Railwatch 077 - October 1998

North West

By Robert Cummings

Franchise in crisis The takeover of Great Western Holdings revealed that all was not well with the North Western Trains (NWT) franchise. The financial director parted company with NWT and 150 staff are to be made redundant, including station staff. The imposition of a ban on overtime and rest day working resulted in many stations, including some of the region's most important, being unstaffed. This ban has now been lifted but the crisis remains.

NWT has also been heavily criticised for its poor performance since the summer timetable commenced. Shortage of train crew, especially of drivers, has been a particular problem. While acknowledging that the company has lost drivers to other companies, one has to question the wisdom of NWT starting to operate services to London Euston. Many of the problems have occurred on services manned by staff from depots supplying drivers for the Euston service.

Ouch! A train driver has reached an out-of-court settlement for damage caused to his back whilst driving Class 142 Pacer units. These notorious Nodding Donkeys give a very hard ride, particularly on jointed track, as they have only single axles mounted underneath the body. The lack of steering on the fixed axles also causes them to emit ear-piercing screeches whenever they negotiate curved track. Since they were introduced in the mid-1980s these units have required substantial modification. Passenger accommodation is very sparse with seating no better than a bus, and high noise levels internally when the units are in motion. Cycle and luggage space is minimal. They are a testament to the anti-rail policies of the previous government - long may they remain in opposition!

Users uniteIt is pleasing to report the formation of two new user groups in the region. The Urmston-Flixton Rail Users Group had a very successful inaugural meeting in May which was well attended and supported by members of the North West branch. The group was formed as a result of the totally unsatisfactory rail service that exists for the stations along the route.

The Manchester-Warrington Central line is very busy - two expresses run every hour between Manchester and Liverpool and it is difficult to path stopping trains on the route which also takes in Trafford Park International Container Depot and Castlefield Junction. However, instead of investing in better signalling and passing loops to create more capacity, Railtrack and North Western Trains (and their predecessors) concocted a weird combination of stopping and semi-fast services that were irregular, infrequent (in places) and very unreliable. The group has a mighty task on their hands to campaign for a decent rail service to what is a large potential commuter market. Anyone interested in becoming involved should contact Michael Brooke on 0161 746 8140.

The other new group will cover services operated to stations between Stockport and Stoke-on-Trent, and a public meeting was held in September. Like the Urmston-Flixton group, users of the stations on this line have had an infrequent and unreliable service due to its use by expresses to London and the West Midlands.

To make matters worse for users of the intermediate stations on this route Virgin has recently introduced cheaper fares between Manchester-Stockport-Macclesfield and Stoke-on-Trent which are only valid on Virgin and which considerably undercut fares on the stopping service! Once again the North West branch is taking an active interest in the formation of this user group.

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