MACCLESFIELD’S cross country train service is to be slashed to just one an hour from next year.

Arriva CrossCountry, who took over from Virgin Trains on Monday (November 12), plan to cut Macclesfield stops on trains to and from Birmingham and the south coast by 50 per cent.

Passengers and user groups have called the changes “a joke” and “retrograde”.

Chairman of the East Cheshire Lines Rail Users’ Group, Chris Dale, said: “We are going back many years with this retrograde step.”

Regular rail user, Ivor Kelly, from Sutton, said: “These changes are a joke and will almost certainly result in further overcrowding. They are also not conducive to using the train rather than the car for flexibility.”

The new franchise holder is to keep the same timetable until next December, before cutting the services south to one an hour, while London trains will also be one an hour, still operated by Virgin.

Northern Rail will continue to put on two services an hour which call at all stations between Macclesfield and Manchester, but these can take up to twice as long as those calling at Stockport and Manchester.

While Arriva insist the Department for Transport made the recommendations, the rail users’ group believe the company is losing out on a lot of money.

Chris said: “Macclesfield is a major stop on their route and the trains are regularly packed, even in off-peak times. The  government’s policy is to get people out of their cars and onto public transport, but this decision seems to fly in the face of that logic.”

An Arriva spokeswoman said: “While we appreciate local people’s concern about their services, the number of calls in our draft timetable is what CrossCountry is required to make by the Department for Transport.

“If we introduced any further stops at Macclesfield we would need to prove they were both commercially viable and operationally possible within the overall re-structuring of the West Coast timetable that occurs in December 2008.

“We will, however, continue to welcome feedback on this and other issues relating to the 2009 timetable. We will then review this information alongside our obligations in the new franchise.”

The consultation document can be downloaded at www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk and closes on November 23.