COMMENT AND NEWS ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN THE AREA ISSUE 1/2018 Wirral Transport User WIRRAL TRANSPORT USERS ASSOCIATION New Trains for - EXTENDS GRADUALLY MAGHULL NORTH a Line new station on the Northern Line Ormskirk Branch opened in the middle of June (see page 4). On our own we would like to see an early reconstruction of Ledsham Station on the line to . Many houses have and are being constructed in the area. A large population is and would be within walking distance. The current temporary more relaxed, more reliable timetable would allow for stops to be made. When the new Swiss Staedler trains are All Class 230 images courtesy Vivarail running, which are faster than the current 40 year old rolling stock would allow it. Last year it was new trains for for just 5 trains when Bidston - Merseyrail Electrics from Staedler Wrexham frequency is also We also need urgent in Switzerland due for delivery eventually to be doubled to twice extensions to Skelmersdale, starting next year. This year it is hourly. for example, which has been highlighted on the radio as new 3 car hybrid trains for the See inside this Newsletter for having one of the worst from Bidston to fuller details. Wrexham from VivaRail (Class public transport of any town 230). 5 trains have been ordered The other good news is the of its size in the country..We which will cover additionally is now ready and shouldn’t have to wait 30 - Blaenau Ffestiniog trains will operate from years for the system to be and _ Chester. A tall order to Chester from December. completed.

WIRRAL LINE LIFTS There are still a number of Wirral Line Stations have to travel to another station such as Bebington where access is difficult and and lifts are needed. In where there are slopes. A lift is planned for Meols the case of Spital, for example, local station. There are other stations residents, in conjunction with political requiring lifts such as Wallasey Village parties, are campaigning for a lifts for and . Many stations have each platform. Interestingly in the received new lifts in recent years. early part of this century our The picture shows a modern lift shaft organisation was promised lifts would at Hooton be installed in Spital in 2006. 12 years later many still struggle up the steps or

PAGE 1 COMMENT AND NEWS ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN THE AREA ISSUE 1/2018

THE NEW TRAINS FOR THE BIDSTON - WREXHAM LINE - BORDERLANDS LINE As mentioned on our front page new trains the to central Liverpool. Unfortu- have been ordered for the Bidston - Wrex- nately, passenger trains with fuel oil on ham line as part of the new Welsh franchise. board are not allowed though single line tube This is one of a number of lines controlled by tunnels. Trains could not even use James the Welsh Government that run through to Street as there is a single line tube England. Hamilton Square on the line back to Bidston. The new trains from VivaRail are known as Battery only versions of the trains could go Class 230. They are aluminium bodied ex London Transport electric trains completely refurbished as new and newly designed inte- riors and traction facilities. The trains or- dered are known as Diesel/Battery Hybrid Units which have electric traction powered by diesel generator and/or battery power. They are 3 car trains. The centre car will contain a toilet and gensets (Power Genera- tors). Batteries will be fitted in the 2 outer coaches. Batteries can be recharged

through to Liverpool. Alternatively, battery powered Merseyrail Electrics units could do the job until electrification can take place. At least one is to be produced for test pur- poses. The new Class 230s should produce a wel- come improvement to the present service.They are to be tested initially on the through regenerative breaking. There will be Conway Valley line before use on Bidston - 4 doors per carriage which will allow for Werexham. The new trains will be delivered speedier loading. They will be based in a by May 2019. The service will eventually be depot in Wrexham with maintenance being doubled to half hourly with thee extra service carried out by VivaRail. being proposed as limited stop.Which station They are Metro style trains highly suited to will be missed out? Why not double the serv- the line's role as part of the North ice for all stations. It would be more like a Metro. Metro Service - Line 1 Metro. The First Minister stated in the Welsh Par- liament he wanted to see trains go through MAJOR STATION RECONSTUCTION and REFURBISHMENT As part of the new Welsh come a major transport in- The new logo for Transport for Franchise 4 stations are due terchange as part of the Wales is shown here. It will appear for major reconstruction or . on railway rolling stock. refurbishment . CHESTER WREXHAM GENERAL sta- station although in England tion will have a new £10 Bus/ is controlled and operated by Rail interchange.and BLAE- the Welsh franchisee - cur- NEAU FFESTINIOG Station rently Trains Wales but is also part of the pro- from October KeolisAmey. gramme. SHOTTON station is to be-

PAGE 2 A Bit of History on Electrification Plans for the Borderlands Line

In 1977 when the Loop & Link was completed, In the next couple of decades electrification plans were to carry on electrification of Mer- was studied just to a new Woodchurch Inter- seyrail including the Borderlands Line as far change and a new station at Beechwood. That as Neston. It was in fact shown on the system went no further. There were later studies for plan on the underground construction boards. electrification just as far as Shotton. Finally After Loop & Link was finished bus deregula- under the 30 year plan we could see electrifi- tion was on the horizon. The PTA cation all the way to Wrexham when it would of the time took the decision to cancel further become part of Merseyrail Electrics. The pre- electrification. The BR Project Manager at the sent solution for Class 230 trains is a good time said for just £2 million pounds he could one as an interim measure which could last have completed the electrification then many years. planned. We had only a good heart but few arteries. It took many years of campaigning to Credit is due to Wrexham Bidston Rail Users complete - Chester for Associaton (WBRUA) for keeping the matter example.Some have still not been done eg to in the eye of officialdom and the public - espe- Skelmersdale although it was shown on the cially over the last 2 years with their input into Northern Line Solari indicators for many the new Welsh Franchise years.

Halton Curve from Cedric Green

The work on the infrastructure is completed on ings, first and last train times, or weekend time and on budget. Driver familiarisation will service details. We expect to learn the fare be the next and final stage before the service structure for the new service, shortly and trust commences with the 9th December timetable. it will be competitive with the Merseyrail Ches- ter service via the Loop line. We understand We understand that 2 x Class 150’s will oper- David Jones of is working on this ate the service. With a journey time of ap- matter and that the fare level will be influenced proximately 45 minutes a fairly robust service by the figures used in calculating the BCR for can be maintained although a third unit would the Halton curve re-instatement project. be desirable if available. We have not had any feedback from Mersey- The hourly service will call at Liverpool South travel regarding publicising the new service. Parkway, , and and The recently formed North Commu- in reverse from Chester. Intermediate stations nity Rail Partnership is working with CWaC between Lime Street and Liverpool South and NCRUG to arrange celebrations for the Parkway are omitted to accommodate the as- service opening but this does not, at present, piration to extend the service beyond Chester include media announcements or celebrity in- along the North Wales coast, Wrexham and volvement. ultimately to Cardiff. We do not have any tim

Cedric and the North Cheshire Rail Users Association are to be congratulated on their success in campaigning for the reinstatement of this very important and useful link that was closed over 30 years ago reopening long dis- tance travel opportunities into Wales and local communities in Frodsham & Helsby with Liverpool and Liverpool John Lennon Airport. I know Cedric has been immersed in this project for some years. - Angus Tilston

3 AIRPORT NEWS

Liverpool John Lennon Airport now has in excess of 60 scheduled destinations. The main airlines being Easyjet, Ryanair, Blue Air, Flybe & Wizzair and due on 10th August ʻWideroeʼ Scandinaviaʼs largest regional airline flying twice weekly to Bergen..

The latest new route to be announced is from Liverpool to Toulouse operating 4 times a week from 28th October. Over the 12 months to the end of March over 5 million passen- gers have used the airport, As part of a Strategic Vision, plans have recently been an- nounced to develop the airport up to 2030 It envisages investing in the region of £100 mil- lion over the next 10 years. This may include extending the runway a short distance to- wards Hale to allow, for example, for larger aircraft for service across the Atlantic. By 2030 7.8 million passengers may be using the airport. Additional car parking and passenger fa- cilities are planned for. This is part of a master plan that takes the thinking on to 2050.

Another project underway at the moment is ʻNoise Action Plan.ʼ A draft has been published and is available for consultation and then formal adoption and approval. Details can be found on the airportʼs website from where you can download copies if you wish. There is a 16 week consultation period

The busiest day this year was when Liverpool FC were playing in Ukraine. From 4.00am, for about 3 hours, more than 30 specially chartered aircraft departed with 6,000 football fans. It is an expensive business following your team these days!

The airport has been awarded a 5 star rating for punctuality by OAG with a performance 85.4% of flights on time. It has now received the 5 star rating consistently for the last 18 months and is now among the top 10% of airports on a global basis, It has also been rec- ognised among the 30 top UK airports at the highest level for its disability access serv- ices..

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MAGHULL NORTH STATION

This new station which opened on 18th June plugs a gap on thee Northern Line to Orm- skirk and is now the new boundary station between the and Lanca- shire. It is similar to Hooton on the Wirral Chester Line.It has been planned for many years but held back due to Government cuts, Finally planning permission was given in January 2017 with construction commencing in September 2017 and completed for pas- senger use by 18th June. There is a large car park for 156 cars and hundreds of houses are to be built on land originally earmarked for a new prison.This is the first new station under the 30 year transport plan. It shows that once work is underway construction can be quite rapid. We hope the momentum is now underway to construct other new stations mentioned in the 30 year plan. Other stations needed on Wirral as part of the current Merseyraiil Electrics system are Ledsham, where large amounts of housing will be constructed and Town Meadow where a large amount of housing already exists.At both these sites a large population is or will be within walking and cycling distance and these sites are worth saving. 4 TRANSPORT NEWS, vice versa in the evening. So the 4. Cheshire West and Chester CHESTER & CHESTER / peak Northern Connect train to Council (CWAC) and Chesh- E'PORT to LIVERPOOL Leeds which would have been ire & LEP (Local LINES - Dennis Harrison from Chester starts from Elles- Enterprise Partnership) mere Port returning from Leeds 1. Chester Northgate Develop- 1. and Manchester Victoria in the ment has suffered yet another and depot evening. setback. Already needing public Nearby at the Business Quarter Merseyrail Wirral Line services money and forcing the Bus Ex- development, the first office to Chester are unchanged, ex- change to move, the flagship block, 1 City place, now has six cept for the temporary timetable store, House of Fraser, has tenants and the University of for further Lime St. station pulled for financial reasons. A Law is moving here from Chris- work allowing greater turn- year's delay has been an- tleton. Demolition is taking round time at Chester until July nounced. Will it ever be built? place of one of three of Lloyds 29th. We await new trains arriv- The '200' link bus from the Bus Banks buildings which marks ing 2019-2020 for 2021. They Exchange goes to themarket but the start of the next phase of the will offer increased capacity could do to be every 10 mins. Business Quarter. Potentially due to longer (4-car trains as rather than 15 mins.and be cir- even more passengers on rail. against three car) and faster cular via Pepper Street for the Events continue to be organised services due to increased accel- Grosvenor Precinct with other in the former carriage shed at eration so it would be good to stops en route.The new bus the weekends. take advantage of this by pro- stop/shelter on George St. is too We await the new services on viding a new station for com- small for the number of services the Halton Chord to Liverpool muters from the existing,new stopping there and sometimes in December. Northern Connect and planned housing at Led- floods in the rainy season. It is to Leeds are now expected in sham. A sum for a bus service useful but difficult sometimes to Dec 2019, See below. Further has been promised and we await flag your bus to stop due to an- additional train services are the results. Lack of parking at other bus obstructing the view. likely to require additional plat- Bache and Spital is still a deter- 2. We continue to have useful forms and better track access rent to increased patronage. Rail User Group Community from the east. Some speed up of services by 4- Rail Partnership Meetings with 2. Timetable Changes 5 mins.from Chester - Shrews- Gerard Rhodes, Planning and The cherished North Wales bury line has just occured with- Strategic Transport, Cheshire Coast - Chester - Manchester out the expected increase in West & Chester and other inter- Airport trains continue to run trains. ested parties along with rep's but the Northern Connect serv- Virgin London services from from other RUG's. Sometimes ice which was hoped to start in Chester and North Wales con- these meetings include Chair of May '18 has been put back till tinue to run hourly as previ- Growth Track 360 and leader of December ’19. The latter serv- ously and CWAC, Cllr. Samantha Dixon ice will run semi-fast missing services are largely unchanged. and now Vice Chair of Trans- out Helsby, Frodsham and Run- 3. Train fares port for the North.. corn East to Manchester Victo- Most off peak fares rose be- 3. Growth Track 360 is a con- ria, Bradford and Leeds. These tween 1.4 and 2.0 % in January. sortium of all the area's Local trains will run hourly from Merseyrail remain very good Authorities, Cheshire and War- Chester except in the morning value. Northern went up by rington Local Enterprise Part- peak when there is an extra train 2.2% in January. nership and Business Organisa- to Manchester Piccadilly and tions wanting improvements to

5 rail services in the area. If you operator of the Wales and Bor- N station to serve the new would like to support them and ders Franchise, KeolisAmey prison. find out more you can visit and taking over from Arriva Trains sign up to Meanwhile a new coach service Wales on 14th October.It is ex- their website by Easybus has been introduced pected that services from Liver- www.growthtrack360.com from , Oswestry, pool via the Halton Chord will 4. Concern about traffic pollu- Wrexham and Chester De- tion at certain locations within run to Llandudno/Shrewsbury, lamere St. to Liverpool Airport. the city centre particularly from 1tph, Cardiff every 2 hours and This costs £4.99 from Chester diesel engines. Manchester Airport services and takes only 40 minutes. 5. There are also Transport will run to Bangor in 2022. Pre- meetings associated with sumably Liverpool will alter- Cheshire and Warrington LEP It has been reported that 5 Vi- which we occasionally attend. nate with -Cardiff varail class 230 diesel/battery 6. We were also invited to at- from Chester. But will there still trains are to be based at Wrex- tend a Stakeholder meeting by be trains to Birmingham Inter- ham for the Wrexham-Bidston consultantsAECOM re Com- national from Holyhead ? On and Conway Valley lines from munity Rail Group Consultation weekdays at present there are May 2019. Some will appear on (Chat Moss (Liverpool- not many before noon, a change the Conway Valley from March. Manchester), West Coast Main that was slipped in a few years Line and lines leading to Ches- Sunday trains could run on the ago in favour of more morning ter. North Cheshire and Wirral Conway valley and Llandudno Transport Users were invited to Cardiff services. Direct services branches all the year round after attend. This was to get feedback to Birmingham Airport are use- phase 2 of resignalling the about future aspirations for im- ful for people with luggage . provements to services covering from Chester and Wrexham etc. these routes. We put our views 6. Hooton - Helsby and about benefits of increased fre- New stations in the new fran- quencies, Halton Curve, Shot- chise seem to be confined to S ton Interchange, - Wales leaving Broughton ( Air- The studies being undertaken at Helsby and serving Manchester bus), a site which employs the behest of Cheshire West and Airport. 6,500 people, without alterna- Chester Council to establish a 5. Halton Curve and Wales & regular passenger service over Borders Franchise tive transport. At shift change the Ellesmere Port to Helsby The first services to run over the times the road past the site is a offer hope for an extension of Halton Curve are still on course log jam of traffic (and has been Merseyrail services beyond for December 2018 and will for years) holding up buses as Ellesmere Port using the new initially be a 1 tph Liverpool well as private cars etc. Very 777 Merseyrail Units on battery Lime Street vis South Parkway disappointing no commitment power some time after introduc- to Chester using class 150 units. seems to have been made to tion in 2021. No reaction from The infrastructure works for complete the redoubling (except Merseytravel though. The bidirectional working have been the A483 bridge) south of Ros- study show this to be more completed this Summer. These sett to allow a regular half likely to succeed than Ellesmere services will be run by the new hourly service or for Wrexham Port to beyond Helsby.

6 An isolated service is not good enough. A Road corridor but the Ordsall Chord is open Community Rail Officer, Marina Farey, hosted and in use between Manchester Victoria and by the University of Chester for the triangle of Deansgate. 9. N Wales Coast Line - Resignalling/ lines, Chester-Hooton-Helsby-Chesterhas been modernisation of North Wales Coast Line is appointed. complete. A freight loop has been provided by Little Sutton Station, an empty listed building Mostyn Docks expecting that will be traffic here. The Welsh Office now want increased line could become a community cafe. speeds. An interchange is planned at Shotton Meanwhile, under their franchise agreement, with the Wrexham-Bidston line and a report on future services is due in November by Professor Arriva Northern, is committed to an out and Mark Barry on behalf of ‘’ back service to Manchester from Ellesmere . Port. This will be additional to the present largely inconvenient Parliamentary service on WIRRAL TRANSPORT MUSEUM or the route(See para. 2). The afternoon service TRAM SHED from Ellesmere Port to Warrington now runs in the evening There does need to be more than a The Wirral Transport Museum reopened on token service. Employment in the Ince area is Saturday 21st July after major refurbish- ment. Here are the improvements as listed now 5000-6000 and expected to increase sub- by MTPS Secretary Rob Jones: stantially. New housing near Ince and Elton sta- tion and the new Chester University site at New toilets, so clean the working volunteers aren't allowed to use them. Thornton needs more public transport. The A wheelchair lift between floors, GHA 36 service was replaced by the X2 service Graded inclines nice and smooth. New lighting. It goes on as you approach! by Stagecoach from Chester to Cheshire Oaks, new entrance hall featuring our restored Ferry Booths. Thornton, Ince, Helsby, Frodsham to Runcorn a tea and coffee shop Shopping City which runs hourly but takes a viewing gallery where you can see the trams and restoration work in the Engineering Workshop and longer than the direct bus from Chester. Woodworking Area. and lots I've forgotten to mention. 7. Mid-Cheshire Line MCRUA The Manchester via , Altrincham, Here is a picture to give you the flavour. and to Chester line time- table is still the same as Northern Trains do not yet have more trains. They will provide hourly services on Sundays plus on off-peak weekdays with an extra hourly semi-fast service from Greenbank to Manchester which will start as all stations from Chester. These will now come into operation in December rather than with the Summer Timetable due to late transfer of extra stock displaced by electrification schemes. 8. The Northern Hub We still await details of how they will improve capacity on The Manchester Piccadilly/Oxford

7 Seaforth Deep Water Port

The Seaforth Deep Water Port now has 3 trains per week 30 wagon, (40 containers) service to Mossend/Glasgow operated by DB Cargo. Return loads will be made up mainly of Walker’s Shortbread Biscuits destined for north America. The service commenced on 08/05/2018. The work on the infrastructure is completed on time and on

Transport for Wales is to open an office in North Wales based inWrexham. It will employ 30 people with 10 being in place by the end of the year. This is the Welsh Government not for profit company that will supervise new developments, including the North Wales Metro development and WBRUA’s proposed new station at Paekway serv- ing the industial estate.

Bus Services The reorganisation of Wirral’s Bus Services last year has left some areas where people can no longer travel easily to destinations they used go to and want to travel to. It has had the effect of virtually emptying some buses. For example, the re-routing of the 84/85 at Spital now give destinations to & Heswall. It is not possi- ble to travel to Bebington Civic Centre and and easily any more where people want to go.. There needs to be an examination of the effects of the changes and and possibly reinstating some routes. Rerouting might have been a planners dream but the effect on real people can be life restricting for some. Bus Users UK has now become a registered charity with the aim to bring people together through socially in-

Llangollen Railway - Corwen Central Development Project The building of the new Corwen Station is still carrying on steadily with a planned opening in the Spring of next year. Completion depends on having adequate resources. One of the latest items to be installed is a newly con- structed vintage cylindrical water tank of 2000 gallons capacity. One major job before the new station can be used is the removal of the temporary station at Corwen East and replacing missing embankment between the two areas. Donations are always welcome to help the project’s completion. When the new station opens we will organ- ise an excursion.

CONTACTS - COMMITTEE DETAILS Chairman: John Ryan 48 Hornby Road Bromborough WIRRAL CH62 2EG 0151 334 7723 Deputy Chairman: Angus Tilston MBE 17 Poulton Road Bebington WIRRAL CH63 9LA 0151 334 5546 Also Acting Treasurer. [email protected] Secretary: Vacant: Volunteer required! Membership Sec: Brian Grey 56 Coombe Road Irby WIRRAL CH61 4US 0151 648 3070 Chester Area Sec: Dennis Harrison 23 St Chad’s Road Blacon CHESTER CH1 5LF 01244 371005 [email protected] Treasurer: Vacant: Anyone interested? Friends of the Ferries: Gordon Ditchfield 7 Foxcovers Rd Bebington WIRRAL CH63 3EQ 0151 334 2685 Buses: Gordon Ditchfield & Jim Anderson contact details on this list General Committee Members: Ian Allsop 9 Cleveland Drive Little Sutton ELLESMERE PORT CH66 4XY James K Anderson 14 Deneshey Road WIRRAL CH47 3AD [email protected] Michael C Laycock 88 Rosslyn Drive Moreton WIRRAL CH46 OSZ [email protected]

Editorial Team: Angus Tilston MBE, Dennis Harrison & Gordon Ditchfield. Contact details above. Published by WIRRAL TRANSPORT USERS ASSOCIATION July 2018

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