Station Usage Data 2019-20

Posted on December 4, 2020 by admin

The station usage data covering the 12 months from April 2019 to March 2020 has been published, and it shows an increase of 11.7% at Marsden and 8.5% at Slaithwaite. The level of increase is generally significantly higher than elsewhere in West Yorkshire.

This covers a period for 9 months to December 2019 during which the level of cancellations was fairly low (compared with what came before) but with peak frequency cut to pre-1990 levels, followed by 2½ months with the half-hourly peak service, then 10 days of Covid-19 lockdown.

Nevertheless, it gives an idea of what can be achieved if decent quality rolling stock is provided and the trains don’t keep getting cancelled.

Station Name 2018-19 2019-20 % change
Stalybridge 1,244,122 1,219,638 -2.0%
Mossley 336,906 327,738 -2.7%
Greenfield 398,628 432,830 8.6%
Marsden 157,350 174,974 11.2%
Slaithwaite 208,096 225,942 8.6%

Source: Office of Rail & Road
Estimates of Station Usage 2019-20 (orr.gov.uk)

Note: no data available for 2003-04.

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Transpennine Route Upgrade Delayed Again

Posted on December 4, 2020 by admin

The decision for approval of the scope and funding for the Transpennine Route Upgrade has been quietly put back a further 6 months.

This is revealed in a letter from the Department for Transport to Huddersfield Civic Society, published at https://www.huddersfieldcivicsociety.org.uk/news/government-acknowledges-the-case-for-trans-pennine-rail-electrification

Like the civic society, SMART is disappointed that a project which should have been undertaken as a matter of urgency has been delayed yet again with no explanation.

It should not have taken anything like this long to make and implement a decision on a scheme which was announced as long ago as 2011. There can be no excuses, no conceivable justification for a delay of this magnitude.

What was the point of setting up a “Northern Transport Acceleration Council” when on its watch one of the biggest transport projects in the North is further delayed?

Then again, when it’s already nine years since the project was announced in the Autumn Statement 2011, what’s another six months?

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December 2020 Timetable Changes

Posted on November 13, 2020 by admin

Timetables will change from Sunday 13th December.

It’s a Covid timetable, reflecting the continuing reduction in passenger travel, and as such it shouldn’t be assumed that this is the service pattern over the long term.

The weekday timetable appears to be mostly similar (half-hourly in peak, hourly off-peak, timings similar but not identical to today). The main change is that the hourly evening service will be at different times and will continue to/from Hull. Effectively the local stopping service between Manchester and Huddersfield will be combined with the Manchester to Hull service in the evenings, which makes sense whilst passenger demand remains low.

On Sundays the local stopping service will be provided by the Manchester to Hull trains, still hourly but at different times.

Timetable is downloadable at https://timetables.tpexpress.co.uk/#/timetables/77?view=stp

https://westyorkshire.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s17797/Item%206%20-%20Appendix%202.pdf

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West Yorkshire Rail Strategy, November 2020

Posted on November 12, 2020 by admin

West Yorkshire Combined Authority have published, as part of the agenda papers for their Transport Committee on 18th November, their West Yorkshire Rail Strategy

https://westyorkshire.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s17803/Item%2010%20-%20Appendix%201.pdf

It’s all a bit generic, with little to say about specific routes or locations.

It says all the right things,

  • about the need for stations to be fully accessible,
  • about the need for local stopping services to be half-hourly or better,
  • about electrification,
  • about the need to deliver the Transpennine Route Upgrade in full (without defining what “in full” means)
  • about the quality of rolling stock,
  • about cross-boundary services.

Unfortunately the power to make and implement decisions lies elsewhere, with the Department for Transport to be precise. That’s the same Department for Transport who announced the Transpennine Route Upgrade “in full” in 2011, but nine years later have yet to approve what they announced in 2011.

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