Summer end to the big train squeeze?

CROWDED: hopes the crush might ease in the summer

July hope for extra carriages

COMMUTERS in Oldham are facing months of cramped carriages on Manchester-bound trains following the closure of the Oldham loop line for conversion to Metrolink.

Extra passengers have packed on to peak-time trains heading into the city centre, with rail-users switching to Greenfield and Mossley stations faring the worst.

Commuters have described the journey as a nightmare with no room to sit down and some facing the trip to and from work with nothing to hang on to.

And the big squeeze is set to continue into the summer as extra carriages will not be made available until July.

Elizabeth Mooney, who is six months’ pregnant, lives in Mossley but has to get to Greenfield every morning for a better chance of getting a seat for her journey to work.

The 36-year-old has also been forced to cut her working hours to avoid the evening commuter dash.

She said: “It’s just a daily panic with everybody cramming on — it’s a nightmare.

“You would start dreading the journey throughout the afternoon, so now I finish early — I just can’t face it every day.”

Antony Davenport-Jones, from Holmfirth, uses the service regularly and said: “The situation is absolutely appalling. It’s 2010 but it is not a 2010 service that we are getting.

“It’s not that bad at Greenfield yet but people getting on from Mossley onwards are lucky to ever get a seat.

Greenfield commuter Joanne Myers, who works in the city centre, said: “Coming home is horrendous, imagine if a disabled person or a woman with a buggy wanted to get on? There is just no room.”

Other Oldham commuters affected by the loop line closure have travelled to Mills Hill to catch the Calder Valley line train into the city centre, with similar problems experienced there.

Northern Rail has increased the number of carriages on the Huddersfield line, however passengers say that in some cases only two can be used as they don’t have enough conductors.

The train operator has confirmed that if only one conductor is available for a four-carriage train, then the second two have to remain locked because of safety regulations involving platform lengths.

Passenger numbers on average have increased by 34 per cent in the five years since Northern Rail took over the network — a figure that was not predicted.

A spokesman for Northern Rail said: “There are no spare carriages anywhere in the industry. Everything that is available is currently being used.

“For many reasons we have attracted significantly more passengers and demand keeps growing.

“We’ll be working closely with the Department for Transport in Greater Manchester to try to bring more carriages to help meet the demand for service.”

Transport Minister Sadiq Khan recently announced funding for Oldham loop line carriages to be brought back to Greater Manchester to lengthen rush-hour services.

The trains, which will be in place from July, would add extra capacity for 959 passengers at peak journeys across the county.