BEESTON STATION

BEESTON STATION

THE POTENTIAL FOR REOPENING

When Beeston Castle and Tarporley station was closed on April 18 1966 a severe blow was dealt to public transport services in the district, direct connection to the West Coast main line was lost, together with the rail service to Chester and North Wales. The alternative bus services to Chester and Crewe proved to be inconvenient and we were forced to use cars or taxis or not travel at all.

In the early 1990s representations were made to British Rail to reopen the station but this was unsuccessful, but in 2001 Bunbury Parish Council asked the Cheshire Community Council’s Rural Transport Partnership to help them in safeguarding the bus service to Nantwich from Bunbury. Out of this dialogue there developed the need to survey the wider transport needs of the area, resulting in the Beeson Area Transport Needs Assessment which took place in the latter part of 2001. The Assessment due to its design only highlighted the potential users from the station, at approx. 2000 passengers per month. It took no account of passengers coming inwards to the station or the potential number using the station from outside the area covered by the survey. Estimates, still to be confirmed by the County Council, suggest that up to 50000 journeys could be made to and from the station annually.

The Survey’s steering group have pressed the County Council to include the reopening of the station in its next 5 year plan, a prerequisite prior to submission to the Government Office for the North West for them in turn to get approval from the Department for Transport before passing the request on to NetworkRail.

The Borough and City Councillors have pointed out to the County that the resignalling of the line from Beeston to Crewe will take place in the near future which will entail closing the line at weekends and that the opportunity should be taken to stress to NetworkRail that works on the building of the platform faces could take place at the same time thus eliminating any closures in the future if the project be sanctioned.

We would expect the bus services to be reorganised with the station as an interchange/hub for buses to Tarporley and a minibus service to the Castle and the surrounding villages with another transport node being at Broxton to connect to the A41 service.

The reintroduction of a rail service will mean that we would have a direct rail link to Chester, a rail link to Manchester Airport (Crewe station is being suggested as a check-in point for the airport) and to the main rail network at Crewe, thus reducing the road traffic to those centres.

What happens if the above improvements are not made, then more vehicles will use the roads and we will start to get gridlock, even the current bus services will find it practically impossible to keep to any form of timetable and public confidence will wane. It is essential that the station is reopened and the sooner the better.

Derek Marshall

Tiverton and Tilstone Fearnall Parish Council and the Transport Needs Assessment Steering Group.

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