Why U-turn on train service is vital for Chesterfield

Designed with the aid of computer algorithms, it aimed to ensure public transport services were never late .

But it did have one drawnback. As one driver explained to an exasperated would-be traveller, he didn’t have time to actually stop and let passengers get on board his number 32 – as that would ruin the running of the schedule .

As peo ple living under many a dictatorship have found, having a guy in charge who get s the railways to run on time often comes with problems elsewhere.

But at least they had trains .

There was outrage last week when CrossCountry announced it was going to stop its trains calling at Chesterfield station.

Trains which, before lockdown, called at Chesterfield every hour north and southbound on journeys between Scotland and the South West.

The company said it had taken the ‘difficult decision’ to drop Chesterfield because of the extra time needed to get passengers on and off trains while maintaining social distancing.

In other words, in order to keep the trains on time, they couldn’t stop to pick up passengers here.

And to be fair, there are a lot of passenger to get on and off their trains.

In normal times, before lockdown came in, over 600,000 passengers would use Cross Country trains in Chesterfield every year.

But the firm’s decision, worthy of a Kafka novel, has serious consequences.

Chesterfield’s economic success in recent years has been built on its central location and the strength of its transport links to the rest of the county.

To be fair , Cross Country quickly responded to the outrage their plans generated and have performed something of a U-turn – which is no mean feat on a train -and agreed services will still call at Chesterfield at the busiest times of day.

These are exceptional times and firms do have to make tough decisions. But bosses have to make sure, whatever they decide, that their customers are on board. Especially if they’re running a train service.