IMPROVEMENTS to the regional railways have been welcomed by Warrington South MP David Mowat.
It was announced in the Autumn Statement that work would soon start on the Northern Hub, which aims to increase speed and frequency of North West rail services.
It will see a new section of track built to connect Manchester Victoria with Oxford Road and Piccadilly, relieving a major bottleneck in the region. This is in addition to the electrification of the line between Liverpool and Manchester, and track improvements on Trans Pennine routes to Leeds and Sheffield.
Network Rail says this will mean quicker and more frequent services throughout the North West, knocking 10 minutes off the journey time from Liverpool to Manchester and another 10 minutes off services heading through Warrington Central to Leeds and Sheffield.
Mr Mowat said: “These major infrastructure plans should be welcomed by commuters in Warrington, particularly those who use Trans Pennine routes on a regular basis. There are few things more irritating than when your already-delayed express train gets stuck behind a slow-moving service, holding you up even further. Hopefully that will soon be a thing of the past.
“The Coalition Government is committed to major transport infrastructure projects that bring prosperity to the North West and economic growth. As well as safeguarding skilled construction jobs, the project also has the potential to open up new business opportunities within the region.”
Boost for regional railways
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
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Maybe some one should tell Mr Mowat that the Trans Pennine Express will no longer travel through Warrington when the northern Hub opens as they will be routed to Liverpool throught Newton le Willows, The line to be electrified. In Fact all Warrington will have will be one expresss per hour (currently only has two carriages) and an extra stopper going to Manchester Airport.So this supposedly good news for the North West is in fact extremely bad news for Warrington.
Neither will EMT going to Sheffield (and beyond) as well. We’ll get shuttles to and from Liverpool to replace them. We’ll go from 4 trains an hour to Manchester / Liverpool to 3 and the airport will be the furthest you can go without changing. They’ll be probably 4 car in peak and 2 out as Northern are taking some 2nd hand trains from London to add to already overcrowded trains which are enarign 30 yrs old with no intention to replace.
David Mowat obviously is not aware of this news either
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-16235349
The following is the spend per person. It’s grim up north.
London – £2,731
South-east of England – £792
East Midlands – £311
West Midlands – £269
Yorkshire and Humberside – £201
North-west of England – £134
Eastern England – £43
South-west of England – £19
North-east of England – £5
It isn’t necessarily bad news for Warrington as anyone travelling beyond Manchester to Leeds and Sheffield will still benefit from quicker journeys as a result of the electrified transpennine routes.
More people would use Warrington-Leeds Service than a Newton-Leeds so even if it is a marginally faster route, it is likely to be less economical.