Chester-le-Street commuters derailed by tunnel closure
Sep 4 2008 by Neil Mckay, The Journal
HUNDREDS of commuters are facing three months of travel chaos because of engineering works taking place more than 100 miles away.
For three months from Monday, around half of all services from Newcastle to Chester-le-Street will be replaced by buses.
The disruption is taking place because of engineering works taking place between Sheffield and Chesterfield.
The 13-week closure of the Bradwell tunnel means CrossCountry can only operate one service per hour between York and Newcastle.
The operator will therefore put on longer trains, with the upshot that Chester-le-Street will lose several trains that usually stop in afternoon peak rush hours, because the platform is not long enough to accommodate the longer trains.
Kevan Jones, MP for North Durham, condemned changes made to the timetable, and said commuters would face inconvenience.
He said: “Commuters already facing overcrowded trains are now facing bus journeys that will more than triple their journey time.
“The trains are still stopping at Chester-le-Street on a weekend, so there seems to be no reason why they can’t continue to do so during the week.
“It is claimed the temporary train services will be too long for the platform at our station, but why can’t the train companies do what is done on many other trains services and have designated carriages for customers wanting to travel to Chester-le-Street?”
Mr Jones has written to the Managing Director of Cross Country Trains expressing his concerns.
He said: “I was dismayed to find that due to engineering works in Yorkshire that three of your trains starting from 16.15pm until 18.05pm – peak times for commuters returning from Newcastle to Chester-le-Street – will not be calling at Chester-le-Street for a period of three months with the service being replaced by buses.
“With all the publicity that has occurred earlier this year regarding this most overcrowded route in Britain, I feel it is unacceptable to now make many of my hardworking constituents, after a full day’s work, endure a bus ride of up to an hour.”
But a spokeswoman for Cross- Country Trains said they were convinced the buses would provide an adequate replacement. “We will be monitoring the situation and if there is a demand we will put on extra buses.”
Rail travel to and from Chester-le-Street came under the spotlight last year after pressure group Transport 2000 described the morning service from Durham to Newcastle, calling at the town, as the “sardine train”, because passengers were crammed so tightly together.
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