Welcome to the home of the Middlewich Rail Link Campaign.
Our goal is the reintroduction of a passenger train service on the line from Sandbach to Northwich, with trains calling at a new station in Middlewich.

Click here to download the report from The Railway Consultancy, July 2009, entitled
Feasibility Study into Re-opening the Sandbach to Northwich Railway Line to Passenger Traffic, including Re-opening Middlewich Station
Click here to download the 2008 campaign leaflet.
Click here for pictures of 'The Cheshire Gardens Express' passing through Middlewich on 4th May 2008.
Click here for the MCRUA website, home of the The Mid Cheshire Rail Users Association.

Latest News:

New Report Backs Plans for Middlewich Trains

The campaign to bring passenger trains to Middlewich has been given a big boost by the report from The Railway Consultancy Ltd. The report confirms there is a business case for upgrading the line and opening a new station.

The report identifies the work required to bring the line up to scratch, such as increasing the linespeed from 20mph to 50mph, rebuilding the island platform at Northwich Station and providing a new single-platform station in Middlewich.

The service proposed in the report includes 2 morning peak trains from Crewe to Stockport, and 2 returning in the evening peak. These will call at Sandbach, Middlewich, Northwich and Knutsford, with connections to the Metrolink trams at Altrincham.

Outside of peak times there will be hourly trains operating from Crewe to Northwich and back. These will provide for 2 journeys per hour from Middlewich to Manchester, with a change at Northwich or Sandbach. The service will also offer many other destinations with a change at Crewe. The report has estimated the demand for this service and predicts 670 passenger trips per day starting or ending in Middlewich.

The Benefit:Cost ratio calculated for this service is just over 5. This is well above the 1.5 industry baseline for transport projects, and means the proposal can be taken forward. The next step is to get support for the project in the transport plans being developed by both of the new Cheshire Councils. Then it is all about securing the funding. Money is required for further developing the proposal and then carrying out the construction work, as well as launching the train service.

The report was commissioned by the Middlewich Railway Steering Group which is a partnership of several local authorities, Cheshire and Warrington Economic Alliance, rail interest groups and other public organisations, including the Middlewich Rail Link Campaign. The Steering Group has the support of local MPs and has discussed the project with the Department for Transport. It expects to review the findings of the report with both Network Rail and Northern Rail, the local train operating company.

ATOC responds to calls to add Middlewich into 'Connecting Communites'

Last year the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) published a report, Connecting Communities, which considered 35 possible additions to the railway network, linking towns in England currently without a station. Of these, 9 were considered to have a viable benefit-to-cost ratio, and ATOC called for these schemes to be taken forward.
In the North West the list included Fleetwood and Rawtenstall, but Middlewich was not even mentioned. We assumed this was because our population (13,000 and growing) was too low.

Many local people and organisations responded to ATOC. When our consultant's report was published it was forwarded to ATOC to reinforce our case.

ATOC's planning department has now acknowledged that our scheme has a strong case and will be supporting it in future. They will also push to get plans for the line included in Network Rail's forthcoming 'Northern Route Utilisation Strategy' document.

Page last updated on 27/07/2010 - webmaster@middlewichstation.org.uk