Following an order for 281 new carriages at the launch of the new Northern franchise in April, the operator proposes to cascade some surplus DMU stock to the Mid Cheshire Line in order to meet its requirement to double frequency to two trains per hour from December 2017.
With no spare paths available into Manchester Piccadilly, these extra services are likely to start at Stockport, running as far as Greenbank before turning back. The MCRL campaign asserts that these trains could be routed to turnaround at Middlewich instead, before returning to Stockport.
A second option would be to divert the extra peak-time services that already run on the Mid Cheshire Line as far as Northwich and then via Middlewich and on to Crewe, instead of terminating at Chester.
This would provide an additional benefit to users of the Mid Cheshire Line, by offering a quicker and more direct way to reach Crewe and destinations in the Midlands and the South than the current arrangement of travelling via Stockport or Chester. Northwich to Crewe would take less than 30 minutes via Middlewich, rather than the hour’s minimum journey time passengers must currently endure.
“In December 2017 we get the extra service because the big problem is overcrowding,” says Knutsford Town Mayor Tony Dean.
“Knutsford has 500,000 rail customers a year, with one service travelling in each direction an hour and just a handful of peak-time extras. People are getting left on the station every morning, and we have the only station in Great Britain with so many passengers yet such a poor service.
“The half-hourly service is very important, and behind that importance is the Mid Cheshire Rail Link and what it means for so many towns and villages.”
In addition to the possibility of re-routing these extra services, a key element of the updated business case is the burgeoning population and economic growth recorded in the last seven years at Northwich (at the northern end of the line), plus the emergent need for a new station on the Middlewich line situated on the town’s outskirts at Gadbrook Business Park.
The updated report suggests that to reduce the reopening costs (now revised at £5m), Gadbrook Park station could be privately funded as part of the development cost of a planned extension that would almost double the size of the site, giving it the potential to employ 9,000 people.
“Gadbrook Park has more than 5,000 employees and has turned into Cheshire West’s worst traffic nightmare,” says Northwich councillor Cooper.
“People queue for hours in their cars to get out onto the A556, and a new station would help relieve this pressure. Most people don’t even know there’s a railway running right next to it, and it would be a great pity for the economy if the business park’s growth was stifled because this does not happen.
“Northwich itself is also growing hugely to well above 20,000 people, and it’s a town whose time has now come. £80m has just been invested in Baron’s Quay shopping and leisure development in the town centre, and the population is on the rise. Annual passenger numbers climbed by 10,000 last year to 240,000, and that’s got to have dramatically changed the business case for services to Middlewich as we continue to attract investment and new jobs to this area.”
Moss agrees: “An awful lot has changed in seven years. The level of housing growth and the local business support means all local councillors are now lined up in the same direction.”
Current housing commitments in the region would indeed suggest a rapidly expanding customer base for any new service to Middlewich, increasing the likelihood of it reaching zero subsidy. Current projections are that the population of Sandbach will increase by 6,297, Knutsford by 2,175, and Middlewich by 4,465 if all currently permitted or pending new housing developments are built.
Further strengthening the Mid Cheshire Rail Link’s updated business case is the recent and rapid development of two other rail projects that have national and regional importance.
Phase 2a of High Speed 2 is expected to terminate at an integrated high-speed station at Crewe from 2027, while work continues to open Phase 2b six years later - this will gently curve northeast towards Manchester Airport and then Manchester Piccadilly.
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