Mordac
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Or a court. A promoter could presumably appeal the ORR's refusal.
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Merseyrail: funding for Headbolt Lane and St James stations
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frodshamfella
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frodshamfella
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Thanks for info
WatcherZero
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The main reason 3rd rail has fallen out of favour is it costs more to build with many more substations than overhead for the same length due to voltage drop off, it cant be used for high speed trains (travelling over 110mph) and the very long 10/12 carriage trains in the South have taxed it beyond its limits with trains occasionally losing power when the line voltage drops below the minimum requirement.
And of course being on the ground its more likely for people to accidentally come into contact and get electrocuted. Shielded rail mitigates the safety downside to a certain degree but you cant just add a new contact form onto an existing railway network, you would have to replace all the existing 3rd rail and modify all rolling stocks shoes.
And of course being on the ground its more likely for people to accidentally come into contact and get electrocuted. Shielded rail mitigates the safety downside to a certain degree but you cant just add a new contact form onto an existing railway network, you would have to replace all the existing 3rd rail and modify all rolling stocks shoes.
But is much of this relevant in the context of a mile or two of Merseyrail?
I'm sure the preferred approach from Liverpool will be scr*w them but if that fails the money will transfer to an alternative improvement project rather than getting into the quagmire of several miles of isolated overhead wiring.
WatcherZero
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Yeah for the couple of mile extension probably as far as Skelmersdale unless they decide to go for battery the benefits of extending 3rd rail rather than creating a second conflicting system should be superior. We will likely never see a discrete brand new 3rd rail electrification on the rail network again however.
I'm not sure Skelmersdale will ever happen. It requires Lancashire to show real interest and their priorities seem to lie elsewhere. Not really convinced there is much of a customer demand tbh.
frodshamfella
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Surely for commuter , shoppers and going out for entainment a quick train from Skelmersdale to Liverpool will prove much more popular than current bus or car options ?!
Llandudno
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Especially with Merseyrail frequency, probably every 30 minutes at worst with a late train home after 2330. Compared to the hourly service at Upholland with a change a trains of Kirkby and no trains after 7pm and none all day on Sundays.
You would imagine some of the good value Merseytravel train and rover tickets would be extended to Skelmersdale as well.
Win, win I would have thought!
You would imagine some of the good value Merseytravel train and rover tickets would be extended to Skelmersdale as well.
Win, win I would have thought!
Llandudno
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Chester, Ellesmere Port and Ormskirk do!
61653 HTAFC
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The Skelmersdale situation shows just how disjointed and short-termist a lot of post-war planning was. Old Skem lost its link to Ormskirk via Westhead just as the New Town was being developed, and that would have been a natural choice to be part of Merseyrail given that the new town was built as over spill for Liverpool. That it then wasn't included in Merseyside in 1974 was the height of stupidity. Old Skem wasn't ideally placed for much of the new town but it wasn't short of space for a big car park and bus interchange. It might have complicated things at Ormskirk with the Preston line a bit though: the single long platform solution probably wouldn't have been possible.
Does that happen though? I thought that the links had grown stronger with Wigan and Ormskirk rather than Liverpool? (which is a right pig on the bus?
West Lancs council are the ones which have been pushing for it. The subsequent Merseytravel co-funded studies suggest patronage on the line on a par with the busiest. Not sure how their officially procured research and forecasting stands up against finger in the air guesses, mind.
Llandudno
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Yes, they probably have because of the poor public transport to Liverpool.
I suspect with a frequent and cheap train to Liverpool and late trains home 7 days a week, Skem people will soon switch to Liverpool for a night out!
It probably doesn't help that West Lancs isn't part of Liverpool City Region but I'm not sure that would be possible if you aren't a unitary authority.
What...and miss all the pies?
Harryn9000
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the best extension would be to serve the industrial estate in kirkby. the bus service around there isn't the best after 6pm
The buses from Liverpool to Skelmersdale are indeed tortuously slow (taking up to 1hr 45min) and most of them finish running at about 7pm.
Rather than waiting years for a station to be built in Skem, a good idea in the interim would be to operate a dedicated bus feeder service from Skem to a Merseyrail station, with through ticketing and timed connections. Google Maps reckons that Skelmersdale town centre is about a 15 minute drive from Maghull North station, so a 20 min bus journey + 5 minute wait + 25 minute train would surely be a winner, if the connections operated reliably.
Bletchleyite
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The "Skem Jazzer" operated from a platform on the other side from the present Preston bit in what is now the car park.
Harryn9000
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it because the bus the 311 goes through maghull and ormskirk before getting skelmersdale
WatcherZero
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There is a lot of demand for travel to Skelmersdale because of its huge industrial estates (literally 50% of the town) which employ nearly 20,000 people which is why it should be a good anchor for rail services from Both Liverpool and Wigan.
61653 HTAFC
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But if the branch had survived to the advent of MerseyTravel (and Skem had been included in that, as it should have been- which would mean Maghull to Ormskirk also was) it would most likely have simply operated as a basic Liverpool to Skelmersdale via Ormskirk through service. Thus Ormskirk would have retained at least two platforms (plus possibly a bay for the Preston DMU) and the double track would extend to just before the terminus.
Xenophon PCDGS
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Without having to trawl back through over 100 postings on this thread, since this original posting was made, what is the position regarding the funding requirements at this present moment in time?
Seeing as a central Skelmersdale station would be a distance from the industrial estates does the plan include a station south of the M58?
If the branch is too pricey a good start would be building a P&R station at the SW corner of the estate (I presume buses already loop round it from the town), either extending Merseyrail through to Wigan or moving the end on termini to the new station.
Bletchleyite
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It has occurred to me that Upholland is about as near as Old Skem/Blaguegate was.
WatcherZero
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Yes Upholland is on the extreme south east most corner but the site identified for the new station puts the other estates and all the residential areas within a roughly kilometre catchment radius.
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