transport Police gave to me – a warning about personal safety. As Christmas approaches more and more people will be heading out to celebrate the festive season with friends and family.  Now December is upon us, Christmas parties will start in earnest and British Transport Police in the [...]

On Wednesday 14 December from 2 to 3.30pm, come and learn how to make Christmas decorations then decorate the station Christmas tree.  There will be carols, mulled wine & mince pies too. …