Perhaps Network Rail are hoping to raise a bit of cash by selling that sliver of land to residents of Balmoral Avenue, to extend their gardens.

So that's the same planning problem as with the land at Flixton Station - seems a no-win situation.

Some years ago this land was cleard and fenced on the railway side and put up for sale I spoke to the then station master ticket sales man at that time and he said that planing was refused due to poor car drive access being on the bridge and limited visual line of sight.

Sign now erected :  Plot of land for sale (next to Chassen Road Station.)

There has been some land clearance work/fencing off at Chassen Road on the Manchester to Liverpool side - what are they doing there.  This patch of land has been derelict and overgrown for the last 43 years.

The longer platforms won't be much help until such time as Oxford Road station is rebuilt. The platforms at Urmston are 110 and 170 metres long now (according to Network Rail), so they're already longer than Platforms 1 and 5 at Oxford Road (both 105 metres). But perhaps there's some cunning plan to stop the Airport trains at Urmston?

Platform lengthening was part of the commitment for station improvements contained in the Greath North Rail Project. I guess the bigger picture was increased numbers using the station, electricification of the CLC route, longer and more frequent trains. At least if the opportunity arises, Urmston can now accommodate longer trains (or have room for more people to stand!)

Does anyone know why both platforms have been extended at Urmston Railway Sation?  I presume they must be for longer trains (obviously!) but the existing platforms easily cope wth 4 carriage trains. Or are we having Pullman carriages now to go into Manchester? :-)

To keep the record straight: our local train services are running every half hour again. It's more or less normal service but the last train back from Manchester is the 2243 from Oxford Road (and it doesn't call at Flixton or any local stations apart from Urmston).

Just for the record: the train service has been reduced to hourly in both directions. The last train into Manchester is now 2210. The last train back leaves Oxford Road at 2047. This could change again next week or tomorrow or at the drop of a hat really, so check beforehand if you absolutely have to travel. Trains to London are also hourly now.

Northern have started using some of their shiny new trains on our stopping services - not just the expresses that run non-stop between Oxford Road and Birchwood. They're not used on every train, yet, but I'm told that is the plan. The older Sprinter trains are being refurbished and packed off to other lines. The new trains have three carriages, each longer than the old Sprinter carriages., so they probably have the same capacity as four Sprinter carriages.

I think you may be right. I'll take a look next time I'm walking around there. There would have to be a way down from the embankment to the path plus the arch has been closed off for years with no demand for re-opening.

To me, that "crossing" looks more like a means of putting road/rail vehicles onto the tracks. Network Rail's engineers use a variety of machines that are equipped with both rubber-tyred wheels for road use and steel-tyred wheels for rail use.

I see what you mean. On the video, and Google Maps, it looks to be gated off. I assume it is used by Network Rail only

There was (still is) a cattle arch under the railway between Bottoms Path and the path on the other side leading back to the station car park. In this YouTube video at 35:45 there appears to be a foot crossing but I wasn't sure if it was for public use. https://youtu.be/YN0FHzP4huU

Graz, not sure what you mean by the cattle arch. The only crossing I recall was a barrow crossing in the 1980s before the new ticket office opened

Following Aardvark's post in July, the toilets at Oxford Road have been open for a few weeks now.

Is there a pedestrian crossing across the railway where the cattle arch is?

Not strictly Urmston news, but may be of interest to Urmston folk travelling to/from Manchester: the lavatories at Oxford Road station, both Ladies and Gents, are closed for refurbishment. They are not expected to re-open for six weeks, which I reckon takes us to the very end of August.

A tiny, tiny piece of good news for Urmston commuters: some of the new trains come into service on Monday next, 1st July. You'll see them speeding through the station at high speed on their way to or from Manchester Airport.

How is this good news for us, I hear you ask. Well, they start a cascade of rolling stock, displacing some trains with longer carriages and more seats, which will replace some trains with shorter carriages and fewer seats, which will displace a few of the Pacers (the ones on four wheels rather than eight). The Pacers have to be out of service completely by the end of the year.

I don't think they were vandalised to try to get money out, more just wilful damage of the screen similar to how people smash bus shelters for no good reason. 

Somebody must really hate Northern Rail then, because those ticket machines don't hold any money. (They only accept bank cards, for anyone wondering.)

I was told last week by the guy in the ticket office at Chassen Road that the ticket machine on the platform is being removed as it has been vandalised twice.  Pity Northern never got around to installing the CCTV cameras they put the poles in for about 18 months ago as if they had they might have spotted and been able to prevent any antisocial behaviour on the platforms.

Just a reminder that the new timetable starts tomorrow, Sunday 20th May. More trains of an evening, but if you're used to getting the train back from Deansgate, remember that only half the westbound trains will call there in future.

Graz - it was around 1993 that Flixton lost its Sunday services. I think it co-incided with the transfer of Liverpool - York trains to run through Warrington and Piccadilly rather than Newton-le-Willows and Victoria.

At the same time our local trains on weekdays changed from mostly one an hour, terminating at Warrington, to two an hour. One of these was the much-missed through train from the newly opened Manchester Airport station, which called at Urmston but not Flixton, and continued to Liverpool. The other was the shuttle from Oxford Road, originally all stations to Flixton and later extended to Irlam.

If you mean the proposed expansion of Piccadilly to have a 15th & 16th platform towards the old Mayfield depot that's been mothballed as far as I'm aware  Same for the expansion of the viaduct between Piccadilly and Oxford Road, and the closure of Oxford Road platform 5.

There have been rumours about Deansgate station closing as part of the Piccadilly platforms 13/14 development - there seems little point creating extra capacity when Deansgate remains a bottleneck. That said, it would remove a really useful station for those of us who see the southern part of the city centre and Castlefield as home. The gap between Trafford Park and Deansgate is currently a wasteland but the high density developments taking place along Chester Road would benefit from a metrolink / rail interchange at Cornbrook. One was proposed for White City as part of the congestion charge plans. Anyway, trains at Flixton on a Sunday - how long has it been since that last happened?

The new rail timetables have finally been published and Northern's website has a pdf file of the new pocket timetable for Urmston and Flixton (1.12MB). It takes effect on Sunday 20th May.

On the plus side, we get extra trains in the evening. These leave Oxford Road at 1915, 2015 and 2243. There are still some gaps - nothing at 2115 or 2215. And Flixton finally regains a Sunday service.

On the down side, Flixton actually loses some evening trains which will now race straight through. But there should at least be a better chance of getting a seat on the trains that do call at Flixton, because overall there's more capacity leaving Manchester.

Bizarrely, many trains will cease to call at Deansgate. This is mostly in the westbound direction, and I presume it's done to ease the congestion through the Oxford Road corridor. Deansgate to Flixton becomes almost impossible, unless you get on the eastbound train and travel into Oxford Road first. Most but not all of the eastbound trains continue to call at Deansgate. The timetable does require some careful reading.

Getting to and from Manchester Airport will be slightly easier than now. One of the two-an-hour expresses that follow our stopping trains into Oxford Road will now run to the Airport rather than Scarborough, so that will save a bit of time waiting for a connection. And similarly in the opposite direction too.