Station alert ... have we missed a closure consultation process?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Posted elsewhere that its not closing (officially), but services not calling for the present.  Item 3.4 here: http://www.spt.co.uk/documents/latest/SP231118_Agenda10.pdf

Many thanks for that link.  To ensure the key text remains available for later reference (I suspect that is a transient URL quoted at it has "latest" in it  )

Rail Update in SPT^▸ (Signal Post Telephone) area
Committee Strategy and Programmes
Date of meeting 23 November 2018
Date of report 26 October 2018
Report by Senior Director

...

3.4 Mothballing of IBM station, Inverclyde

With the current redevelopment of local industries within the Spango Valley in Inverclyde, patronage to/from IBM station on the Wemyss Bay line is no longer considered sufficient to justify services stopping at the station. As a result, all stops at IBM are to be suspended from 9 December 2018 whilst redevelopment options are being progressed for the wider Spango Valley area.

[SandTEngineer]

Thanks Grahame.  Not wishing to start topic drift but the remainder of that report seems quite positive about electrification, new trains and service lengthing.

[ChrisB]

Can a station be 'mothballed', without a service?

I though the purpose of a Parliamentary Service was that stations had to have at least one service still running (a day/week/month)

[stuving]

Can a station be 'mothballed', without a service?

I though the purpose of a Parliamentary Service was that stations had to have at least one service still running (a day/week/month)

I was wondering what would happen if they said the trains (still running) would only stop by request. With no public access into or out of the station, it would be quite easy to refuse all requests, on the grounds you'd no business to be there.

[grahame]

Thanks Grahame.  Not wishing to start topic drift but the remainder of that report seems quite positive about electrification, new trains and service lengthing.

I would be delighted if we had another thread looking at the very positive aspects. There's been a great deal of rail improvement for Strathclyde commuters in recent years - so much so that (I suspect) if there had been proportionate improvements in the Bristol area, all the FoSBR^» (Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways - site) and Metro West schemes would have been completed by now.   However, mothballing of IBM could be a serious concern / precedent.

Turning off a station / line to "Mothball" it is, I think, much easier than turning it back on.  I seem to recall that the line from Oxford to Bletchley was just "mothballed" - never abandoned - and just look at the cost and effort and justification that's underway to get that back.  So this "mothballing" smells a bit like a step that would have the (intended ?) side effect of making full closure at a later date much more justified, and building up of traffic when the area is redeveloped much much harder as remedial works will almost undoubtedly be needed.

IBM had 6,000 passenger journeys in the most recent ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) figures - though I expect there will be a significant drop in the next set of figure which come out next month.  If "IBM" can be mothballed and effectively closed with those sorts of numbers, it must be a concern for perhaps a dozen stations that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) manage with number less than a half of that.  Looking back to the last decade, there was a serious risk at Melksham that after a 10 day line closure for engineering works, services would continue in the form of the rail replacement buses.  There are undoubtedly occasions where a station's future should be considered, but it's really pretty underhand for a station to be rendered useless or nearly so by the activities / actions of those we have entrusted as a nation to take care of it and provide a service.

[grahame]

A very, very old story has re-surfaced in the Daily Mirror

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/railway-company-plans-close-station-13628010

Anybody who has to commute on a regular basis will know the pain of cancelled services and unreliable timetables all too well.

Wouldn't it be great if the services would revolve around our lives and turn up exactly when we need them to?

So you can just imagine the groans and despairs from commuters when the Hokkaido Railway Company announced it was going to close down a rural station in the north of Japan.

Well, not quite. It turned out the remote station was being used by only one person each day.

Every school day at 7.04am, a girl would hop on the train at Kami-Shirataki station, then at 5.08pm she would return again, the Telegraph reported.

After the railway company discovered the identity of the station's only customer, it did something amazing.

Rather than press ahead with the closure, Hokkaido decided it would keep the station open until the girl graduates from high school.

Comments are interesting ...

That would be a waste of time as our railways stopped being a service a long time ago. They are businesses now and we are customers not passengers. Profits and dividends for the shareholders are the things that drive our railways, service isn’t in their vocabulary.

[grahame]

Thanks Grahame.  Not wishing to start topic drift but the remainder of that report seems quite positive about electrification, new trains and service lengthing.

Not totally a bed of roses ... from the Daily Record

“The evening peak time ‘fast’ service timetabled to leave Edinburgh at 5.18pm has a 13-minute wait at Stirling before continuing to Dunblane while they detach the front part of the train and send it to Alloa.

“This means the tea-time service which currently leaves Edinburgh at 5.27pm and takes 49 minutes, now leaves slightly earlier and takes one hour and 13 minutes.

“Around the same time, although a less popular service, from Dunblane to Edinburgh at 5.48pm has a journey time to Edinburgh of one hour eight minutes.

“Even worse, the 5.15pm from Dunblane to Edinburgh has a 14-minute wait at Stirling meaning it takes one hour and 19 minutes to Edinburgh.”

I really need to split this thread!

[Richard Fairhurst]

I really need to split this thread!

I bet you can do it quicker than ScotRail's 13 minutes...

[paul7575]

Passengers from Edinburgh to Dunblane can of course get there a bit faster by changing at Stirling into another train (from Glasgow) that runs just ahead, taking 58 mins.
As seen in journey planners.   A mountain from molehill situation, I expect they have reasons for what they’ve decided to do.

Paul

[Bmblbzzz]

I'm wondering if the phrase "tea-time service," which sounds so English, would actually be used anywhere except Scotland. 

[paul7575]

I'm wondering if the phrase "tea-time service," which sounds so English, would actually be used anywhere except Scotland. 

Perhaps they still have a proper buffet...

Paul

[Bmblbzzz]

I'm wondering if the phrase "tea-time service," which sounds so English, would actually be used anywhere except Scotland. 

Perhaps they still have a proper buffet...

Paul

Or are Terry Pratchett fans. 

[Dispatch Box]

I'm wondering if the phrase "tea-time service," which sounds so English, would actually be used anywhere except Scotland. 

Perhaps they still have a proper buffet...

Paul

Or are Terry Pratchett fans. 

Still not sure if this might also happen at Pilning.

[Western Pathfinder]

Over my dead body.

[Dispatch Box]

Over my dead body.

Sounds like you do not want Pilning to close, Nobody does want stations closing, But Dr Beeching did not care.There must of been mass unemployment when lines closed. And some lines now, if still open, would be profitable.