As a former employee of a large company situated adjacent to Clifton Junction Station, I empathise entirely with Mr Fitter.

Residing within 10 minutes or so walking distance of a railway station approx the same distance south of Manchester as Clifton is to the north, using the train would have made absolute common sense during my period of working there.

However, the one train a day in each direction, that currently posits to serve Clifton, is of assistance to precisely no-one at all!

The current service is, clearly, I would submit, the absolute minimum ‘parliamentary’ service that the TOCs are obliged to provide. Indeed, I can confirm that on the occasions when I drove over the station bridge just as the daily ‘up’ train was due, only a solitary passenger was seen to board – and this from a platform that for the majority of last winter was totally unlit! How dangerous was that?

No-one bothered even to attend to that matter, so WHY should we expect anyone to show any interest now? Furthermore, I am led to understand that the reactions to requests for an improved service, made both to Network Rail and local parliamentary representatives, can be best described as ‘lukewarm’.
As an aside, even HAD there been convenient trains from ‘door-to-door’ for cross-city passengers, it would still prove to have been cheaper to drive up and down the M60 each day in my 2-litre car! If rail facilities ARE to be improved as a consequence of the proposed congestion charging, then rail fares must also fall into line.

[...] Response to Manchester Congestion Charge Consultation [...]