Northern Rail has modified plans to temporarily stop serving stations on a Manchester line following a campaign by MPs and rail users, Transport for the North has said.
Northern planned to stop serving stations on the Manchester Piccadilly to Rose Hill line - which runs via Hyde Central - under a Covid-constrained timetable.
The train operator, in consultation with Rail North Partnership, has now agreed to run a limited morning and afternoon service for students and commuters.
In a House of Commons debate last week (September 10), William Wragg MP for Hazel Grove said: "Hyde Central is the main train station for Hyde, with more than 100,000 journeys a year.
"To go from that to no service at all up to Christmas is just too significant a change.
"While we all recognise that Covid has had a huge impact on a whole range of areas in British public life, to go to no service at all is simply too much."
He added: "To remove all services on the Rose Hill line will cause serious problems for many of my constituents, including schoolchildren, in particular those who attend Marple Hall School, and commuters generally.
"It flies in the face of the Government’s laudable desire to ensure that people can go about their lives using Covid-secure public transport."
Transport minister Chris Heaton-Harris announced the news last week that the largest regional rail operator in the country would serve the stations, after initial plans to withdraw.
In response to Mr Heaton-Harris’s announcement, Transport for the North’s strategic rail director, David Hoggarth it was “a step forward”.
“[B]ut we expect the full normal timetable to be restored as soon as possible and will continue to push for service restoration to commence at the earliest feasible date whilst still delivering a reliable service.”
He said: “We understand that the background to the original decision by Northern is complex, and reflects the extreme stresses now being placed on the operator while trying to maintain a reliable railway service under severe constraints during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“However, we made our concerns clear about the proposed withdrawal of this service even if the decision was taken as part of an emergency timetable and as part of the coronavirus response.”
He added: “We will be monitoring Northern’s progress very closely.”
Transport for the North said Northern planned to have some 80 per cent of its normal services operating from today.
However, it said operators are still facing issues across the north with the challenge of driver training during the coronavirus pandemic.
