Rail fares

[Victor M]

But if service is increased later and on Sundays will people use them

I think the answer to that is yes, at the moment sometimes people can't get on the last train because it is so full.

[marpleexile]

Just a guess, but as the station is unattended, there would be no-one to prevent vandals. Therefore they're lock when there are no staff on site.

And I suspect there will be a "health & safety" angle as well - what happens if someone gets stuck in the lifts when the station is unattended.

Both are fairly easy to work around, if GMPTE had the will to do so.

[Howard]

That has always struck me as odd, as well as being most unhelpful - it must have cost many £1,000's to install those lifts, so it's a pity to see that money being wasted when they are out of use.  Does anyone understand why the lifts only work when the ticket office is open?

Just a guess, but as the station is unattended, there would be no-one to prevent vandals. Therefore they're lock when there are no staff on site.

[Dave]

Unfortunately Transport for Manchester is Labour controlled; only spending really big money on services to Labour Councils.

Is there any evidence for that? 

the lift at Marple doesn't work because the ticket office is closed

That has always struck me as odd, as well as being most unhelpful - it must have cost many £1,000's to install those lifts, so it's a pity to see that money being wasted when they are out of use.  Does anyone understand why the lifts only work when the ticket office is open?

[amazon]

Totally agree, the service after 8.45pm is woeful (once an hour), on a Sunday once the winter schedule kicks in it is once every 2 hours  and if you are disabled it is impossible to get a train to Manchester on a Sunday. (There is no service from Rose Hill and the lift at Marple doesn't work because the ticket office is closed).
Unfortunately Transport for Manchester is Labour controlled; only spending really big money on services to Labour Councils.

But if service is increased later and on Sundays will people use them ..

[Victor M]

The rail network is decades behind the rest of the country in having massively reduced Sunday services.

Totally agree, the service after 8.45pm is woeful (once an hour), on a Sunday once the winter schedule kicks in it is once every 2 hours  and if you are disabled it is impossible to get a train to Manchester on a Sunday. (There is no service from Rose Hill and the lift at Marple doesn't work because the ticket office is closed).
Unfortunately Transport for Manchester is Labour controlled; only spending really big money on services to Labour Councils.

[chicken lady]

Does travel to manchester at 11.30 pm and return at 5 am count as evening service?

[wheels]

Certainly agree on the need for a better evening service I tend to go into Manchester around 11.30pm returning about 5am and there is nothing at that time

[alison]

Bit off topic but marple rambler, I live in stockport and often drive home late at night along the A6. Apart from people's tendencies to step straight out into the road without looking I've never had any problems. I also travel back through gorton sometimes and pick up the motorway to Stockport. I was a bit surprised to see your description of how dangerous that route is!

[Melancholyflower]

The rail network is decades behind the rest of the country in having massively reduced Sunday services. It is now an established busy shopping day for many people.  I feel sure that if services were increased then passenger levels would increase accordingly.

[Dave]

I would bet that if the evening service was half hourly to Marple/ Rose Hill that there would be quite a few Marpudlians who would leave the car at home and catch the train.

Agreed.  It's good that we now have the Friends of Marple Station - one of the best things they could do is campaign for a more frequent service in the evenings and on Sundays.

[marplerambler]

You talk of using the train for concerts in Manchester. I would love to be able to be able to leave the car at home and to go to Manchester from Marple or Rose Hill to concerts at the Bridgewater Hall but the concerts tend to finish at just after 9.30 and the train is at 9.49pm and has been at round about the same time during the fourteen years I have lived in Marple. In theory it is just about enough time to walk across Manchester or take the yellow cattle truck but sometime things run a bit late or there is an encore. Just miss the 9.49pm and you are waiting for an hour for the next train. I have heard too many reports of cars being vandalised or drivers attacked on the A6 in Longsight/Levenshulme and have twice been on a 192 where gangs of youths completely trashed the upper deck of the bus at about 10pm (this was in 1995/1996 when there were no cameras on the buses and when the problems with vandalism led to Stagecoach replacing almost its entire double decker fleet in Stockport with single deckers - one of the advantages of moving to Marple in 1995 was the 383/384 was one of the tiny number of routes which kept its double deckers). We never drive to Manchester but leave the car at Stockport station. I would bet that if the evening service was half hourly to Marple/ Rose Hill that there would be quite a few Marpudlians who would leave the car at home and catch the train.

[Dave]

I don't use Rose Hill so I can't comment on passenger numbers there, but as a frequent user of Marple station, and of its car parks, my impression is that parking (which has been very difficult for some years) may have become a bit easier in the past year or two.  So maybe some people who used to drive a mile or so from the west end of Marple are now walking to Rose Hill instead?   But that's a very subjective impression and I'm not too sure. 

As for this: 

I think it will help the local economy of Marple if travel to manchester is dearer.

...... I can't make any sense of it!  People travel to Manchester for work, for entertainment (theatre, clubbing, concerts), and to shop for clothes and other special purchases, of which Manchester offers a range that certainly can't be met in Marple.  So no-one is going to say 'I can't afford to go in to Manchester for work, or a concert, or whatever, so I'll get a job, or go to a concert, in Marple instead!'

[Belly]

Dave, sorry I didn't make myself clear. What you say is my recollection as well. I was wondering whether the passenger totals across the two stations had markedly increased or whether some people had simply switched from Marple to Rose Hill. This is because others e.g. Belly were talking about increased Rose Hill useage, which I'm sure is true. The key is whther this is new ppeople moving from say car to rail, or just the existing passengers changing station

I take your point Corium. I personally use Rose Hill a lot more now the service is equally split - albeit that i am only an occasional train user these days. Previously (apart from when I lived literally round the corner from RH and commuted to Manchester everyday) I would use Marple station, as the 3 trains to 1 split meant it was a better bet, if I didn't have a specific journey in mind. Now I just go to the station where the next train is due to leave from (or where I'm likely to get parked if I'm travelling after 8.30).

The three trains to marple was always a bit wierd though wasn't it - as it didn't deliver a 20 minute frequency. The third 'fast' train being out of synch with the others. I don't think its loss during the main daytime period and subsequent transfer to Rose Hill has had too much of an effect on numbers at Marple station.

[corium]

AFAIK the total number of trains between Marple/Rose Hill and Piccadilly has remained more or less unchanged  - the extra trains from Rose Hill were simply switched from Marple, which used to have three trains per hour and now has only two. 

Dave, sorry I didn't make myself clear. What you say is my recollection as well. I was wondering whether the passenger totals across the two stations had markedly increased or whether some people had simply switched from Marple to Rose Hill. This is because others e.g. Belly were talking about increased Rose Hill useage, which I'm sure is true. The key is whther this is new ppeople moving from say car to rail, or just the existing passengers changing station