Written evidence from Mid Cheshire Rail Users Association (STA0003)

This is the response to the consultation on Manchester Airport’s Sustainable Development Plan[1] from the Mid Cheshire Rail Users Association (MCRUA).  MCRUA is the rail user group supporting the Mid Cheshire Line, the Manchester-Chester via Knutsford railway.  MCRUA has been established for 25 years and has over 500 paying members, making it one of the largest rail user groups in the north of England.  This response focuses on rail services to and from the airport via the projected Western Rail Link.

Executive Summary

1.                     Manchester Airport's Draft Sustainable Development Plan says that previously an alignment for a Western Rail Link has been safeguarded through the airport site, but that this “has been overtaken by HS2” and so the safeguarding may be withdrawn.
2.                     The Western Rail Link is a projected 3½ mile railway which would link the existing Airport railway station to the Mid Cheshire Line at Mobberley, allowing trains from Manchester Piccadilly to run through the Airport to Knutsford, Northwich, Runcorn, Chester and North Wales.
3.                     None of these places has a regular train service to Manchester Airport today.
4.                     HS2 does not serve any of these places, so we do not see how the proposed construction of HS2 can be considered to have overtaken this need.
5.                     The planned HS2 route does not obstruct the route of the Western Rail Link in any way.
6.                     The economic value of better rail links to Manchester Airport and to Manchester city centre is well recognised and is a central tenet of the government's Northern Powerhouse project.
7.                     The Western Rail Link would deliver fast rail services from Manchester Airport to Cheshire and North Wales on a much shorter route than any alternative.
8.                     The Western Rail Link would also create a fast, direct rail route between Knutsford, Northwich and other Cheshire towns to and from Manchester city centre.
9.                     The Manchester Airport Western Rail Link will attract passengers from the roads to rail, addressing the airport's sustainability targets.  The Link is important for the economic prosperity of Mid Cheshire and North Wales.  The route of the Manchester Airport Western Rail Link should continue to be safeguarded and a start should be made on detailed planning for the link now.

Review of the Sustainable Development Plan

Manchester Airport's Sustainable Development Plan 2015 consists of a summary document and four more detailed documents.  The comments on the Western Rail Link are found in two of these detail documents, “Land Use” and “Economy and Surface Access”.

Development Plan - Land Use Document

The “Land Use” document contains this paragraph (page 44):  “Previously an alignment for a future Western Rail Link has been safeguarded through the airport site. This would have improved links to and from the south and the west. This proposal has been overtaken by the HS2 proposal and is highly unlikely to progress in its previously conceived form. We will review whether this safeguarding is still necessary.”

This statement about HS2 is made without any justification.  HS2 does not serve the same destinations that would be served by the Western Rail Link.  The Western Rail Link serves the places served by the Mid Cheshire Line and the connections off it.  As the Mid Cheshire Line is well connected to other rail routes, the Western Rail Link would directly serve Knutsford, Northwich, Chester, Runcorn, Middlewich, Wrexham and all the towns on the North Wales coast.   None of these towns has a regular train service to Manchester Airport (except Chester and North Wales which have a sparse, and slow, 3 trains per day via Manchester or Crewe). None of these towns will be served by HS2.

However, one of the Government’s stated aims is to ensure local transport connections will be in place prior to the opening of HS2 in order to serve HS2.  The Western Rail Link will provide those connections for Mid Cheshire.

Manchester Airport Group has previously been clear about the usefulness of the Western Rail Link.  In a written submission to the Welsh Affairs Committee of the House of Commons[2] in 2008, the airport said:  “The Western Rail Link is an extension of the existing airport rail spur to connect with the Altrincham to Chester Rail Line west of Manchester Airport. The Western Rail Link will increase capacity by making the airport rail station a through running line, thereby avoiding the need to turn trains around. With a Western Rail Link it will be possible to run trains from North Wales and Chester direct to Manchester Airport without having to run through Manchester first, potentially saving fifteen to twenty minutes off the journey time. There are no plans to construct the Western Link at present. However, Manchester Airport has safeguarded the route through the airport, and the alignment of the third rail platform is suitable for a future western extension.”

This succinctly explains the Western Rail Link and one of its prime justifications.  The Western Rail Link improves links to the west of the airport, whereas HS2 runs south and north.  In our view HS2 has not overtaken the need for the Western Rail Link.  HS2 serves different destinations and a different travel market.

Development Plan – Economy and Surface Access Document

The “Economy and Surface Access document of the Development Plan analyses journeys to and from the airport.  Page 22 says that 7% of the airport's passengers come from Cheshire and 4% from Wales.  Also of interest is that 1% come from Blackpool, 2% from Cumbria, and 2% from the North East region.

Despite generating fewer passengers, Blackpool, Cumbria and the towns of the north east have regular, direct train services to the airport whilst Cheshire towns (excepting Wilmslow and Crewe) and North Wales towns do not.  The airport is aware of this imbalance.  Page 34 of the report says: “Our current rail services are heavily skewed to the north, but there are still some important towns and cities in Lancashire & Yorkshire without direct rail services. We will seek to fill these gaps using the capacity improvements delivered via the Northern Hub programme. Services to the south are poor, with only a limited hourly service to Crewe. This denies large areas in the Midlands and Wales a direct rail link to a major airport gateway, and adds to pressure on congested roads.”

MCRUA contends that it is as important to fill the big gaps in rail coverage to the west of the airport as to expand the already-comprehensive coverage of towns to the north.

Potential of the Western Rail Link

Trains from Chester and North Wales to Manchester Airport

There are few through trains from Chester or North Wales to Manchester Airport today and they have to use very indirect routes.  Arriva Trains Wales (ATW) recently proposed to start a service routed via Warrington Bank Quay and Manchester Piccadilly, but permission was not granted.  The route between Chester and the airport via the Western Rail Link would be over 20 miles shorter than that.  It is clear that the journey time saving via the Western Rail Link for passengers from Chester and North Wales stations even over the projected ATW service would be at least 20 minutes.  As that service did not start, the time saving over existing services requiring a change at Manchester Piccadilly is 30 minutes or more.  It is probable that the great majority of airport passengers from Chester and North Wales travel by road.  Building the Western Rail Link contributes to the airport's aim to reduce the percentage of travellers reaching the airport by road.

Trains from Mid Cheshire to Manchester City Centre

A second major economic benefit of the Western Rail Link is the restoration of direct, fast trains between the towns of Mid Cheshire and Manchester City Centre.  Historically, these trains ran via Altrincham and Sale.  Since 1990, when the Sale route was adopted by Manchester's Metrolink tram system, trains from Mid Cheshire have run to Manchester via Altrincham and Stockport, adding more than 15 minutes to the journey time.  However, running via the airport Western Rail Link would not only provide a train service to the airport, it would shorten the route between Mid Cheshire stations and Manchester Piccadilly.  For example, Knutsford to Manchester Piccadilly would be 16 miles, compared to 21¾ miles using the current route via Stockport.  This would cut the journey time to the city centre by 15 minutes.

There is considerable evidence of demand for improved journey times.  The Mid Cheshire Line is a busy route which has seen passenger growth of 5% per annum compound for several years.  Knutsford station, for example, sees more than 500,000 passengers per year despite having a basic hourly stopping service (source: ORR[3]).  The economic benefit of better rail services to Mid Cheshire was recently analysed by Rail North.  The Report of the North of England Electrification Task Force[4] (published March 2015) ranked electrification of the Mid Cheshire Line (Chester to Stockport) 4th highest priority out of 32 non-electrified lines in the north of England, demonstrating the high economic benefit of better connectivity for the county.

The towns on the Mid Cheshire Line - Chester, Northwich and Knutsford – have no direct public transport to Manchester Airport (apart from the minimal, slow, service from Chester).  It is clear that if a direct service were provided to Manchester Airport station, there would be demand.  We understand that a large number of people living in Knutsford and Northwich work at Manchester Airport.  Likewise, there would be a considerable increase in rail travel and mode shift from the roads if faster train services to Manchester were offered, and the Western Rail Link would do just that.

  Trains from Liverpool, Runcorn, and Shropshire to Manchester Airport

The numerous connections from the Mid Cheshire Line to other routes open up possibilities for innovative train services running through Manchester Airport station.  For example, the Liverpool – Manchester Piccadilly – Manchester Airport service could continue through the airport to serve Knutsford, Northwich, Runcorn and return to Liverpool.  Eliminating the reversal at the airport would improve service reliability as well as increasing the capacity of the airport station.  The distance between Manchester Airport station and Liverpool would be 4 miles shorter via the Western Rail Link than via Manchester Piccadilly and Earlestown.  The Manchester – Cardiff service could run via the airport and continue via Knutsford and Middlewich to Crewe without needing reversal, adding a direct airport service for Shropshire passengers.  The possibilities are legion.

Railway Operational Benefits

The Western Rail Link will also improve the reliability of railway operations in south Manchester. Building the link converts the existing Manchester Airport rail station from a terminus to a through station, so that not all trains have to turn round there, which increases the capacity of the station.  The trains that run through the station to the Mid Cheshire Line and beyond would operate as extensions of existing train services to the airport.  This means that the Western Rail Link will not generate any extra demand for train paths through the busy Slade Lane Junction near Manchester Piccadilly.  Indeed, diversion of some Mid Cheshire Line trains to this new route could free up capacity at the congested junctions at Stockport and Slade Lane.

Conclusion

The Manchester Airport Western Rail Link has never been more necessary.  It can provide missing connectivity to the airport, and faster access to Manchester city centre, for many towns in Cheshire and North Wales.  HS2 cannot.  We do not understand how it can be said that the Western Rail Link has been overtaken by the HS2 proposal.

Indeed, we say that with the focus on the Northern Powerhouse – driving economic growth in the north, underpinned by investment in transport infrastructure – the time to start work to develop and plan the Western Rail Link is now.

Mid Cheshire Rail Users Association
20 June 2015

Appendix – Route Comparisons

The projected length of the Western Rail Link is 3½ miles, leading to the following distance comparisons:-

Chester and North Wales to Manchester Airport

Chester to Manchester Airport via Warrington Bank Quay and Manchester Piccadilly (route of service proposed by Arriva Trains Wales), 49¾ miles

Chester to Manchester Airport via Western Rail Link, 29¼ miles (shorter by 20½ miles).

(Chester to Manchester Airport via Crewe is 44¼ miles, but requires a reversal at Crewe station, where only platform 6 can be used, due to the track layout.)

Cheshire stations to Manchester city centre

Route pre-1969; Knutsford to Manchester Central via Sale, 14¾ miles

Route 1969-1990; Knutsford to Manchester Oxford Road via Sale, 15 miles  (Piccadilly 16 miles)

Current route; Knutsford to Manchester Piccadilly via Stockport, 21¾ miles

Knutsford to Manchester Piccadilly via Western Rail Link, 16 miles (shorter by 5¾ miles).

Liverpool to Manchester Airport

Current route via Earlestown and Manchester Piccadilly, 42 miles

Liverpool to Manchester Airport via Runcorn and Western Rail Link, 38 miles (4 miles shorter)

The Western Rail Link would also provide the shortest route between Chester / North Wales and Manchester Piccadilly at 39 miles (the route via Warrington being the shortest today at 40 miles).