President: The Rt Hon Lord Jones PC

First the bad news:

Sunday morning trains withdrawn (for now)

When our two extra summer Sunday morning trains appeared in the timetable in early June instead of late July we believed that it was because Merseytravel had agreed to support the evening and Sunday service, which is not part of the Wales and Borders franchise. In fact we had been told by Arriva Trains Wales (ATW) that they would run right through to December when the Standard Pattern Timetable (SPT) for Wales comes into being, complete with a new sixth train on Sundays.

It turns out that there was a misunderstanding about when the Merseytravel funding would begin and ATW have pulled the plug on the two Sunday morning trains until the extra money finally does materialise, coinciding with the start of the SPT. 
 
 

Now for the GOOOOOOD news...

Sunday journeys will be GREAT!

We get a terrific Christmas present this year because the Sunday service will improve in more important ways just than the number of trains it contains. To be realistic, it will still be an infrequent service, but we could argue that this matters less on Sundays than on weekdays. 

More important for us is punctuality, a very precarious feature of the hourly weekday service because of the minimal turnaround times at the termini. There was a time when all our trains were forced to depart about five minutes after arrival at Bidston, no matter what the consequences would be for connections down the line. Terminating the service at Bidston was always a ludicrous thing to do until the construction in the early 1990s of a siding on the trackbed of the former line to New Brighton.

This meant that our trains could now stand away from the Bidston platforms and that it was even more ludicrous that they failed to do so during evenings and Sundays when the units had plenty of time for shunting. Lately, however, one weeknight train has had its arrival scheduled at 1959 with departure at 2025 and a manoeuvre into the siding in between.

As for Sundays, on the other hand, we have been tearing our hair out for years over the terrible connections at Bidston. Wrexham and Flintshire councils were paying for the service and they even agreed to a large increase in the charge demanded by ATW when the latter took over the route. At every opportunity since then - and quite a lot before that - we have asked that the timetable should be revised to get value for money.

ATW would just claim that they were operating the journeys specified by the councils. This was not untrue, but they get the revenue from the service so their lack of interest in maximising it by optimising the timetable was hardly businesslike. 

Welsh council representatives would tell us that because neither Merseytravel nor Cheshire contributed to the service, they were only interested in what happened at their own end of the line. Any of their own residents wishing for a good journey to Liverpool could, in effect, take a running jump.

They were "interested in what happened at their own end of the line"? It didn't seem like it in practice. Connections in Wales were unabysmal usually only by accident while the first train into Wrexham still arrives just as the shops are closing. The trains were doing little for Welsh interests either.

Originally the three afternoon/evening trains had been saved by local financial support from Clwyd CC after a threat by British Rail to withdraw them. The intention was to enable weekenders, mainly students, to make their return journeys. That it has taken so long to reflect the change in Sunday trading laws demonstrates how dealing with local government can sometimes resemble wading through sludge.

The timings of these three round trips remained unchanged when Merseyrail altered their timetables some years ago, hence the terrible connections at Bidston too. If a committee had been set up to ensure the councils and the operator all got the worst value for money out of the arrangement, they could not have done a better job than the one about which we have politely complained for so many years.

So when we learned that Merseytravel had agreed to chip in with some extra finance we were really pleased but could only hope that the money would be well spent. We are extra delighted, therefore, to reveal that it will be.

After years of deafness to our suggestion of using the Bidston siding to optimise both connections and punctuality on every possible train, it is just brilliant that this is now precisely what is going to happen, on Sundays at least. (It is nothing to do with us, however: we were not consulted in the planning process in this case.)

All Merseyrail's West Kirby units are scheduled to pass each other on the Bidston triangle these days. Our trains will be in the siding while they do so, emerging a couple of minutes later to provide the completion of very slick connections in all four directions. That is, both to and from Liverpool and West Kirby.

Borderlands Line trains will run every 2½ hours, the last train returning to Wrexham nearly eleven hours after the first one leaves General at 0846. Intermediate services will terminate at Central Station. The line has not had such a good Sunday service in over 30 years. 
 
 

Weekday Changes
 
 

In June 2004, the 1732 departure from Bidston was put back at our request to 1745 in order to recapture some of our lost commuters who could not get to the Liverpool Moorfields connection by 1706. In addition, the well-used inward journey from Wrexham also had great problems remaining punctual: such is the tightness of the timetable, the trains don't have time to take up or deliver many passengers. 

Our suggestion, therefore, was to make use of the of the siding to give existing commuters a shorter and more punctual journey home. Unfortunately we had been given very little time to submit our comments on the draft timetable and were unable to consult the few remaining daily commuters about the change. At least one of them complained to ATW and by September, it was once again scheduled for 1732 but back to frequent lateness. Then other people complained that it had been better at 1745...

... and from December, that is when it will run.

With a five minute connection at Bidston it will be a slick as we can hope for. It is a tremendous psychological benefit to have the train in the siding visible to passengers alighting from Liverpool and, of course, Birkenhead. Not knowing whether or not a train is going to arrive always stretches one's perception of time, particularly at Bidston on a windy evening.

The news about the main commuter journeys in the morning is more mixed. Again without consulting existing passengers, ATW will be operating the second train each weekday fifteen minutes later than at present. Some flexi-timers may be glad to be able to roll out of bed a little later from December, but others will surely be rendered unable to get to work on time in Liverpool or Deeside. 

The present southbound journey 0816 from Bidston is also used by a lot of Neston-bound schoolchildren and a regular clientele of students and flexi-timers heading into Wrexham. Who knows how many of these people will be inconvenienced by the later time of this train, unless we ask them?
 
 

We have asked that these journeys be left as they are until the passengers are consulted, especially because the quarter-hour of standing time at Wrexham Central before the popular 0932 departure to Bidston has a great effect on punctuality for the rest of the morning. Yes, we asked repeatedly - but it is not going to happen.
 
 

Evening trains

We were a bit luckier when it came to the evening service in the new SPT. We could not believe the draft version which contrived to have the last two trains leaving Bidston at 2045 and 2245, five minutes before the connecting trains are due to arrive from Liverpool. 

At our generally thankless July Liaison Meeting with ATW, Network Rail and the local authorities, the one useful change that we were able to precipitate was that, on Mondays to Fridays at least, these trains and the intermediate journey from Wrexham will run ten minutes later than originally planned. The last connection from Liverpool Moorfields at 2233 will allow at least some theatregoers and the like to consider planning their evening out by train.

On Saturday nights, unfortunately, the rules of access for track maintenance access preclude this change. The last hapless travellers of the day will have to catch the 2203 from Moorfields and wait at Bidston for a very bleak 25 minutes. We are devoted to our line and have always had a great affection for it, but instances of being embarrassed by it are not entirely in the past.
 
 

Meetings

This is just to draw your attention to the notices enclosed with this newsletter from The Wrexham Railway Circle and The Shrewsbury - Chester RUA about separate opportunities in November to meet Network Rail's top manager for the region and the Managing Director of Arriva Trains Wales. 
 
 

Fond Farewells

Committee meetings will be a lot duller without the presence of two of our long-standing members and our Community Rail Officer of the last six years.

Michael Clutton

Mike has tirelessly promoted the line as CRO, and while his job description is different from ours in that when something is wrong with the we have to say so publicly, he has spent a lot of time and effort attempting to improve the passengers' experience. This obviously requires a prior acceptance that a lot of improvements have needed (and still need) to be made. Therefore in practice, we have had some excellent years together, working shoulder to shoulder in exactly the same cause.

The look of the line has improved greatly during his tenure, with the renovation of Hope Station in particular being one of his favourite projects. He has also produced several editions of two excellent booklets, Discover the Borderlands Line and Walks from the Borderlands Line. One of his last initiatives as CRO has been overseeing the launch of the www.borderlandsline.com website.

His final report for the year to our AGM on October 8th can be found in the meeting's minutes which are enclosed with this newsletter. 

We wish Mike all the very best for a long and happy retirement.

John Edge...

...has the distinction of being our last continuous founder Committee Member having joined at the inaugural meeting in Wrexham in April 1980. For all of these 25 years he has acted as a "minister without portfolio", taking responsibility for a variety of necessities such as the AGM Minutes and, jointly with Mike Barber, the organisation of our Liaison Meetings with the rail managers and local government officers. 

He has written a large number of excellent letters on our behalf, especially to the press and was the committee member who got BR Operations to fix a highly unsatisfactory charter situation by forgetting to mention when he phoned them up that he was a member of "the public" (We related this story in the last newsletter, which can still be found at www.wbrua.net).

On those charter trains John and his wife Barbara did an excellent job when we provided our own catering, something that Barbara has also done for many years at our AGMs. We thank them both for all their efforts and were delighted to see them still at this year's AGM as continuing members of the WBRUA.
 
 

David Woodward...

... was our founder Treasurer all those years ago and after a few years break came back to fulfil the same rôle right up until 2003. He is now taking another break but hopes to be back with us in the not too distant future. He has been an incredible fundraiser for the Association and we remain highly solvent thanks to the legacy of his efforts. We wish him all the very best.
 
 

Liaison Meetings

Since the last newsletter, we have met twice with members of the local authorities and rail managers all around one table. Neither has been enjoyable. 

From the earliest days of these meetings it has been accepted that what is said there is not for public repetition - excepting our own contributions of course. However we would be conning you out of your subscriptions if we tried to pretend that we are currently having as much effect at these meetings as we would like.

We never suggest anything without a good business foundation backed up with a LOT of research. Sometimes we point out to the rail operators that they have accidentally created a product worth selling and this is presently the case with one particular aspect of the Standard Pattern Timetable: the journey opportunities between Wrexham General and Liverpool.

From December trains will leave General for Chester at 04 or 05 minutes past the hour and Borderlands Line trains will continue to head off towards Bidston at 34 minutes past. Give or take a minute these are half-hourly departures for Liverpool via the alternate routes and it costs the same whichever of the two ways you choose to go. It is certainly worth promoting and we said so in both Liaison Meetings.

We cannot tell you what was said in response, but we can tell you that we are not happy.

At least the former meeting did achieve one result in the shape of our better Monday to Friday evening connections, but we failed the morning commuters. We will certainly be reflecting at our next Committee Meeting about whether or not this is enough reward for the man-hours our representatives put into it.

We have been staging these meetings for 20 years now but maybe it is time for a new approach.