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'Speak up over train changes' - quicker journeys promised
TRAIN passengers will be able to make their voices heard at a meeting to discuss changes to services.
Following a major study of timetables on the Caldervale Line, changes have been planned by Northern Rail and Metro, including faster engines with more carriages which will improve capacity and cut journey times between Halifax and Manchester to around 50 minutes.
The first public meeting to discuss the changes will be on Monday June 30 at 7.30pm in the Church of the Good Shepherd, Mythol-mroyd.
Northern Rail bosses are consulting passenger groups to introduce the alterations from December.
Timetables will change, with more trains at Hebden Bridge, Todmorden and Sowerby Bridge
And there will be three through trains an hour between Leeds, Hebden Bridge, Todmorden and Manchester Victoria instead of two and Todmorden will gain an hourly service to and from Leeds via Brighouse.
But Walsden, Mythol-mroyd and Sowerby Bridge will lose one train per hour to and from Halifax and Bradford. Halifax and District Rail Action Group says the new timetable is an important step forward. The group has been campaigning for a fast, under-an-hour service between Bradford and Manchester for years.
However, it wants to see further progress and says new services need to be added to serve stations missing out on the faster trains.
Their demands include more stops at Sowerby Bridge and Mytholmroyd stations by trains on the York-Blackpool route, an additional Manchester-Rochdale train hourly to Todmorden, Littleborough, Walsden and through Calderdale to Leeds, and further speeding up of the Calderdale-Leeds services with some fast trains between Brighouse and Leeds via Dewsbury.
Peter Davies, Hadrag vice-chairman and secretary, said the new timetable would be a boost for Calderdale, in particular Brighouse.
But added: "Hadrag is insisting this must not be the end of the story. The next step must be to improve services at Sowerby Bridge, Mytholmroyd and Walsden."
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Weather for Halifax
Thursday 09 February 2012
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