Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

lined in favour of investments on improving infrastructure on the routes between Manchester and Leeds. He also complained that too few of the ‘local’ Members of Parliament, were supporting Kate Hollern and Lord Greaves in keeping this issue on the spotlight in Westminster. The latest consultancies from ARUP and Michael Byng had persuaded the DfT to progress this scheme to the ‘development stage’. He felt that the choice of contractor might be one of the means by which a project such as this could be abandoned by exaggerating the estimated costs, as was highlighted by the Steers Report some years ago. He also claimed that overestimating the numbers of passengers that could use the service might be another method by which the project could be stifled, whilst ignoring the possibilities for the movement of freight. It was some time now since Chris Grayling announced a feasibility study of reinstating the line, but since then there had been changes at the Ministry of Transport, which have also delayed the possible progress on this scheme. On Wednesday the 17 th , the VTG tanker train was hauled by 70:807 whilst 153:378 was supplementing a two-car unit on the Blackburn  Manchester service and 195:122 was operating the Leeds  Blackpool North. During the finals days of the month, noted on the VTG tanker train was Colas Rail’s 70:807. The Class 153’s supplementing the two-cars on the Blackburn  Manchester service were numbers 352 and 354. The Blackpool North  York has also been operating in a 3 + 2 configuration the combinations noted were 195:102 and 195:002 and 195:105 with 195:004. No doubt these additions were to allow the required social distancing for passengers during the pandemic. July Councillors in Rishton were disappointed, that their campaign to have their station included as a ‘request stop’ on the service connecting Blackburn and Manchester via Accrington, Burnley Manchester Road, Todmorden and Rochdale, had been turned down. At the moment they had to travel to either Accrington, or Blackburn where at least they had the alternative of using the Clitheroe  Manchester service via Darwen and Bolton. They stated that it would cut the journey time to just under the hour, but the management at Northern said under the present circumstances this was not possible. They stated they would keep this suggestion on the back-burner, but gave the complications it would cause to the scheduling of services as the usual reason for not implementing any changes. There appeared to have been little movement to have the Clitheroe service extended beyond the town to include Gisburn and Chatburn and even to go through as far as Hellifield, where it would open up access to parts of West Yorkshire and the lower Pennines and Yorkshire Dales. The locomotive power on the VTG tanks during the first few days of the month was Colas Rail’s 70:812. At Church & Oswaldtwistle Railway Station the local Rotary Club had been busy tidying up the planters, de-weeding the platforms and planting wild flowers and other bedding plants. This group is now in the fifth year of maintaining the facilities at the station, which it adopted in 2015. Despite the fact that they were non-compliant with the latest accessibility legislation, Northern had retained thirteen of the 142 ‘Pacers’ for contingency use on services until the end of the year. This came about as plans to operate the new bi-modal trains, ( trains that operate from two power sources ), have yet again been delayed. However, it was unlikely that they would be used on the East Lancs Line, as so far at least they have only operated on the services between Manchester/Alderley Edge and Southport. During the third week the VTG train was back behind double-headed Class 56s, on this occasion 090 and 078. Noted on the Blackpool  Leeds were 195:121 and 195 104 with 158:909. Units 150:130 with 150:124 were operating the Blackburn  Manchester runs on Friday the 17 th . Towards the end of the month the haulage on the VTG tanks was with Colas Rail’s 56:078 and 56:090. Of recent times this train seems to have settled to a pattern of operating on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays only. There has recently been a lot of discussion about reversing some of the Beeching closures, and apparently one of the fifty schemes suggested, is to create a passing loop on the section of line between Kirkham and Blackpool South, on the Fylde Coast Line. This would allow two trains to enter this section instead of the one, which was now the case. If the full service between Colne and Blackpool South was ever to be reinstated it would mean there could be a possibility of increasing the frequency on this service. This line was not closed by Beeching but singled. The Colne to Skipton section was not mentioned in this report.

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