Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

be anyone prepared to carry on. It seemed from the answer, that there are small amounts of money made available for materials with which to carry out the work, but none of the people involved actually got anything more than satisfaction out of it. Ironically, so soon after the meeting at which the forgoing reports were made, news had come in of how the Rotarians had been doing work for the past eight weeks to clean up Church & Oswaldtwistle Railway Station. They were hoping to make this station the “best kept on the East Lancs Line”, and had been de-weeding the platforms, cutting back overgrown hedges, repairing the planters constructed from old railway sleepers and treating the platforms with moss killer. Network Rail’s staff would also assist in painting the shelters. Previously thousands of crocus bulbs had been planted, and in the spring begonias would be planted out in the existing and some new raised beds. New signs of welcome would be put up, whilst the dingy, dirty subway would be cleaned out to make it less intimidating. The Manager with responsibility for Church & Oswaldtwistle Railway Station, Mr Chris Ingham, had acknowledged the work that the Rotary Club had done whilst working in concert with The East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership, Oswaldtwistle (Ossy) Mills and Northern Rail, to make this station more attractive to the passengers. April When the timetable of the new rail service to Manchester had been announced, the fact that it would not be stopping at either Rishton or Huncoat stations had angered both residents and some councillors alike, to the point where Hyndburn Council would be despatching a motion to Patrick McLoughlin, the Secretary of State for Transport, protesting about the omission of these two stations. They were also keen to see the service extended to Manchester Airport, not Wigan Wallgate as would be the case when some services went beyond Victoria Station, but this would not be possible until at least 2018, when the Ordsall Chord was completed. May When the new timetable came in on the 17 th , we would know how the new railway service would operate. Turning in Blackburn with the first train departing Accrington at 06:23 it would run approximately hourly up until 21:44. The first outward journey from Manchester Victoria will be at 05:56, the last at 21:00. The journey time to and from Accrington would be 63 minutes without a change of trains, which meant it would be the first direct service between Accrington and Manchester for 49 years. Tickets had now been priced at £10:10p for an off-peak return, £12:70p for an ordinary return, with a duo for two adults at £15:10p and a weekly ticket at £44:50p. It had come as a surprise to find that the service would not call at Rishton, but would instead call at Church & Oswaldtwistle, which seemed to indicate that Northern Rail do not want it attracting passengers away from the Colne  Blackpool South service, which was popular with local commuters, whereas few used that service from Church & Oswaldtwistle. It would also miss out Huncoat and Hapton stations but would stop at all stations between Todmorden and the City. The stops were as follows - Blackburn  Church & Oswaldtwistle  Accrington  Huncoat  Hapton  Rose Grove  Burnley - Manchester Road  Todmorden  Walsden  Littleborough  Smithy Bridge  Rochdale  Castleton  Mills Hill  Moston  Manchester Victoria. Although universally welcomed the local MP, Graham Jones, and the Hyndburn Council Leader, Miles Parkinson, had both expressed the view that they would have preferred to see the tickets priced “more competitively”. But it was the quality of the rolling stock to be utilised on this service which was the greater bone of contention. On Thursday the 21 st , the VTG tanker train was noted heading east with Colas Rail 60:085 as the locomotive. June At the TravelWatch North West Conference to be held in the Hornby Theatre, Blackburn on Thursday the 4 th , in his introduction, the Chairman reported he had been invited to examine the refurbished stock from London Underground, which it was hoped to introduce on some branch-line services in the region, and stated that he was satisfied that this stock would be better than the trains it was designed to replace. July Sunday the 27 th , a Bank Holiday Weekend, saw a blockade of several local railway lines for essential engineering work to take place. On the Blackpool North - York, the Blackpool South - Colne and the Blackburn - Salford Crescent lines were operating, with the usual ‘Rail Support Services’ being substituted by coaches. For the first time it was not First which were providing the Customer Service Agents, but Northern Rail’s Abelio/Serco staff. The two guys who were in charge of looking after the passengers at Accrington’s eco-friendly Railway Station were very forthcoming about the task. They were

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