What real hope is there ever of getting a rail link into Valley?
THERE’S been a lot of talk this week about the state of trains in the north, with newspapers across the north west and north east joining up to demand an improvement to services.
Since Northern Rail introduced a new timetable last month, over 100 trains have been cancelled at Accrington station, while another 106 trains meant to stop at Accrington didn’t.
At Rochdale station, 75 trains have been cancelled in the last fortnight, and 118 have had Rochdale removed as a stop at short notice.
Now there’s a revised timetable in place – but the chaos ensues.
Many of the trains used by Northern are well past their sell-by date, they’re uncomfortable, and, even before the new timetables, were hardly reliable.
Of course, here in Rossendale, it’s possible to argue: ‘So what? We don’t even have a railway to use here’.
But that’s the point here – if the government can’t even arrange the smooth running of the railways we already have, what real hope is there of ever getting a rail link into Rossendale?
To me, that gets to the very heart of the government’s Northern Powerhouse project, for which our local MP, Jake Berry, is the minister for.
Mr Berry has joined his transport secretary colleague Chris Grayling in laying the blame for the current rail chaos at the door of the private rail operator Northern.
And he’s right to do so. They took on a franchise they increasingly appear unable to deliver.
But at the same time, it’s the department for transport which set the terms of the franchise, and the DfT seems happy to keep Lancashire commuters on 40-yearold trains, while franchises in the south get brand new trains.
But for all the fingerpointing at Northern, if the government can’t even get the existing railway in the north working properly, what hope is there for the grand vision of the Northern Powerhouse, connecting northern cities together so they can grow faster?
Linking cities together to drive growth is one thing, but what about the areas which sit outside the cities?
Before money is spent on improving links between cities, surely more effort needs to be made on linking the outlying areas of cities into cities.
Despite being about 20ish miles from the centre of Manchester, just 130 people a day travel by train, according to Office for National Statistics numbers.
Of those 130 – who will have to leave Rossendale to board a train - 46 travel to Manchester, 16 to Leeds, seven to Preston, seven to Blackburn, six to Salford, six to Westminster, four to Bradford, three to Bolton, three to Calderdale and two to, er, Aberdeen.
Twenty three travel into Rossendale by train, again presumably getting off at Accrington, Rochdale or Hapton to get here.
If areas like Rossendale are ever to truly benefit from the Northern Powerhouse - the aims of which are laudable but meaningful actions to make it happen still seem sketchy – then they need to get better links into the big cities, quickly.
While the problems facing train commuters in the north are an embarrassment to a government which says it wants to create a ‘Northern Powerhouse’ at least those commuters have, in theory, a train service to use at all.
In Rossendale, 13,000 people a day have to use the car to leave the borough to get to work.
Rochdale is the most likely destination, followed by Bury, then Burnley, then Manchester, then Hyndburn.
Another 6,300 travel into Rossendale by car every day.
For them, rail isn’t a viable alternative, and increasingly the car and bus into Manchester for those city-bound commuters isn’t reliable either in rush hour.
The solution isn’t cheap. It’s not easy.
A rail link into Rossendale is controversial.
But if Rossendale is to truly benefit from the Northern Powerhouse, the policy behind the Northern Powerhouse needs to start prioritising the areas most at risk of being left behind in terms of economic development.
Sadly, Rossendale is in that category, and without proper attention now, it’s a situation which will only get worse.
The Scribbler’s views do not necessarily represent those of the Free Press.