Railwatch

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Railwatch 068 - July 1996

North West

By Robert Cummings

Eurostar Chaos Works to accommodate the two daily Eurostar services from Manchester have inconvenienced thousands of rail users in the South Manchester area. Stockport, one of the busiest rail hubs in the region, has been closed on Sundays since January. Because of delays in the work, Stockport has also suffered disruption on Saturdays since Easter. Horror stories exist of people taking over an hour to complete the 10-minute journey between Stockport and Manchester. Millions have been spent realigning platform faces, upgrading track circuits and improving power supplies. Users are beginning to question whether all the disruption is worth it. Would not the money have been better spent improving the service to London for all? Instead we will get a twice daily Eurostar that will trundle down the (non-upgraded) West Coast Main Line, on the longer route via Birmingham. The branch and affiliated users groups have left the railway authorities in no doubt what we think of the way we have been treated during the disruption.

Branch success Despite one or two teething troubles (our guest of honour was late and then had to dash of earlier than expected), on balance the new-look annual general meeting was a success and we hope to repeat the concept next year. Instead of the usual more formal events of the past, a guest of honour (Gwyneth Dunwoody MP) was invited. Rail managers attended and a carvery lunch was laid on.

Funding dilemma The Passenger Transport Executive's withdrawal from the Section 20 agreement to fund local rail services took place on 1 April 1996. Trains will be keot running (for the moment) with money from that nice Mr Salmon, the franchise director. It would appear few changes in either ticketing or timetables are planned, though a fares increase is scheduled for the start of the summer timetable.

On the edge North West Regional Railways will shortly enter the franchising "black hole". The branch has already pointed out the desirability of service improvements to the South Wales and West passenger service requirement (notably Sunday trains) and is about to consider the draft PSR for Cross Country.

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