SMART had an informal meeting with Jason McCartney, Colne Valley MP and Andrew Stephenson the rail minister at Marsden station on 24th July.
Andrew Stephenson has specific responsibility for the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU).
This was an opportunity to discuss the TRU and for us to raise concerns and questions we had as we need this investment to meet the needs of our communities.
The minister spoke about the announcement on July 23rd for £589 million to kick start the TRU (Transpennine Route Upgrade). He said that this was intended to be the first part of a much larger package, which was being developed with a view to obtaining treasury approval in December 2020, and which would be more ambitious than previous versions of TRU. Elements that were now being considered included 3/4 track where practicable, full electrification, digital signalling and all stations being made accessible.
SMART emphasised the importance of all 4 of the stations in between Huddersfield and Stalybridge and our aspiration for 2 trains an hour throughout the day.
We emphasised that journey time improvements between Manchester and Leeds must not be at the expense of the smaller stations, and that places like Marsden and Slaithwaite also needed to see improvements as a result of TRU.
The group walked up to the road bridge to view the station and its lack of accessibility – steps, platforms etc. A discussion took place on ideas about moving the station eastwards to the Old Goods Yard area so that the minister could see both why accessibility needed to be addressed and how it could be resolved.