Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

All of those involved in the creation of this state of the art facility are extremely proud of what we were able to achieve for our passengers, and we hope that they will continue to enjoy these improved facilities for years to come. Yours sincerely, Ian Bevan. 2012 January In order to speed up the service on the Blackpool South ↔ Colne service, Northern Rail was proposing to change the status of Huncoat Station to a request stop. It was one of four on this particular route which had been identified as having insufficient ‘footfall’ to merit every train stopping there, the others being named were Hapton, Pleasington and Burnley Barracks. Trains would still stop at these stations if the driver identified passengers waiting on the platforms as he approached, or if the passengers on board had informed the guard of their intentions to alight. Defending the proposal, which could come into force with the summer timetable on May 14 th , a Northern Rail spokesperson said, “Very often there are occasions when these trains stop at the stations named and no one either boards or alights, so slowing the journey unnecessarily”. As one could imagine local councillors and members of the local rail watchdogs were unhappy about this development. March The representative from Northern Rail revealed that the franchise for running the services which serves the area was up for grabs during 2014, and they were hopeful they would again be the successful bidder. It was determined from this that there would be no changes to the services and rolling stock until then. He had agreed that the biggest stumbling block to investment in new stock was the relatively short time for which the franchises had previously been granted. This time it was hoped that the new franchise would be for at least twenty years, if not longer. He did say in private, that they would probably receive cascaded DMUs following them being displaced after the electrification of the Liverpool to Manchester and Bolton to Preston sections by a number of 319 EMU units from the south. Cllr Pritchard had taken Northern Rail’s representative to task about the difficulties that severely disabled people and their minders encounter at Accrington’s new railway station, which he said he would take back to his superiors. It was however Huncoat Station which had now come under the spotlight, with the news that it was the next in line of the Borough’s railway stations to receive a facelift. The officer from Hyndburn Borough Council suggesting that a ‘friends of Huncoat Station’ might be formed, as had been the case with Rishton and, with assistance from Ossy Mills at Church & Oswaldtwistle. No doubt the Association of Community Rail Partnerships would be involved at some stage, as they had a track record of successfully involving members of the local population in the upkeep of unmanned stations. Locomotives seen passing through Accrington during March on the VTG train of tanker wagons included DB Schenker 66:156 and 66:003, the latter on two separate occasions. Both were still in the livery of EWS Railways. May Wednesday the 16 th , was a real red letter day for Accrington, as to celebrate Her Diamond Jubilee, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness Prince Phillip visited East Lancashire as part of their nationwide tour. First inkling of activity came at about 11:00, when the Royal Train passed through town en route to Burnley, conveying their Majesties to Turf Moor, where they were to take lunch at the football club. ( Armed with information on its itinerary, I was on the Iron Bridge when it returned without the Royal party at about 13:30. Topped and tailed by two locomotives, leading was EWS #67:006 in its usual royal livery of dark maroon. Bringing up the rear of the eight coach rake was DB #67:026 in light metallic grey with the Union flag adorning the side panels. For the occasion 67:026 had been named Diamond Jubilee .) Request stops had become a reality on the East Lancashire Line. Although it only affected one of Hyndburn’s four stations, Huncoat, Northern Rail had decided to demote three other stations to ‘request stops’. The only one in the area prior to this was Entwistle on the Blackburn - Bolton line. It would now be joined by Hapton, Pleasington and Burnley Barracks. The reason given by the train operating company for this change was to make the service between Colne and Blackpool South “more reliable”. The omission of stops would also cut down on the amount of carbon emissions which were at their peak when units restarted from a dead stand. Trains would slow down approaching the said stations in anticipation of having to stop, but ‘customers’ were advised to give a clear signal to the driver that they wish to board the train, “without standing too near to the platform edge”! If you were already on board and wished to alight

446