Christmas UNfayre!

Castleton Railway Station

Local Rail User Group STORM recently wrote to the Minister of Transport explaining how unseasonally unfair recent changes in ticketing policy are.

The Minister recently instructed local train operators (but not trams) to stop allowing the use of cheap day return tickets between 4pm and 6.30pm.

This applies to users of all our local stations including Rochdale and Castleton.

This of course increases the cost, especially to families, of travelling to seasonal events such as the Christmas markets, pantomimes and the like.

The policy has been introduced to reduce the subsidy paid to train operators in our area.

In London and the South East the policy only applies to tickets being used to travel away from the city not into it.

Why is Greater Manchester and it’s traders treated differently?

STORM says Scrooge.

STORM Chairman Richard Greenwood said: “This mean-spirited diktat that could hit the seasonal trade in the city centre quite hard sits very oddly with the Chancellor’s recent promotion of a “powerhouse” in the north”.