It's not really. It would, done right, improve connectivity by rail around West Lancashire substantially, as well as saving a unit and crew on the Preston service (as you can do hourly Preston-Burscough and back with one rather than the present two) and extending Merseyrail to Burscough which is on the edge of the Liverpool commuter area (which is to me a better fit than sending it all the way to Preston). And all for about 3 miles of track, a bit of signalling and one rebuilt station.
What is all this about 3 miles of track and a rebuilt station? The Burscough Curves are 66 chains of single track, that is less than 1 mile and all present stations can stay as they are. With the exceptions of Ormskirk and Burscough Junction where the 2nd platforms should be reopened, which is as much redoubling as just about amounts to 3 miles of new track. You wouldn’t have any DMUs on an even more truncated Preston - Burscough service because the 777s from Ormskirk and Southport would run through, requiring a few more of those but freeing up a few Sprinters. Quite a bit of signalling needs doing between Southport and Burscough Junction because there is no resiliency at present, or capacity for more services.
We are all desperate to focus on a reliable half-hourly service north of Kirkby to Wigan Wallgate, and a half-hourly service north of Ormskirk to Preston. Both would be a fantastic and genuinely revolutionary change in the region.
That Southport felt they needed a service to Preston and to Liverpool via Ormskirk (isn’t a quarter-hourly service via Hall Road good enough?
Is Wigan Wallgate not
East of Kirkby? Of course by reopening the Burscough Curves, 4tph from Liverpool Central to Ormskirk can run through, half to Southport and half to Preston, as well as 2tph from Southport to Preston (some of which should continue to either Blackpool or Windermere) which is truly a new service. Surely this is transformative to rural communities as it gives 4tph from Rufford and Croston (and Midge Hall if reopened) to Preston and 6tph from Southport to Burscough Bridge, with more trains running through New Lane and Bescar Lane and to more destinations, giving more public transport options to the people who would otherwise be the most isolated, but the services remain viable because they directly serve 350000 people in major population centres.
And no 4tph via Hall Road is not good enough when there is a trespasser on the line at Seaforth several days in a row and no service is running at all. Surely a diversionary route via Ormskirk is a good idea and dare I suggest that any of the 90000 people who live in Southport might ever want to go to Aughton, Maghull, Aintree or Walton?
This is a group of residents of quite small importance who somehow got to ruin a timetable and service for an entire region just to be able to go to Oxford Road without changing trains on the very same platform at Salford...
Why exactly are the residents of Southport, the 13th largest town in the North West (and also Formby, Hightown and Crosby who may change at Southport if they wish to go to Manchester) receiving 100% of the blame for “ruining” a timetable when this was caused by too many trains running through Castlefield from other places (e.g. Chester, Sheffield and other places which are accessible from the main shed at Piccadilly) and in any case it would be a vastly better experience to change at Bolton than Salford Crescent.
If the objection is to running Sprinters through Castlefield, then the problem is that the line to Southport has not been upgraded to allow 195s to run, not that people from Southport want to make a perfectly reasonable direct journey to Oxford Road, Piccadilly or Manchester Airport, which was possible for 20 or 30 years.
I doubt Southport residents particularly care about trains to Ormskirk. Given the relative importance of the two towns it is almost certainly the other way round.
Half hourly Ormskirk-Preston would certainly provide most of the benefits, but would cost a lot more as it'd require about 15 miles of redoubling. The advantage of the Curves is that it would provide some quite big connectivity gains while it would save some operational money e.g. reducing the number of units required to operate Ormskirk-Preston from 2 to 1. (The interworking with Colne thing was a disaster, and so while they do still interwork a unit and crew was added into the circuit, meaning the same number as if the lines operated separately).
I particularly care about direct services to Ormskirk, as I’m sure all other residents of Southport with a need to travel to Ormskirk hospital and vice versa do. I went there yesterday on the bus for the first time in a while and after 20 minutes had passed since I left Eastbank Street I noticed that I still wasn’t anywhere near half way there but was stuck behind a tractor.
I don’t know who can seriously suggest buses as a reliable way to get from Southport to either Ormskirk, Preston or Aintree when the road infrastructure simply doesn’t permit a reasonable journey time and all but 66 chains of the required rail infrastructure is sitting there almost unused.
Interworking with Colne services did disastrously compromise the timekeeping of Ormskirk - Preston services, which is why they should interwork with Ormskirk - Liverpool services instead. I note that there is still 1 train a day at peak time which still runs from Colne to Ormskirk.
In the specific case of Preston to Southport why does it not seem legitimate to suggest that better public transport is a reasonable demand? It's only 20 miles but can't be done in under 55 minutes. There's only one direct bus per hour. That's pretty rubbish.
I believe there are 2 direct buses an hour, but you are right in that it can’ never be done by road in under 55 minutes, while quite often it can only be done in well over 55 minutes, with the buses frequently 25 minutes late from Liverpool which straight away makes it 80 minutes.
The demand is all sitting in the traffic congestion in the area.
Except for the demand which is suppressed in journeys which are not attempted in order to avoid sitting in said traffic congestion. Southport is actually closer to Preston than Blackpool or Ormskirk and yet it takes over twice as long to get there.
How has it taken them a month to find this out?
Because it’s not news. It’s not even true that they’ve been rejected. The line to Okehampton has just reopened without funding from the Restoring Your Railway fund and note that there is no requirement to change at Crediton and wait for the next train from Barnstaple to Exeter!
Southport to Ormskirk and Southport to Preston are very achievable by bus, and focus should be on a 20-minutely (or so) service on both.
Putting on an extra bus an hour only reduces the journey time if you include the wait by 10 minutes and if you don’t include the wait then not at all. What a waste of time thinking about.
It very much falls into the same category as Skipton - Colne. Of very little use to anybody but a very vocal supporting group who just won't quit. Just because the track bed of the curves remains intact doesn't mean there is a case to relay them.
The Burscough Curves very much fall into the same category as Colne - Skipton in that there was no case for lifting the track in the first place because they form a vital through route between significantly sized towns and the rural communities in between. In fact they could be reopened in conjunction with each other and you could run a through service from Southport to Skipton. I believe a Stagecoach bus did this once. Then the focus can shift to extending it to Ripon via Otley.
