[from the Oldham Chronicle, 7th June 2013]
Trains to be replaced by buses in run-up to Christmas
Northern Rail is planning to close part of the busy line through Greenfield to Manchester Victoria over seven weekends in the run-up to Christmas.
The weekends – October 26 to December 7 – will force passengers to use a bus from Stalybridge to Manchester — more than doubling the journey time from 23 minutes to 52.
Saddleworth South councillor John McCann is furious over the disruptive proposal, revealed only in the May to December timetable released recently.
Councillor McCann, deputy leader of Oldham Council’s Liberal Democrats, said the plans are unfair: “It is completely unacceptable. Instead of a fast, 23-minute rail journey to Victoria, Saddleworth passengers will have to endure a 52-minute journey from Greenfield, including an eight to 10 minute wait at Stalybridge and a 33-minute bus journey to Victoria. Replacement buses won’t carry heavy luggage, prams or bicycles. “Most people are completely unaware of the problems they will face. Rail users are already going to face five years of periodic disruption to local rail services with the re-roofing and upgrading of Victoria Station and electrification of the Manchester to Leeds route up to 2018. “In this instance, Northern Rail should be running through-trains to Manchester Piccadilly when Manchester Victoria is unavailable, instead of a slow and inconvenient bus service.”
The line closures will be for preparatory work for the route’s electrification.
A Northern Rail spokeswoman said:
“The decision has been taken to do this at the weekends when it will affect fewer passengers.”
Diverting services into Piccadilly isn’t possible because the line doesn’t have the capacity — but scheduled services to Piccadilly are unaffected by the closures.
[end of article]
SMART does not accept that it is not possible to come up with arrangements which would allow passengers to travel by train for their entire journey.
It’s another example of the train operating companies putting their own operational convenience over the interests of passengers.
If (which we doubt) it is not practicable to run trains through to Piccadilly, then they could run to Guide Bridge for connections on other services to Piccadilly. Alternatively, more express trains could call at Stalybridge to provide connections to Piccadilly. Or as a third alternative, if Metrolink has opened to Ashton by that date, run the trains through to Ashton for connections via Metrolink to central Manchester.
As to the idea that work at weekends will affect fewer passengers, Northern Rail must be aware how overcrowded Saturday trains are with passengers being left behind at Victoria in the late afternoon and passengers unable to board at Stalybridge and Ashton earlier on. Or maybe because they don’t bother collecting fares they think their trains are running empty.