The more significant items discussed included the repainting of the stations (TfW black replacing Arriva blue) and the reduction of the parking spaces at Wrenbury. There is only room for two or three cars at Wrenbury, but because the slope from the Crewe bound platform is too steep for wheelchairs the ramp is being extended into the car parking space. The parish council have suggested that the slope could be made easier and shorter by using the platform end slope, but in spite of TfW having a considerable budget for car parking improvements they have so far refused to consider this.
Also available at the meeting was the new timetable for December. This has major changes for the Sunday service. For many years CASPA has complained about the irregular and infrequent Sunday service, especially some gaps of up to four hours between trains. This has now been plugged by extending the Monday to Saturday Crewe-Shrewsbury shuttle to run on Sundays as well. The service, understandably, starts later in the day with a 10.22 start from Shrewsbury. However, we do pay for this with the loss of nearly all the stops on the Manchester – Swansea service. There are just two long distance trains that stop between Crewe and Shrewsbury, a 10.14 leaving Crewe calling at only Nantwich, Whitchurch and Wem and a 21.11 departure from Crewe calling all stations.
This Sunday service should only be an interim timetable, as TfW has an aspiration to run a Saturday service on Sunday. No doubt this will be waiting for the new trains before it is implemented.
Also discussed was the associations objectives in the light of the policies of the new franchise. There were only a few minor changes made, and the new objectives will be posted on the web site soon (caspa,org.uk).
It was noted that David Fletcher has taken over the maintenance of the web site, with plans to improve its accessability and design. This is most welcome, and we look forward to the improvements.
The next meeting is 2 October.
