Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

Allerton depot for driver and fitter maintenance training to begin. These units would be used to operate the upgraded Liverpool  Manchester services, thus releasing the DMU stock currently used on these services for use on amongst other routes, the Manchester Victoria  Blackburn services via the newly installed Todmorden Loop. Currently running was a public consultation on the way Northern Rail and Trans-Pennine might invest some of the £1 billion to be invested over the next five years. Those who wished to operate these franchises in future, would have to include in their bids the investment required to comply with the legislation due to come in during 2020, which would probably require that all Pacer Units in Classes 142 and 143 will have to be withdrawn. Northern currently operated a fleet containing a number of these units which made up one third of their operational fleet and were the source of most of the complaints. They were also the main reason for the age profile of the Company’s fleet standing at over 24 years. Interested bids would be entertained up until October, 2015, and would run for the duration of between 7 and 9 years for Trans-Pennine, and the Northern Rail franchise for 8 to 10 years. Abelio and Serco, who currently jointly ran the Northern Rail franchise, were ending their partnership in February, 2016 when the new franchise operators would be identified. Both companies also were involved in bus operators. In the very last days of the month BD Schenker 60:024 was noted heading east on the VTG tanker train. Launched at Westminster, a policy entitled ‘Delivering a Railway the North Can Be Proud Of’ was presented to an All-Party Parliamentary Group of Northern-based MPs, and various other interested parties, including representatives from the counties, cities and local authorities. In it a strategy was outlined for providing a railway fit for the twenty-first century and not for the continuation of a “make do and mend railway”. It highlighted the potential of developing the ‘Northern Hub’, and contained a list of aspirations which included being prepared for the arrival of HS2, new trains with greater capacity, a faster link between the two sides of the Pennines, better travel information and a greater range of tickets with improved availability. August Once again Graham Jones MP had taken up the cause of the lack of decent trains for the proposed Manchester service, this time with the latest Secretary of State for Rail Transport, Clare Perry. She had promised to look into the matter “with some expediency”. September Having explained the delay until the end of 2014 in commencing operation of the line through the Todmorden Curve to allow direct access to Manchester via Burnley, we had now been told that even though there should be enough rolling stock in order to operate this service, it would not begin until next May, 2015 at the earliest. The reason behind this latest delay was that the signalling required for the safe passage of trains onto the Calder Valley line would not even be in place until February, without causing major delays to the active lines linked to the new track-work. This meant the service would be postponed until the summer timetable came into operation. Shadow Rail Minister, Lillian Greenwood, had visited Accrington Railway Station earlier, in order to obtain signatures to a petition calling for a speeding up of the work, but all to no avail. It appeared that the signalling when installed would only allow trains to run in one direction only on the single loop, which wasn’t much cop on a service which operates in two directions. A spokesperson for Network Rail had stated that they were working with Northern Rail on a schedule for this work to be done. October The West Coast Railway Company was a regular operator of privately operated rail tours, and on Friday the 10 th , the empty carriage stock consisting mainly of Pullman cream and brown stock, passed through Accrington heading east for the weekend run over the Settle and Carlisle line. The train was topped-and-tailed by two class 47s, #804 (formerly 47:792) with #854 (formerly 47:674) bringing up the rear. Although the movement of freight is spasmodic the tanker train still makes regular appearances on route east from Preston Docks. On Tuesday the 21 st , this train was headed by DB Schenker 60:092 in DB red livery. November Huncoat level crossing was to be automated and the signal box taken away towards the end of November. The work would take three weeks starting at 23:00 on Saturday 22 nd , and the highway connecting Station Road with Enfield Road would be closed to all traffic until 06:00 on Saturday, December 13 th .

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