Quote:
Originally Posted by johnmoly
Hasn't Merseyrail been looking at this for years ?. A few years ago Merseytravel bosses hired a train to take them over the current goods only line with this in mind yet again.
I was told they couldn't have the funding as all extra cash was going to be spent in the London area. Even the plans for replacing the current 507/508 fleet with brand new stock have gone quiet and that was due to happen next year.
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John, you are correct. But that was when the Canada Dock Branch Line was diesel only and no electric was planned for it. DfT men with Liverpool council and Liverpool FC people were on the train. The idea was to open the line to diesel only and primarily for Liverpool FC, although used as a permanent passenger line. Liverpool FC's USA owners then ummmed and arrred about new stadium expansion - expanding approved plans.
The Dft Britain’s Transport Infrastructure Rail Electrification document of 2009 clearly stated that the line to Liverpool docks was to be electrified - the lines is the Canada Dock Branch line. The contract given to Balfour Beatty appears not to mentions electrifying the Canada Dock Branch line.
Click here - page 24 Do they have their focus on the eastern section of the Outer Loop then? The unused eastern section of the Outer Loop is a far superior line all around seamlessly merging onto the existing Merseyrail and covering more districts and can run into the airport when extended. It is getting Everton FC and Liverpool FC, who are both moving stadia, to locate to the line as the enablers. The passenger traffic generated by the two clubs and normal every day traffic makes it highly viable. It would mean the city is just playing catch-up as the line should have been on Merseyrail nearly 40 years ago.
A great benefit would be having two large football stadia on the line reducing nuisance and benefiting the clubs and many countless thousands who would visit these venues. If the O2 in London can have its own tube station then so can Everton, Liverpool and the Liverpool Kings Dock arena.
Funding? Well HMG did just ignore everywhere else and pour even more money into London, so would not run some diesel trains and build the odd station in a city desperate for its metro expansion. They claimed the signalling costs were the biggest funding problem. Read my posts on transport funding which can be done locally.
The rolling stock renewal has been put back, but light-rail rolling stock, like DLR, has been rumoured to be in the frame, which makes abundant sense. Merseyrail has to go light-rail in order to give flexibility to expand onto the docks at Liverpool Waters and Wirral Waters. Light-rail is also lighter on the curves on the city centre underground loop tunnels. If heavy rail rolling stock is adopted this will be a clear indicated that HMG in London is still wanting to kill city expansion.
The city's rail understructure, used and disused, is phenomenal. No other city comes anywhere Liverpool to what is available. Look at the map:
http://i41.tinypic.com/15mlgn8.png
Liverpool’s basic infrastructure is magnificent. It served a port second to none and a population double the size. The city has the footprint of Paris.
"Liverpool’s arteries and veins, its 1938 goods and passenger transport infrastructure, were magnificent. With some foresight, and a little fortuitous neglect, the city has retained the basics of an infrastructure befitting a second city of empire. If Liverpool is to come back and stay; if the population drain is to be significantly reversed; if the city of Liverpool is to be more than a million again, the city needs it all back - and that includes the trams. It needs re-opened lines, re-opened stations, re-opened tunnels, the overhead back on the waterfront, better freight connections and ultimately another Mersey crossing. Amazingly, because most of the unused tunnels, stations, rail beds, loop lines, tracks and alignments are still there, the cost per capita would be lower than anywhere else in Britain. This is a huge advantage for Liverpool of which central government ought to be aware."
But great big lumps of the city are now cut-off from the rest - split off by motorways. Bustling streets are ‘lost’. Roads blocked. Stations and lines abandoned. But amazingly mostly still there whether by good luck or good management.
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Extent of Liverpool's rail infrastructure