Middlewich Diary – New Radio Mast on the Middlewich Branch

We checked the NRES web site and it looks as though Virgin will be diverting via Middlewich every Sunday until 13 February. The timetable gives them an hour from Chester to Crewe. Arriva are running buses, presumably because there is insufficient capacity on the single line.

Then from 20 February, Arriva will run fast from Chester to Piccadilly on our line with buses via Helsby.

Let’s hope there are some sunny Sundays for good pictures!

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Here’s some pictures of the class 31 special passing through Middlewich on Saturday 29 January, courtesy of Dave Roberts who’s part of the Middlewich Station re-opening campaigning team….

(c) Julian Ogle

(c) Julian Ogle

These are class 31s 31601 & 31190 and Riviera stock on Pathfinder’s “Rother-Don Rambler”

In brief “tram/train” is a concept where the “trains” involved can run on both conventional (heavy rail) railway lines as well as on tramway systems with their lighter rail and tighter curves. The best example of this is Karlsruhe in Germany, where this has developed over the last 30 years. There are other examples now in Germany as well as in France, Holland, Switzerland and, I think, the US.

For our line, since we had the poorer timetable imposed on us in December 2008 to hand over more paths between Stockport and Manchester to long distance trains, tram/train could help us get the service back we deserve. Many of you know prior to Metrolink our trains used to go into Manchester via Sale. Our aspiration is to have three trains an hour (two of which would be all stations), and two of these three trains going into Manchester via Metrolink probably also stopping at Sale (as our trains used to) and Old Trafford on match days, with the remaining one still going in via Stockport – we have a lot of passengers who now use the line to get to/from Stockport.

A tram/train trial has been very slow to start in the UK, but did get going around Sheffield earlier this year. Phase 1 of the trial has now been postponed, though Phase 2 will shortly start instead with Phase 1 to follow. Even if everything goes to plan the full outcome is not expected until 2015. Quite why we in the UK have to spend so long trialling something that works perfectly well elsewhere in the world is not clear to me. Indeed, Iain Coucher, Chief Executive of Network Rail complained about this last May, asking for the trial to be speeded up. He says he’s sure tram-trains will be successful, complaining “The rail industry must have more pilots than BA.”!

Whilst we wait all this time for an outcome, mid-Cheshire continues to be starved of the public transport services its economy needs and deserves.

Andy Crane set the scene explaining the subject of the meeting was actually “The Manchester Hub”, acknowledged by just about everyone as being the major bottleneck for the whole of northern England preventing better rail travel between many towns and cities in the North and thereby restraining economic growth.

The speeches were good, with general acceptance that the current situation was bad for northern England. HS2 (the proposals for a High Speed line potentially coming to North West England in 20+ years) needed to be taken into account, but action was needed much sooner. In the current Control Period 4 (CP4), Network Rail were spending on Crossrail (London & SE), Thameslink (London & SE), Reading remodelling (London & SE) and Birmingham New Street (in my view, essentially shopping centre improvements in Birmingham with nothing much for rail), so now was the time to ask for projects to be considered for CP5 (from 2015).

Steven, having arrived late, spoke well, though had not realised the subject had changed, but seemed to detect this through questions. He particularly mentioned he thought the North had the poorest rail service in the country in terms of speed, timetables and poor quality rolling stock, though I was left wondering a little if he might have said the same about somewhere else in the country if the Tory Conference had been there.

There were about 25 minutes for questions. Andy allowed me to ask a question along the lines of – “Our local services in south Manchester and mid-Cheshire were reduced in December 2008 in order to provide extra paths for more and faster trains to/from London which has led to much poorer services for local users and much increased traffic congestion into/out of Manchester from the south and around Stockport. Was I correct in understanding nothing was likely to be done about this until 2015 at the earliest, thus ensuring the local economy continued to underperform, surely bad news for the whole of the UK?” The speakers all seemed to accept this was the case and was unacceptable and needed serious consideration. It seems the message was heard and understood, but whether anything will happen to resolve this some time soon is rather more in doubt.

There were others in influence there too, such as Anthony Smith, Chairman of Passenger Focus and Heidi Mottram, MD of Northern Rail with a team of 3. There were other useful points made which seemed to be heard by those close to or in positions of influence. Strangely, when talking about rail and station reopenings, Edward Timpson talked about needs and successes in Lancashire, seeming to completely forget about the Middlewich proposals in his own backyard (shame on him!)

I had been sceptical about whether the meeting would be worth attending, but it definitely was. If you have comments on the above, or attended any of the other transport related fringe meetings, please let us know.

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?