Rail passengers from Castleton, Mills Hill and Moston forced to abandon the trains

Rail passengers from Castleton, Mills Hill and Moston forced to abandon the trains

Rail passengers from Castleton, Mills Hill and Moston into Manchester are being forced to abandon the trains for their journeys to work.

Richard S Greenwood from STORM said: “Numbers travelling from these stations are down because commuters from stations further out such as Rochdale, Smithy Bridge, Littleborough and West Yorkshire stations are increasingly turning to rail travel because of the recent weather problems and motorway and general road congestion.

"Morning peak trains at Mills Hill are arriving already full so many would-be passengers are being left behind.

“Sometimes a train has only two carriages instead of three or four.

“Sometimes a train is cancelled, a favourite for cancellation is the 07.15 departure from Mills Hill, meaning that the passenger load has to try to squeeze onto the next train.

“The lengthy station stops whilst passengers try to board mean the trains start running late as well.

“Trains often arrive at Manchester Victoria after the time when they should have departed back to Leeds.

“Under instructions from the West Yorkshire transport authorities these trains are then instructed to miss out most Greater Manchester station stops to get back on schedule.

“This can and does leave unhappy would-be travellers from Moston for example who suffer an abysmal hourly service anyway, with a two hour gap.”