Our fast track to London (From St Helens Star)
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St Helens fast track to London
8:49am Thursday 16th August 2012 in News By Andrew Kilmurray, News editor
The London Eye
ST HELENS could be on track for a direct train link to London.
Regional transport bosses have revealed they are keen to push for a rail route between the town and the capital by 2015.
Merseytravel hope that the completion of the electrification of the St Helens line would make the high-speed journey possible.
Such a move may lead to a growth in business opportunities for the town and put it on an equal footing with neighbouring Warrington, Wigan, Liverpool and Halton, which all have direct trains to London.
Councillor Liam Robinson, chair of Merseytravel, said: “We want to ensure the West Coast main line is easily accessible to as many people as possible in our region.
“The electrification of the St Helens line presents us with an ideal opportunity to expand the national network and a direct link to London would bring new business opportunities to the town and surrounding areas.
“Our priority would be to explore the possibilities with the operator to see what sort of service could be provided, the type of rolling stock that could be used and a number of other issues before we start talking about journey time.
Tracy Mawson, director of Business Services at St Helens Chamber, said that with local firms doing work with people from all over the country anything that improves transport links “can only be good for local businesses”.
News of Merseytravel’s ambitions emerged as it was confirmed yesterday (Wednesday) that Virgin Rail had lost the West Coast Main line franchise to First Group.
anthonywilson says...
12:34pm Fri 17 Aug 12
A few years ago there was a direct rail service from Newton-le-Willows station to London Euston but unfortunately it stopped running, perhaps demand wasn't all that great but we should try again.
If we really want to build a better economic future in St Helens rail transport has to be a priority. A good starter would be the re-opening of the St Helens Central and Junction rail link which would then open up rail links to Manchester, Warrington and Chester and further afield to North Wales, Yorkshire and South of England. We also could do with better direct rail services to Scotland and towns to the North of Preston etc. Again before privatisation there was an Intercity Direct train service starting in Liverpool that stopped at St Helens Central that went to Edinburgh. Why should we have to get connecting trains all the time at either Wigan or Preston and there is no direct service to the Lakes or Lancaster when there was in the past. In order to create a direct link to London at present a train would have to go via Wigan anyway. Back in the 1980's some of the Saints fans travelled to London and Wembley via special trains that then used the St Helens Central Junction link. Its about time it was reopened even if it was just single tracked as the potential and possibilities would all be beneficial.