Councillor hits out at rail line closure

Trains to be replaced by buses in run-up to Christmas

Northern Rail is planning to close part of the busy line through Greenfield to Manchester Victoria over seven weekends in the run-up to Christmas.

The weekends – October 26 to December 7 - will force passengers to use a bus from Stalybridge to Manchester — more than doubling the journey time from 23 minutes to 52.

Saddleworth South councillor John McCann is furious over the disruptive proposal, revealed only in the May to December timetable released recently.

Councillor McCann, deputy leader of Oldham Council’s Liberal Democrats, said the plans are unfair:

“It is completely unacceptable. Instead of a fast, 23-minute rail journey to Victoria, Saddleworth passengers will have to endure a 52-minute journey from Greenfield, including an eight to 10 minute wait at Stalybridge and a 33-minute bus journey to Victoria. Replacement buses won’t carry heavy luggage, prams or bicycles.

“Most people are completely unaware of the problems they will face. Rail users are already going to face five years of periodic disruption to local rail services with the re-roofing and upgrading of Victoria Station and electrification of the Manchester to Leeds route up to 2018.

“In this instance, Northern Rail should be running through-trains to Manchester Piccadilly when Manchester Victoria is unavailable, instead of a slow and inconvenient bus service.”

The line closures will be for preparatory work for the route’s electrification.

A Northern Rail spokeswoman said: “The decision has been taken to do this at the weekends when it will affect fewer passengers.”

Diverting services into Piccadilly isn’t possible because the line doesn’t have the capacity — but scheduled services to Piccadilly are unaffected by the closures.