Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

clearly an articulated light rail tramway. I told the group, that a few years ago I had envisaged vehicles using the existing railway lines and then coming down onto the streets at strategic locations was the way forward for East Lancashire, pretty much in the same way that Manchester’s Metrolink operated. I also expressed some disappointment that the new train operating company, Serco/Ned Rail had been awarded the franchise for the East Lancashire Line, without any commitment to investing in any new rolling stock. In answer I was told that in actual fact it was the Government who had ruled against allocating any more money for investment on the line. Which meant that for the next eight and three quarter years, all we could hope for in the way of improvements was if any cascaded stock became available, hence probably the reason for meetings of this type. When the two parties were reunited at the end of these sessions, both groups’ findings and suggestions were summarised by their respective spokesmen, and then a debate was opened to the floor for the final time. Questions were raised as to how a successful business case had been made for the establishment of a brand new railway station for the Greenbank/Whitebirk estate, when it wouldn’t serve a community but a business and retail park? We were told, (off the record), by someone who had been involved in formulating this case that even though £2 million of European money had been pledged for this purpose, it was by no means finalised. Because Blackburn with Darwen had since gone to a ‘unitary authority’, he himself was no longer involved with the project, but he went on to say it would be at least two years before any construction could begin even if the scheme was brought to a successful conclusion. There were several points clarified by the organisers of the meeting, which are worthy of mention. Assurances were given that even though the Department of Transport had instituted a review of ‘rural’ railways in this region, there were no threats of any further closures. Reports that this review would culminate in a second Beeching-type cull had been grossly exaggerated in the press. It was also revealed that the plans for a new bus/rail interchange for Nelson were well underway. The theme of the meeting seemed to be, that nothing has been ruled out or for that matter in, as far as changes to the local railway network were concerned. This could see the establishment of new stations, as was the case on the Blackburn  Clitheroe section, or even the closing of unviable stations, although none were identified. At the winding up of a very interesting and productive meeting, we were told that there would be a follow up get-together early in the New Year. In the meantime we would each receive a copy of a report compiled from the combined findings of this and the other two meetings. November The first day of November had seen the reopening of the refurbished railway station in Chorley. The facility, which complemented the new bus station just across the way, incorporated new entrance, booking hall, ticket office and waiting rooms on both platforms. The information screen display included bus departures as well as train information. In relation to the actual focal point of the respected town centres, Accrington was much better placed than Chorley, so what has been achieved there was a commendable example of what could be done if a council put its mind to it. ( As I had always suspected, it was the attitude of Hyndburn Council that was the major obstacle to progress .) Meanwhile an East Lancashire Peer had hit out at what was no more than a transfer of engagements between Train Operating Companies, due to take place in December. He had urged the Government to put pressure on Serco/Ned Rail to invest in replacement trains for the 142 ‘Pacer’ units. He described them as, “Unsuitable for journeys of more than one hour’s duration”, which since he resided in Colne virtually meant beyond Preston. The beginning of the ‘full’ winter timetables on the Colne  Blackpool South, and the Trans Pennine Express services had again been the cue for the commencement of engineering works on the East Lancs Line. Commencing on November 7 th , (with the exception of the 14 th ), all the Sundays from this date through November and into December will see a replacement bus operation between Hebden Bridge and Colne to Preston. These were due to end after Sunday, December 5 th . One minor difference from previous occasion was that because the booking office is open for a period of time on Sundays, there was no need for the yellow jacketed co-ordinators whilst the clerk was on duty. The St James Tripper ran again on Saturday the 13 th , from Rose Grove to Edinburgh and/or Dundee. On this occasion the train was topped-and-tailed by 47:854 leading out and 57:601 leading on the return. On the first Sunday of the occupation by engineers, there was the rather anomalous situation of Fraser Eagle providing the replacement for the 10:41 Arriva departure from Accrington to Preston in the

418