What ought to be a good news story in our area – the restoration of the half-hourly peak service at Slaithwaite & Marsden which existed from 1990 until May 2018 – turned into a farce by the inability of TransPennine Express to provide sufficient staff to operate the new timetable.
BBC article follows, below
Rail commuters in the north of England have been hit by cancellations and delays as new winter timetables were launched.
Northern had cancelled 19 trains by 10:00 GMT and 31 were delayed, which
it said was down to “operational issues” rather than the timetable
change.
Transpennine Express also cancelled 29 services on Monday morning.
The issues largely affected commuters in Yorkshire, Greater Manchester,
Lancashire and Merseyside.
Transpennine Express services hit included those linking Manchester
Airport with Edinburgh and Newcastle, and trains from Liverpool Lime Street to
Scarborough.
The firm’s managing director Leo Goodwin said he was “really
sorry” for the disruption to customers at such a busy time of year.
He said: “Due to a number of issues with crew training caused by the late delivery of some of our new trains, along with a maintenance backlog and some infrastructure issues we have had to implement a temporary timetable, cancelling some journeys along one of our routes.”
Northern services which were affected were between Blackpool North and
Manchester Airport, from Leeds to York and Sheffield, and Darlington to
Saltburn.
A spokesperson for the rail firm said:
“Very few of our services have seen any changes as a result of the timetable coming in.
“The small number of delays and cancellations are due to operational issues including driver sickness, signalling failure and train faults.”
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said rail issues had “gone on
far too long” and called for Northern to be stripped of its franchise.
“If the government is serious about supporting the north, then it needs to show it by acting this week to sort out our failing rail services,” he said.
“As a first step, it should strip Northern of its franchise. That would send a clear signal to all rail operators – notably Transpennine Express – that we will not accept a second-class rail service for people in the North.
“If Transpennine Express fail to respond to that message, they should be next.”
The National Rail timetable is changed in May and December each year.
Northern had said the new timetable would see 50 new trains being
introduced across its services.
In October, fewer than half of Northern rail services ran on time, the
firm’s figures showed.
Cancellations were also at their highest level since July and August.
The operator had said the changes in its new winter timetable would
focus on “reliability and stability” and add to the services each
week.
Transpennine is running a pre-planned temporary reduced timetable on
some routes as a maintenance backlog and infrastructure problems have delayed
staff training on new trains.
Its managing director Mr Goodwin said as new trains were introduced
improvements to services would be made.
Anthony Smith, chief executive of watchdog Transport Focus, said:
“Passengers don’t care what causes the disruption – they just want things running again as soon as possible, and plenty of visible staff on hand to help them in the meantime.
“Train operators should ensure every eligible passenger knows how to claim compensation so that they get the money they are entitled to.”
The new timetable has now been
published and Slaithwaite and Marsden will see significant improvements to peak
train services in the December 2019 timetable.
Since the May 2018 timetable fiasco
SMART along with our colleagues from Mossley & Greenfield have met with
TfGM, WYCA, Transport for the North (TfN), TransPennine-Express and Greater
Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, and took our concerns direct to the then
Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling.
Indeed, we had been talking to some
of these organisations as far back as 2011 to set out our concerns about what
the May 2018 timetable pattern would mean for Slaithwaite, Marsden, Greenfield
and Mossley.
TPE and TfN have listened to our
concerns, and understood why things needed to change, and the result is a new
timetable from December 2019 which will deliver:-
An equal interval half-hourly peak service to
Manchester Piccadilly and the reinstatement of the half-hourly peak stopping
service to Huddersfield, restoring the frequency which existed for 30 years
until the May 2018 timetable change.
an hourly peak service direct to and from Leeds.
The end of the failed experiment of the
skip-stopping service, so there will again be direct trains between Greenfield,
Mossley, Marsden and Slaithwaite.
A later last train from Manchester at 23:35 and
from Leeds at 23:05, seven days a week.
Earlier first Sunday morning trains.
It involves changes which the railway industry
spent the past seven years insisting were impossible.
There’s a strange anomaly in that Northern
will continue to manage both Slaithwaite & Marsden stations, even though
none of their trains will call at either station.
For historical reasons which no
longer make much sense, there’s more than one timetable showing train services
at stations between Stalybridge and Huddersfield. Northern’s version of the new
timetable, or at least that past of it between Manchester and Huddersfield, is
online at https://d2cf7kiw5xizhy.cloudfront.net/images/timetables/2019-10/dec-may-timetables/Northern_25_booklet_1219_24pp.pdf. This is the only version of the timetable to show
connecting services to Manchester Victoria.
TPE has published a timetable showing
trains at all intermediate stations between Manchester and Leeds. They have
also published a much larger timetable, showing all their services on the North
Transpennine Route between Liverpool/Manchester and Leeds/Hull/
Scarborough/York/Middlesbrough/Newcastle. Link is https://www.tpexpress.co.uk/travel-updates/timetables
There’s one unexpected downside, which is that the first weekday eastbound train is approximately 20 minutes later than at present. Since May 2014 this was at 0614 from Marsden, in May 2018 this changed to 0610. From 15th December 2019 this will be 0630 from Marsden. TPE acknowledge that there are passengers who will be inconvenienced by this, but acknowledging an issue is only the first step towards finding a solution. SMART made a suggestion which we thought could provide a solution, but we have been given reasons why our suggested solution can’t be implemented at present. We will continue to make the case for an eastbound train giving an arrival time in Leeds before 7am.
Network Rail has during the week of 28th October been handing out questionnaires about disabled access to passengers at Marsden station.
Accessibility questionnaires with their wording aiming them at existing users of Marsden station. Existing users have to negotiate 33 rather steep steps in order to access the platform. Did no-one in Network Rail have the basic understanding to spot the flaw in the plan? Fortunately a subversive member of the public has made copies which are available at Marsden Mechanics Hall Library, somewhere which unlike the station is accessible to wheelchair users.
Slaithwaite
& Marsden Action on Rail Transport is concerned to learn that the
Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) will not, contrary to previous expectations,
provide full disabled access to Marsden station.
It had been understood that the Northern Hub proposals, and the TRU which superseded them, would involve provision of full disabled access at stations along the route, not only Marsden but also Greenfield and Mossley. The expectation has been that the same standards for disabled access would apply as are being offered in the current consultation relating to stations east of Huddersfield.
On the basis
that TRU would sort out disabled access issues, Marsden and other stations
along the route have been excluded from bidding for Access for All funding for disabled
access. It is completely unacceptable that overdue and necessary improvements
to disabled access have been delayed on a basis which has now turned out to be false.
We expected TRU
to be a catalyst to deliver essential improvements to disabled access. Instead,
it has caused those improvements to be indefinitely deferred.
As a community
Marsden has both a growing elderly population and an increase in families and
in order for these groups to access the train service it is essential that
disabled access issues are resolved.
It appears that
the alternative sources of funding are subject to a bidding process in which a
Marsden station bid could be competing against rival bids from, amongst others,
the neighbouring stations of Greenfield and Mossley. This is no substitute for
a comprehensive scheme which addresses access issues at all stations along the
route, and it is unacceptable to try to play one station off against another.
Kirklees
Council has, at very short notice, now been allowed to submit a bid for
disabled access funding from other sources.
SMARTs view has
been, and will continue to be, that provision of full disabled access at all
stations along the route should be a core element of TRU rather than an
optional extra. Notwithstanding this view, SMART is supportive of bids to
secure disabled access from funding from other sources. It is on this basis
that SMART supports the current submission from Kirklees Council.
The May 2018
timetable changes saw westbound trains using platform two rather than the
accessible platform three. This represented a reduction in disabled access from
50% to 0%. We cannot think of anywhere else on the rail network where disabled
access has been significantly reduced rather than improved. This was accepted on
the understanding that it was intended to be a temporary reduction in disabled
access pending the Transpennine Route Upgrade addressing these issues. It
appears now that the reduction in disabled access is for an indefinite period,
which cannot be considered an acceptable state of affairs.
We would
further question the legality of reducing the level of disabled access with no
plans as to how when or whether that level of disabled access will be
reinstated and improved upon.
Whilst the
height of platform two was raised in the Spring of 2019, notwithstanding claims
to the contrary this did not address accessibility issues between the street
and the platform.
For several
months, SMART has been asking for answers to what ought to be simple questions regarding
the Transpennine Route Upgrade.
Our modest
aspirations for TRU are for it to deliver a local train service of two trains
per hour, plus full disabled access at all stations. We are not asking for
special treatment. We are merely asking for what most routes and stations in
the Leeds and Manchester city regions already take for granted.
The unwarranted
secrecy about TRU means that we cannot get answers to these basic questions.
Senior figures in the railway industry are fond of talking about the need to involve
passengers in decision making processes, but this shows that they do not mean
it.
Leaked
correspondence from Network Rail indicates severe disruption at communities
including Marsden and Slaithwaite over a five year construction period. The
communities affected should not, and cannot, be expected to be supportive of
the TRU if it gives five years of disruption but fails to deliver basic
improvements at the end of that period.
Network Rail
claim to have undertaken consultation about potential disruption during the
construction phase of the Transpennine Route Upgrade, but there has been no
consultation in communities such as Marsden where the impact of disruption is
likely to be greatest.
We call on
Network Rail to enter into proper consultation with passengers and communities
along the route, in a competent and professional manner. The consultation needs
to cover both the outcomes which TRU will deliver and how disruption during the
construction period will be managed.
We call upon the Secretary of State for Transport to direct Network Rail and his department to reinstate full disabled access at Marsden and all other stations along the route as a core element of the Transpennine Route Upgrade.
EDIT 02/11/2019
SMART understands that a bid has now been submitted for Access For All Mid Tier funding. This has been prepared by West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Kirklees Council and others. It is suggested that the bid has been fronted by WYCA, but we do not have confirmation of this. Whether the amounts involved, if approved, are sufficient to fully address access issues at Marsden, seems doubtful.
Notwithstanding the bid, which SMART supports, SMART continues to be of the opinion that the correct course of action is for the DfT to acknowledge that they should not have treated disabled access as an optional extra which could be deleted from the Transpennine Route Upgrade; and to reinstate disabled access as a core element of TRU.
In another possibly related development, Network Rail has during the week of 28th October been issuing questionnaires about disabled access at Marsden.
Correspondence between Thelma Walker MP and the Department for Transport, below.
EDIT 12/02/2020
During the general election campaign our new MP, Jason
McCartney, said that he was sorry to hear about the cancelled station upgrades.
He also said that he would do all he could to make the case
for reinstating the plan for full disabled access, and that these issues would
be high on his agenda.
The need for TRU to provide full disabled access at all stations along the route has also been highlighted at successive Transport for the North (TfN) board meetings, at which government minister were present, by both Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Councillor Judith Blake (West Yorkshire representative on the TfN board). Hopefully the ministers will listen and act upon what they heard, and over-rule those civil servants who think that disability access is some sort of low-priority optional extra.
UPDATE 26/02/2020
The list of stations given funding for accessibility improvements under the Access For All Mid-Tier funding was published today. Marsden and Slaithwaite are not on that list.
