Congleton Constituency Conservatives Association (CCCA) have welcomed the decision by East Midlands Railway (EMR) to reinstate hourly train services in Alsager.

Following the announcement that services for Alsager would be reduced, residents, Alsager Town Council and Congleton Constituency's MP campaigned for the service to be reintroduced – applying pressure on East Midlands Trains.

The reduction of the EMR service saw Alsager's train provision halved.

The CCCA felt this was an "unacceptable" situation given the "inconvenience" this had caused to local residents and the "need for ever better options" for people to travel using "more environmentally friendly options".

Vice-chair of the Alsager Odd-Rode Conservative branch and member of the CCCA, Sue Helliwell, who has been campaigning for improved transport for Alsager over a number of years, welcomed the reinstatement of services.

The Alsager Town Councillor said: "I am very pleased that the decision has been made to reintroduce services for Alsager.

"I want to thank all those involved in supporting this, including local residents, community groups, Alsager Town Council and our Member of Parliament, Fiona Bruce MP, who raised this matter in Parliament last year – bringing it to the attention of Transport Secretary.

"Without this combined effort on so many fronts – we may not have had this good news.

"We continue our fight for Alsager Station to have ticket machines installed."

Raising the matter in Parliament last September, Fiona Bruce MP said: "May we have a debate on the need to maintain local train services during this pandemic?

"Recent service reductions in my constituency are completely unacceptable.

"At Alsager, East Midlands Trains has cancelled almost its entire hourly service during the day, halving the service from Alsager and resulting in a 900-signature local petition within the past few days."