Recent content by Burton Road

I like the idea, but the historical pedant in me in still annoyed by Scotrail's renaming every station in Gaelic even in areas that were never Gaelic speaking. There's more sense in calling Manchester Piccadilly "Macenion Picadili" than calling Ecclefechan "Eaglais Fheichein".

The report the article quotes makes reference to these routes, but they can't go forward until whatever is or isn't happening with HS2/NPR etc. is decided and designed, as any significant surface project east of Piccadilly will be disruptive to them. I would imagine that should a realistic plan...

I believe there was a proposal some years ago as part of the refresh of the South East Manchester Multi-Modal Study strategy to reopen Chapel-en-le-Frith Central, although I can't recall if that was for Hope Valley services or for another service extended from somewhere closer to Manchester. The...

Might be slightly off topic, but having used the express bus from Keswick to Penrith I don't understand why this kind of fast, dedicated bus link has never been considered a core part of the rail network for places like this? I appreciate that bus and rail privatisation ruled out the possibility...

For national parks where there's little prospect of the level of housing development needed to make a new rail line's business case stack up this seems the only logical option for integrating towns into the rail network. Indeed where track bed still remains a partial bus conversion along the...

I was referring specifically to cross boundary issues in "taking over" those services. There's nothing about crossing the border into Derbyshire that require having their own TOC, stock or depot. Given that franchising as we've understood it is likely to disappear by the end of this decade it...

Of the eight routes identified in post 1 of this thread: Wigan – Victoria Stalybridge –Southport Glossop – Hadfield – Piccadilly Rose Hill – Piccadilly Buxton – Piccadilly Alderley Edge – Piccadilly Rochdale stopping services Manchester Airport stopping services So four (as defined in the...

Has Andy Burnham ever said anything about taking over rail services or tram conversions outside the county? There are places where that might be a reasonable course of action, but I don't think he's ever actually proposed it.

I'm suggesting building on the south east side of Northwich where the land is no more expensive, not in Knutsford. If you want a new town to be successful it needs to be accessible to these more prosperous areas even if people moving to the new town don't need to travel there every day. That...

Acton Bridge seems the wrong side of Northwich to me as the housing demand is primarily in Cheshire East, and it would be practically impossible to connect to Manchester from the existing station. Taking employment into account the only obvious NW location would be in Cheshire, because it's...

The obvious site for a New Town outside the South East for me would be somewhere in mid-Cheshire, which is well served with existing stations as well as major road links, is in an economically successful area with high demand for housing, but has relatively poor quality countryside/landscapes...

Slightly off topic question, but is there a reason that the WC and EC Intercity franchises were never integrated with the regional or fNSE services that they share tracks with in the same way that GWR has a single operator into Paddington? I don't necessarily mean all the local services around...

The plan is for a single next generation platform, presumably some tram-train and some just tram. The first lot of these would be intended for the Bury-Rochdale tram-train pathfinder, but I would imagine additional orders would follow. Given the problems the M5000s have had on the old BR...

Rail operations are not my area of expertise, but from an regional economic point of view many of the corridors that the Northern Economic Strategy are trying to use to drive regional growth are east west (Liverpool-Manchester-Leeds-Hull, L-M-Sheffield, Lancashire-M-Sh, Lancs-Leeds-Hull), and...

Perhaps Colne-Burnley could work if it's diverted to help connect the Pendle towns with better rail services at Manchester Road via Burnley town centre?