November blog

Tony Potts writes:

There have been several disturbing matters recently. The news that the planned Moorside Nugen nuclear plant is unlikely to proceed will obviously mean that much of the associated railway infrastructure (eg a new station at Mirehouse, a longer passing loop at St Bees and a line into the site) will not be installed.  If and when this is confirmed, we should then be able to press for other improvements for which we have been waiting.

The fact that the RMT dispute shows no sign of being resolved is also a cause for concern.  I have been asked by Richard Green, a student, to be interviewed for his work on the effect of this on passenger numbers on our line.

Although Northern promised that the introduction of ticket vending machines (TVM) at local stations would be properly announced, it appears that this has not happened.  Consequently, several Seascale passengers have been unaware of the TVM and have been charged the full fare on the train, not the day return fare they were expecting, and no railcard discounts being given.

All this is a deterrent to rail travel, instead of encouraging it. In my experience, the vast majority of people in this area find rail travel irrelevant to them. The two matters mentioned above are likely to make the railway even more irrelevant, especially if passengers miss their train at Seascale due to the time taken to walk through the archway, queue to buy their ticket then walk back through the archway to the platform. We must make strong representations to Northern about this.