Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

Following the take-over by the Operator of Last Resort in April, the repainting and refurbishing of former Arriva Rail North rolling stock seemed to have ended. However, recently this has resumed and the ones recorded are both ex-FirstGroup stock, 156:465 and 156:496 with 158:817 which was formerly in Northern Rail’s colours. August On Saturday the 15 th , the Blackburn  Manchester service had a mixture of two 150 units, one in the old Northern and one in the latest Northern liveries, whilst the 10:14 two-hourly Blackpool North  Leeds was being operated by 195:122. Although the combination of 56:113 piloting 56:090 was not unusual on Colas Rail’s VTG tanker train, the pattern in the second week was different. It had been running every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but for some reason missed the normal Wednesday slot at approximately 10:45, and instead ran at this same time on Thursday. It did not run again on Friday. September The beginning of the month saw the same pairing of Colas Rail’s Class 56s which had operated on the VTG tanker train for the last fortnight of August, numbers 113 piloting 090. They did not operate on Bank Holiday Monday, but were back on duty by the middle of the week. The Operator of Last Resort, in this case the Government, has resumed re-liverying and refurbishing its stock of diesel multiple units, with 150:122 the latest making the transition from FirstGroup blue to Northern Rail silver/blue. Presumably this is in expectation that at some stage it will be taken back into private ownership. Despite the North West being the most severely affected by Covid 19 infections, ( Hyndburn being the 3rd on the list ), Northern Rail had chosen the week commencing Monday the 14 th , to enhance their services by introducing a new timetable. Almost like Morecambe and Wise the partnership between 56:113 and 56:090 seems to be a permanent one as for several weeks now this pair had been the chosen motive power for the VTG tanker train. More jottings have revealed that 195:124 and 195:107 have been operating the Leeds  Blackpool North services. Network Rail had unveiled plans, which would include the electrification of the East Lancs Line from Preston into West Yorkshire. It would be a ‘core’ part of an ambitious scheme to add over 8,000 miles of electrified lines across the nation. However, better not hold our breaths as the target date was 2050! Even before Network Rail, Travel North West or the feasibility study on the reinstating of the section of line between Colne and Skipton has been fully appraised, protesting voices had been raised that to carry out this project would increase congestion on the approaches to Leeds. Since it was a Conservative Government who split up British Railways for it to be privatised, all too frequently franchise holders had failed to make a success of their acquisitions and they have had to step in to rescue their operations, as was the case with Arriva Rail North to in our region. Despite increasing calls for the network to be re-nationalised, the Government has refused to reverse this policy, but now were contemplating a sort of half-way house. This would involve them taking all the assets, rolling stock, infrastructure etcetera under control and then issuing licences to interested parties for them to operate for fixed periods of time whilst paying the government for the privilege. Will this find favour was another question? October On Monday the 6 th , the VTG tanker train was back after an absence of a week, with no less than fourteen bogie wagons behind 70:817. Other observations were 195:110 on the York  Blackpool North, 156:436 operating the Blackburn  Manchester Victoria and 150:104 on the Preston  Colne local. It appears after almost quarter of a century of inconsistency and in some cases failure, the Conservative Government had decided to end franchising. It would be replaced by Emergency Recovery Measure Agreements, for those franchises that were not already under Operator Of Last Resort control. They are designed to “bring Britain’s fragmented network back together in a simpler, more effective structure”, stated Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Chapps. “It has been proved that the existing model of franchising does not work, with managements unable to operate trains to time and still able to earn profits”, he continued. RailTrack, responsible for the infrastructure and permanent way would not be affected by this reversal of policy. The Shadow Rail Minister had stated, “Taxpayers will still be paying hundreds of millions of pounds in fees to managers of private companies, which is totally unacceptable”.

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