Philip
On Moderation
But town planning has a lot to do with it, especially where Skelmersdale is concerned. Rail services can help and they'll benefit Skem a lot but it's no silver bullet. If it was then Crewe would be one of the most vibrant places in the North.
Skem is getting 2tph to Liverpool via Merseyrail and 1tph to Wigan, which will probably be extended to Manchester. That's not half bad for a town the size of Skem which is used to having no rail services at all. At Wigan, there'll be interchange options for WCML services and at Manchester for changes eastwards. Merseyrail will give convenient access to Liverpool and much of its metropolitan area, of which Skelmersdale is very much a part. Sure, it'd be nice if it was 2tph and that is a long term aspiration; but then again, 4tph to Liverpool is also a long term aspiration. And as much as I don't want to be cynical, it does seem you have a bee in your bonnet about the higher frequency to Liverpool than Manchester from a small town which is much closer to the former than the latter. Perhaps the likes of Bolton, Buy and Rochdale, all much larger towns than Skelmersdale, need direct links to Liverpool on a frequency that is at least on parity with Manchester.
To be fair I've made a point in another thread that Liverpool (as well as Sheffield) seems to be getting a raw deal in the whole rail north scheme compared to Manchester and Leeds. But Manchester and Leeds are apparently where it's all at nowadays in these parts.
I've said numerous times in this thread that I'm not dismissing the importance of good links to Liverpool, but at the same time I think this town is far enough out of Liverpool and close enough to Manchester that it'd be foolish not to develop similarly good links to the latter, if the opportunity presents itself with this new rail link. I don't really buy all this being 'culturally close to a city' stuff, better to look at potential ways to develop new growth and multiple rail links will help in this area.
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