VOTE: Rail users go into battle over train services
8:13am Friday 22nd May 2009 in Search Module
FURIOUS commuters have drawn up a list of demands for an improved rail service.
Members of Lostock Residents Group are so fed up with their trains that they have even formed a committee to put pressure on the rail companies.
The travellers want more trains and carriages to service Lostock station. But the rail companies say Lostock does not provide enough business — and that it already has a good enough service.
Now the residents’ group has formed a rail users’ sub-group, which will also aim to find out why changes have been made to Lostock’s timetable, despite an expansion of the station’s car park.
Group chairman Roy Walmsley said: “Our road link to Manchester is one of the most congested in the region.
“The proposed relocation of 5,000 civil service jobs at Piccadilly will pass Lostock by unless our rail link to Piccadilly is improved.
“With proposals to build at the former Mayfield station next to Piccadilly, there is an urgent need to impact on the planning process, before both the rail services, and the job opportunities planned for Piccadilly are restricted to southern Greater Manchester locations.”
In particular, the group wants restoration of the service which stops at Deansgate, Oxford Road, and Piccadilly, the frequent airport link and the stops on trains which now only halt at Horwich Parkway.
Other demands include more trains per hour, more evening trains, a later last train and an extension of the platform to accommodate more carriages.
The majority of services at Lostock are run by Northern Rail, but the airport service is run by Trans-Pennine Expresswhich admitted that Lostock’s direct train had been cut at the expense of more profitable long-distance services.
A Northern Rail spokesman said that the number of trains that call at Lostock had risen since December — although many go to Victoria station instead of the more central stations.
He added: “Lostock has benefited from new information systems, CCTV and the larger car park, created as a response to concerns about insufficient parking at the station.”
l Commuters who use Lostock station are invited to attend a public meeting about the rail link to Manchester on Tuesday, May 26, at the meeting room in Lostock Community Centre, at 7.30pm.
julian.thorpe@thebolton news.co.uk
