Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

losing out, but they still would remain in charge of the Trans-Pennine Express services that run through Accrington, on their way between Blackpool North, Preston, Leeds, York and Scarborough. August The last rail maintenance contract on the entire network to be taken back from private contractors was the Preston area, which included the lines through East Lancashire. Network Rail, the in-house company now in control, was seen as the solution to the chaos of the privatisation of the upkeep of the railway’s infrastructure. When the first area came under Network Rail’s supervision, the performance had improved by an impressive 32% in the first six months. The Route Director for this area, one Robbie Burns, stated that, “Unifying maintenance and railway operation under one roof will bring many benefits, and help to deliver a better service to the passenger”. ( Which was poetry to all our ears, pun intended .) September The annual Accrington town centre stroll took place on Thursday the 9 th , when several groups, each under the stewardship of a team leader walked on a prearranged route. Following the same route at intervals, they processed around the town stopping at strategically selected spots to discuss any observations that any of the group members wished to make. Very many of these were not transport associated of course, but did touch on two subjects. One was the Crawshaw Street site of the proposed Bus/Rail Interchange, the other the state of Accrington Railway Station. To say they went over the same ground again would be something of an understatement, but something positive did come out of it. The document to accompany the town tour also stated, “That the transformation of Accrington Railway Station is a key objective in an emerging town centre strategy”. The feasibility study goes on, “Takes into account the need for strong physical and visual links between the railway station and the new bus station”. The logical interpretation of this was that since the railway station is the immovable object, the bus station of necessity will have to be in close proximity to it. Having passed over the proposals contained in the Halcrow Report, which placed the interchange immediately adjacent to the station on Eagle Street, it appeared that the Crawshaw Street site was now the odds-on favourite. The one cautionary note seemed to be the assertion that it couldn’t progress beyond the planning stage until the Eagle Street site was released for redevelopment. It had lain dormant since 2002, and its owners had, up until now, not shown any urgency in bringing forward proposals for the reuse of the 7 acre site. Despite continuing protestations of concern from rail-user groups and Members of Parliament, the situation on the railway through East Lancashire had continued to deteriorate. Although they were coming to the end of their tenure as franchise operator of the Blackpool South  Colne service, First North Western had dealt the line yet another blow. In the ‘autumn’ timetable due to come into effect on Sunday, October 3 rd , and run up until Saturday, December the 11 th , they were cutting the number of trains that stop at ‘certain’ stations. One of these was Huncoat, the others Cherry Tree, Pleasington and Hapton were outside the Borough, but similarly affected. The reason given for these omissions was “leaves on the line”. The theory behind this measure was that a mulch of fallen leaves and damp combined to set up a condition that requires trains to run more cautiously. The lack of adhesion between the wheels and track minimised the effective use of both brakes and regulators. These stations were particularly vulnerable during the ‘fall’, and so during off-peak periods, trains would only call at these stations on a two-hourly frequency rather than hourly. One major concern was that having reduced the service to these stations on the grounds of seasonal problems, the summer timetable will not see them reinstated. The expanding Business Park, which lies on each side of the Hyndburn /Blackburn boundary, might have its own brand new railway station. European funding had been secured to build a facility somewhere in close proximity to Whitebirk Drive, at an estimated cost of £2 million. The work was to begin in early 2005 and take up to three years to complete, before the ‘local’ stopping trains between Colne and Preston were able to serve this facility. Various spokespeople concerned with regeneration, had described this development as of enormous importance the future of the area. Hyndburn’s Executive Member for Employment did however sound a slightly sour note when he said, “I hope they don’t make the same mess of it, as they did with Blackburn’s remodelled main station. I don’t want to pour cold water on this development either, but it does raise a couple of questions. If, as they claim, trains cannot keep to schedule just because they have to negotiate a set of points on the approach to Blackburn’s covered platforms, how will they go on when there is an additional stop inserted into the timetable in both directions? Will we get better and faster units, or will the timetable be rewritten to give us even more pedestrian journey times than the ones at present in operation? It may also be described as the politics of

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