Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-12-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what improvements will take place under the new Northern Rail franchise on the Blackpool South and Preston to Colne service, other than the replacement of the Pacer trains.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Preston-Blackpool South will get a Sunday service all year round. At present the line shuts down for a period in the winter, but from Dec 2017 at least an alternate-hours service will operate all year round. Colne-Preston will get a full hourly Sunday service – twice as many trains on Sunday compared to now, and with the entire Northern fleet being refurbished, passengers will notice rolling stock improvements across the franchise.
Accrington and Blackburn stations will become Northern Connect stations so will be staffed from 6am to 10pm (if they don’t already have staffing hours longer than this), with WiFi and catering outlets. All Northern stations with more than 10 passengers per day will have ticket machines, real-time information and help points.
Beyond that there is a franchise wide, £38m investment in bringing stations up to standard, with benefits for many stations, which includes new platform seating, replacement shelters, new waiting rooms and toilets, and customer information screens.
