Category Archives: Rail

Trains, trams and the like related to the region around Preston.

Rail Strikes ahead

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Pete of MIP

Rail strikes threatened.  The RMT union are very busy at the moment with threatened strikes about whether signalmen work 3 days or 4 days and about re-structuring of maintenance staff resulting in 1500 redundancies out of 18,000 staff.  In Scotland they’ve … Continue reading →

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High Speed Rail from Manchester, not Preston, announced

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Pete of MIP

The government announced its proposed 250mph High Speed Rail link plan today with a Y shaped network. The line to Birmingham from Euston is to be first followed by a line to Manchester and a separate one from Birmingham to Sheffield … Continue reading →

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Green Party and Lancashire

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Pete of MIP

An election is coming so what will some of the parties be offering to the region.  Starting with the Green Party. They deserve a couple of seats in Parliament, I think.  You expect the Green Party to support green policies. Yes, … Continue reading →

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High Speed Rail to miss Preston?

Posted on December 31, 2009 by Pete of MIP

The High Speed 2 Company submitted its plans to Lord Adonis who will declare the preferred routes in March 2010.  To date the proposal has shown a line up the west coast via Preston to Glasgow but yesterdays newspapers seemed cooler on this idea.  … Continue reading →

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Manchester – Preston – Blackpool Electrification

Posted on December 14, 2009 by Pete of MIP

Lord Adonis, today, put more substance behind the pre-budget statement that seemed to cover electrification of only Manchester – Preston. It now includes Blackpool, which makes more sense.  His statement reads: ”The first line is between Huyton – on the … Continue reading →

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Preston to Manchester Rail Electrification in pre-budget statement.

Posted on December 10, 2009 by Pete of MIP

Yesterday, 9th Dec, the Chancellor stood up in Parliament and said in his pre-budget announcement; ‘I can tell the House today that I have also given the go-ahead to further plans for rail electrification between Liverpool, Manchester and Preston. The … Continue reading →

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Lostock Hall Engine Sheds Regeneration

Posted on December 6, 2009 by Pete of MIP

Householders in Lostock Hall have been sent a questionnaire asking what use they would like to be made of the designated open space on the old railway engine shed and sidings. It is quite a large area on both sides of … Continue reading →

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Preston Railway Station investment

Posted on November 17, 2009 by Pete of MIP

Preston station was named as the 6th worst station in the UK with platform access via the steps as one of the worst features. The government announced that the worst stations would get a total of £50m spent on them … Continue reading →

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High Speed Train through Preston announced

Posted on August 27, 2009 by Pete of MIP

Hot on the tail of the Rail Electrification Plan comes an announcement yesterday that the first High Speed Rail link costing £34bn will be on the West Coast Main Line.  No need to get too excited it won’t reach Glasgow till 2030ish so … Continue reading →

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Rail Electrification Plan

Posted on August 23, 2009 by Pete of MIP

The government has released its Electrication Plan with 2 routes given the go-ahead: Manchester to Liverpool and London to Swansea. This effects the north-west as it is planned to re-route Manchester to Scotland trains onto the new route although I’d … Continue reading →

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Beeching in reverse: railway improvements Preston / Blackpool / Fleetwood

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Pete of MIP

In the last month there have been a couple of reports, one from Network Rail(NR) and the other from the Association of Train Operating Companies(ATOC).  Both of these propose improvements to the rail system following increased usage in the last … Continue reading →

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Blackpools £100m investment

Posted on June 11, 2009 by Pete of MIP

The government announced the go-ahead for new track and trains along the prom between Starr Gate at South Shore and Fleetwood. A new tram depot is included all to be up and running in 2012. Maybe this is part of the recession beating infrastructure … Continue reading →

Posted in Not particularly Preston, Rail, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Richard Branson wants to update Preston railway station

Posted on May 23, 2009 by Pete of MIP

Richard Branson spoke at Euston Station and said in return for a longer franchise he would invest to improve the West Coast Line top speed and bring Preston, Crewe and Carlisle stations into the 21st century. Taken at face value … Continue reading →

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UK a centre of excellence for European rail manufacturing

Posted on February 15, 2009 by Pete of MIP

An interest in made in …. and trains got me to prick up my ears when Geoff Hoon announced this week he is going to make the UK a centre of excellence for European rail manufacturing.  This sounds encouraging but on closer … Continue reading →

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High Speed Rail

Posted on February 12, 2009 by Pete of MIP

A bit of doubt has been sown about the proposed route for the new High Speed Rail line and how far it will go.  Only the line to Rugby is being planned this year and then a plan will be … Continue reading →

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