jstephenwaring

We need a modern, reliable and electric service on the Calder Valley line. We need it now.

We do not need vague ideas about a new Bradford- Huddersfield-Manchester route that – mentioned in the government’s Network North report – that would not serve Calderdale. Calder Valley electrification was top ranked almost 9 years ago by the “Northern Sparks” task force report. We welcome Calderdale council’s renewed backing for electrification of our line.

Good ideas in West Yorks rail strategy – including electrification plus capacity improvements, that could deliver more for Calderdale than any fantasy line. More trains Brighouse-Leeds direct are mentioned. These are affordable schemes that do not need huge funding. Elland should be open by 2026 – keep the faith!

Good news on ticket offices. We need more staff on stations, not less.
Service performance so far this winter has been as bad as we can remember. Our impression is Northern say they have the right number of staff, but sickness continues to be an issue. What can we conclude?

Latest station usage figures (ORR) have just arrived. Halifax is back to 72% pre-pandemic best, Brighouse 77%, Sowerby Bg 83%, all rising. We see crowds on off-peak trains – surely an opportunity not a threat. – JSW

Featured Image: “Northern Trains 195 105” flickr photo by Bubblin40 https://flickr.com/photos/bubblin40/52862203418 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) license

Ticket offices – let’s make more use of them not less!

Thanks to everyone who objected to the planned mass closure of ticket offices. Result was unexpected and very welcome, following action by unprecedented numbers of train passengers, rail unions, and groups handing out leaflets outside stations. It showed ordinary rail staff and passengers on the same side. An initial outrageously short consultation period of about three weeks was extended to the end of summer, and about % million responses were sent to the regulator Transport Focus. They had to deal with separate consultations on every train operating company (TOC)’s proposals. All were different – in form and content. Ridiculous examples included Manchester stations, where Oxford Rd and Victoria were to keep ticket offices under Northern, whilst Piccadilly’s, under Avanti, planned to close.

Even within the same company, illogicality was not hard to find: all three Calderdale stations with booking offices were to lose them, but over the border Rochdale’s and Glossop’s were to stay. The whole thing smacked of a rush job that failed (even it tried) to consider local conditions, let alone national issues such as travellers with disabilities, including blind people, and people who simply prefer to transact with other human beings rather risk getting a bad deal from a machine. So Transport Focus ruled, and the HM Government could then not have been quicker to make the TOCs withdraw.

Is it all over? Of course not. There is a real fear that TOCs will come up with new proposals on a station by station basis. If we ever get (as we hope) a simpler fares system, with pay-as-you-go and London “Oyster” style tap-in tap-out the need for ticket offices will be less. That will not mean we don’t still need staff on our stations, based in a an office with a counter both for accessibility and personal security. (The problem with roaming staff is knowing where they roam.)

Not all TOCs were involved in the 2023 proposals. Merseyrail electrics is locally managed under Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. Most stations (if not every one) are staffed from just before first train of the day to just after the last one, and all have ticket offices. At the four biggest stations including Southport and Liverpool Central the ticket office is also a convenience store selling products from magazines and to food and drink that people might need on the journey. This may not be a solution at every station but it seems worth looking at.

And staff need to be around when passengers need them. When Northern won the franchise there were plans to reintroduce staff at stations like Mytholmoyd, Sowerby Bridge and Brighouse – quietly forgotten, it seems now. This summer’s proposed “journey maker” role was very limited hours. What happens when passengers need help late at night?

So if your station has a booking office, carry on using it!

Rail stations must be energised by people, for people (HADRAG News Release)

Rail campaigners have welcomed this week’s news that plans to close most train station ticket offices have been dropped. But, says the Halifax & District Rail Action Group (Hadrag), passengers need to be alert to possible future plans.

In Calderdale, Halifax, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden should now keep their booking offices. What is needed now, says Hadrag, is ambition and imagination to expand the role of staff at more, not fewer stations. Longer staffing hours, not shorter. More staff to help more people, not least those who are elderly and those with disabilities.

Stephen Waring, chair of Hadrag, said:

It is a great relief that ticket offices appear to have been saved. Staff at stations like Halifax, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden and elsewhere in our region do a magnificent job. They are keen to make sure passengers buy the right ticket and get the best value in a system where the range of possibilities can be baffling. They can help in ways that can never be available online or by self-service machines. For many disabled, elderly, and needy passengers station staff are vital.

“The railway needs to value its staff and extend their role. More stations need staff – places like Sowerby Bridge and Brighouse that were promised a human presence when Northern’s franchise started in 2016. And, we would argue, stations need to be staffed from earlier in the morning to later in the evening. Staff there to help passengers – including people with disabilities – give a greater feeling of security and make our stations a more human place.

“Ticket offices need to be able to retail the full range of tickets that is available online – at present this is not always the case.

“But this is about a lot more than just selling tickets. More staff would make stations more attractive, more able to help people with special needs, attracting more passengers whose fares would help to pay the costs. Value for public money should mean attracting people not putting them off with lonely stations.

“On Liverpool’s locally controlled Merseyrail Electrics network, most if not all stations have booking offices with staff present from before the first train of the day until after the last one. Is it too ambitious to say that is what we should now be aiming for across Northern and other companies’ networks?

“We must keep on campaigning for a better deal for our stations. We must not lower our defences, but keep a keen eye on what the train companies – under the government – are planning.

“Our stations must remain places energised by people, for people.

Ticket office proposed closures: have you submitted your objection?

Have you submitted your objection to proposals to close hundreds of station ticket offices? Included in the list are Halifax, Hebden and Tod. The deadline is tomorrow. In other words they went to close all ticket offices in Calderdale. HADRAG has submitted a 7-page objection (see https://hadrag.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/to-consultn-hadragweb-2.pdf ). For most train companies the deadline is tomorrow, Wed 26 July but see below. You can send in your objection to the official watchdog Transport Focus. And for Northern you have until on Friday 28 July at 23.59: Email: ticketoffice.Northern@transportfocus.org.uk

If your response relates to a certain station please include the station name in your response.

Transport Focus is the independent transport user watchdog. If you would like to know more about the consultation process and what happens next please go to transportfocus.org.uk

Click to access to-consultn-hadragweb-2.pdf

Click to read HADRAG response

Recent TPE Diversions — no calls for Brighouse!

TransPennine Express trains were diverted via Brighouse and the Calder Valley line for a month before Easter. Work was being carried out remodelling junctions at Stalybridge, a track layout that had previously been upgraded not much more than a decade ago. The effect is higher speed limits on the route towards Victoria as well Piccadilly. Which is logical since trains that don’t stop at Stalybridge are the “fast” ones to Victoria! A year ago

when the Huddersfield route was closed for engineering work the diverted trains called at Brighouse, providing an additional useful service for the town on our line as well as an alternative railhead for Huddersfield passengers. Improvements to Brighouse station had been made with more space for larger crowds to wait. This time all the diverted trains have run through Brighouse without stopping. Brighouse was the Calder Valley line station with the biggest percentage growth over more than 10 years pre-pandemic. So why is it being side-tracked by TPE now? We shall ask!

Header Image: “Enterprising Nova (i)” flickr photo by JohnTurner1955 https://flickr.com/photos/johngreyturner/48583347201 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) license

Anyone for Salford (@ £72m)

Ever think you live on a Cinderella line? The government’s “locally guided” £72 million package of Manchester improvements promises little or nothing for for the Calder Valley. It seems Leeds-Brighouse- Manchester-Wigan trains will turn back at Salford – Salford Central it would seem, just beyond Victoria and short of the junction with the lines from Piccadilly at Salford Crescent. Manchester-Wigan will be separate. Northern’s performance and planning director Rob Warnes said “We want to create a second Leeds to Salford service leading to one via Brighouse and one via Bradford, and terminate both at Salford Central.”

We can see the logic. Services would balance better across Victoria to cope with different loading levels east and west. But this smacks of “train plannery” not designed for passenger benefits.

The present Leeds-Wigan service serves Salford Crescent, wonderfully convenient for Salford University. If the cut back to Central is really the intention this link would lost. Good connections to Southport and Bolton (as well as Wigan) would be in doubt, as would south Manchester via a double-back at Crescent.

Salford Crescent is to get a third platform. Was it naive to imagine this could be used by our trains?

The plan as described would mean more, not less trains between Salford and Victoria. We presume the planners have a plan for that.

The advantage is Calder Valley services that run into the Victoria bay platform conflicting with Trans Pennine would no longer do so, removing conflicts and helping performance. But these CV trains are of course the ones originally intended to go round the Ordsall Chord to Piccadilly and the Airport. Ordsall is a new railway with just one train an hour. We aren’t that bothered about catching planes, but we could really do with trains to Deansgate, Oxford Rd and Piccadilly for employment, leisure, NHS and education destinations – plus connections beyond.

Let’s hope the planners aren’t eyeing up our Chester trains. This service has been upgraded to 7- days-a-week – a nice bit of good news.

In the Department for Transport (DfT) news release Tim Shoveller of Network Rail said “We have ambitious plans for the future of Manchester Oxford Road. We are removing our previous planning application so we can move forward with a new approach, something we’ll be consulting residents and businesses on later in the year.” No mention of extra through platforms on the revealed Network Rail to be looking at reducing the number of platforms at Oxford Rd. A new layout and signalling to increase capacity with longer platforms and “Thameslink”-style operation.

But so much wasted time. All of this has taken a decade already. GM Mayor Andy Burnham asked how long does the government “expect the people of Greater Manchester to wait”. It’s not just Greater Manchester of course. This affects us across the Pennines.

On the ITV website, rail engineer Gareth Dennis said “If the £20bn cost of Crossrail is a straight line between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly (259.5km), then £72M only gets you 934 metres of the way there. Landing you in Beatty Street, Camden. That’s about a ten minute walk.”

Timescale for all of this is unclear. Meanwhile HS2 plods on – for what point? HS2 may never happen and – we strongly suspect – is limiting cash for improvements needed now. – JSW

Diversions

Fine sunshine. Let’s have a Sunday out by train! But, first Sunday in June engineering work meant your train from Halifax was probably a bus. Halifax to Leeds took an hour to an hour and a half. Brighouse-Leeds was actually better than usual with Blackpool and Chester trains stopping – though some sources showed these stops as “unadvertised”. This gave a journey time of a little over 20 minutes. (Brighouse-Leeds by replacement bus via Halifax would take you nearly 2 hours.)

It is not clear why the whole Bradford-Huddersfield service had to replaced by buses. Could not trains have run from Halifax via Brighouse to Leeds? One did first thing in the morning. It took 29 minutes to Leeds including a stop (bizarrely shown on Real Time Trains as “unadvertised”) at Brighouse. Not bad!

We realise things may not that easy, but with lots more diversions ahead as work on the Transpennine Upgrade proceeds the companies need to make sure our line gets a fair deal.

Header Image: “The Lord’s Arrival” flickr photo by JohnTurner1955 https://flickr.com/photos/johngreyturner/49060701926 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) license

Electric trains are economical, energy efficient, potentially zero-carbon, proven technology, reliable to operate, and easy to maintain.

The rolling programme is dead: long live the rolling programme! Somebody tell HM Treasury.

Full Midland Main Line electrification “could be shelved to pay for HS2” headlined Modern Railways magazine (Apr’2023, p9), reflecting goings on in Network Rail and the DfT. Let’s hope the they are being over- pessimistic. If not, what price electrification across the North? Two pages later the headline is the House of Commons transport committee saying government “must increase pace” of electrification in its report Fuelling the Future: motive power and connectivity. Committee chair lain Stewart MP (Con, Milton Keynes S.) strongly urged the government “to crack on with projects for electrifying train lines throughout the UK, or identify alternative lower carbon solutions where full electrification is not economically viable.” Electric trains are simple and efficient, capable of zero-carbon operation and suitable for dense passenger services and heavy freight – services with which batteries and hydrogen might never be able to cope. The hydrogen and batteries have to be manufactured and the energy has to be, converted meaning a lot more is wasted than by using renewably generated electricity directly. The report adds that hydrogen is not currently capable of producing the power needed by freight and high-speed trains. Batteries have similar limitations, have limited lifetimes in service and produce lots of greenhouse gas CO2 in manufacture. And, many of us still say, the hydrogen must be “green” not made from fossil fuels with CO2 as by-product. (Let’s not get into the argument about whether the CO2 can be buried forever.)

The government is slow to recognise the need for a rolling programme of electrification – and the benefits in terms of learning on the job and cost reductions. HM Treasury, it seems, is happy to ignore the work done by Network Rail on TDNS (traction decarbonisation network strategy), in favour of short-term financial thinking. Payback will be long term, based on lower costs of electric trains and the “sparks effect” of more people wanting to use them. TDNS of course proposed electrification of the great majority of present diesel-powered routes. In Scotland there is at least a statement of desirable outcomes. But across the UK the rolling programme seems to be “dead”. Thankfully that does not stop forward-thinking, scientifically literate bodies like the R|A (Rail Industry Association) keeping up the argument. In our Winter 2022-3 issue we reported on RIA North’s vision for a wired railway from Carlisle to Corby, Sunderland to Warrington with the Calder Valley line listed among top priorities. Now the RIA has launched RailDecarb23 calling for – yes, you guessed it – a rolling programme of cost- effective wiring, fleet orders for low-carbon rolling stock and incentives for suppliers to get on board. There is 2-side information sheet summarising the arguments (link: Rail Electrification:p The Facts – Campaigns (riagb.org.uk)).

Meanwhile a practically brand-new line is being built between Oxford and Milton Keynes without electrification. They will end up wiring it later. It’s a cliche, but you couldn’t make it up. – JSW

Header Image: Public Domain

Elland in picture for new services!

Elland will be served by trains that also serve neighbouring Brighouse: Wigan-Manchester-Leeds and Huddersfield-Bradford. HADRAG hopes Grand Central London trains will also call plus any possible extra services in the future towards Wakefield and York, or Dewsbury and Leeds. And of course Bradford- Sheffield trains suggested by the Greengauge 21 report could also call. Through trains Elland to Sheffield via Barnsley would take just under an hour.

View is looking broadly west. Substantial wind breaks and decent size canopies, albeit somewhat shorter than the 4-car train shown, provide better protection than many new stations. To access the elevated platforms there will be a choice of steps and lift at this end, or ramps – true wonders of the rail world – at the far end. Lowfields Way runs northwards (left to right) from the Calderdale Way (Elland bypass) double roundabout just out of shot. Behind the view point is a large cluster of housing.

Beyond the bypass is Morrisons store and road, cycle and foot access to Elland town centre. The new active travel routes with bridges over river and canal in the access package start at the far end of the station head west.

The double decker bus depicted running into the business park presents an intriguing possibility.

Header Image: Calderdale Council Next Chapter

HADRAG Diary

The 2023 Annual General Meeting of Halifax & District Rail Action Group will be on Saturday 17 June starting at 14.15 (doors open 13.45) in the Oddfellows room, Coleridge St, Halifax HX1 2JY. Discussion will include review of HADRAG’s year and strategy. Topical issues include stations, and fares retailing. We hope the latest WY Combined Authority rail plan will be published by then. A speaker will be invited. More details to follow. Please accept this as advance notification – and see you there!