Trains not stopping at Stockport

[wolfman]

Downing St. snubs Stockport
Ray King
3/11/2008
from MEN online

TEN Downing Street has snubbed a 2,600-signature petition demanding that all trains crossing Stockport's iconic viaduct should stop at the town's railway station as required by a 168-year-old Act of Parliament.

Arriva CrossCountry, which operates the franchise for trains running from Manchester to Birmingham, the south coast, south Wales and the Westcountry, will now axe 25 Stockport services from the onset of the new timetable on December 14.

The current 57 CrossCountry trains stopping at Stockport will be reduced by 13 southbound and 12 northbound as the Stockport-Birmingham link is cut back to just one an hour.

When the proposed cuts were revealed earlier this year, protest groups including Stockport council and Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and posted a petition on Downing Street's website.

It noted that to "compensate" the people of Stockport, whose town centre is dominated by the viaduct - one of the largest brick structures in Europe - Parliament required all trains crossing it to stop to pick up or set down passengers at Edgeley station at the southern end of the 27-arch 111ft high bridge.

And the petition branded the Department of Transport's decision to let rail companies ignore the Act "unacceptable".

Downing Street's response, however, gave protesters the thumbs down.

The government claims that CrossCountry's franchise specification "strikes a balance" between responses from consultation, operational effectiveness, passenger and commercial demand.

The 2008 timetable was developed to "make room" for extra trains on Virgin's multi-billion pound West Coast main line upgrade, a CrossCountry spokesman said.

When the petition was launched, Stockport council's transport chief Coun David White complained: ""The last thing we need in terms of regenerating Stockport is less train services. And in my opinion any company that wishes to travel across the viaduct, which was campaigned for by the people of Stockport back in 1840 and is still maintained by the people of Stockport today, should uphold the law and have the decency to provide services to the people of Stockport."

[Howard]

I signed this petition and the following has been posted as a reply at the following URL:
http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page17247

The Department for Transport consulted widely on the CrossCountry franchise back in the summer of 2006. Responses were received from a wide range of stakeholders and these were used in designing the specification for the CrossCountry franchise that would operate from November 2007. The specification strikes a balance between the stakeholder responses, operational effectiveness, passenger and commercial demand.

The rail industry has developed the 2008 timetable and in order to deliver the greater benefits offered as a result of the multi billion pound investment in the West Coast Mainline it has been necessary to make changes. DfT consulted on the basis of Cross Country providing a minimum base specification of one train each hour serving Stockport which they are meeting. Cross Country are able to provide additional services where there is demand and it is operationally possible. They need to balance the locations they serve, whilst maintaining a commercially and operationally robust timetable.

As a result of a competitive tendering exercise Arriva were awarded the franchise in the summer of 2007. The contract that was agreed with Arriva included a base/ minimum specification for the services that they operate to and from Stockport. Virgin West Coast, Northern, East Midlands, First Trans Pennine, Arriva Trains Wales also serve the station

I use this service a great deal to travel to London and this response sounds like a big nothing. In my experience more people get on at Stockport than get on at Piccadilly. Essentially they have decided that they are going to "balance the locations they serve whilst maintaining a commercially and operationally robust timetable". I can only hope that the fact that more people get on at Stockport will be noticed and they still stop there regularly. In the morning, once per hour is not enough

[Aslan]

Please note if reading the above 'in a hurry' you only have a short time to add to the petition (closing date is today!), but it's really fast to do.

[alison]

I heard this rumour a while ago but it seems it is not a rumour. I was forwarded this from the Stockport council message board (I think). I use Stockport station on a frequent basis and if this goes ahead, as well as inconvenience, I belive it will have a detrimental effect on local train services (which are already overfull in peak times) and on local businesses. If you agree I would really appreciate you signing the petition at the following address (sorry - don't know how to make it a proper link)

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Stockport-trains/


Alison
 
Message: By an Act of Parliament in 1840, it was decreed that all through-trains using Stockport Viaduct must stop at Stockport Station. Now, there are plans to change this, so that London trains and other long-distance trains would be allowed to go through Stockport without stopping. This will affect all passengers that use Stockport station for long-distance journeys. There will be inconvenience to those of us that travel occasionally but, more importantly, it will have a serious effect on Stockport's commercial life.

There is an on-line petition to object to any change, and the closing date is 7th August 2008.