Call for Government to step in over loss of train service
THE government has been asked to intervene in a rail timetabling consultation in which all three options would reduce services in West Lancashire.
The Manchester Recovery Taskforce is considering three options on how to alter services in the Greater Manchester area and ran a public consultation earlier this year. However, despite promises that the change would improve things for train users, all three would axe the Southport-Manchester Piccadilly line which stops at multiple stations in West Lancashire.
Campaigners previously won a battle to reinstate the service when it was axed in 2016 and that same battle is now again being fought by cross-party MPs.
West Lancashire representative Rosie Cooper raised the issue at Parliament, asking Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps to intervene to ensure that rural communities are not negatively affected by these changes and not left out of wider improvements in the region.
She said: “Many of my constituents are concerned that each of the three rail timetabling options put forward by the Manchester Recovery Taskforce mean reduced connectivity between West Lancs and Manchester.
“Will the Secretary of State assure my constituents that they are not the poor relations of the larger Northern cities and will he intervene to ensure that a proposed levelling up of services in the North does areas like West Lancs behind?”
In response, Mr Shapps said that the department will take all representations into account and that Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris would meet with Ms Cooper to discuss it further.
Meanwhile, Southport MP
Damien Moore has called on residents and campaigners to keep up the pressure of the taskforce.
In February of this year, Damien Moore MP, Rosie Cooper MP, Lancashire County Council and local rail group OPSTA joined forces and wrote to the MRTF to object to the proposed consultation, putting forward their own proposals that would ensure services to Southport remain unchanged.
Now, the Conservative MP is encouraging rail passengers and campaigners to keep up the pressure on the Manchester Recovery Task Force by writing to the Metro Mayors for Greater Manchester and Merseyside to ensure they are aware of the town’s opposition to the proposed changes.
Damien Moore MP said: “A number of constituents have contacted me following the proposed consultation by the Manchester Recovery Task Force to express their disappointment.
“They, and I, believe that these proposed changes would leave residents in Southport cut-off and excluded from greater social and economic opportunities.
“I have already written to the MRTF to object to the proposed rail changes on behalf of Southport constituents and I continue to represent and convey their views both in parliament and in meetings with stakeholders.
“Ultimately, however, this is a regional consultation now being driven by organisations such as TfN, Network Rail and train operators Northern and Transpenine Express who’s answer to Manchester’s rail woes is to inflict poorer rail services on Southport and those who live here.
“Rail operators like Northern have got form in producing poor timetable changes that have an adverse impact on people living in Southport and too often, residents have had to make repeated representations to maintain their rail services and this consultation is no different.
“We’ve got a real battle on our hands to protect this vital service.
“That’s why I would encourage residents living and working in Southport to continue to make the case for this important rail service.”