East Midlands Railway withdraws rail service at Alsager

Passengers will now be almost wholly reliant on the remaining hourly service provided by London Northwestern Railway (LNR) calling at Crewe, Alsager, Kidsgrove and Stoke-on-Trent.  Those wishing to travel to Longport and stations between Stoke-on-Trent and Derby will have to change trains at Kidsgrove or Stoke-on-Trent, thereby extending journey times.

EMR admits that Alsager is being sacrificed to improve punctuality for the Crewe – Derby route as a whole. They also state their consultation with stakeholders was lacking and not what EMR aspires to. 

EMR has explained that there can be occasional short delays due to Alsager level crossing for their eastbound trains as they follow close behind the LNR services. Omitting the Alsager stop is the unsatisfactory way of regaining this occasional short delay together with compensating for possible delays at other stations caused by passengers social distancing whilst boarding.  However there is no such problem for westbound services and there is little justification for suspending the stop for trains travelling in this direction towards Crewe.  This results in a wait of 35 minutes at Kidsgrove for the EMR service for passengers travelling to Alsager from Longport or the Derby line. 

North Staffordshire Community Rail Partnership who work to promote and develop the Crewe – Stoke – Derby route have raised the issue with EMR and are assured that this service withdrawal from Alsager will be temporary.  They are in dialogue with EMR who will, every 4 weeks, share with them the evidence for not stopping at the station. 

Michael Willmot, Chair of the North Staffs Community Rail Partnership, commented “We cannot support this dereliction of service as a way of compensating for the extra dwell time at other stations that EMR is anticipating because of boarding and alighting with social distancing.  We are asking EMR to let us see train punctuality information regularly so we can press for service reinstatement as soon as possible.”

Councillor Rod Fletcher, Chairman of Alsager Town Council, said: “What is likely to happen is that Alsager passengers, many of whom walk to Alsager Station, will either drive to Kidsgrove Station or travel on the A500 which is very busy at peak times.  Both Local and Central government are trying to reduce carbon.  This proposal will have the opposite effect.”

Passengers will now be almost wholly reliant on the remaining hourly service provided by LNR calling at Crewe, Alsager, Kidsgrove and Stoke-on-Trent. Those wishing to travel to Longport and stations between Stoke-on-Trent and Derby will have to change trains at Kidsgrove or Stoke-on-Trent, thereby extending journey times.

Jonathan Heal, Chair of the North Staffs Rail Promotion Group said “This abandonment of a station will damage local trust in the train operator at a time when it is already difficult to persuade people to return to rail travel”