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
Halifax and District Rail Action Group 