blogging about the area of Preston, Lancashire and there-abouts
Trains, trams and the like related to the region around Preston.
Santa will be riding on the Ribble Steam Railway Santa Specials in Preston on Saturdays and Sundays and one Monday in December 2015.
Saturday 5th, Sunday 6th December 2015
Saturday 12th, Sunday 13th December 2015
Saturday 19th, Sunday 20th, Monday 21st December 2015
Book on line, usually gets sold out so be quick.
On top of the Northern Hub which will deliver electrified rail for the rail links from Preston to Manchester via Bolton and via Wigan and to Blackpool we have fresh discussion on a ‘northern powerhouse’.
The Northern Powerhouse is the name given to a scheme that is intended to help revitalise the north of England and to rebalance the level of investment between the north and south. It will link 5 major cities of the north with ‘high speed’ rail, meaning over 125mph not the full standard over 200mph track but still possibly designated ‘HS3’. This will be on top of the high speed rail system HS2.
Unfortunately neither HS2 or ‘HS3’ reach Preston. Although Preston will get benefits from HS2 such as 30 minutes off the current London timing of just over 2hrs.
Also locally there is the Preston and Lancashire City Deal which will add some £400m to the local economy for rail, road and housing. This will provide local improvements to complement the bigger national improvements. The test is whether Preston can or should become a part of the Northern Powerhouse and what it offers for Preston and Preston offers it.
Towns like Blackburn and Blackpool will also want to know how they can benefit rather than being satellite towns. Preston has the benefit of being on the M6 and the West Coast Main Line although further south the town of Wigan is closer to the edge of the planned systems investment. Preston has a skills benefit being an existing major administration and education centre and having a long term advanced technology industry in aerospace and vehicles.
It does appear that all major regional investments lead to Manchester. This has some benefits to Preston but we need to get extensions to these routes to take in the hub of Lancashire, which is Preston.
The high speed rail route beyond Birmingham has been announced today. The northwest terminus will be four new platforms at Piccadilly in Manchester and there will be a parkway station at Manchester Airport. A link to the West Coast Main Line will be from Manchester to Wigan.
Preston will benefit as fast trains will travel on the high speed track and then move onto conventional track either from Crewe or Manchester. It is unlikely that these trains will be truly high speed capable of 220mph, they are more likely to be similar to the 140mph Javelins that travel to the South Coast on the high speed track. Although 2032 is a long time in technology terms.
There is a debate about how the line will reach Scotland or if it does at all. If it came via the West Coast it would be likely to be on a new track which some have said will create a new station to the east of Preston. This is not part of High Speed 2 and would be an additional route, perhaps High Speed 3. It might also depend on a referendum result in Scotland. The SNP government strongly support a high speed route, but there could be a question about who would pay for a line beyond a large English city.
The date for completion of High Speed 2 is 2032, and by then other changes will take place. A decision on extending the line would be hoped to be well before then although the annual spend is limited so continuation could possibly only be after 2032.
That brings on yet another debate, why does it take so long to build. Some say it should be built at the same time as the southern section. That certainly seems a great idea but will cost more per year to build and annual cost is a big factor. The current build programme has been delayed because the London Crossrail programme is taking all the major rail infrastructure budget. It seems obvious the high speed rail programme needs pulling forward 10 years. Get a move on, we need it now!
Lancashire County Council today published a transport paper that will be subject of public consultation in front of a government inspector in early 2013. The cost of the plan is estimated at £275million. It isn’t clear if a replacement Preston Bus Station is included.
In summary the plan includes improved road, rail and bus links with parkway stations, improved junctions and bus routes. The objective being to ensure that business investment in Lancashire isn’t constrained by transport issues. It certainly seems good progressive thinking.
Yet if transport is so significant, is Preston Council’s half size bus station and removal of 1000 parking spaces a good idea. Most significantly it isn’t clear that the funding for any of this is available at this time. You might think Preston Council would not vote to knock down the bus station without there being funding on the table for a new one.
A very ambitious plan would include a link from the A582 to the M55 via a river crossing west of the dock.
The plans include:
– a new road linking the M55 near Bartle with the A583/584 near Clifton to support new housing in North West Preston and the Enterprise Zone employment site at Warton.
– capacity upgrades to the A582 between Cuerden and the A59 at Penwortham.
– Penwortham Bypass direct link between the A582 Broad Oak roundabout and A59 west of Penwortham.
– improvements to roads to make it easier for people to catch the bus, walk or cycle. Focussing on nine ‘public transport priority corridors’ that follow all the main routes into Preston city centre, from Moss Side, Hutton, Warton, North West Preston, Broughton, Longridge, and Chorley, and Euxton/Buckshaw Village between Leyland and Chorley.
– introduction of more bus only lanes.
– improvements to rail stations at Preston, Leyland and Chorley, a new ‘parkway’ station to serve North West Preston would be pursued at Cottam.
– space to be given over to pedestrians and the opportunity to green public spaces, in areas such as Seven Stars, Hough Lane and Towngate, Tardy Gate, Bamber Bridge, Penwortham, Lane Ends, Broughton, Ribbleton Lane and New Hall Lane.
Central Lancashire Core Strategy – plans for development adopted jointly by Chorley, Preston and South Ribble district councils following a public examination earlier this year in front of a government-appointed Planning Inspector. Without this scale of highways and transport improvements.
The cost of the proposals is estimated to be in the region of £275 million, with various sources of public and private funding identified to support it. Key amongst these are developer contributions collected through planning obligations and the community infrastructure levy.
Thanks to the Lancashire Evening Post for bringing this report to our attention.
When I left school I went for an interview at BTR (British Tyre and Rubber) in Leyland but luckily they didn’t want me. That factory closed with the downturn in manufacturing and end of Leyland Motors as a stand-alone company. BTR then became part of Invensys, makers of control systems. It was announced yesterday that Siemens of Germany will buy out Invensys Rail for £1.74bn. Invensys will then become a software, systems and control equipment company for oil, gas plants and domestic appliances, and be able to pay off its large pension debt. Invensys shares have risen, shareholders will take a payment from the deal as well.
Regretfully another British industrial activity is heading for overseas control. Invensys have interests in Chinese railways and are working on Crossrail in the UK. It seems that as British rail investment has increased we have become mainly importers of trains and now the signalling technology is going to be controlled overseas. Our prolonged debates about transport and infrastructure in general is no help to creating the stable strategy that investment in manufacturing requires. Yet this seems to be financially a good deal for the company.
The familiar Virgin rail might be about to be exited from Preston station. This week a decision on which company runs the West Coast Main Line from the 10th December 2012 will be made. Rumour has it that First Group have bid much higher than Virgin. Although the decision is said to factor in service levels, the increased income for the government is weighing heavily on the decision.
It is said by the rail unions that to achieve the cost saving First will cut back on service and staff, reconfiguring the trains to be more efficient, which doesn’t sound too attractive from a passenger point of view.
The government says that 40,000 extra seats a day over the whole network, with new and longer trains and improved stations and ticketing will be in the deal. As an incentive for investment the contract will last for 15 years.
The West Coast Main Line has been relatively free of the business problems that occurred on the East Coast, despite a massive track upgrade that disrupted service for years. The long term contract to encourage investment might have the opposite effect if paying the government more squeezes too hard. You might hope that an incumbent has better insight into the possibilities. It will be a bit disappointing to lose the familiar Virgin look but sentiment isn’t a factor.
Preston comes together as events are announced for the 2012 Guild. Here are four unmissables:
The new multi-million pound ‘Discover Preston’ display in the Harris Museum, opened on 28th July, is something I’ve been burning to see. On Friday 17th August 12noon to 3pm it will be closed for it’s official opening. There’s a joke there somewhere. Read about it on the Harris Museum website:
http://www.harrismuseum.org.uk/current-exhibitions/7-new-history-gallery
The Vintage Guild Weekend website and video have been produced with style and the food, craft, art, music, dancing, pop-up theatres will show Preston off in the attractive and decorative Miller and Avenham Parks and the Winckley Street area on September 1st and 2nd: http://vintageguildweekend.com/
Watch the Vintage Guild Weekend YouTube video with Paul Hemingway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXH_8iNrgKM&feature=player_embedded#!
The Deltic prototype at the Ribble Steam Railway in Preston is something I never thought I’d see and represents one of the most iconic things ever made in Preston. Deltic locomotives were the pride of the East Coast Main Line hauling the top link expresses from Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley for over 20 years. Find out more on their website:
http://www.ribblesteam.org.uk/
The Made in Preston theme has been adopted by the Guild and 9 projects covering an imaginative range of themes including memories of English Electric and Leyland Motors will be presented.
http://www.prestonguild2012.com/made-in-preston
It can never be allowed to pass that Made in Preston has been the name of this website for over 10 years and will support the Guild whole heartedly but has no official links with it and gets no thanks. None wanted though and no worries. Come together, right now:
http://www.madeinpreston.co.uk/
Network Rail have announced the dates for electrified rail services near Preston as follows:
Electrifying the line to Newton le Willows enables services from Manchester and Liverpool to Scotland through Preston to use electric traction.
The work is already showing effect to Blackpool with plans raise bridges and close roads along the route being announced.
The Chancellor confirmed in Wednesday’s budget what had been stated before. That the line from Manchester to Blackpool via Preston will be electrified. Just to remind us that some money is flowing into the North West, although it doesn’t compare with the £50+ billions spent on the Olympics, Crossrail, Thameslink, a possible new sewer and a possible airport expansion for London.
Ben Wallace MP for Wyre and Preston North spoke in parliament on including Preston in the High Speed Rail route, HS2. To which Justine Greening replied as below.
As reported in ‘they work for you’:
Ben Wallace (Wyre and Preston North, Conservative)
I think that I am on the slow line, Mr Speaker. I warmly welcome my right hon. Friend’s announcement today about High Speed 2. As a good northern girl, she will know that the north of England does not start and stop at Leeds and Manchester. On the route map published today, it seems that High Speed 2 on the north-west line extends further north than Manchester, perhaps to what looks like Preston. Will she give serious consideration to ensuring that Preston is included in phase 2, so that Lancashire and one of the hubs of British manufacturing get direct access to the south?
Justine Greening (Economic Secretary, HM Treasury; Putney, Conservative)
I am delighted to tell my hon. Friend that places such as Preston will gain from phase 1, in terms of connectivity between the west coast main line and HS2. I am as passionate as he is about ensuring that his area has excellent railway links, and we are looking at developing the HLOS2 proposal for shorter and medium-term funding in our railways. I have no doubt that he will continue to represent his constituents’ needs to us as powerfully as he just did, and I will continue to pay very close attention to them.
For quite some time there has been the idea of building a tram track and trams in Preston using part of the old Longridge rail line, including a route along Church Street. On paper this seems a good idea enabling the railway station to be linked to the new bus station and then Deepdale and the Bluebell Park and Ride area.
Recently the example of Edinburgh highlights the risks of what appears a relatively simple task. Edinburgh’s tram system is years late, has cost around 5 times more than planned and is going to be under half the original length. In the last week there has been a lot debate about whether the track will reach the city centre at a further cost of £250million. A lot of this seems to be put down to inadequate survey of the route. Most people don’t realise that all utilities under the track are moved so that the track isn’t dug up on a regular basis. In Edinburgh this turned out to be a very major job with unknown tunnels and sewers. It might be thought Preston has less likelihood of unknown under road obstacles. It is also said that Manchester and Nottingham did a bigger survey and had less problems although maybe they wouldn’t have had them anyway.
The High Speed Rail consultation period concluded at the end of July and decision making will take until the end of the year. At present the line is planned to extend as far as Manchester in the north-west but it is said that High Speed trains could continue to Glasgow along conventional lines at slower speeds. Lancashire could get some benefit from the service either via Manchester or by joining the line further south. There could also be benefit from the freed capacity on the conventional track. If fuel costs continue to increase rail travel could increase dramatically as it already has started to do and the current plan is much too slow.
The previous government planned that £2bn a year would be spent on rail. Crossrail and Thameslink in London would spend that up to about 2017 when High Speed Rail work would start. Yet it seems very unfair that all the investment is going into London while the rest of the country gets London’s old rolling stock as they get new trains. There are 55million people living outside London and the gap in wealth gets larger while more and more money is poured into London – the Olympics being another example. Surely it is time for some equality. It is said that London is more dependent on rail transport yet it has the only high speed rail line in the country and that goes outside the city to Europe. So London is sucking in people from outside to use its monopoly position. Why should people from the Midlands and the North need to travel to London to go to Europe on the train.
London is currently like a pressure cooker, hemmed in by small hills north and south and nothing of significance crossing those barriers. High Speed Rail will release some of the pressure and it would be expected to shrink the country so that areas well beyond those hills feel the benefits of the London investment effect. On top of that it could release capacity at Heathrow for lucrative international flights rather than domestic ones.
The need for a high speed line is here now, the West Coast Main Line is very busy and increasing train length is only a stop gap. Adding more track will cost as much if not more than a High Speed line. Building should commence on the full length of line to Manchester and Leeds immediately with a target opening date in 5 years. British engineering companies should be given research funding to develop train technology. Work should also start on improving the track to ensure High Speed compatibility all the way to Scotland. The recession provides a benefit by reducing costs and the project will create jobs.
Today the public consultation begins on the High Speed 2 rail link from London to the North, and campaigners who live near London are rallying support. The campaigners are mainly those who won’t get direct benefit from the line and are objecting on environmental and economic grounds and claiming the current track can be improved.
Being close to London these groups are getting a lot of publicity and even the BBC on this morning’s Today programme took sides with the opponents.
It is understandable that you wouldn’t want a new rail line building close to your house but the project has national implications such as: shrinking the size of the UK, creating additional capacity and relieving existing track, reducing domestic flights, creating an outlet from the pressure on the South East while bringing the north and midlands onto the pan-European high speed routes.
The government is getting used to people objecting to all their many changes mixing the good with elaborate spurious and exaggerated claims. Sometimes the government hasn’t got it right but in this case there is a lot of support and both major political parties support the line. The main negative is that it is taking much too long.
Philip Hammond, the Secretary of State for Transport, stated in Parliament on the 25th November 2010:
‘The Chancellor also announced on 20 October the electrification of the lines between Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Blackpool, representing an investment of up to £300 million. I expect work in the north-west to begin next year and to be completed at about the same time as work on the Thames valley commuter lines, in 2016. Some sections will be completed well ahead of this, notably Manchester to Newton-le-Willows in late-2013, allowing new electric trains to operate from Manchester to Scotland. As with Thameslink, we will require Network Rail to keep a tight rein on costs. The redeployment of electric rolling stock to these routes will, in turn, free up hundreds of diesel units, which will be available to train operators to lease as they become available in the period after 2015.’
In a further reply he stated:
‘…..Electrification will allow the electric carriages released by the delivery of the new Thameslink carriages to be deployed. There is no point completing that electrification (Man. to Blackpool), except for the section from Manchester to Newton-le-Willows, until those electric carriages are available. The timetabling is perfectly logical and the early completion of Manchester to Newton-le-Willows will allow brand-new electric trains to be operated on the Manchester to Scotland routes.’
Some good news then. In 2011 start electrifying the line from Manchester to the West Coast Main Line at Newton le Willows which will enable the diesel powered trains to Edinburgh that run through Preston to be new electric trains by late 2013. While the remainder of the electrification from Manchester via Bolton and Preston to Blackpool will be complete by 2016, as well as the Liverpool to West Coast Main Line track. The bad news being that the line through Preston gets second hand stock from London, but better that, than nothing and the lines around London are much more congested so bigger faster trains are needed.
It was a surprise to discover the good news announced in the governments spending review on 21st October 2010 seemed to have no coverage. Here is what the chancellor said:
‘In the North West, we will invest in rail electrification between Manchester, Liverpool, Preston and Blackpool and we will provide funding for a new suspension bridge over the Mersey at Runcorn.’
Must admit that when it was first announced it appeared to be a stunt by the last government to get votes and there is no saying it’s still not a vote buyer. No dates have been announced but little detail was announced on many items. Presumably the transferring of rolling stock from London is still on the cards and probably offsets some of the cost. With the doubt over routing of the High Speed Train this is presumably a shorter term improvement and will enable a lot of service improvements by allowing electrified trains to travel between Manchester and Blackpool as well as to Scotland from Manchester and Blackpool from the south.
It was announced this week that the extension of high speed rail north from London will go ahead and not be part of a spending reduction. The statement was that building would begin in 2015 to Birmingham and then be extended to Manchester and Leeds. The route to Scotland that could go via Preston was not mentioned and no doubt there will be debate about whether to build a west coast or east coast line. As expected every part of the route is subject to objections, in particular the route through the Chilterns. Also whether to build a loop to Heathrow or a spur is being discussed, the loop allowing through trains.
A high speed rail link can bring major advantages to the areas it touches and the plan of completing the route to Manchester by 2027 seems too late. Also the benefit of a Heathrow loop to allow fast travel from the north to Heathrow is vital to reduce the need for extra runways in the south.
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 been on strike about who opens train doors. In all these cases the staff and union are claiming safety issues about the changes.
It appears the signalmen are looking for a lesser action than a strike although that usually results in a more prolonged dispute, they’ve already been talking about these changes for 3 years so there’s no hurry for them. While the maintenance men seem enthusiastic about taking redundancy, leaving the safety issue as a lone factor. Another curious thing is that the strikes are being spoken of as being at Easter but the leader of the RMT, Bob Crowe, said the railway is usually shut for maintenance at Easter and buses are used. Bit of a surprise. So he’s saying passengers aren’t inconvenienced at Easter. Although the maintenance will still need to be done and if safety is their worry and they’re not maintaining the track it seems a bit of a double standard.
Ever increasing regulation and improvements to standards will result in costs that we can no longer afford. Efficiencies must also be found. From what I can gather no-one has been threatened with compulsory redundancy on the railway and surely the managers and regulator have safety at the top of their agenda. So should they be on strike. Is there more to this dispute? No doubt, but what agenda; is it politics, opportunist power with the government vulnerable at this point in time.
Meanwhile, like at British Airways, will you be planning a trip using the railway if there is another way? Many will, but I wouldn’t. Then again with the pot-holed roads the car has square wheels and loose suspension, not looking forward to its MOT. Perhaps best to not go so far this Easter.
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 and Leeds. With the first full speed trains running all the way to Birmingham around 2027.
Sounds great but still a lot of questions to be asked. The biggest one being will it ever reach Preston.
Will there be a full capability link to Scotland. Will it go up the west or east coast or both or remain a slower line. Liverpool is on a spur from Manchester so will Glasgow be on a spur from Edinburgh via Newcastle on the east coast. That could mean Preston missing out.
Protests from people living on the route will be considered with one person in the Chilterns saying they aren’t convinced of its value – yet living only 20 miles from London it has no value to them. Although I wouldn’t want the line near us particularly if it spoilt nice areas of green. The M40 cuts through the Chilterns and has created an ugly gash in Englands green and pleasant, lets do better than that. Maybe using the existing West Coast Line in that area is a better solution although it might lead to years of unacceptable disruption.
The Conservatives are listening to the people on the route and looking at a line via Heathrow. That seems to have some sense as cutting out flights is one of its purposes. Although a line further west via Heathrow might be less politically messy for the Conservatives or is it just expediency not to announce it now.
The other issue is the timeframe. It’s so far in the future that it might be overtaken by technology. The Conservatives have said they’ll pull it 2 years forward which sounds better but not good enough. It should be planned for it to run to Manchester in 2020 at the latest although it is said we can only afford £2bn a year and the London crossrail is spending that till 2017.
The technology will probably all be imported into the country that built the first trains. Surely we can do better than that, where are the British companies that can do this.
Other countries are now building trains that run on magnetic fields and by 2027 will the HST begin to look like the stagecoach and horses. The canals and original railways were built quicker.
Another influence will be for Preston to be the link for the north west, outside Manchester. Building Tithebarn will make Preston that much more of a convincing destination.
This line, if it was available now would change the idea of travel and bring more wealth to every area it touches. It would be possible to commute to London. Birmingham would be a stones throw away from most regions. Reducing flights from Manchester to London as well. The downside of that is that the prices would need to be high or the line won’t have enough capacity. To have fast trains from Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds converging with the Birmingham trains on one line will have an almost constant frequency.
The French found that they built too many stations and it slowed the line and reduced capacity so the regional philosophy sounds about right.
The line is planned to within 5 metres it is said so lots to think about, need more information.
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, wind power, insulation and waste management are high on the agenda. Along with quite high social provision and low defence provision.
Who could argue with wind, insulation and waste measures? Insulation seems to be one of the biggest factors in reducing energy bills. It isn’t very glamorous though and isn’t going to gain technological credibility so doesn’t get a lot of press.
All those windmills. Are they becoming a bit of a blight already? They’re often not turning, so not very dependable. For the region with its seas, hills and facing the prevailing wind we can expect a lot more who-ever is in power but even more with the Greens. We can also expect Heysham Power Stations to close and the fuel site at Salwick.
Waste? All that plastic packaging and milk cartons. Surely it should be discouraged. Some countries already re-cycle twice as much as the UK without too much difficulty.
Another Green policy is an increase in public transport. Not too long ago their promise of building 30,000 new buses would sound like manna from heaven for this region, Leyland, but now there is hardly any bus building except some body work at East Lancs Coachbuilders, Optare.
There wasn’t much written about reducing car use but cutting rail fares by 30% and expanding public transport implies a reduction in car use. I’m not convinced about a 30% cut in rail fares. A cut from £10 to £7 is only marginally advantageous and if I was spending that every day, a cut from £50 to £35 wouldn’t be life changing. I’m against encouraging distance commuting so in some ways an increase in fares might help that. I have free bus use now and have never used it, so cars will need to be penalised.
The 30,000 buses are an interesting concept. British jobs for British workers? Including steel from Middlesbrough for windmills and buses, although probably it’s the wrong steel and too little, too late and steel making isn’t green.
Taxes on aviation, like VAT on aviation fuel, and restrictions on new runways coupled with reductions in rail fares, might create an advantage to resorts like Blackpool. Especially if the pound sank because of the financial controls the Greens promise.
On defence the Greens are looking at a defensive posture and only venturing overseas under the UN. As UN don’t usually use more than Land Rovers and light armour you could say no overseas capability will be needed. Is that goodbye to Ascension, Falklands and perhaps Gibraltar. Aircraft Carriers and their aircraft and probably a lot of the navy wouldn’t be needed. Trident is definitely out. I wouldn’t hold much hope for the aircraft industry in Lancashire or ship industry at Barrow. As an area with a large defence and nuclear industry how many defence workers does it take to insulate one loft.
The Greens are also big on social welfare including workers and human rights and a citizens wage.
There are other policies about building solar arrays in Africa and using high voltage d.c. transmission lines to bring in the power. As well as local generation. It’s not long ago I was reading about the advantages of the a.c. distribution system so I must re-visit that. Surely a policy like that couldn’t be written without engineering awareness.
The Greens also support the EU, but not as a nation, and support international co-operation, who doesn’t.
As you’d expect, some big changes would result and I was a bit surprised that they seem quite left wing when out of the major elements of the ‘green zone’. I’d support a ‘greener’ track in many aspects and use of local producers and local workers appeals. There’s always a downside to this type of social engineering in that if basic stuff becomes more expensive you’ve less to spend on enjoyment. In conclusion they won’t get my vote but have my support as a pressure group.
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. The routes being showed seem to favour going to Leeds from Manchester and then to Newcastle with Glasgow being fed via Edinburgh. With a route via Nottingham, Sheffield to Leeds as well. One paper said the Conservatives favoured the east coast route to Scotland, missing Preston, and that Lord Adonis is trying to get all party agreement on the routes.
Politics will play as big a part as economics in the decisions. Already noises are being made about damage to the countryside and cities are vying to get a station on the route. This matches the French experience where too many stations were built as a political sop and made the service less attractive.
The timescale for the service is also much too prolonged. To say the service will start to Birmingham in 2025 means the north won’t be linked possibly for 30 years. By then the technology will be on the verge of obsolescence. High speed rail has been around for 40 years now, after 70 years most transport technologies are looking old.
Making the service available in under 10 years could bring a boom. With London 1 hour from the northern cities it could transform work and leisure.
If Preston doesn’t get this line it will damage the local economy and the north west beyond Manchester will become a remote area. This space needs watching.