POTENTIAL SUICIDE DISRUPTS MID CHESHIRE LINE SERVICES
9th July 2009

Last evening (Wednesday 8th July 2009) a suicidal person on Stockport Viaduct severely disrupted services on the Mid Cheshire Line including the return Community Rail Music Train from the Golden Pheasant Hotel at Plumley.

This morning in a prompt email to our Chairman, John Oates, Lee Wasnidge, the Area Director for Northern Rail apologised to all Northern travellers, in particular those travelling on the Music Train.

Lee said "I'd like to pass on my apologies to all those people who had their evening ruined and for the considerable disruption on the network".

As news emerges it appears a suicidal person halted trains on the viaduct from 1916hrs. A trained negotiator was on the scene at 1945hrs and the person came off the viaduct at 2030hrs.

John Oates, Chairman of both MCRUA and the Mid Cheshire Community Rail Partnership thanked Northern Rail for their prompt response.

John said "A number of passengers were of the opinion the problem was because of shortage of train crews. This was not the main problem. With the information we now have, I am sure the travelling public appreciate the significance of the problem and this was outside the train operator's control".