Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

included Brierfield, Burnley’s Central and Manchester Road Stations, Hapton, Lostock Hall and more importantly for Hyndburn, Huncoat and Church & Oswaldtwistle Station again, because Church & Oswaldtwistle had previously benefited from a £100,000 refurbishment. All the stations, Burnley Manchester Road apart, were on the East Lancashire ‘local’ line. It was thought that improvements on this scale to the majority of the stations on the route would make it more difficult for a train operating company to cut services, by encouraging more people to use the trains that call at them. Following on from the investment at the ‘community patrolled’ station at Church and Oswaldtwistle a further £12,000 of enhancements were planned for the facility in close proximity to the retail outlet at ‘Ossy Mills’. Noticeable by its absence from this list was of course Accrington’s Station. Was this because it will feature in a grander scheme to include the bus/rail interchange at some point in the future? Having spent a year examining the railway services through East Lancashire to see if there was a way to reduce subsidies, the Government’s consultants had decided against any cuts. Despite rumours which always start to circulate when services come under scrutiny, a report suggested that closing stations, reducing the frequency of services and increasing fares, would have minimal impact on the amount of money invested by the Ministry of Transport. Both County Hall and Blackburn (with) Darwen Council had come out in praise of the findings, and said that they would be a springboard to increasing the number of passengers using these services. They also felt there was now justification for directing more investment into modernising the infrastructure and looking towards enhancing the existing timetables. April Having provided vehicles in order to replace trains for so long; Fraser Eagle was now major shareholders in a Train Operating Company itself. It now held a major interest in the York-based Grand Central Railway Company. This franchise would operate between Sunderland and King’s Cross using 125 miles per hour (HSTs) high speed trains, and had gained clearance from the Office of Rail Regulation for three daily services each way commencing in early 2007. Although there were no suspicious circumstances, train services through Accrington Station were suspended one early morning to early evening, when a train driver reported finding the body of a dead man on the floor of the shelter on platform 1. Police closed the station whilst a forensic team investigated the scene. Although trains were allowed to pass through, they were not allowed to stop in either direction. As a result buses were summoned to ferry passengers from Accrington to Blackburn and to Burnley. July Fraser Eagle’s proposed entry into the train operating market in the form of Grand Central Trains had met with a hostile response from GNER. They had operated the services between the North East and London virtually unopposed, and had been hoping to fill the ‘spare’ line capacity on the East Coast Main Line by running extra services themselves. When Grand Central commenced their operations in early 2007 they would take up the available paths thus nullifying GNER’s plans. In retaliation GNER were threatening to sack Fraser Eagle as their supplier of vehicles for ‘rail support services’ whenever the need arose. August Despite a challenge in the High Court by GNER, Fraser Eagle had won the right to operate a thrice-daily service between Sunderland and London starting in December. Trading as Grand Central Railway the service would be only the second ‘open access’ railway to operate in the country, the other being Hull Trains. This meant they would receive no Government subsidy unlike the other rail franchises. This was the railway equivalent of running a commercial service as opposed to a tendered one. In order to be granted permission Fraser Eagle had to convince the Office for Rail Regulation that there was a demand for a service and that there would be sufficient capacity to make it viable. The service would run daily except Saturdays. In response to a letter in the local paper criticising the state of the present facilities at Accrington Railway Station, Keith Lumley had revealed some encouraging news. The Media Relations Manager had stated that the landlords of the station, namely Network Rail, were working with Lancashire County Council to provide a much improved facility for the town. This would include a ‘new’ booking office on the opposite side from the one in use at the present time, with improved facilities and an upgrade to all aspects of the station. This would place it on the town centre side on the Preston bound platform, as opposed to the Leeds/Colne platform. It would thus avoid the hassle of having to cross the footbridge and back for west bound services and also the steep slope up from Paxton Street. The plans were included in the Council’s Local Transport Plan and also in Northern Rail’s own Partnership Development Plan. He

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