Late night minor triumph. But we say no to Cinderella syndrome!

Hadrag first raised the issue of a late-evening 2-hour gap in services back from Manchester at Mytholmroyd and Sowerby Bridge back in 2018. (Is that right? We can’t believe it.) Thankfully this has at last been at least partially dealt with. We would also have liked to see stops by Blackpool trains -not only late night but all day. Improvements will appear in the summer (May) timetable. But we are someway off getting the increased service at Sowerby Bg called for in the WYCA rail strategy. Meanwhile we still moan (forgive us!) about lack of services from Bradford and Calderdale to the far side of Manchester, though we are thankful for the Chester trains. It’s not just the we want trains to the airport; we want services to give our line access to work, education, leisure attractions and connections south via Piccadilly and Oxford Rd stations. At a recent TravelWatch NW conference in Stockport we heard the December 2026 timetable change would could be strategic. But Calder Valley to Manchester Airport was one option under consideration for… well, around the end of the decade. Remember the first trains round Manchester’s Ordsall Chord in December 2017 were actually Calder Valley ones, supposedly a prelude to airport trains. That was reversed in May 2018, just before the famous timetable omnishambles. We shall continue to argue for an alternative routeing Bradford, Halifax to Manchester Piccadilly via Huddersfield, which would also link stations from Stalybridge with our nack of the woods, but suspect TransPennine upgrade works will be a ready made obstacle to that. Whatever rail businesses’ and government excuses we refuse to keep quiet as our line continues to be a northern Cinderalla.