Resitiing Warrington B.Q. Station?

[Chrius56000]

Another thought has occurred to me!

. . .When I used the train to travel from Lancaster to Trafford Park Skill centre in 1988 one route I used was Lancaster–Warrington B.Q., cycle across to Warrington Central and then get the train to Trafford Park from there!

. . .Getting from Warrington B.Q. to Warrington Central with a bike is a ride of well over a mile involving three roundabouts, (one a very large signalled gyratory roundabout!) and ¾ mile of very busy urban dual carriageway – there was no signposted cycle route in those days!

Has anybody not thought of either relocating Warrington Central to be much nearer Warrington B.Q. so they could be linked either by a very long footbridge, or rebuilding Warrington B.Q. into one much larger station with high–level platforms on the Central route similarly to what has been done at Bletchley to provide EWR connectivity?

Chris Williams

 

[JonathanH]

. .Getting from Warrington B.Q. to Warrington Central with a bike is a ride of well over a mile involving three roundabouts, (one a very large signalled gyratory roundabout!) and ¾ mile of very busy urban dual carriageway – there was no signposted cycle route in those days!

It is only 0.8 miles on Google Maps, rather than 'well over a mile'. The cycling time is shown as 4 minutes.

 

[30907]

Thankfully there now appears (if Googlemaps is to be trusted!) to be a shorter and less hazardous route, because rebuilding the stations (or even one of them) would be enormously expensive even if feasible.
Central appears to have both a car park and a bus station adjacent, which would be difficult to connect toothed new location.

Bletchley by contrast only involves new platforms on an established line of route.

 

[SynthD]

There’s not enough wrong with where Central is, and too much wrong with the nearest it could be to BQ.

I don’t understand the rebuild BQ idea. Like Swansea, a terminus but with a through road to make a triangle?

 

[yorkie]

Central is fine; it's Bank Quay that's in the wrong place. But moving Bank Quay further north wouldn't actually solve any issues.

It would also be so expensive, the cost:benefit analysis would be terrible.

 

[takno]

I walked it a few years ago, and found it fine. May well have changed over time, but certainly more recently it involved something like crossing a road, going up some suburban streets, and then heading through the pedestrianised town centre. If anything it was less pleasant getting from Liverpool Lime Street to Central

 

[D7666]

Can I confirm the original point here is re-site Bank Quay station because 36 years ago an unsignposted cycle route went along a dual carriageway ? Because that is what appears to me to have been said.

 

[Halifaxlad]

Is Warrimgton central listed ?

Even if it isnt I suspect you would have quite a lot of opposition moving it as its unlikely to be moved brick by brick!

Another issuse is that somepeople want to reroute Transpennine services below Bank Q and build two new platforms!

 

[Falcon1200]

Can I confirm the original point here is re-site Bank Quay station because 36 years ago an unsignposted cycle route went along a dual carriageway ? Because that is what appears to me to have been said.

That is what I understand the OP's point to be too!

Has there been any assessment of how many passengers do in fact interchange between Warrington Bank Quay and Central? Although, even if a staggeringly huge number, it would not come close to justifying the massive expense of resiting one, or both, stations.

 

[D7666]

That is what I understand the OP's point to be too!

Has there been any assessment of how many passengers do in fact interchange between Warrington Bank Quay and Central? Although, even if a staggeringly huge number, it would not come close to justifying the massive expense of resiting one, or both, stations.

I'm not the only one then !

The same result applies at
Dorking / Deepdene,
Maidstone W / E / Barracks,
Canterbury E / W,
Burscough / Burscough Bridge,
etc ,
where two unconnected seperate routes cross over each other - attempting to combine two into one station is only acheivable at a location much further away from the respective centre on both routes. Neither could an additional interchange station and retain existing be justified.

If it comes to somewhere where they are really close together, and they are so close anyway it needs little more than a walkway e.g. Hackney Downs / Hackney Central then a walkway does it. But even then, there are other close stations Wigan Wallgate / North Western and West Hampstead TL / NL (and Jubilee if you must) where their location on roads still needs massive investment to segregate interchanging passenger flows from existing roads and pavements. And interchanging passengers does not generate the amount of additional revenue needed for pay back.

If any of this had ever had a business case it would have been done long long ago probably under a "real BR" rationalisation.

The railway system is not a dot-to-dot puzzle to join things up just to make it look neat.

 

[Falcon1200]

To which I would add Williamwood/Clarkston! The Neilston and East Kilbride lines cross each other nearby, and I have, occasionally, made the transfer between the two routes.