Railways in General
Railways in General
Like many of us, if I'm off on an leisure outing I'll try to visit some more obscure reaches of the public transport network. Today I ventured to the rather forgotten train station of Barlaston in Staffordshire. I use the word 'forgotten' carefully as the station isn't disused, derelict or even closed - indeed I bought a ticket to travel there today (£2.10 for a 7 mile journey - bargain!). What's unusual about Barlaston is that no trains have called at the station for 12 years. Services were temporarily suspended in 2004 to allow for modernisation work to the WCML and they were simply never started again.
The particular journey I made was from Stoke-on-Trent*, I used a self-service machine to purchase my ticket. The machine, however, failed to mention that no such train journey existed. I checked the departure boards for a mention of Barlaston, nothing there. Perhaps the more thorough printed timetables would point me in the right direction - nope. I'm beginning to think someone doesn't want the traveling public to use Barlaston station.
Good job I'd done my research in advance. I would, in fact, be making my journey on D&G Bus's service 14 which runs hourly between Hanley (Stoke-on-Trent) to Stafford. The replacement bus service itself has gone though some evolution itself. Between 2004 and 2011 it was numbered as the rather grand 'X1' with then-new Omnicities with clear branding which shouted out to the world this was London Midland's way of keeping the service to Barlaston alive and running until WCML modernisation work was complete. Between 2011 and 2014 the service was passed to First who re-hashed the route as an awkward bi-hourly extension of an otherwise frequent city route. This was the end of dedicated replacement service and doubled the journey time from the marooned station to the nearest city from 20 to 40 minutes. It would seem this was the start of a 'closure by stealth' campaign by the train operating company. Could it be that London Midland are fulfilling their contractual obligation to serve Barlaston by only providing an obscure bus service – thus driving down passenger numbers and making it easier to justify an eventual full closure? I would suggest the total lack of any suggestion the service even exists when standing in a station on the replacement’s route is alarming.
I had expected a bit more interest from the bus driver as I presented my rail ticket, he barely read it as he waved me on. It could have been a seat reservation coupon for all he knew. The current route 14 is the result of a bit of joined-up thinking by D&G of North Staffordshire. The northern part of the route is derived from a council supported service which links a business park with the city centre which justifies the use of the city-owned Versas which feature black e-leather seating and laminate flooring. The middle part of the route connects Barlaston to the nearest active rail stations. The final part of the route links various villages with the County Town of Stafford. While I think the final part of the route is operated commercially, it would seem it’s existence is only justified by the efficiencies of the supported bits.
It’s an incredibly complex process to close a train station – it’s for this reason there are still two trains per week to Teesside Airport. I find it bizarre that a replacement bus can run for 12 years and seemingly nobody in charge of planning such things seems to be concerned. The regulation of station operation is in essence a good thing – it stops commercial operators cutting services to increase profits, as per the bus industry. There are, however, clear loopholes such as the Baraslton situation which need investigating.
*Bit of useless trivia about Stoke-on-Trent station. The station, as you would expect, is within the boundary of Stoke-on-Trent, but it is a 20 minute walk from the city centre – which goes by the name of ‘Hanley’ rather than ‘Stoke City Centre’. In the opposite direction from the station is the town of Stoke (which resembles Peterlee but without all the glamour), which is in Stoke-on-Trent city, but is not the city centre. Confused? Everyone else is.
