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IBM (Halt) Closure & Possible Re-opening

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Jorge Da Silva

Jorge Da Silva

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The station will be maintained and the decision to withdraw services will be reviewed next year:

All trains are to stop calling at IBM station in Inverclyde to prevent yobs alighting to cause trouble, The Scotsman has learned. Hourly services to the station on the Glasgow-Wemyss Bay line will be suspended from 9 December. It served the recently-demolished IBM factory in the former Spango Valley, which closed in 2016. Fewer than 800 passengers a year – around two a day – still use it.

ScotRail said the station “was becoming a centre for antisocial and criminal behaviour”. It said the move had been requested by local people and backed by British Transport Police. The train operator said it would continue to maintain the station, and would review the decision next year.

It said services could resume if the factory site is redeveloped. The move is thought to avoid the need to go through the formal closure process normally required when trains no longer stop at a station. When IBM station opened in 1978, it was served by rush-hour services only for the IBM workforce, which peaked at 4,000. Services were advertised more widely from 1986.

Trains have continued to call there every hour, including on Sundays, despite passenger numbers falling from 136,000 in 2010 to 6,000 in 2016-17 and fewer than 800 in the year to March.

A ScotRail spokesperson said: “Following consultation with, and at the request of, local stakeholders in response to antisocial behaviour incidents, we are temporarily suspending services at IBM halt station. “The station has not been closed. However, trains will no longer call there from 9 December. “This has been agreed with [Scottish Government agency] Transport Scotland and key stakeholders and partners along the route. “With the IBM facility itself being closed and in the process of demolition, and with no real demand for use from our customers, it is not driving significant footfall. “As a result of this, the station is becoming a centre for antisocial and criminal behaviour on the Inverclyde lines. “The closest alternative stations are Inverkip and Branchton. “Our current timetable will remain largely unchanged and there will be time between the stations before and after IBM that would allow trains to call again at the station should the IBM site be redeveloped. “This is a temporary suspension of services which will be reviewed in 2019.” A Transport Scotland spokeswoman said: “We are aware ScotRail are temporarily suspending services at IBM station following a number of concerns from the local community and stakeholders about antisocial behaviour. “This affects a very small number of passengers and can be revisited should the nearby derelict industrial site be repurposed in the future.”

Read more at: https://www.scotsman.com/news/trans...-anti-social-and-criminal-behaviour-1-4833257
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Hadders

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There really needs to be a formal statement from Transport Scotland rather than a report in a newspaper. The silence from TS is shocking.

While I don’t doubt that the line in general suffers from anti-social behaviour visits by forum members over the last few days show absolutely no signs of this.
 
Esker-pades

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Hadders said:
There really needs to be a formal statement from Transport Scotland rather than a report in a newspaper. The silence from TS is shocking.

While I don’t doubt that the line in general suffers from anti-social behaviour visits by forum members over the last few days show absolutely no signs of this.
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I spoke to them on the 18th of November asking them a few questions (how have you complied with current closure/service withdrawal legislation, do Glasgow services stop there or not? etc.). They said they would be provide an answer within 20 working days. That means they must have responded by Friday the 14th.
 
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swt_passenger

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Whistler40145 said:
Are the closure rules the same in Scotland as in England?
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Same Railways Act 2005 gives the authority and procedures to be followed, but there are very slight differences for matters solely affecting Scotland. No significant differences that I found, but there’s 30 pages to wade through. Linked in post #226...

There’s also plain language ‘guidance’, another 38 pages here:
https://assets.publishing.service.g...data/file/266296/railwaysclosuresguidance.pdf
 
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156478

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Both the Local MSP and the Greenock Telegraph are both known for being very vocal about the service ScotRail operate and both have not treated the "closure" as bad news.

The Local MSP indeed does a very good job of lobbying ScotRail and Transport Scotland for improvements-
https://stuartmcmillansnp.wordpress.com/2018/03/15/mcmillan-raises-rail-issues-with-scotrail-ceo/

He even managed to get ScotRail to give customers a free journey because of the issues, quite impressive!
https://stuartmcmillansnp.wordpress...pressure-sees-scotrail-deliver-free-journeys/

So you can tell he takes a lot of interest over the train service, commendably maybe more than other MSPs. However when it comes to the "closure of IBM Halt" He has made this a good news story.
https://stuartmcmillansnp.wordpress...e-approach-sees-end-of-the-line-for-ibm-halt/


There is too much outrage in this thread over nothing in this case.
There is no housing nearby even within a decent walking distance-in fact apart from piles of rubble and a security office there is nothing there.
No one has made any noises to the media saying they have been inconvenienced and trust me the Greenock Telegraph love a bad news story about ScotRail.
There is no public access from the A78 main road into the site which is on private property
The local MSP and the Greenock Telegraph are not painting this in a negative light
The site has been purchased by the Easdales who are well known local businessmen and the local council are quite proactive when it comes to development and they will probably grant planning permission only if the station is part of the plans,
The timetable still allows the service to be reinstated
It stops the local youths congregating on the site. What happens if someone did get hurt and then where does everyone stand in a court of law?

Or is it people are just not happy as some bureocratic rules and red tape have been broken and the usual station closure procedure hasn't been used? Stations should never be shut down ever, never even if the reason the station was opened is now a pile of rubble and the local wildlife are using it for a secluded drinking den. There is too much outrage over nothing in this thread, Life is too short.
 
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156478

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Whistler40145 said:
That’s quite a drop in passengers
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The station was really popular with workers when the site was in it's prime, they even had a special discounted season ticket.
It wasn't just local people from Inverclyde who used the station to get to work either.
In its prime It could have been a great case study of how good quality public transport providing a viable route to work was a good thing for everyone.
 
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Elwyn

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156478 said:
The station was really popular with workers when the site was in it's prime, they even had a special discounted season ticket.
It wasn't just local people from Inverclyde who used the station to get to work either.
In its prime It could have been a great case study of how good quality public transport providing a viable route to work was a good thing for everyone.
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Yes, but that was then. Today no-one’s using it. We need to recognise the facts. The station is just not commercially viable at the moment. That may change with future development of the nearby site, but for the moment, withdrawing services is obviously the right thing to do.

The sometimes controversial Mr O’Leary wouldn’t fly into an airport with no passengers. And he would be absolutely right. So why do folk expect trains to stop at a station with almost no passengers? All the waffle about the legality of withdrawing services seems to me to avoid the commercial reality. At the moment, there’s no business there. What’s the point of stopping there?
 
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