The timetable for replacement buses has now been published, for the week of 27th October to 4th November when the railway line is closed for engineering works at Stalybridge.
In spite of the best efforts of local councillors and Jason McCartney MP (and SMART too), Northern Rail have not agreed to run a train shuttle between Huddersfield and Marsden. SMART believes that with sufficient advance planning this could have been done, and the obstacles to providing a train service could have been overcome. It would have been nice to have had more support, at a much earlier stage, from Metro.
There’s good news and bad news.
The good news is
1) Northern have agreed that the early train to Leeds (0648 from Marsden, 0652 from Slaithwaite, Monday to Friday only) will run;
2) the timetable is well-presented, and shows clearly the location of bus stops for bus replacement services.
The bad news is
1) The 0648, Monday to Friday only, is the only train service at Slaithwaite and Marsden during the week. Getting back to Slaithwaite and Marsden, and indeed travel at any other time of day and on Saturday, will involve the replacement bus along Manchester Road.
Link to timetable at http://www.northernrail.org/pdfs/trackworks/Hudd-Staly-Man_website.pdf