Train users urged to attend meeting
RAIL users are joining together to challenge proposed changes to rail services in the Upper Calder Valley.
The inaugural meeting of Walsden Rail Action Group (WRAG) was attended by more than 30 concerned rail users last week.
Helena Cook, WRAG's press officer, has urged rail users to attend a public meeting to discuss the proposed cuts to passenger services.
"Northern Rail intend to reduce services in the morning and evening peak times, to a once hourly service in the direction of Halifax and Bradford, and to also cut some peak services to Manchester."
WRAG members will be travelling to Mytholmroyd for a public meeting at 7.30pm on Monday, September 8, at the Church of the Good Shepherd, at which Steve Butcher, Northern Rail director, will be speaking about the proposed new timetable due to take effect in December.
Ms Cook said WRAG would urge as many of their supporters as possible to attend this meeting to show their opposition to the new timetable.
The changes will take effect this December as a result of the introduction of a faster service from Bradford to Manchester, which will take 59 minutes, shaving off ten minutes from the service offered at present. To achieve this faster service a number of smaller stations, including Walsden, Mytholmroyd and Sowerby Bridge, will lose some of their trains. For example the service from Mytholmroyd eastwards towards Halifax and Bradford will be reduced from two trains to one train per hour with a similar reduction for those arriving at the station.
Lesley Mackay, chairwoman of the sustainable transport group of the Upper Calder Valley Renaissance, said there was a contradiction between the effort and money being spent on regeneration in the upper valley and the undermining of services.
"The reduced train service will mean less future investment in Mytholmroyd Station because there won't be a high enough footfall. Thus, there won't be improvements in parking or pressure to staff the station so that it becomes completely accessible. A downward spiral can be conceived, despite a very successful station partnership having been established.
Ms Mackay said there were a number of concerns about the knock-on effect of these changes, including the lack of transportation links to maintain local employers in the area, such as Sweet and Maxwell at Mytholmroyd, and the jeopardy to sustainable travel.
"The changes are personally difficult for many of the present train users who have made the change from car to train but are not being rewarded for their modal shift.
"It is not clear really why there should be any losers when new services are introduced. The infrastructure is recognised to be inadequate by all concerned with a need to increase the loops and potential for slower trains to be passed by faster trains.
“The solution is not to simply cut out stations but to actively lobby for more money for the Caldervale Line, for Yorkshire and for the North of England.”
Efforts to get people out of their cars to alleviate the congestion on the A646 may be undone by the cut in services, argued Ms Mackay.
“The road is congested, with a poor accident record and already two air quality management areas have been declared. The train service provides an efficient, environmentally friendly and increasingly popular alternative. Yet from the survey of rail passengers, which we conducted in June, many of them will be taking to their cars to get to work from December and every additional car journey increases CO2 emissions at a time when it is becoming ever more apparent that we need a major modal shift from the private car.”
The next meeting of WRAG will be at 8pm on Tuesday, September 16, at Walsden Methodist Chapel.
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Thursday 17 May 2012
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