Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

who was providing the vehicles. However, when the first coach turned up it came in already well loaded and after some toing and froing departed leaving 16 passengers still at the pick-up point. Fortunately only five minutes later a second coach came in to load the remaining passengers. It appeared that the policy of employing agency staff through an intermediary, did not quite inspire the same confidence that this procedure was working as smoothly as it had done in the past. It seemed more likely that the line linking Lancashire with Yorkshire between Colne and Skipton would be restored according to Bill Bryson, the Chairman of the pressure group. With the support of several local politicians and authorities, Transport for the North, Arriva Rail North, Network Rail, Peels Ports, Drax Group, GB Railfreight, the Rail Freight Group, Skipton Building Society and a Private Finance Company, Chris Grayling had granted the funding to finance a study into the feasibility of reopening the 11½ miles of track. This study should report by the end of the 2018. It was proposed that the plans would include the reinstatement of a double track between Gannow Junction in Burnley and Colne. On the section further east there was only one building on the land, but up to 30 dwellings would be affected by these proposals, whilst a bridge would need replacing and two highways would have to be crossed. There had also been ambitious suggestions that, if and when construction did take place, the line should be engineered to allow possible electrification beyond Skipton to Rose Grove and even beyond to Blackburn or Preston. There was even speculation that bi-modal units might be used to travel under the wires to Skipton and then by diesel power further west. But Mr Bryson had stated the primary objective was first to have the link between Colne and Skipton in place, before expanding it. Although he felt that once completed there would be a possibility of seeing it extended for other purposes. June Northern Fail is the name by which Arriva Rail North has been dubbed, since its abject failure to provide a decent service. It had cancelled hundreds of scheduled services, and from Monday the 4 th , had introduced what it described as an ‘emergency’ timetable, which meant cancellations and alterations right across the network. The chaotic situation on the trains had reached unprecedented proportions with no less than 118 train cancellations since the ‘new’ timetable was put into operation on May 20 th . What had exacerbated the situation even more was the fact that an additional 120 trains which were supposed to stop at Accrington’s Railway Station had failed to do so for whatever as yet, unexplained reasons. On only one day, Saturday May 26 th , did the trains run as expected. An ‘emergency timetable’ was put into force on Monday, the 4 th , with the express purpose of running trains to it, but by lunchtime on the first morning two trains due to stop at the stations in Hyndburn had already failed to turn up. What trains operating were subject to high levels of overcrowding, with many commuters being delayed from getting to work on time. It was stated that the worst affected service was that between Blackpool South and Colne, compared to a lesser number of services on the Blackburn to Wigan Wallgate via Manchester Victoria services. Graham Jones MP, along with a whole list of local councillors, had signed a letter for him to present to the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, highlighting the misery being caused by Arriva Rail North’s lack of ability to correct things, even though these had included hiring in some additional rolling stock to strengthen those trains which were running. They were even calling for an investigation into whether or not the franchise holder was in breach of its agreement. The MD of Arriva Rail North, David Brown, had stated he that wished to sincerely apologise for this situation and had promised to get things back on track “as soon as is possible”. The main reason for the problems had been put down to a lack of drivers who had yet to learn the recently revamped electrified route between Preston and Blackpool North, along with a shortage of drivers right across the board. Network Rail had also been criticised for the delay in the work to electrify the section connecting Manchester with Preston via Bolton and Chorley. This had caused a furore amongst many, as the boss of Network Rail had just been given an award in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. If as predicted the new rolling stock was introduced from the beginning of next year, which meant more frequent and numerous services all across the northern network, did come to fruition and Arriva Rail North does survive its detractors, then it was going to have to learn lessons from this debacle. What made matters even more difficult for passengers unless the long-running dispute with the RMT can be resolved, was the treat of three more days of industrial action predicted to take place in the coming weeks. There was more inconvenience for the commuters as yet another round of strikes by the RMT saw a reduced service on most lines with some trains operating, but to an emergency timetable and more

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