CrossCountry have decided, at government request, to no longer stop their trains at Congleton from next week (6th July).

This change has had no prior public consultation (required for normal changes) under the guise of COVID alterations despite having served Congleton consistently through the lockdown with no (or very few) travellers!

This change has been accommodated by the Government using Emergency Measures Agreements (EMAs), effectively management contracts which remove the Train Operator's revenue risk in return for effectively government control.

All operators UK-wide accepted these measures to remove their revenue risk in March for a period of six months (due of course to COVID).

However, there is no guarantee that Congleton will get these calls back, as the Government is keen to make CrossCountry a "longer-distance" operator, rather than one used for local journeys, despite having this use-case in many other areas not adversely affected.

Congleton currently has very limited CrossCountry calls (Northern provide the principal service) but the trains that do call are all incredibly busy as they serve key peak markets (and take 30 minutes between Manchester and Congleton rather than the 45 or so by local trains).

These are currently:

- 06:58 to Manchester (Monday to Saturday), a longer faster (than Northern) service to Manchester, very popular and usually crowded with commuters;

- 18:27 from Manchester (Monday to Saturday), also longer and faster, and conveys in excess of 100 people per day to Congleton (pre-COVID), predominantly commuters on weekdays and shoppers on Saturdays;

- 17:27 from Manchester (Saturdays only), similar loadings to Congleton mostly shoppers returning from Manchester.

Given these loadings, this decision will significantly impact Congleton's rail service, leaving only the local stopping service, where we were previously campaigning for more, not fewer, fast longer-distance, services.

I would be very interested to hear from Fiona Bruce, given that she represents the government that has imposed this change, despite claiming to support Congleton's rail service aspirations.

I think this is a really bad move for Congleton and its commuters, assuming that this is likely to persist beyond the current EMA COVID timetable.

A spokesperson for CrossCountry said: "In the latest revision of our timetables we took the decision to remove our two daily train calls at Congleton from 6 July.

"As travel restrictions begin to be eased, we are operating longer trains to allow more space for people to travel and still maintain the recommended distance from others.

"Unfortunately, these trains are unable to call at Congleton as they are too long for the station platforms. Customers are still able to use the hourly service provided by other train operators."

Nub News has contacted Mrs Bruce for a response. Check back for updates.