Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

shape of Tyrer Tours Dennis Javelin/ Plaxton ‘ Paramount 3200 ’ (C 8 TYR), whilst First North Western Trains were using a vehicle from a company based in East Sussex, (P 9 YRE)* from Silver Grey Coaches for the stopping service from Colne. *This vehicle has been parked on an industrial estate on the West End of Oswaldtwistle for several months. ( Mention of the last vehicle leads rather conveniently to another piece of news. Maurice Duckworth, who departed from the Fraser Eagle organisation, had now established a new base for operations. Ironically this is just across the A678 from Fraser’s Shuttleworth Mead headquarters on what was known as the Phillips Industrial Estate. He has also recruited at least one former employee from his days at Fraser Eagle, (his PA), to assist him in the co-ordination of ‘Rail Support Services’ on behalf of First Group Train Operating Companies .) Decembe r The big changes in the second week of the month were not upon the roads but the rails. From Sunday the 12 th , Serco/Ned Rail would be operating all of the passenger services passing through Hyndburn as part of the new ‘Northern’ franchise. They were also the Company responsible for the ‘Roses Rail Link’ across the Pennines into Yorkshire. Although there were no promises of new or even more modern trains, there were a lot of pledges all couched in phrases overloaded with corporate speak and buzzwords, to quote. “ Our priority is to improve levels of operational performance and ms eer av si cuer acbol me qmuiat ml i teynot uttoc oemnes su,rfeo rt hbaott hwoeu ra ct hr ai ei nvse aonpde sr at at itoi onnasl . eWf fei cwi einl lc wy, owr kh ihcahr dwtiol l dfeolci vues r oant otthael c re h g a i r o a n cterised travel requirements of commuters and business and leisure travellers throughout our ”. It would be more advantageous to have had cleaner and more reliable trains and plain speaking! Some of the more understandable pledges were. “ That services will be integrated with other modes of tarl as on sbpeo rat , mo fof de re rvnai lsuaet i foonr omf ot ni cekye ta npdu rccohnatsi ni nuge mt oe cphr ao nv ii ds me sa, swa if teh a mn de aesf uf i rc ei es ndt essei rg vni ec de . tTo h ee nr ec owu or augl de greater use of trains by bicycle riders ”. The most extravagant boast came last when the Managing Director of Northern Trains, one Heidi Mottram, had been quoted as saying. “ We see Northern Trains running today as the first steps on a journey towards a world class service ”. The timetable from December 12 th , the day when Serco/Ned Rail assumed control of the ‘local’ services, would see those railway stations left out of the autumn schedules given back their trains. The week previous to this, the considerable amount of engineering work on the East Lancashire Line, much of it centred on and around Accrington would come to an end. Although this wasn’t the best news for passengers, especially since it came on top of an average rise of 4% on all ticket prices, it was good news for Fraser Eagle. Having had the contract for ‘Rail Support Services’ on behalf of Virgin Rail for the past three years, Fraser Eagle were hoping to renew the contract in April of 2005. Kevin Dean had said, “That it is not just a matter of providing replacement coaches, but also managing the transfer of passengers and providing them with travel information”. He added that the organisation had a team working on the new bid, and was optimistic of their retaining the work. On the railways, trains would terminate early or be curtailed short of their ultimate destinations on Christmas Eve. There would be no trains on Christmas Day or Boxing Day and some early morning services were cancelled on Monday the 27 th . But from mid-morning up to the early evening of Friday the 31 st , services would run ‘as normal’. Quite surprisingly following some early cancellations, there would be a ‘normal’ service on New Year’s Day, which will continue on into 2005. The Minister of Transport, Tony McNulty, had made a visit to Hyndburn at the invitation of MP Greg Pope. During his stay he had taken a look at Church & Oswaldtwistle Station after he had visited Ossy Mills. He was suitably impressed by the co-operation between the retail outlet and North Western Trains, which had a CCTV link to the Mills’ four screens to monitor the platforms at the nearby station. He said, “It is collaborations of this kind which will help to secure the future of the East Lancashire Line”.

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