While the big rail money is splashed on London and HS2, and Northern rail electrification is cancelled, what about Burnley? Robbed of direct trains to Manchester in the 1960s and industry in the 1980s, better transport links are now seen as essential if Burnley is to gain from the 'Manchester' effect'.
Lancashire have quietly beavered away with their EU Citizens Rail project to provide a new hourly train service to Manchester appropriately from Manchester Road station, and have funded a new ticket office. Externally it is functional and a bit ugly; clearly not the ‘attractive and iconic gateway to the town’ promised in the brochure. And no sign of the promised ‘coffee cart’. But definitely an improvement on no building; at least you can wait in the dry. The open cycle racks and locked wheelie bin compound shows the comparative priority given to waste and cyclists. The forecourt is overdesigned and over-engineered - a lot of cash has gone into making life difficult for pedestrians in an unimaginative, 1980s way. It’s hard to resist the conclusion that a better job was possible for half the money.
There is no sign of a buses apart from an old bus shelter on the otherwise untouched Blackburn platform, so it’s a walk into town. The diagrammatic map at the station is confusing and one of the good commercial maps now universal in London would've been cheaper anyway. There is the inevitable pedestrian-hostile roundabout. Then a nice canal-side development (visitor centre closed), and a lovely Victorian town hall and theatre, evidence of Burnley’s proud past. But opposite, the unpleasant 1960s Chaddesley House shows the extent of the subsequent architectural and social decline. Occupied, but barely maintained by social services, at least there is a Wetherspoon’s a few doors down to cope with the fallout. And their coffee is good and cheap. In the middle distance looms a vast Tesco Extra. No doubt it was justified as 'edge of centre as it hollowed out the town centre. Only the football club has performed in Burnley in the last couple of decades.
I take the new train. Every hour a 30 year old diesel with a grotty toilet and ripped seats strolls towards Manchester (less than 30 miles) in a leisurely 53 minutes. It dawdles and then stops and inches gingerly across the new single track ‘Todmorden Curve’, delivered late but maybe that was just as well since the current gently rusting trains have only just become available. We pick up speed downhill, but driving is quicker most times of the day and certainly cheaper if you are on your own - £12 return in the peak, or £10 if you can. In the big city, if you want to continue your journey by Metrolink you will need a new ticket; by bus there is theoretically ‘plusbus’, but you have to buy it at the same time as the rail ticket and understand pages of confusing conditions. For instance, it claims to be valid throughout Greater Manchester, but the validity maps only show central Manchester. Very, very few people use Plusbus. We don't want your southern integrated ticketing here, lad.
This is the 'Northern Powerhouse', or 'Northern Powercut' now electrification plans are on hold. But what should we aspire to, what could we reasonably achieve and what should we settle for under the current circumstances?
We can agree that Lancashire have done their best, building a new station building and rail service at a time when resources are difficult to find and spare diesel trains are scarce; they have brought in European funding, and perhaps more importantly expertise. But I think we can all agree that we can and should do better.
A German service between comparable towns in, say the Ruhr or in The Netherlands in the Raandstaat would have modern, airy stations served by up to six modern electric trains every hour. Bus and tram connections would be available at both ends and included in the ticket price and they would even wait for the train (yes, really), but you might not need them as the train would probably continue in a tunnel under the city to your destination. Stations would have ample cycle parking, there would be good cycle and walk maps, cycle hire and certainly and safe and convenient cycle routes. Car drivers would acknowledge your existence, although my experience is that taxi drivers will still moan about you in the pub.
Maybe we can’t have all this now, but Scotland (5 million people) has improved and electrified railways and even built the 30 mile new Borders Line. Compared to this, Greater Manchester and Lancashire (bit over 4 million) has done little apart from build Metrolink tram lines - fine, but not really a solution for longer journeys. There isn’t even any integrated ticketing worth mentioning even though Manchester owns the tram network. Of course Scotland is not perfect – the Edinburgh tram problems show this, but with a devolved Government, at least they have a choice while the northwest has the odd scrap thrown by the Treasury. With the cancellation of Trans-Pennine electrification, perhaps 30 year-old trains and 30mph is the way forward for Burnley in the foreseeable future. Or maybe not.
Lancashire have quietly beavered away with their EU Citizens Rail project to provide a new hourly train service to Manchester appropriately from Manchester Road station, and have funded a new ticket office. Externally it is functional and a bit ugly; clearly not the ‘attractive and iconic gateway to the town’ promised in the brochure. And no sign of the promised ‘coffee cart’. But definitely an improvement on no building; at least you can wait in the dry. The open cycle racks and locked wheelie bin compound shows the comparative priority given to waste and cyclists. The forecourt is overdesigned and over-engineered - a lot of cash has gone into making life difficult for pedestrians in an unimaginative, 1980s way. It’s hard to resist the conclusion that a better job was possible for half the money.
There is no sign of a buses apart from an old bus shelter on the otherwise untouched Blackburn platform, so it’s a walk into town. The diagrammatic map at the station is confusing and one of the good commercial maps now universal in London would've been cheaper anyway. There is the inevitable pedestrian-hostile roundabout. Then a nice canal-side development (visitor centre closed), and a lovely Victorian town hall and theatre, evidence of Burnley’s proud past. But opposite, the unpleasant 1960s Chaddesley House shows the extent of the subsequent architectural and social decline. Occupied, but barely maintained by social services, at least there is a Wetherspoon’s a few doors down to cope with the fallout. And their coffee is good and cheap. In the middle distance looms a vast Tesco Extra. No doubt it was justified as 'edge of centre as it hollowed out the town centre. Only the football club has performed in Burnley in the last couple of decades.
I take the new train. Every hour a 30 year old diesel with a grotty toilet and ripped seats strolls towards Manchester (less than 30 miles) in a leisurely 53 minutes. It dawdles and then stops and inches gingerly across the new single track ‘Todmorden Curve’, delivered late but maybe that was just as well since the current gently rusting trains have only just become available. We pick up speed downhill, but driving is quicker most times of the day and certainly cheaper if you are on your own - £12 return in the peak, or £10 if you can. In the big city, if you want to continue your journey by Metrolink you will need a new ticket; by bus there is theoretically ‘plusbus’, but you have to buy it at the same time as the rail ticket and understand pages of confusing conditions. For instance, it claims to be valid throughout Greater Manchester, but the validity maps only show central Manchester. Very, very few people use Plusbus. We don't want your southern integrated ticketing here, lad.
This is the 'Northern Powerhouse', or 'Northern Powercut' now electrification plans are on hold. But what should we aspire to, what could we reasonably achieve and what should we settle for under the current circumstances?
We can agree that Lancashire have done their best, building a new station building and rail service at a time when resources are difficult to find and spare diesel trains are scarce; they have brought in European funding, and perhaps more importantly expertise. But I think we can all agree that we can and should do better.
A German service between comparable towns in, say the Ruhr or in The Netherlands in the Raandstaat would have modern, airy stations served by up to six modern electric trains every hour. Bus and tram connections would be available at both ends and included in the ticket price and they would even wait for the train (yes, really), but you might not need them as the train would probably continue in a tunnel under the city to your destination. Stations would have ample cycle parking, there would be good cycle and walk maps, cycle hire and certainly and safe and convenient cycle routes. Car drivers would acknowledge your existence, although my experience is that taxi drivers will still moan about you in the pub.
Maybe we can’t have all this now, but Scotland (5 million people) has improved and electrified railways and even built the 30 mile new Borders Line. Compared to this, Greater Manchester and Lancashire (bit over 4 million) has done little apart from build Metrolink tram lines - fine, but not really a solution for longer journeys. There isn’t even any integrated ticketing worth mentioning even though Manchester owns the tram network. Of course Scotland is not perfect – the Edinburgh tram problems show this, but with a devolved Government, at least they have a choice while the northwest has the odd scrap thrown by the Treasury. With the cancellation of Trans-Pennine electrification, perhaps 30 year-old trains and 30mph is the way forward for Burnley in the foreseeable future. Or maybe not.
