The Ordsall Curve and everything about it is a bloody disgrace, another consultants' gravy train foisted on to the public of Greater Manchester when two minutes intelligent thought reveals better and more strategically valuable alternatives that are cheaper, less destructive of heritage, more useful to journeys around and across the entire north of England.
The so called consultation about the scheme was a complete disgrac e and boiled down to a beauty contest between Irwell Bridge One and Irwell Bridge Two on the pre-selected route and nothing at all to do with a real discussion about options, new journey alternatives etc etc.
Where else but Manchester would 186 years of history be thrown aside, a perpetual guarantee of a main line connection be bribed away for a £3m bung; the concept of a single Main Line station be dismantled after only twenty five years; HS2 if we have to have it, run into a set of buffer stops? etc etc.
And they say modern design involves rigorous thought - well I don't see much of it at present. So well done Mark Whitby for trying to stop this gravy train before it pollutes our city's needs for another generation.
