SMART

As a rail users’ group at the midpoint between Leeds and Manchester, we have followed the stop-start (but mostly stop) progress of the Transpennine Route Upgrade and all of its previous incarnations with great interest, and argued for outcomes which would bring improvements for our communities.

We go back further than the 2011 announcement of electrification in the 2011 Autumn Statement.

A public meeting took place in Marsden in October 1999, at which Railtrack (as was) set out the capacity constraints and limitations of the Manchester to Leeds via Standedge route, and proposed some enhancements which would address those constraints. This, for the first time, held out the prospect that our hourly stopping service with additional trains in the peaks could be enhanced to half-hourly. Glossy brochures were handed out.

Fast forward almost a quarter of a century to the present day, and very little of the route has been enhanced, and we are still to discover not just when, but whether, TRU will deliver those two stopping trains per hour.

Over recent years, we have experienced an unreliable and infrequent stopping service, culminating in the infamous May 2018 timetable which could only have been designed by someone with zero knowledge of commuting patterns along the route. It was so bad that our MPs arranged in December 2018 for the rail user groups covering Mossley, Greenfield, Marsden and Slaithwaite to meet in person with the then Secretary of State Chris Grayling. At the end of that meeting we asked him whether TRU would deliver our aspiration of two stopping trains per hour. He said he didn’t know but would find out.

In spite of constantly asking the same simple question, neither he nor any of his successors, nor Network Rail nor anyone else in the railway industry has been prepared to give an answer. The only response that we are given is that it will deliver “up to two stopping trains per hour”, which is meaningless and may even allow a reduction from the current inadequate service. Not only that, but we have been told that improving the stopping service is at the bottom of the list of priorities, behind an increase in the number of (already frequent) expresses and semi fasts and freight services. It is clear that if any descoping is to take place, it will be to the detriment of communities like ours.

This has added resonance now that works have started at other locations along the route but causing disruption at our stations. Last Spring the route was blocked at Stalybridge for a month, condemning commuters at Mossley, Greenfield, Marsden & Slaithwaite to bus replacement tripling their daily commute times. Throughout the rest of 2023 and 2024 to date, there have been weekend and weekday closures because of works at Stalybridge and at and to the east of Huddersfield.

It is not unreasonable for passengers and residents in our communities to ask what we will get in return for all the disruption which started more than a year ago and for which no end date has been set. We are not asking for anything more than most routes in the Leeds and Manchester city regions already take for granted.

Yet we are repeatedly met by a refusal to answer that simple question.

One of the proposals which currently forms part of TRU is the provision of a third track between Huddersfield and Marsden, partly for freight but also to enable fast trains to overtake stopping trains. We regard this as essential to resilience and the ability to meet the modest aspirations of the communities along the route for a more frequent stopping service.

We share concerns that the key section between Stalybridge to Huddersfield is even now only at an early stage of design, with the risk that it could be descoped. We will not, however, be fobbed off by a bit of public relations fluff. We have waited long enough for TRU (and its various predecessor acronyms) to deliver for our communities, and have no intention of settling for something which is at best the same as we currently have and potentially worse.

[A slightly amended version of this first appeared as an article in Railwatch 180, May 2024. It was originally intended as a letter in response to an article by Alan Whitehouse in Railwatch 179, but it ended up far longer than a typical letter. Alan Whitehouse (Railwatch 179, April 2024 rw175test (railwatch.org.uk) ) provided a comprehensive narrative of the stop-start (but mostly stop) nature of the Transpennine Route Upgrade and all of its previous incarnations.]