{"id":1383,"date":"2023-03-12T18:22:13","date_gmt":"2023-03-12T18:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/?p=1383"},"modified":"2023-03-12T20:26:09","modified_gmt":"2023-03-12T20:26:09","slug":"northern-salvo-310","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/northern-salvo-310","title":{"rendered":"Northern Salvo 310"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Northern Weekly Salvo 310
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Incorporating \u00a0Slaithwaite Review of Books, Weekly Notices, Sectional Appendices, Tunnel Gazers\u2019 Gazette etc. <\/em>Descendant of Teddy Ashton\u2019s Northern Weekly <\/em>and Th\u2019Bowtun Loominary un Tum Fowt Telegraph<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Published at 109 Harpers Lane Bolton BL1 6HU email: paul.salveson@myphone.coop<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Publications website: www.lancashireloominary.co.uk<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moves afoot and a sad but joyous farewell<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Sorry for the long gap since the last Salvo. I\u2019ve been a bit distracted with house matters \u2013 as you\u2019ll see below I\u2019m upping sticks and moving to \u2018Lancashire North of the Sands\u2019 \u2013 to be more precise, Kents Bank, near Grange-over-Sands. I\u2019m now joint owner of Station House, a fine old Furness Railway stationmaster\u2019s house with splendid views across Morecambe Bay. It means I\u2019m selling my lovely house (and some of the garden railway) at Harpers Lane.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Kents Bank station c 1890. It hasn’t changed much! See right…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the next couple of months there will be a steady transition to Kents Bank (served by hourly trains from Bolton). Work on Station House will be completed by early May so I\u2019ll spend part of my time up there over the summer before taking up full residence when Harpers Lane is sold. I\u2019ll keep a foothold in Bolton, through the Horwich sub-shed.\"\"<\/p>\n

My friend and community rail stalwart Marjorie Birch died, suddenly, before Christmas. I attended a lovely celebration of her life at the Platform Gallery on Clitheroe station. Fittingly it was held on March 8th<\/sup>, International Women\u2019s Day. Marjorie did much to promote community involvement in Lancashire\u2019s railways, bringing her huge experience as a teacher to the work of Community Rail Lancashire. It was nice to see many children from a local school at the memorial event.<\/p>\n

HS2 \u2013 told you so\u2026<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The saga of the HS2 farce continues to unfold, with more and more of the ill-conceived project cut back. As The Times<\/em> commented, it is becoming like \u2018The Black Knight\u2019 who continues to maintain he\u2019s perfectly OK despite more and more of his limbs being cut off. \u201c\u2019Tis but a scratch!\u201d The secretary of state\u2019s announcement that the Birmingham \u2013 Crewe section is being deferred a couple of years \u2018to save money\u2019 ought to presage its total abandonment . As supporters of the scheme have said, deferring it for two years will end up costing more. Talk about throwing good money after bad. I suppose it will get as far as Birmingham given that a lot of the building work is underway. The chances of it getting to Crewe seem increasingly slim and \u2013 at least as currently projected \u2013 won\u2019t ever reach Manchester. Good. This scheme would have done little to support regeneration in the North, other than development schemes in the immediate area around Piccadilly. The North desperately needs investment in the local and regional network. Personally I\u2019m not that enthusiastic about \u2018Northern Powerhouse Rail\u2019, the east-west high-speed route from the Mersey to York and the Humber. Too much of it is politically-driven (even the name!) including the bonkers idea of going via Bradford. The city has fared badly from lackof rail investment but the idea that you tunnel twenty miles under the Pennines to serve the city is yet another dream that will never materialise. Build Bradford Cross-Rail to connect up the two parts of the city\u2019s rail network \u2013 that could be delivered in a realistic timeframe and bring real benefits. As for the main Manchester \u2013 Leeds route, invest in the existing Standedge route (including re-opening the disused tunnels) and electrify Calder Valley Line via Hebden Bridge and Bradford.<\/p>\n

True Levellers would be aghast<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Labour\u2019s victory in the West Lancashire by-election last month was hardly unexpected; the best the Tories could come up in response was to say that the 10% swing wasn\u2019t as much as they\u2019d expected.\u00a0 There were some big local issues which highlight the joke that the Government\u2019s \u2018levelling-up\u2019 agenda has become.\u00a0 In particular, the Department for Transport\u2019s rejection of plans for a rail link to Skelmersdale, now the biggest town in the West Lancashire constituency. Skelmersdale (or \u2018Skem\u2019) was one of the 1960s new towns, built in the days when the car was king and planning was built around assumptions that universal car ownership was just a matter of time. So the railway that ran through the centre of the planned town was allowed to close and get built on. A community that grew to a population of over 40,000, mostly re-housed Liverpool families, was left stranded with only a slow bus service to get them into the city for jobs (if you were lucky) and to see friends and relatives.<\/p>\n

In a positive display of partnership working, Conservative-controlled Lancashire County Council worked with Labour\u2019s West Lancashire Borough Council and Liverpool City Region, with its Labour mayor Steve Rotheram, to come up with a plan to get Skelmersdale back on the rail network, with a short link to the existing electrified Merseyrail network at Kirkby. \u00a0It looked like a scheme tailor-made for the Government\u2019s \u2018levelling-up\u2019 policy: getting people into jobs, offering an alternative to the car, and deliverable. Yet it was rejected as being \u2018poor value for money\u2019. Instead, a bus link has been provided to get people to the station at Kirkby. Experience has shown that these bus links, for relatively short journeys, are seldom well-used. People wanting to get to Liverpool city centre would use a direct train service, but taking a bus to then get a train is more problematic. Those that can would probably carry on driving to the nearest station.<\/p>\n

The decision probably cost the Tories little more than a handful of votes \u2013 their supporters in Skelmersdale are a virtually extinct species. But it highlights the nonsense of civil servants in London having responsibility for a decision that should be made within the region. Meanwhile, about 30 miles to the east, the people of Oldham have been informed by the London-based Arts Council of England that all of their funding for the highly-respected Oldham Coliseum theatre is to cease. This means the theatre, which has worked hard to make itself inclusive and accessible to everyone in Oldham and beyond, will close down. The decision to stop funding the Oldham theatre is all the more perverse when the Arts Council has recognised regional imbalances yet still gone ahead with its plans that will see the end of one of the North\u2019s most successful theatres.<\/p>\n

About half way between Oldham and Skelmersdale is my (current) home town of Bolton. Fortunately, we\u2019ve an excellent theatre which is, so far, managing to survive. We\u2019ve got good rail links. Unfortunately, the fine town centre, dominated by the 150 years-old town hall, is crumbling, with empty shops and worse to come. A few weeks ago Marks and Spencer announced it was closing its town centre store, because of \u2018changing shopper needs\u2019 or some such bullshit. This comes on top of the general decline of the town centre which has seen Woolworth\u2019s, Debenhams and dozens of small shops disappear and much-heralded development plans run into the sand. Marks and Spencer was the last remaining \u2018quality\u2019 store of any size in the town centre. Not to worry, there\u2019s another Marks and Spencer, along with multiplex cinemas and all the big name chains, three miles away at Middlebrook \u2013 a large retail development which is poorly accessible by public transport – but has a huge free car park. The Tory-controlled Bolton Council has said it has been \u2018in talks\u2019 with the company to persuade them to stay but I suspect it would take a sizeable financial inducement to get them to reverse the decision. Not our problem? Well, yes, it is: it will accelerate the town centre\u2019s decline with other shops and cafes that benefit from people coming into town to visit M&S becoming vulnerable. And oh yes, Bolton\u2019s bid for \u2018levelling-up\u2019 funds to regenerate the town centre were recently turned down.<\/p>\n

What all this adds up to is the absurdity of decisions that affect the lifeblood of communities being made by civil servants in London. The North needs strong, well-resourced\u00a0 and democratically-accountable regional government that can work with local authorities and the private sector to support new railways, arts facilities, town centres and much more. It would be nice if Keir Starmer and his team showed more sign of recognising this.<\/p>\n

This is based on an article in a recent issue of Chartist magazine (www.chartist.org.uk<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

What future for the station booking office?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

There are growing concerns that we are about to see \u2018A Beeching of the Booking Offices\u2019, in which most if not all station booking offices will disappear. This would be disastrous for all sorts of reasons. The Rail Reform Group held a well-attended seminar before Christmas in which some creative ideas for how to re-imagine the traditional booking office were explored. A paper has now been published on the Group\u2019s website (https:\/\/railreformgroup.org.uk\/). The three key suggestions in the paper are headed \u2018Bringing About Change\u2019:<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, it appears to be clear that reform to ticketing is desirable before major changes are made to the provision of information and tickets at stations. Reform would simplify the decisions that would-be travellers have to make, making alternative provision of tickets, for example, through convenience stores, more viable.\u00a0 Making changes without such reform risks eroding revenue even further.<\/p>\n

Second, industry red tape needs to be cut back. There needs to be a way of changing the arrangements for selling tickets at stations which involve local communities and make it easier for 3rd<\/sup> parties to sell tickets than is the case within the current regulatory framework. \u00a0There could for example be provision for 3rd<\/sup> parties to be rewarded for guiding customers through transactions on their own devices or for direct ticket selling. The process of agreeing changes to building use and lessee where these lie outside the operational boundaries could also be made simpler.<\/p>\n

Third, there is scope to change the way things are done, building on current examples of good practice which have used community-led change to deliver a more market-focused railway. Change should be collaborative involving staff, managers and local communities. The whole industry – Regulator, policy makers, staff and managers need to be open to this in order to create the best possible railway within the resources available. Where it is proposed to either ‘re-purpose’ or even close a booking office, there needs to be a clear and accountable process for this, which could include bodies such as Transport Focus and local community rail partnerships.\u201d<\/p>\n