‘Travesty’ that trains still don’t stop on Sundays

Congleton has been without a Sunday train service for almost a year, a situation that a rail expert has described as “shameful”.

Bus services have replaced the rail connection between Manchester Piccadilly and Stoke due to rest-day working issues, a matter which train operator Northern is still attempting to resolve.

Now Richard Eadie of Congleton, who works in the rail industry, has requested that Northern meet him, passengers, Congleton’s MP and “interested stakeholders” on the station platform on Sunday, 21st September, 12 months exactly since the last Sunday train stopped at Congleton, to express their views over “this ongoing travesty”.

Mr Eadie fears that at present there is no sign of a Sunday service resuming until April next year at the earliest.

Northern said this week that securing a new agreement that will mean it was no longer reliant on conductors volunteering to work Sundays “remains a priority”.

Mr Eadie raised his concerns in an email to Sarah Russell, Congleton’s MP.

He told her that there was no “desire, either from within Northern, the department for transport or Parliament generally” to solve the industrial relations issues (the rest day working problems) that have been impacting Northern services for a “significant time” and that Congleton “is affected more than most other places, due to not having any Sunday service at all”.

He added: “At a time when the public is being asked to be environmentally conscious, weekend trips have been all but impossible to and from our local station for 12 months – this is shameful.”

Mr Eadie told Mrs Russell: “To the casual observer, this looks like taking Northern back into public ownership has made those franchise commitments redundant and given the public a significantly much worse service than previously.”

The company was taken back into public ownership in 2020 after Arriva Rail North had its franchise terminated.

Mr Eadie referred to Network Rail’s publication last month of the train operator bids for the long-term plan for December 2025 to May 2026, which showed that Northern has not bid for any Sunday train paths between December 2025 and April 2026, “meaning that Northern has absolutely no expectation of running trains to Congleton on any Sunday until at least 5th April 2026, over 18 months since the last train ran.”

Useless
His letter continued: “The bus replacements are worse than useless, given that they take at least twice as long to get anywhere, often run late and occasionally don’t turn up at all.

Weekend passengers at Congleton will continue to resort to their cars.”

In a response to Mr Eadie, Mrs Russell’ office said she had spoken on the issue “quite a few times” in Parliament. She was due to speak in a debate in the House of Commons about transport inequalities following the summer recess and told him she would like to use some of the information Mr Eadie had talked about in his correspondence with her.

Matt Rice, Northern’s chief operating officer, said: “We have been working hard to stabilise performance and cut cancellations in recent months.

“There are green shoots of progress, but we know more work needs to be done before we can deliver lasting improvements for our customers.

“Securing a new agreement that will mean we are no longer reliant on conductors volunteering to work Sundays remains a priority.

“We are also working to reduce sickness levels by helping staff return to work, introducing state-of-the-art simulators to accelerate our training programme and planning to make the largest ever investment in our fleet by introducing up to 450 new trains.”

The hourly Sunday service from Manchester Piccadilly to Crewe, passing through Sandbach and Holmes Chapel, was reduced to two hourly.