Village cut off for a week after all trains axed

MANY a commuter can tell horror stories of late or cancelled trains.

But few can match the experience of a village that was cut off for an entire working week after all its rail services were axed.

Some of the long- suffering residents of Croston, near Preston in Lancashire, have lost their jobs or had their pay docked because of the chaotic service, which is provided by the rail firm Northern.

From November 19 to 23, none of the 34 daily trains ran.

Trains on the line between Preston and Ormskirk, which are supposed to stop hourly, were again cancelled completely on Thursday.

On other days, there are regular cancellations at short notice, while trains that do run are almost always late.

Just five of the 170 trains due from November 12 to 16 were on time. Many others were delayed and 28 were cancelled.

Parish councillor Kath Almond, 71, said the service was a ‘lifeline for our little village’, adding: ‘We’re the forgotten line. We must be one of the worst-served in the country.

‘I feel sorry for the students and workers who depend on this service. People have lost jobs or lose out on pay because they can’t get to work on time.

‘Where replacement buses are provided, they are unreliable and can’t keep to a timetable because of traffic.

‘Also, you just never know when a train is going to be replaced by a bus.

‘For anyone who can’t drive, the train is the only real way out of the village. There is a bus service, but it’s infrequent and one of the routes is due to be taken off in January.’

As well as the regular cancellations and delays on weekdays, the line has had no recent Saturday service because Northern guards are striking in their longrunning dispute over the introduction of driver- only trains, and there is never a rail service on Sundays.

Chris Ward, 49, a civil servant who commutes to work in Preston, said: ‘It’s shambolic.

‘I am lucky in that my boss allows flexible working, but that’s not the case for those who work in shops, students with exams, people with appointments.

‘I can drive in, but it can take an hour in the car. The train journey takes 15 minutes.’

Northern Rail apologised yesterday and said the worst of the disruption was over. It claimed the service had been affected by a shortage of trains across its network after wheels on up to 10 per cent of its fleet were damaged by leaves on the line.