Greater Manchester: We're feeling the disastrous impact of no Sunday trains for more than a year
A lack of Sunday trains in Bramhall is having a ‘disastrous impact’ on the Stockport village, a councillor has claimed.
Coun Peter Crossen said no trains running from the station for more than a year on Sundays has forced people to use taxis to get to work, and put people off visiting the area.
He has urged Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to step in to sort the issue out.
Northern said the reason behind the lack of Sunday trains in Bramhall is because it relies on staff volunteering to work on Sundays.
A spokesperson from the firm said: “Getting to a place where we are no longer reliant on conductors in the North West volunteering to work Sundays remains a priority.
“We’ve made good progress in talks with the union and are looking to reach an agreement, through a successful referendum with conductors.
“We will keep the timetable under review and look to restore as many services as possible, as quickly as possible for customers.”
Coun Crossen told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “At this time of year it’s affecting people’s ability to get out and about on a Sunday, to visit family members that live a train ride away, doing simple things like going to Stockport or into Manchester for the Christmas markets.
“We’ve got lots of people who find it impossible to get work on a Sunday without use of taxis because with the rail replacement buses it’s really not a viable option due to the length of time it takes.
“It’s having a really disastrous impact on the ability to get people into Bramhall. It’s something I find that’s no longer acceptable that people in Bramhall do not have a seven-day rail service like most of the rest of the country [has].”
The Conservative councillor added: “I think there are questions to be asked from Andy Burnham, he’s the chair of the Rail North network, why has he as Mayor of Greater Manchester been shouting into the wind for the past year?
“There’s a lot of talk of getting problems fixed, but that’s all it is, it’s just talk.”
“I know that TfGM [Transport for Greater Manchester] don’t run the railways but they have an aspiration to run them within the next five years.
“What they do have is scrutiny responsibility over scheduling and part of their job is that scrutiny and holding to account of rail schedules within the area, and I want them to exercise those powers, step in, scrutinise the timetable, and really push back on that.”
TfGM and Andy Burnham’s office were approached for comment.
Lib Dem Councillor Grace Baynham, Stockport council’s cabinet member for transport and a member of the Greater Manchester Bee Network Committee, said rail services have suffered from ‘years of underfunding’.
“The dreadful lack of service is a lingering legacy of the woefully mismanaged rail network under the last Conservative government that Labour inherited and that is still hitting local residents hard,” she told the LDRS.
“I have made numerous representations about this to Transport for Greater Manchester, to the Greater Manchester Mayor, to Northern Rail, and directly to the government.
“This is not just a Bramhall problem. Rose Hill in Marple, for example, also has no Sunday service and many other stations across the borough have been on a much-reduced service for far too long.
“Alongside our MPs we keep pushing for better public transport services for all our residents, and we Liberal Democrats won’t stop until we get them.”
The Department for Transport was approached for comment.