Workington Travel Difficulties

[whole diary]

[Bob_Blakey]

Just a thought...the good people of Workington are having to make a detour of at least 30 miles if they wish to travel from one side of the River Derwent to the other by car; has it escaped the notice of Network Rail / Cumbria County Council / Northern Rail that the railway bridge over said river in Workington is still standing, and would it be beyond their intelligence to organise the provision of a temporary rail halt on the north side of the river?
Or would such a suggestion give the Health & Safety mafia apoplexy!

[moonrakerz]

It will be quicker to build new road bridges than get that idea approved !

[eightf48544]

Just a thought...the good people of Workington are having to make a detour of at least 30 miles if they wish to travel from one side of the River Derwent to the other by car; has it escaped the notice of Network Rail / Cumbria County Council / Northern Rail that the railway bridge over said river in Workington is still standing, and would it be beyond their intelligence to organise the provision of a temporary rail halt on the north side of the river?
Or would such a suggestion give the Health & Safety mafia apoplexy!

Just heard that Cumbria CC has asked Networkrail to put a tempory platform North of the River Derwent.

Network rail has said No Way. Partly Health and Safety.

Which is stupid the govenment ought to just say build a scafolding one you could have it in a day. Move in a portacabin office and you're away. It would have to manned as it's double trck so would require a footcrossing old sleepers. It's only money and would be cheaper and better for the  environment than cars/buses  driving 30 miles round and about.

It's called emergency planning but it requires proper joined up government.

[Bob_Blakey]

I would respectfully suggest that Network Rail should be issued with a JFDI^▸ (just flipping do it (polite version)) from the appropriate authority - presumably the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about); the population of west Cumbria have enough to deal with already without petty bureaucracy making their lives even more difficult.
There is a road-over-rail bridge about 250m north of the river which would render a railway foot crossing unnecessary, and could be used as a stop by an associated shuttle-bus service.
Perhaps the local MP^▸ (Member of Parliament), Tony Cunningham, would like to earn his salary and get involved.

[brompton rail]

Flimby station is not very far north of Workington and all trains call there. The TV has banged on about there being no way of getting from Northside Estate into Workington without a 90 mile round trip, now reduced to a 17 mile trip (after a bridge re-opened). A local young woman in an interview on SkyNews said that she could catch the train from Flimby and the railway bridge was still open (as it has been all along, though the line between Workington and Carlisle was closed last week for less than a day owing to flooding nearer Carlisle).

Bridges are not bridges unless they carry roads it seems. The media did, confusingly, report that a railway bridge had collapsed. This one was a long since disused one!

[brompton rail]

Sorry, I should have researched more!

Network Rail and the local council are working together to build a station north of Workington close to the industrial estate. 2 platforms and footbridge. Northern are adding an extra coach (presumably a 153) to trains.

http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=4831&NewsAreaID=2&SearchCategoryID=5

Well done all round.

[Phil Farmer]

Quote from Network Rail Press Release:

Network Rail starts work tonight to build a temporary railway station on the north side of the River Derwent at Workington to ease the access problems the people of the town are experiencing following the floods.

In the last 24hrs the company has identified a site for a new temporary station that could help alleviate some of the problems being experienced by the residents of Workington and the surrounding villages.  The new station will be built on waste-land just over ^ mile to the north of the existing station, reconnecting the two halves of the town that have been cut off following flood damage to the footbridges and road bridges in the area.

Robin Gisby, director operations and customer services said: ^We have a wealth of experience and engineering expertise that we felt should be put at the disposal of the Cumbrian authorities.  Our people will work round the clock to build a temporary rail station, north of the river, to help re-connect the town and ease people^s travel problems.^

Network Rail has agreed a two-year lease of land owned by Allerdale Borough Council off the A596 immediately north of St Helens Business Park, opposite the Plaza Cinema. The two-platform station, linked by a footbridge, will have lighting, a waiting room and a gravel car park, and will be built and ready for its first passengers by the weekend.

It does beg the question - if it can be done that quickly - can we suggest a few more stations for reopening / rebuilding....

[John R]

I presume planning consents etc are somewhat easier and quicker than usual given the circumstances.

[Tim]

NR^» (Network Rail - home page) may of course simply ignored the issue of planning permission.

[matt473]

Probaly the exceptional circumstances has taken control over such decisions away form the usual suspects, and of course there would be very few, if any objections that would need to be considered. These platforms however will not be built to last I'm guessing therefore these methods would not be used for building of any long term stations.

For the construction of a station, the times can vary greatly if it is an operational line or one that is closed, such as the recent Ebbw Vale railway re-opening. All the work could be carried out relatively quickly as the line was closed but a station built on the main line obviously can only be built outside of operating hours to cause minimal delays causing the station to take longer to be built. You then have to factor in re-sigalling potentially which itself will take further time. Ultimately depending on where a potential station could be built, I assume the time to build it will vary for each station

[Tim]

Well done to NR^» (Network Rail - home page).  One might have hoped that Northern could have done more than lengthen the existing trains by one unit.  Are there other constraints here (platform length etc) or are we really that tight for units.  Surely a couple of pacers could be comandeered from somewhere?   

[brompton rail]

I doubt that Northern have any spare units lying around anywhere. After all Greater Manchester PTE^▸ (Passenger Transport Executive) had to stump up to keep some of the Pacers released by the closure of the Manchester - Oldham - Rochdale line for conversion to tram.

Shortage of available stock (otherwise full and standing trains into major cities like Leeds, Manchester etc) would mean that someone else would have to stand longer, or more likely stand on the platform and await the next train on their way to/from work.

Of course there may be some spare units in the Bristol / Exeter area that could be sent to West Cumbria (he says tongue in cheek!!)

Anyway as it is only 1,000m from Workington North to Workington station it should not be a very serious problem.

[inspector_blakey]

Seeing as we had the same discussion going on in two different places, and goings-on at Workington are probably more of a "wider picture" than an "across the west" topic, I've merged these two together here. Apologies for any confusion this may cause!

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks, inspector_blakey!

An excellent item, with picture and map, from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Rail station for flood-hit town

A flood-hit Cumbrian town split in two by the collapse and closures of its bridges is to be "reconnected" with a temporary railway station.

Residents in Workington have been left with no direct road connection since devastating flooding on Friday. The only way to cross the River Derwent has been from the town's south side station, with northbound trains next stopping in Flimby four miles away.

Network Rail is to start work on a north side station on Tuesday night.

The move comes as people in Cumbria brace themselves for more heavy rain - with up to 100mm (3.9in) predicted to fall on areas of high ground.

Six bridges have already collapsed in Cumbria as a result of the flooding, causing major transport and logistical problems for thousands of people.
 
Cumbria County Council is warning Workington residents that if the closed Calva Bridge collapses 11,000 homes north of the River Derwent would lose their telephone connection.

Pc Bill Barker, 44, was swept to his death when the town's A597 Northside Bridge was destroyed on Friday.

A fortnight's worth of passengers boarded services at the exisiting Workington station on Monday.

Road journeys between the two halves of the town currently involve a more than 30-mile detour.

The new station will be built on wasteland just over half a mile from the existing station.

The two-platform station, linked by a footbridge, will have lighting, a waiting room and a gravel car park, and will be built and ready for its first passengers by the weekend.

Robin Gisby, Network Rail operations and customer services director, said: "We have a wealth of experience and engineering expertise that we felt should be put at the disposal of the Cumbrian authorities. Our people will work round the clock on this project."

A Cumbria County Council spokesman said the authority was "urgently working" on options to reconnect the north and south of Workington by using a temporary road bridge. He said it was likely that a military bridge would not be suitable for local traffic and that the county council's civil engineers were working on possible solutions.
 
A footbridge known as the Old Railway Bridge in the port of Workington is also structurally unstable and the public must not attempt to cross the river by foot here.

The Environment Agency said the downpour on Tuesday could further raise river levels and bring more flooding. However, river levels are not expected to return to those which brought devastation to areas on Friday.

[matt473]

This is a crazy idea I know, but they could run an extra service with a hire in from ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) as a unit is not required at the moment because of flooding on the Blaenau Ffestiniong line as a result of flooding. I'm sure arms could be twisted for Arriva to sub-lease the unit to Northern to help out until arriva need it for the re-opened line. May befor no more than a few days but in the short term the help could be needed.

On a lighter note, the flooding on the Blaenau Fgestiniog line has required a diver to inspect the track at Llanwrst