Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

Any users of the rail services which it is proposed to discontinue and any organisation representing such users may lodge an objection in writing within six weeks of the 7 th of November, 1964, i.e. not later than the 21 st December, 1964, addressing the objection to - The Secretary, Transport Users Consultative Committee for the North Western Area, Peter House, Oxford Street, MANCHESTER 1. Note If any objection is lodged then the service cannot be discontinued until the Transport Users Consultative Committee has considered the objection and has reported it to the Ministry of Transport and the Minister has given his consent to the closure under Section 56 (8) of the Transport Act 1962. The Committee may call a meeting in order to hear objections. Such an objection will be heard in public and any person who has lodged an objection in writing, may also make oral representations to the Committee. If no objections are lodged to the proposal then the service will be discontinued on January 4 th , 1965. It was assumed that Accrington Council would lodge an objection to any closure in due course. October The first of the closures came on the 5 th , when the coal handling facilities at the Eagle Street Coal Yard were withdrawn. At the switch off of Blackpool’s Illuminations on November 1 st , Blackpool Central Station closed to all traffic, and the direct line from Kirkham to Blackpool South and into Central made redundant. Henceforth all service and excursion trains not going via Lytham would run via Poulton-le-Fylde into Blackpool North, the former Talbot Road Station. ( The toilet block at Central would remain in use for several decades, before being redeveloped at the National Express coach Station. ) November Early in the month the Town Clerk, Mr K. Yates, received official notification of the Beeching proposals. On the 11 th , Mr Yates had sent a letter to the General Manager of BR outlining the Council’s stance on this matter. In it he said, that it was felt that this would lessen the importance of the town as a junction and would also increase the congestion already being experienced on the roads. Almost immediately there was an impression that the line would actually receive a reprieve. On the 3 rd , MP Harry Hynd joined forces with colleagues Tony Greenwood MP for Rossendale, who was also a member of the cabinet and Tony Ensor MP for Bury, along with a deputation from the NUR to oppose the closure of the line. They met with Tom Fraser the new Minister of Transport although he did not commit himself, they were optimistic that the arguments put forward would have a favourable outcome. In a development, Fraser was due to make a statement in the House to the effect that “There would be a moratorium on ‘major’ closures on the railways, and no more closures under the Beeching proposals for the time being at least”. Whether or not the Accrington - Clifton Junction section would be considered as a ‘major’ closure was open to conjecture! On the 5 th , the Council met to unanimously condemn the proposed closure of the direct line to Manchester. Scrutinising figures provided by a railway employee Mr G. G. Smith, it showed that the day returns on the service to Manchester from Accrington had increased in price from 4/11d to 5/9d, and if the journey commenced before 09:30 from 4/6d to 6/-, whilst the 5-day returns had been withdrawn. On the timetable the journey time from Accrington to Manchester on the direct line was 40 minutes, whilst via Blackburn and Bolton it was 60 minutes, with the exception of four trains per weekday. Revenue was down by 40% on the new timetabled services, as many took an hour and missed out some of the intermediate stations. The long way round via Blackburn was 7 miles longer and cost more in fares. Alderman Wallwork said the line between Bury and Accrington passed through places with a total population of 180,000, and people residing in Helmshore would need to take two buses to reach Accrington on a journey taking 45 minutes, whilst it took 7 minutes by train. If this did not constitute hardship he said, he did not know just what did! William Sproul, who had been employed on the railway for over forty years, said he had never known a time when the railways made any money, but they did provide a universally accepted public service.

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