To the WBRUA Liaison Group:

These are our requests for the improvements to the June 2006 Arriva Trains Wales timetable. We are very grateful for the opportunity to comment. I sent the basic aspirations to Ben Davies last night without any of the background justifications.

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Arriva Trains Wales Table 101 (and 81), June 2006

The Wrexham - Birkenhead Rail Users' Association requests:

1: The urgent reinstatement of the second journeys northbound and southbound to their former times approximately 15 minutes earlier than at present.

We opposed last December's change of the main morning commuter train, from the beginning and without qualification. For many of our regular passengers it has proved a disaster, causing them severe problems — in some cases official warnings from their employers regarding punctuality. Unfortunately for them, there is no alternative road option for their journeys.

The very first night of the Standard Pattern Timetable our principal officers were on the 1845 from Bidston and a young passenger who heard our conversation started to tell us of his own experience: the unreliability of the trains under the previous timetable had already landed him with a warning of dismissal for repeated lateness and the later departure of the former 0716 from Wrexham was now obliging him to get up at 6 a.m. in order to get from Buckley to Brunswick by 0900. He was now, of course, planning to buy a car.

Within days, we were contacted by a teacher in Buckley whose son worked in Neston. He was being badly affected, not by the new time per se, but by the fact that a freight train was now regularly being let through ahead of the passenger service only to be held in its path until a shunter turned up for work at Dee Marsh. Under the previous timetable the freight train would be working during a 75-minute gap between passenger trains.

The caller knew of another worker who was suddenly "on a warning" at Deeside Industrial Park, specifically because of the new timetable.

We have also had complaints from passengers that the connecting 0836 Merseyrail train from Bidston is already 'standing room only': packed with commuters, many of whom are bound for Birkenhead, not Liverpool.

From our observations, the number of people changing trains at Bidston is down by about one third when we could have expected a healthy, or even dramatic, increase in numbers if these two journeys had remained at their original times when the change below was implemented.

We asked last year for the evening 1732 departure from Bidston to be put back to 1745 because so few commuters could get from work to the 1706 connection at Liverpool Moorfields. This change was made and we would have been grateful for it had the morning commuter train not also been running later. The fact that so few could now get TO work in time made the evening alteration pointless in this respect.

Please bear in mind that many of our existing and potential daily passengers work or study in the Liverpool business parks (Brunswick/Wavertree), in the university areas and the Royal Liverpool Hospital etc.

We have not been told why the change to the morning commuter trains was made despite our unqualified opposition to it at the STP consultation stage and at two successive Liaison Meetings.

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2: The 1745 from Bidston (Mon-Sat) to arrive later at Wrexham Central only...

...to allow this train to be held briefly for its connection from Liverpool if necessary without risking financial penalties. It is a connection which, if dependable, could generate scores of extra daily passengers for itself and the reinstated northbound journey mentioned above in item 1.

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3: The extension of the 0710 Wrexham General - Wrexham Central to originate instead at Hawarden Bridge (dep 0640).

0830 is far too late for a first journey to arrive in Wrexham on weekdays. The unit for the 0710 arrives at Wrexham General at 0555, connected to the unit which forms the 0633 to Bidston.

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4: The extension of the 0728 Chester - Birmingham (Wrexham General arr 0744) to originate at Shotton (dep 0713).

As Item 3. Arrivals at Wrexham General from Shotton would be at 0710, 0744, 0827 and 0837. Obviously this may not be practicable if the train unit has first come from Shrewsbury.

If it does turn out to be possible, it would provide a connection to Chester at Shotton for the 0633 from Wrexham General and connect at Chester with the 0730 to Hooton and beyond. Deesiders would find a direct train to Birmingham New Street at that time of day VERY useful and of course they live in what is by far the biggest conurbation on the North Wales Coast line.

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5. Extension of Saturday evening trains to Birkenhead North.

In case you do not already know this, the last two Saturday evening Wrexham trains at present leave Bidston five minutes before the arrival of (half-hourly) trains from Liverpool. Birkenhead North serves both the West Kirby and New Brighton Merseyrail lines every fifteen minutes in the evening. It is just one mile from Bidston and trains take a little over two minutes to complete the journey.

Additional costs will be involved by connecting instead with the New Brighton trains at Birkenhead North, but extra revenue would also be generated. More attractive Saturday night connections would encourage the use of trains throughout the day in a way that would not generally happen midweek.  Possibly using a different unit from those running during the day, we would like to see stabling at Birkenhead North depot considered as a solution to the problems caused by the "Rules Of The Route" between Wrexham and Chester. The evening timetable can be completely different on Saturdays from that on Mondays to Fridays.

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The Association also suggests that all through services between Shotton Low Level and Wrexham General are included in the Borderlands Line timetables.

This is self explanatory. In particular, the 2216 from Shotton (Wrexham General arr 2247) would be very useful for the Deeside ice-skating sessions which finish at 10 pm, Wednesday to Saturday.
 

Malcolm Wright, Chairman
Wrexham - Birkenhead Rail Users' Association