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It had been understood that the Northern Hub proposals, and the TRU which superseded them, would involve provision of full disabled access at stations along the route, not only Marsden but also Greenfield and Mossley.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.
Trans-Pennine Express Train Changes
for Slaithwaite & Marsden
Slaithwaite and Marsden will see significant improvements to peak train services in the December 2019 timetable.
When the new
franchise was up for renewal Slaithwaite and Marsden Action on Rail Transport (SMART)
had frequent meetings with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), West
Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) as well as the prospective franchisees.
Whilst we
had concerns about the proposed service pattern from May 2018, we did not
anticipate quite how bad things would become. Little did we or anyone else expect
chaos on the scale that occurred following the May 2018 timetable change or the
deterioration in the train service at Slaithwaite & Marsden.
Over the
seven months of the May 2018 timetable Slaithwaite had the unenviable distinction
of being by far the worst station in the entire country for delays and cancellations.
‘We were going backwards not forwards’ said Councillor Rob Walker, Chair of SMART. ‘In May 2018 we lost the half hourly peak service to and from Manchester Victoria which we had enjoyed since 1990 and the easy cross-platform connection at Stalybridge to the alternative Manchester destination. The only gains were the much improved TPE rolling stock and through trains to Leeds, though these were largely negated by the high level of cancellations.’
Since then 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.
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.
SMART will continue to campaign for a half-hourly service throughout the day, improved connectivity to Victoria and Salford, more capacity on the trains and full disabled access at Marsden and Slaithwaite.
We are grateful for the support of our local MPs, Jonathan Reynolds, Debbie Abrahams and Thelma Walker, and also the newspapers and other media outlets, in particular Tom Richmond at the Yorkshire Post.
Rail bosses behind the £2.9bn upgrade of the trans-Pennine
line have been urged by campaigners to “reap the benefits” of
electrification across the vital route between York and Manchester.
Network Rail announced this week that the railway between
Huddersfield and south Dewsbury would see electrification as part of a package
of measures to speed up journey times, increase capacity and improve
reliability between east and west.
Other improvements set to be consulted on include doubling
the number of tracks from two to four, major upgrades to stations at
Huddersfield, Deighton, Mirfield and Ravensthorpe and a proposed ‘grade
separation’ – either a bridge or a tunnel – at Ravensthorpe that will separate
two sections of track from each other.
The details released by Network Rail are the first to emerge
about the project, which former Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said last
year would begin by spring 2019.
No physical work has yet begun but the agency responsible
for rail infrastructure has been doing planning and preparation work such as
vegetation removal along the route and work to a railway junction in
Micklefield.
The West and North Yorkshire Campaign for Better Transport, while welcoming the measures, said in a statement:
“This route has to be considered, however, not in isolation, or partially, but rather as a vital strategic through route from Manchester to York.”
It added: “Where, for example, are the proposals for electrification between Stalybridge and Huddersfield, or between south of Dewsbury and Leeds, or between Leeds and Colton Junction on the East Coast Mainline to York?
“Electrification is particularly important for freight movement over the Pennines and is readily obscured by a fixation solely on passengers.
“Electrification east of Ravensthorpe towards the East Coast Main Line north of Doncaster might be attractive to freight traffics. The benefits of electrification cannot be reaped without coherent through route provision of wires.”
The group added: “We also question why the section between south Dewsbury and Leeds has been omitted in this announcement.
“There is little point in speeding trains up between Huddersfield and south Dewsbury if they are then held up by a slow dual track ‘throat’ between Dewsbury and Leeds. It is unclear how the train passing provision in alternate directions shared currently between Dewsbury and Mirfield stations will be removed as an operational constraint.”
Further details about the other sections of the route are due to emerge later, but Network Rail was unable to say when this would be. Kieran Dunkin, Principal Programme Sponsor for Network Rail, said:
“The first outline proposals look at one section of this upgrade, which is between Huddersfield and Westtown (Dewsbury).
“For this part of the upgrade, Network Rail is carrying out a public consultation. This begins in September and is an opportunity for those residents and businesses in the area to provide their feedback.
“Network Rail welcomes views on this section of the scheme and encourages those affected to take part. The consultation will allow Network Rail to gather feedback as part of a Transport and Works Act Order (TWAO) submission that Network Rail will make in 2020.”
