More than five percent of trains cancelled in Castleton

More than five percent of trains frequenting Castleton railway station were cancelled in November 2018, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

According to Network Rail, a train is declared cancelled if it failed to stop at one or more of its planned station stops. A train is classed as a full cancellation if it ran less than 50% of its planned journey mileage (including trains that did not run at all).

In November 2018 1,395 trains (94.58%) stopped at Castleton station on weekdays and there were 80 cancellations (5.42%).

By comparison, 3.13% of trains were cancelled in Littleborough for the same time period.

However, the percentage of cancellations drops when the Calder Valley line hits Yorkshire stations: on average, 4.3% of trains were cancelled in Littleborough and Castleton, compared to just 3.1% in West Yorkshire.

Chairman of local rail campaign group, STORM (Support the Oldham Rochdale Manchester rail lines), Richard Greenwood, said: “West Yorkshire stations have more trains per hour than comparable Greater Manchester stations as well as fewer cancellations.

“West Yorkshire Metro always seems to have much more influence and success than Transport for Greater Manchester does because Northern and Rail North have their headquarters in Leeds.”

A spokesman for Network Rail said: “Leaves, when squashed onto the rails by train wheels, form a Teflon-like coating similar to black ice, reducing braking and acceleration performance. To reduce delays and cancellations as much as possible, we worked with Northern to utilise our leaf-busting trains across the North. The specialist trains blast water and sand onto the rail heads to remove leaves and provide more grip.

“Northern flagged locations in Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire that needed attention which is why we carried out longer and more frequent rail head treatments to minimise the disruption as much as possible.”

A spokesman for Northern said: "We would like to apologise to any customer who suffered delays, cancellations or a reduction in carriages towards the end of 2018.

“Issues related to the time of year – including excess leaves on the line and damp weather – caused problems for the rail industry and caused several carriages to be taken out of service.

“Large numbers of leaves on the track, as well as other seasonal problems, can cause damage to train wheels. When wheels are damaged (wheel flats) the carriage has to be taken out of service and the wheel repaired before the problem becomes more serious.

"In October and November we had more trains out of service than normal and had to alter some of our services deal with the reduced number of carriages.

"To keep such disruption to a minimum we worked hard to keep the tracks in the best possible condition. Our trains are fitted with sanders which treat the tracks as they move and Network Rail has leaf busting maintenance trains which blast water and sand onto the tracks to remove leaves and provide more grip for trains."

A TfGM spokesperson said: “Greater Manchester has been badly affected by a number of issues following the May 18 timetable change, including service delays and cancellations, shorter trains running on some services and cancellations by Northern on Sundays. 

“TfGM continues to work very closely with Rail North, Transport for the North, train operators and Network Rail to get the best possible rail service for Greater Manchester.”