The Transpennine Route Upgrade is a once in a generation opportunity to deliver, for our communities, an improved rail service which is on a par with what most other routes in the Leeds and Manchester city regions take for granted.
However, most of the publicity from Network Rail (fronting the Transpennine Route Upgrade) relates to how it will be transformative for passengers travelling between major city centres. There is little about what it will deliver for the communities along the route. It’s great that at some point in the future passengers will be able to get from Manchester to Leeds quicker than at present, but if all it delivers for Marsden and Slaithwaite is the ability for wheelchair users to get on to newly accessible platforms to watch other people’s trains pass through at 85 miles per hour then that is a poor outcome in return for years of disruption. The communities along the route will be more disrupted and for longer than the big cities at either end.
It’s great that Network Rail are prepared to speak to SMART as stakeholders (even if we annoy them by constantly asking about outcomes for our communities, whilst they make it clear that it’s something they won’t discuss!). However, as we repeatedly point out, it’s the residents, passengers and businesses in places like Marsden and Slaithwaite who are the real stakeholders. In this context SMART are just facilitators.
There needs to be public consultation in Marsden and Slaithwaite about what outcomes TRU can deliver for our communities. This has been promised many times, but has still not started. Our view was that the moment the significant disruption started (let’s say March 2023 when the line was closed for a month), that’s when the TRU team should have started talking to and listening to passengers. Nearly two years later, we are still waiting.
That consultation needs to cover outcomes and timescales for TRU, and how closures and bus replacement can be managed to minimise disruption to passengers.