Services to be reintroduced at Aslockton

A consultation document for the December 2009 timetable was sent out to interested parties some weeks ago, but now those proposals have been summarised in a public meeting. So I guess it’s OK to give a precis of the proposals here.

Headline changes for December 2009

  • eight extra services to stop at Aslockton each weekday, including the 19:45 (ish) service from Nottingham
  • seven extra services to stop each Saturday
  • new commuter service from Aslockton to Grantham (leaving at approximately 8am) and a return service (leaving Grantham at approximately 17:45)

These improvements are still subject to formal approval by Network Rail, but David Horne says this is “effectively done”.

Meeting details

The meeting this evening was organized by Aslockton and Whatton-in-the-Vale parish councils (thanks folks!), and attended by three guests:

  • David Horne: Commercial Director, East Midlands Trains
  • Jim Bamford: Rail Officer, Nottingham County Council
  • Martin Suthers, Nottinghamshire County Councillor for Bingham

There were between 30 and 40 members of the public there too.

It was made quite clear that the new services at Aslockton are an experiment. EMT have heard our concerns about the service cuts, and have more-or-less issued us with a challenge: they want to see an increase in footfall at the station of between 15% and 20%.

This is a two-year plan – they need one year to get some meaningful data, then another year to give notice of subsequent timetable changes to Network Rail. So there you have it: EMT have done their bit, now we need to do ours.

Our challenge, in numbers

A while ago, I posted figures from the Office of Rail Regulation which detailed the journeys taken to and from Aslockton. Well, the 2007/08 figures have come out. So here goes:

                        ALK      BIN      RDF
        Year 2007/08    21473    29457    13305
        Year 2006/07    21363    25181    9326
        Year 2005/06    18538    26134    10892
        Year 2004/05    16064    28053    9565
        Year 2003/04
        Year 2002/03    15991    41038    13220

Hmm, very modest growth for Aslockton, and that’s before the December 2008 cuts were made :-/  To stand any chance of keeping those extra eight services (and the possibility of more) we really do need to hit 25000 passengers per annum.

Other notes

Briefly, these other things were discussed:

  • Verbal agreement for East Midlands Trains to work in conjunction with Parish and County Councils to promote growth in rail use from Aslockton
  • EMT have intentions to acquire more trains and carriages, to give more capacity at peak times, more resilience to technical failures
  • EMT to make considerable improvements to ticketing services – with the provision of new ticket machines for guards, and the installation of barriers at Grantham (done) and Nottingham (in progress)
  • EMT aiming to reduce overcrowding between Sheffield and Liverpool, by adding extra units to services at Nottingham
  • Office of Rail Regulation declined an application for a grant to improve track and signalling at Nottingham station. An appeal was successful, with the considerable help from Notts County Council. £60 million will be spent on these works from 2011 (ish). The work will significally improve flexibility in terms of shuffling trains, and hence in timetabling.
  • EMT investigating the possibility of raising the speed limit between Nottingham and Grantham, from 75mph to 90mph, thereby increasing capacity on the line. (Unlikely to happen before 2014, cost unknown)

Wow! :-)

                        ALK      BIN      RDF
        Year 2006/07    21363    25181    9326
        Year 2005/06    18538    26134    10892
        Year 2004/05    16064    28053    9565
        Year 2003/04
        Year 2002/03    15991    41038    13220

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Filed under transport : Comments (0) : Jun 29th, 2009

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