Introduction
MCRUA is a campaigning rail user group, dedicated to securing better services for rail users, especially those served by the Mid Cheshire Line and the Mid-Cheshire stations on the Crewe-Liverpool line. We believe that a busy railway is a successful railway and so we support the rail industry and other user groups in trying to expand services and attract more passengers to the network.
Background
On the Mid Cheshire Line, MCRUA has fought for years to secure faster and more frequent services to Manchester. Until 1989 these trains ran from Altrincham to Manchester via Sale. Since then, they have run via Stockport, allowing the Manchester – Altrincham line to be converted to Metrolink. However, this has added more than 15 minutes to the journey time to Manchester, and congestion on this route has reduced the number of peak hour services so that only one train per hour runs through to (or from) Manchester in the weekday peaks. It now takes nearly 60 minutes to travel between Northwich and Manchester – a distance of only 20 miles in a straight line – and 45 minutes between Knutsford and Manchester, only 14 miles in a straight line. The Northern franchise which started in 2015 included a minimum service specification of two trains per hour throughout the day on weekdays between Northwich and Manchester, one train each hour running semi-fast, which would have helped greatly – delivering a more frequent service and faster journeys – but this promised service was never delivered.
The impact of a station at Cheadle
Every extra station stop adds time to the journey for everyone else passing through. Cheadle station would be on one of the faster stretches of the Mid Cheshire Line, so we estimate that it would add a minimum of 3 minutes to every journey to (or from) Stockport or Manchester. This is undesirable in itself but the impact is worse than that. We are advised that congestion on the railway means that the times of Mid Cheshire Line trains are effectively fixed at the points where they join the main lines – at Stockport (Edgeley Junction) and near Chester (Mickle Trafford Junction). The extra journey time of 3 minutes plus cannot be accommodated by varying the passing times at either of these junctions, so congestion obliges any Cheadle station stop to be made without lengthening the overall journey time of the train service.
There are only three ways to do this; to use trains with faster acceleration, to increase the maximum line speed, or to omit other station stops. Northern currently has no suitable trains available that can save 3 minutes or more by faster acceleration, and no funding is available to increase maximum line speeds (also likely to require trains with greater acceleration). So Cheadle station’s promoters have proposed omitting stops at some stations in Cheshire East to allow trains to call at Cheadle. It is possible that two other stations would have to be skipped by every train that calls at Cheadle, to save the necessary 3 minutes plus (because station stops on lower-speed parts of the line typically cost only 2 minutes).As the train service is only hourly on weekdays, skipping any station stops reduces the services at those stations to one train per two hours. In the next hour, a different station or stations would have to be skipped. This means the train service becomes irregular and journeys between some station pairs become impossible. MCRUA cannot think of any mitigations that would compensate for the loss of the hourly train service. It is not possible to construct a bus service, for example, which would replace stops by arriving trains, and by departing trains, in both directions, except at substantial, ongoing expense.The stations suggested for this treatment – loss of half their train service – are in villages with no alternative public transport. Cheadle station’s promoters are proposing that places with very little public transport should lose half their services so that a borough that has plenty of public transport, can have more. Gatley station, for example, is only one mile from the proposed Cheadle station and has a frequent service, and unlike the Cheshire villages that could be affected, Cheadle has numerous bus services.
MCRUA’s proposal
MCRUA cannot support any proposal to reduce train services at an existing station to one train per two hours. One train per two hours is a service level that is so infrequent, serious loss of passengers is to be expected. Instead, MCRUA proposes that the promised 2015 franchise timetable should be implemented. This would allow Cheadle station to be served by one train per hour, as currently proposed. The service pattern would be:-
- The existing hourly service between Chester and Manchester, calling at all stations, continues. This maintains all existing connections between stations. This matters because there is ‘any to any’ travel on the Mid Cheshire Line as well as travel to the cities at the ends of the line.
- The second hourly service as planned for the 2015 franchise is implemented. This is a semi-fast service which serves the principal stations only and there would be time in the schedule to call at Cheadle. Although the 2015 franchise minimum service specification was for a second hourly service calling at principal stations between Northwich and Manchester, it is highly desirable that it should start from Chester.
- On Sundays the train service should be hourly (instead of one train per two hours at present). There should be sufficient flexibility in the timings at the junctions at Stockport and Mickle Trafford to allow trains to call at Cheadle on Sundays without skip-stopping at any other stations, though at the cost of longer journey time for everyone else passing through Cheadle station.
Conclusion
If the proposal to introduce a second hourly service as outlined above, previously committed in 2015, is implemented, MCRUA can support the plan to open a new station at Cheadle. However, if the Cheadle station results in the reduction to one train per two hours at some existing Mid Cheshire stations, MCRUA opposes the opening of Cheadle station because it would be to the detriment of the existing service.