Students launch rail petition protest

11:44am Friday 5th December 2008

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Pupils helped politicians launch the Save the School Trains petition at Kendal station, reports Matthew Taylor.

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron, and Windermere county councillor Joan Stocker met children from Queen Katherine School (QKS) to hear how they would be affected by forthcoming TransPennine Express (TPE) timetable changes along the Lakes Line.

Service alterations mean that when the new timetable takes effect on December 14, QKS pupils will have to leave lessons five minutes early in order not to miss their train home.

The alterations also mean children travelling from Windermere, Staveley and Burneside will have to arrive at their station 20 minutes earlier in the morning.

Furthermore, those children who miss their train home from Kendal will have to wait 50 minutes for the next service.

“At any time of the year, but especially when it is dark, you don’t want kids having to hang around for nearly an hour on the station,” said Mr Farron, It is hoped the campaign will force TPE to retain the present timetabling of morning and afternoon trains, which Mr Farron said suited both schoolchildren and workers. He added that the campaign had already attracted more than 100 signatures.

TPE spokesman Matthew Hay said the timetable changes were bound by commitments to fit in with schedules along the West Coast Main Line.

“On the Lakes line there is a connecting train at Oxenholme that goes to London and we have to make sure we connect into that,” he said.

The Community Rail Partnership (CRP) and the Lakes Line Rail User Group (LLRUG) are committed to providing information about local travel needs to train operating companies, so that any decision about timetabling will take local information into account.

In a joint statement, CRP project officer Emma Aylett and assistant secretary of LLRUG Dick Smith, said the two organisations were seeking feedback about journeys that would be easier under the new timetable, or about journeys that were less convenient.

“Timetables are developed several months before they are published, so it is important that we can collate and pass on this information soon,” they said.

n Feedback on the service can be sent via email: info@lakesline.co.uk or by post to Lakes Line CRP, Windermere Business Centre, Oldfield Court, Windermere, LA23 2HJ.