Quote:
Originally Posted by 1andrew1
And the bias, usually against northern English towns continues. A modest proposal to restore a short stretch of track and build a new station in deprived Skelmersdale (population 40,000) in Lancashire has been rejected.
As the local MP noted "During the 2019 election, the Tories repeatedly used Skelmersdale Rail as an example of how they will be ‘levelling up’ rail transport. Not just locally, but even on their national campaign website! To now completely turn their backs on Skelmersdale residents, is a cruel joke, a betrayal."
https://www.lancs.live/news/lancashi...ected-24434213
https://www.rosiecooper.net/2022/07/...ne-says-rosie/ |
That’s slightly more complicated than the local council and the local Labour MP are (unsurprisingly) making it out to be.
Skelmersdale isn’t on the line between Kirkby and Wigan. The branch line that served it closed to passengers in the 1950s, before the new town grew, and the track bed is now partially built on. For a branch terminating at Skelmersdale to be viable, Merseytravel, which operates most of the line towards Liverpool, has made it clear that its pre-existing plan to extend its current terminus from Kirkby to Headbolt Lane (closer to Skem) has to be in place first. They’re working on it but it’s a little way off yet - partly because any future extensions of the Merseyrail network are dependent on the outcome of battery-electric trials conducted on its new rolling stock fleet.
El Gov is actually right to propose improved bus links to existing stations at this point. Given time, Merseyrail is likely to demonstrate that its new trains can run on battery power from the end of the third-rail electrified track at Kirkby, all the way to Wigan Wallgate. That will justify the case they want to make to complete the Headbolt Lane project (which I understand has track alignment for extension to Skem built in), and eventually create new termini at both Wigan and Skem. Merseytravel is a forward thinking and ambitious transport authority. If they want to do this - and it seems they do - then they will. I wouldn’t bet against them getting money out of central government to assist, when they are actually in a position to build it. Which as of right now, they aren’t.