Call for more services to stop at Pegswood

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From Chronicle Live

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is under pressure to get a village train station back on the rails - after official figures showed it was one of the least-used stations in the country.

Pegswood station in Northumberland had just 2,364 recorded "entries and exits" in the 2018-19 financial year. This is the number of people who entered the station to get on a train, or left the station having got off a train.

It suggests that the station is barely used. And that's because it doesn't provide enough services - even though local people would dearly like to more access to trains, according to local MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post - a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London, depending on context) Ian Lavery.

Mr Lavery, MP for Wansbeck, has written to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps calling for "immediate action".

In his letter Mr Lavery says: "In the year 2018-19 Pegswood had just 2,364 recorded ‘entries and exits’. This is due in no small part to the fact that the train only stops there three times a day.

That sounds so familiar!

Taking out ticketing distortions at Melksham, a decade ago we had around 3,000 journeys per annum on 2 calls each way per day.  Now we have 75,000 journeys on 8 calls each way per day.  And our 2 calls were supposed to include a "peak commuter service" into Swindon, just like Pegswood's calls are supposed to provide a peak service into Newcastle.

Pegswood is not the only station on the line with a skeleton service - Widdrington, Acklington and Chathill have the same service, and I had the experience of using it last June when I took a few days to look around the North East.  It struck me that the four stations - all with low passenger numbers - differ.  Map, below, of Pegswood - showing a walking catchment which with a service improved to be practically useful would generate substantial traffic.  A map below that showing another of the stations in the group - and even if you stopped every train that passes there (and it's on the East Coast main line), your walking passenger numbers would remain l-o-w.   Not to say that housing, bus links, attractive Park and Ride facilities, or an Open Access operator such as Ryantrains providing a £5 fare from "London" (in reality Crews Hill) to there wouldn't result in considerable growth.