The shutters are up (not quite!)

And for someone, the idea of renting a converted station building in the heart of the Cheshire countryside (and put it through the business?) must be a chance too good to miss.

David Longdon, who owns Plumley Station Building, has put it back on the market for rent after the previous tenants, JPD Training Ltd, consolidated their business into their head office in Dunstable.

JPD Group Ltd is the business that our Committee Member, John Hulme, sold a few years ago when he retired.  John tells me it worked exceptionally well for his business.  Too well, I expect as he decided to sell up and retire!

Click here for details of the property

Full house, as we bumped along!

We have only exceeded this number once or twice before and on those occasions it was because most people came from a single group. We counted 79 people, plus band on the train – about 50 seated in the music carriage, 15 standing there and 14 in the other carriage. At the pub there were 4 Weavils (the band from the June Music Train) and 3 Sale Folk Club members who had come direct, as well as quite a few others who had also come direct.

One notable feature was that people had come through a variety of networks and through seeing our website and station publicity and receiving our emails. Two larger groups of 10-12 people had told us in advance that they were coming.

People now seem to be aware of it being a monthly Chester to Plumley programme, with extras in the Altrincham to Chester direction.

Overall, we’ve had plenty of positive feedback, including from the band.

Plus. Even the driver was one of our members (on duty)!

Well done to everyone concerned!

Following the AGM, our Community Rail Officer is giving us a presentation on what’s been achieved (by her and lots of others!) since she was appointed last September. It’s a lot!

Do come and join us, whether you’re a member or not.

Convenient trains back are the 2143 towards Manchester and the 2203 towards Chester.

We’ve been doing a bit of digging and have heard the following, though it may not be correct ….

Apparently, it seems the M5000s ride very roughly once they travel over 35mph. On the Altrincham Line in order to keep time, it’s important they operate at 50mph between stations. Otherwise, this leads to lots of knock on delays.

We also hear that the clearance into platform 1 at Altrincham is such that the M5000s have to approach it very slowly and have to stop short of where the trams normally stop, otherwise they hit the platform edge.

How much of this is true, we don’t know, but it may explain why we don’t seem to see them any more.

As the older trams are more comfortable, have more seats and are less bumpy, we’re happy about that!

If you know more, please let us know.

You’ll probably have read previously that way back in the “dark days” of 1999 when we went to complain about the train running on our line to the then train operator, First North Western, performance was running at about 44%. This was against a target of 90% for punctuality, and 99% for reliability, equating to a target of around 91% for the current method used, the Public Performance Measure (PPM).

After a lot of hard work by a lot of people over the years, performance started becoming acceptable 2-3 years ago. More recently it has become good.

The PPM target when Northern took over was increased to just over 92%.

Last October we got 93.79% for a 4 week period, our best ever for a period. In February this year (period 12 – the Railway runs on 13 x 4-weekly periods in a year to the end of March) we got another best ever at 94.04%. Then in period 2 this year (May), we got another best ever of 94.40% and also for the first time ever achieved a Moving Annual Average (MAA) of over 90%, getting ever closer to that 92%.

Period 3 (mainly June) achieved a lesser period figure of 93.22%, but an MAA of 90.78%, another MAA best. The main problems in period 3 were a power failure affecting the signals controlled by Greenbank Signalbox, and a unit on the 0703 from Chester, 150144, suffering from a complete loss of power between Mouldsworth and Delamere and having to be rescued by the following train. We had 4 days in a row of 100%. That is everything ran and was within 5 minutes of scheduled time for 4 whole days. Wow!

This performance is way better than we ever dreamt of even 3-4 years ago, when if we’d achieved anywhere near 85% we’d have been delighted. It’s clearly appreciated by rail users, as passenger figures continue to rise and people comment on how the trains are almost always on time.

Well done to all those involved in achieving these good results. Long may it continue, and even improve!

If you’re not a member and would like a copy of the latest Rail Report, please send an SAE C5 (i.e. holds once-folded A4 sheets) or larger to our Membership Secretary, Peter Davies requesting a copy. (For envelopes bigger than C5, you’ll need a “Large Letter” postage stamp).

Peter’s contact details can be found on the back page of Rail Reports previous issues of which are on our website. This link also provides an on-line review of the latest report.

Alternatively, why not join as a member (you can use our membership page), then you’ll be posted copies, normally 3 a year, as they’re published? Membership costs as little as £6 (£2 if you’re under 21). You become eligible for discounts on our railtours, and will be supporting us in improving our transport infrastructure and quality of life in mid-Cheshire.

But now, the new impressive cycle point at Leeds is about to open.

The Leeds Cycle Storage Facility from the East Station Entrance - (c) Sally Buttifant

(c) Sally Buttifant

Inside - (c) Sally Buttifant

Elsewhere in the UK, there are variations on the cycle point theme.

Here’s a part of Transport for London’s cycle storage facilities at Euston.

The paper notices are from British Transport Police warning users to lock their bikes securely to the racks following a spate of thefts.

And not to be outdone …. here’s the latest facilities at Mobberley! These date from the 50s or earlier – does anyone know when?

They regularly operate above 100% capacity, but we like our “heritage” bike racks.

If you see other good examples whilst out and about, please send your pictures in.

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Here’s one sent by David Miller of Cuddington’s extensive “cycle storage facilites”! See comment below.

Cuddington Cycle Storage Scheme

Here’s a picture from last Monday afternoon on platform 3.

A Cross Country Voyager arrives, as Pendolino 53 departs from platform 2

And in the booking hall ….

Everything on time

Strange that it takes Virgin until virtually the end of their franchise to get their signs up given how keen they are on branding. Northern had theirs up within a year or so.

We know that a few years ago, ATOC (the Association of Train Operating Companies) set up a working group to come up with a solution to this problem. I was interviewed as part of the research. It seems the group just petered out, and with no solution proposed. Painful!

So following a suggestion from our David Miller in Cuddington where passengers should wait for the buses by the Norley Road shops rather than down on the railway platforms, Northern are trialling a notice. Here’s our first example for Sunday 27 June.

The idea is the notice is attached to all entry/exit points for at least a few days before the planned replacement buses.

If this seems to work for the next few weekends (we’ll be monitoring it to see how many passengers, if any, are still standing on the platforms), we’ll be extending this to all Mid-Cheshire Line stations.

What a shame we end up having to do this with Northern’s help, because ATOC can’t get its act together!

If you know how railways in other countries cope with this, please let us know.

Here’s an engineering train approaching Cuddington “wrong line” (or “bang road” as it’s also known on the Railway – is that “bang” as in “crash”?!!)

Long Train! - (c) Eric Wright

Volunteers took the opportunity to make the flower beds even smarter at Cuddington.

What's that noise? ! - (c) Eric Wright

The flowers do look good!

Bloomin' Engineering Work! - (c) David Miller

Conscienscious railwayman going to put his bottle in the bin - (c) David Miller

The Other End - (c) David Miller

Well done, Cuddington, and to the many other stations on the line where the local communities work hard to look after their stations, and to the local councils (in this case Cheshire West & Chester and the local parish council) and others who support them.

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Here’s some more pictures from David Miller – see David’s comment below ….

Loading - (c) David Miller

Rail wheels - (c) David Miller