As Chairman of the Middlewich Rail Link Campaign I've been following this thread with interest. Can I just make a few observations, based on what I have read?
First of all, nice though it would be, we all know that Virgin Trains are not, and never will be, interested in stopping any of their trains in our town.
The train operating company involved in running a Crewe-Manchester service will, in all probability, be Northern Rail and the trains will, in the early years at least, be the dreaded and almost universally loathed Pacers.
Obviously the line speed is too low for regular passenger services at the moment (even for Pacers!) We've been informed that some, at least, of the speed restrictions on the line are no longer necessary following the upgrading of some sections of track. But the upgrading of the whole line for any new services, and any signalling changes deemed necessary, will be the responsibility of Network Rail and its engineers
The Middlewich Rail Link Campaign's role is to suggest that a new service would be viable - and indeed to prove it, which we have done in the 2009 Railway Consultancy report; we do not get involved in the nuts and bolts of how the service is brought into being and eventually run.
On the subject of the station site: when housing was built on the old station yard site we made representations to the former Congleton Planning Department and were successful in getting both platforms and a space for car-parking protected from development (that's why there's a huge open space in the middle of that housing development). However, in the ensuing years, the down platform has been encroached on by garden fences, sheds etc. and our consultants decided that a simpler option would be to move to a new site on the single-track section which would need only one platform for both up and down trains.
However, if Network Rail decides that the station should be built on the old site or, indeed, on a different site to the one suggested, that would, again, be entirely a matter for them.
Incidentally, regarding the number of passengers from Middlewich who will use the service, of course it won't be 15,000. If every man, woman and child in the town decided to use the trains we'd be a) a bit shocked and b) struggling a little to cope. But I can assure you that the 2009 report tells us that more than enough people would use the service to make it viable.
That is not, and never has been, in doubt.
Now for the potential spanner in the works: Cheshire East Council is working with London & Continental Railways to develop facilities in connection with plans for HS2 (and whoever else may have doubts that HS2 is coming to this area, I can assure you that Cheshire East most emphatically doesn't) and they've got their beady eyes on our little branch line (which has, suddenly, acquired the grandiose title of 'The Middlewich Rail Corridor').
There are plans to move Basford Hall sidings from their present location in order to build the 'new' Crewe Station.
And guess where they'd like to put the 'new' Basford Hall? Correct! In Middlewich, making it potentially one of the busiest rail centres in the country. That would certainly sort out any line speed concerns, wouldn't it? The line would have to be doubled (at least) and electrified. But would there be any room for our humble little Pacer train running from Crewe to Manchester through the lush meadows of Cheshire?
We have, incidentally, wrung a promise from Cheshire East that, if HS2 should be cancelled - which they're convinced it won't - they'll still actively pursue the re-opening of the Middlewich line.
How much that promise might be worth is not for me to say.
So there we are; I hope that, if nothing else, I've convinced you that there's more to the Middlewich re-opening than might, at first, appear to be the case.
Dave Roberts, Chairman, Middlewich Rail Link Campaign