Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

BR announced ‘bargain fares’ to London, out by any train on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays, returning by any train on Saturdays, Sundays or Mondays, for 60/- 2nd Class or 90/- 1st Class. These would however not be available over the Christmas and New Year period. The new Minister of Transport, the Right Hon. Tom Fraser, was to conduct a review of the proposed closure of the Accrington to Bury line. Harry Hynd said this was to establish whether the line was classed as a major one. In order to avoid the expense of public enquiries, Mr Fraser had announced he was to call a halt to all major closures that were scheduled by the previous Tory administration. Mr Hynd had met with him to emphasise the urgency with which he should examine this closure again, as the proposals had been published after the result of the recent General Election had been known. At a meeting of the General Purposes Committee and further to a previous minute, the Town Clerk submitted correspondence from the British Railways Board, containing a copy of a Statutory Notice pursuant to Section 56 (7) of the Transport Act 1962. This stated that it was their intention to end all passenger services between Manchester Victoria and Accrington via Bury Bolton Street, and to close the stations at Pendleton, Bury - Bolton Street, Summerseat, Ramsbottom and Helmshore ( Haslingden and Baxenden having already been closed ). In addition they included details of alternatives, both rail and road. In connection with this they stated, that any users of railway services or any organisation representing railway users could lodge in writing an appeal, to the Transport Users Consultative Committee for the North West Region no later than December 24 th , next. It was resolved - Accrington Council would reaffirm its previous decision to “rigorously” oppose these proposed closures, and the Town Clerk was authorised to take any steps in the furtherance of this protest. December Even though BR had given notice that goods facilities were to be withdrawn from Rishton Station, it was confirmed that it would not be one of the ones to lose its passenger facilities. In reply to a letter from Rishton Chamber of Trade, Minister Tom Fraser replied via MP Harry Hynd, to the effect “Under the 1963 Act, the Board are free to organise their freight facilities as they see fit without any recourse to consultations, therefore any objections should be directed to the Board”. Mr J. C. Smith, a member of the Rishton Chamber of Trade, explained “We were concerned that this would be the precursor to the withdrawal of passenger services and coal apart, there has been little goods traffic of any significance for the past two years”. Accrington’s own Trade Council and Labour Party was also up in arms about the plans which had become operative on September 7 th , last. The Party’s Agent, Mr Eric Jones, accused BR of ‘messing with the schedules’ in order to create the impression that travelling by train results in discomfort and chaos. One example he quoted was the train from Blackburn to Blackpool North, which should have connected with the 08:05 Colne to Manchester, but was often delayed due to the late arrival of the Colne train, which itself had been delayed due to awaiting a connection from Manchester. He stated that delays in the Manchester area were transmitted to East Lancashire, the result of which was passengers arrived in Preston as late as 09:45. “Prior to this rationalisation all trains through to Accrington via Bury had a booked connection with the trains to Blackburn, Preston and Blackpool services”, he added. 1965 ( There was also the possibility of closing down a further amount of lines in what was described as a ‘Beeching 2’ report. This would have left large parts of the nation totally isolated from the railways, including East Lancashire, and the number of route miles down to almost 3,000. There was some political support for this move. ) January Tom Fraser announced “Where proposals for closures were made by the previous administration, they would have to go through the normal procedures. Where proposals were put through after the change of Government, then I will first scrutinise their validity, but I do not have the powers in order to cancel them outright.” This meant there would have to be a public inquiry, but no date had yet been fixed. It would appear that much would depend on the attitude of Bury Corporation, who up until now had spearheaded the protests. On Sunday, the 17 th , there was a return excursion to Hull departing at 10:46 fare 18/-. On offer were day returns to London at 52/-, weekend returns at 60/-, and by departing overnight on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and returning within 17 days a period return was available at 54/-.

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