Would you use the Middlewich Branch?
Posted on August 14th, 2009, by The Chairman
Our Chairman writes:
The Feasibilty Report into the re-opening of the Sandbach to Northwich Line to Passenger Traffic and the re-opening of Middlewich Station is great positive news.
If you live in Mid Cheshire and travel to London or the South West, would you use the proposed Middlewich Branch as your preferred route?
And if so why?
8 comments 
Category:
August 14th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Yes I would. I am a regular traveller to London and live near Northwich Railway Station. Parking in Crewe is a real nuisance.
The sooner the better!
August 14th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Congratulations to MCRUA, the Middlewich Rail Team and Middlewich Town Council in pushing this forward. A station in Middlewich, with a link to Crewe, the Mid Cheshire Line and the Crewe to Manchester Line will be a real asset.
I work in Crewe and will take the train to work. It will be part of my Green Travel Plan.
August 14th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Fantastic. Yes congratulation to those over in Middlewich that made this happen. Whilst we are only at a Feasibility Study stage it is a great leap forward.
September 4th, 2011 at 6:25 pm
Great. I would. I live near the Middlewich line so it would be a useful service.
September 23rd, 2011 at 10:41 am
Whether I would use the Middlewich line is dependant on certain variables.
As I live in Knutsford whether the service runs from Crewe to Northwich or Crewe to Altrincham. If I have to change twice to do a journey like Knutsford-Birmingham or Knutsford-London and the timings aren’t dis-similar to going via Stockport then the Middlewich branch would be a less attractive option unless cheaper tickets were available for the via Middlewich option which weren’t available for the via Stockport option. Also whether Northwich station is renovated to be more interchange like is a key variable.
I do, however, think that a shuttle should get a healthy number of passengers but to be really successful terminating the service at Northwich wouldn’t help achieve that.
The Mid Cheshire line in general suffers disadvantages to other lines by not having longer distance and express trains operating on it. Look at Newton-le-Willows and Stalybridge compared to Knutsford and Northwich and imagine what it would be like if the Mobberley-Manchester Airport line was built. We could have services such as Manchester-Manchester Airport-Northwich-Runcorn-Liverpool and Manchester-Manchester Airport-Northwich-Holyhead coming along the line, calling at Altrincham, Knutsford and Northwich.
I’ll stop dreaming now and go and board one of our state of the art Pacers that seems to take an eternity to reach Manchester.
September 23rd, 2011 at 8:18 pm
Just reading my comment back from earlier I didn’t mean to say services that could run on the hopefully future Mobberley to Manchester Airport line would call at Altrincham, as that would require a reversal and slow down the service.
December 6th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
If anyone fancies looking at the pre-nationalisation Middlewich line timetable it is available here:
http://www.timetableworld.com/image_viewer.php?id=7§ion_id=1502
The other timetables for the Mid Cheshire line from around that time are below:
Manchester to Chester & Wrexham via Altrincham: http://www.timetableworld.com/book_viewer.php?id=8§ion_id=1815
Manchester to Altrincham (local services): http://www.timetableworld.com/image_viewer.php?id=7§ion_id=1505
Stockport to Liverpool via Baguley: http://www.timetableworld.com/book_viewer.php?id=8§ion_id=1815
March 15th, 2012 at 11:29 am
East Cheshire NHS trust have criticised public transport links between Northwich and Crewe according to the Northwich Guardian:
http://www.northwichguardian.co.uk/news/9579592.Crewe_patients__can_t_get_to_Northwich_/