Northern are apparently their next uplift in timetabled services to start from w/c 13th September. On the other hand schools and colleges during the first week of September. In Cheshire it seems to be a common trend for the schools to be doing a phased reopening during the first week of Sep and working towards all pupils being in school by Friday 4th Sep.
One particular area of concern are morning peak Manchester to Chester via Altrincham services. This line is a bit unusual as there are significant flows in both directions in the morning peak, unlike a number of other lines in and out of Manchester where a lot of people travel towards Manchester in the morning peak and the trains in the opposite direction have very few passengers.
The current arrangement is:
06:13 Manchester to Chester - withdrawn
07:09 Manchester to Chester - booked to operate with 4 carriages
07:41 Manchester to Chester - withdrawn
08:18 Stockport to Chester - withdrawn
On a normal school day the 07:09 carries a significant number of school pupils from Mobberley, Knutsford, Plumley, Lostock Gralam & Northwich stations to Greenbank station for St Nicholas High School. Usually it is a rammed 2 carriage service so 4 carriages sounds like an improvement. However, the 07:41 carries a significant number of school pupils from Navigation Rd, Altrincham, Hale, Ashley & Mobberley to Knutsford station for Knutsford Academy so if those pupils have to travel on the earlier train the overlap in catchment areas might cause an issue, not to mention the Chester bound platform at Knutsford is not well designed for a large number of people using it simultaneously even without social distancing. Then we have to remember the trains are not exclusively for school pupils and for workers there's only one service instead of four providing capacity of 4 carriages instead of 8. Consequently this is causing major concern with parents. The 07:41 is also currently not showing on the National Rail system for 14th September. I don't suppose this is the only line where parents are concerned.
To make matters worse I know the Headteacher of St Nicholas High School wrote to Northern a few weeks ago giving details about the school's planned return but it seems Northern ignored it in the first instance, as they were only bothered about trains for 'key workers' at the time they received his correspondence.
The part of Cheshire East which the line serves is not well served by other public transport; Ashley and Plumley have no other public transport, Knutsford has an hourly 'round the houses' bus to Altrincham via Wilmslow and infrequent services on other routes that exist, while the bus which serves Mobberley stops on a road almost 2 miles from the station.
I realise Northern are short of drivers and they can't recruit Sooty to wave his magic wand to make more drivers appear but they need to do something more and I doubt very much that Northern won't have a single additional driver available w/c 6th Sep but will have a whole load w/c 13th Sep. To me it sounds like they are prioritising making things easy for their planners ahead of prioritising safety on services and at stations.
One of the local papers has featured this story: https://www.knutsfordguardian.co.uk...urly-trains-serving-knutsford-schoolchildren/
One particular area of concern are morning peak Manchester to Chester via Altrincham services. This line is a bit unusual as there are significant flows in both directions in the morning peak, unlike a number of other lines in and out of Manchester where a lot of people travel towards Manchester in the morning peak and the trains in the opposite direction have very few passengers.
The current arrangement is:
06:13 Manchester to Chester - withdrawn
07:09 Manchester to Chester - booked to operate with 4 carriages
07:41 Manchester to Chester - withdrawn
08:18 Stockport to Chester - withdrawn
On a normal school day the 07:09 carries a significant number of school pupils from Mobberley, Knutsford, Plumley, Lostock Gralam & Northwich stations to Greenbank station for St Nicholas High School. Usually it is a rammed 2 carriage service so 4 carriages sounds like an improvement. However, the 07:41 carries a significant number of school pupils from Navigation Rd, Altrincham, Hale, Ashley & Mobberley to Knutsford station for Knutsford Academy so if those pupils have to travel on the earlier train the overlap in catchment areas might cause an issue, not to mention the Chester bound platform at Knutsford is not well designed for a large number of people using it simultaneously even without social distancing. Then we have to remember the trains are not exclusively for school pupils and for workers there's only one service instead of four providing capacity of 4 carriages instead of 8. Consequently this is causing major concern with parents. The 07:41 is also currently not showing on the National Rail system for 14th September. I don't suppose this is the only line where parents are concerned.
To make matters worse I know the Headteacher of St Nicholas High School wrote to Northern a few weeks ago giving details about the school's planned return but it seems Northern ignored it in the first instance, as they were only bothered about trains for 'key workers' at the time they received his correspondence.
The part of Cheshire East which the line serves is not well served by other public transport; Ashley and Plumley have no other public transport, Knutsford has an hourly 'round the houses' bus to Altrincham via Wilmslow and infrequent services on other routes that exist, while the bus which serves Mobberley stops on a road almost 2 miles from the station.
I realise Northern are short of drivers and they can't recruit Sooty to wave his magic wand to make more drivers appear but they need to do something more and I doubt very much that Northern won't have a single additional driver available w/c 6th Sep but will have a whole load w/c 13th Sep. To me it sounds like they are prioritising making things easy for their planners ahead of prioritising safety on services and at stations.
One of the local papers has featured this story: https://www.knutsfordguardian.co.uk...urly-trains-serving-knutsford-schoolchildren/