THE Government has reaffirmed its decision NOT to electrify the Manchester-Liverpool railway through Warrington – despite a plea for a rethink from four council leaders.
Coun Ian Marks, (Pictured) leader of Warrington Borough Council, joined with the leaders of Halton, Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester councils to write to Transport Secretary Lord Andrew Adonis asking him to re-examine the case for electrifying the line through Warrington.
But the Transport Secretary says that while it is recognised there would be benefits in electrifying the Warrington route, they believe the alternative route through Newton-le-Willows would produce greater overall benefits.
He says: “A key driver is that there are no connections between the Warrington Central route and the West Coast Main Line. Providing these connections would be very expensive, whereas connections already exist on the Chat Moss route.
“This will allow through-train electric operation between Manchester and Scotland via the West Coast Main Line.
“Construction of an entirely new station at Warrington, along with the substantial track work to allow it to be served by the trains which currently use Warrington Central and Warrington bank Quay would be extremely expensive.”
Lord Adonis adds that the Newton route is potentially much faster than the Warrington Central route, which has many intermediate stations which would make it difficult for long distance trains to be speeded up.
But he adds: “However, electrification of the Warrington Central line is not ruled out for the long term and of course could be accelerated if regional funding were to be secured.”
Coun Marks said: “We believe there would be real benefits if the line through Warrington could be electrified. I take some comfort from the comment from the Minister that this is not being ruled out for the longer term and we must continue to lobby for this.”
Coun Marks and the other three council leaders had argued that the Warrington route because it would form an essential part of the infrastructure needed for the Atlantic Gateway project – a “growth corridor” following the line of the Manchester Ship Canal between Manchester and Liverpool and including Warrington.
Newton-le-Willows, they pointed out, is outside of the growth corridor.
They stressed the proximity of Daresbury Park science and technology centre and the proposed Parkside business park which helped to make the Warrington-Halton area one of the largest clusters of economic development opportunities and job growth in the UK.
Electrification of the Warrington line would give a huge impetus to these opportunities and enable major regeneration and economic growth in the region.
Electric rail bid fails – for now!
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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.
4 Comments
Sorry our estimeed leaders couldnt be more wrong. 2 of the three operators through Central would not benefit from electrification. EMT would still require diesel traction between hazel grove and Norwich i.e. the vast majority of their service, FTPE would still need it between Manchester – Leeds and York – Scarborough. Northern woudl only benefit and as they are delayed daily due to late runnign of the previous services, then electricifcation woudl have no benefit particulary as there is current no spare stock to supply northern. Even the stock to be used on the Newton route is going to be pinched from elsewhere and will result in 2 less carriages on long distance services. However this will free up more stock to be moved to FTPE services through Warrington. QED benefit.
Oh and the Parkside Business Park will link with railway at……..Newton Le Williows station. Have they not seen the plans?
It may only be 2 out of 3 operators who would benefit, but it would be 50% of train services through Warrington Central – the half hourly all stations service. Meanwhile on the Earlestown line after electrification, there would still be a diesel local service to Manchester Victoria, diesel services to North Wales and diesel services to Wigan via St Helens. As you kind of suggest, you could divert the current express services away from Warrington but they’d still be diesel operated until other lines became electrified.
1 out of 3 and only half hourly at peak times. After that certain stations get hourly or two hourly and the trains are half empty at best. EMT and FTPE are always full more so the former as they still havent got a clue how to run a rail service.
The Newton line will be fully electrified. first bit to Newton and then Earlestown to Edge Hill. I agree only Man Vic / Airport services will benefit but they’ll get more carriage space. More freight on that route as well.
I would however consider a full trans pennine electrification as best. However this scheme planned will allow FTPE to go fully electric on their glasgow / edinburgh routes (Bolton losing out but Wigan gaining) and thus some stock will filter down to Central routes and making FTPE run longer (more frequent – nah they wont do that) services.