Support The Oldham Rochdale Manchester lines (STORM) AGM

Littleborough railway station

Support The Oldham Rochdale Manchester lines (STORM) Annual General Meeting took place on 11 May at the Newhey Lodge.

Northern Rail's stakeholder Manager West, Matthew Worman, spoke about the many improvements brought about during the franchise despite it being originally granted on a no-growth basis.

When it reached its end date a new agreement was substituted between Northern Rail and the Department for Transport which will run until April 2016 when the next franchisee will take over.

Great stress was placed on ticket machines for purchases before boarding the train. A more sophisticated version is now being introduced.

Northern Rail aim to hand over the business in good shape to whoever the new franchisee is. Most obvious improvement noticeable to passengers is the electrification of a number of popular routes such as the Airport to Manchester and Liverpool.

Simon Brooks, Northern's Manager for staffed stations in Greater Manchester North West including Littleborough, Rochdale, Salford Central and Salford Crescent was introduced.

From Transport for Greater Manchester, the new Rail Officer, Amanda White who is ex Network Rail and ex HS2, outlined where ‘Rail North’ is going, a single entity for the whole of the north to decide upon timetables, levels of service and fares. As it involves some twenty nine different local authorities, obtaining an acceptable and workable agreement is taking some time.

Members raised a number of specific concerns, particularly fare dodgers and the failure to count the numbers of Senior Bus Pass holders travelling free within Greater Manchester which makes the official figures for passengers at Greater Manchester stations considerably below the true number.

Officers elected for STORM were Richard S Greenwood, Chairman; Tony Young, Deputy
Chairman; Peter Dawson, Secretary and pro tem Membership Secretary, Steve
Perryman Treasurer; Webmaster, Frank Salt.