The Anonymous Widower

Welcome to Burnley

I arrived at Manchester Road station in the town at 10:30 and the station is in effect an unmanned halt with shelters, like say Newmarket or Dullingham, which I used to use quite a bit in Suffolk. 

However it differs from the two Suffolk stations in a couple of important ways.  There are no information screens giving details of arriving trains and there is no local maps. Those in Suffolk, actually carry advertising for things like local hotels and taxi companies. 

There were a couple of police in the station car park, but as they were from Manchester and not local, and were probably there to observe any stray carrots going to Blackburn.  So they weren’t much use on directions. 

I knew that Towneley Park, my intended destination, was close to the Turf Moor and after walking down the hill, I found a sign to Burnley FC, so I walked in that direction. This picture shows just how dangerous it was, as I needed to cross two dual-carriageways without even a rudimentary form of crossing.  

Pedestrian Unfriendly Burnley

I know I’m just one old man, who’s had a stroke, but I’m still reasonably nimble and usually not in a hurry, so I can wait for a gap in the traffic.  But so often, roundabouts and dual-carriageways are real barriers to pedestrians and judging by the flowers you occasionally see on railings, others have not been so lucky. 

But the pedestrian access to Manchester Road station is a disgrace and there is a definite need for a light-controlled crossing or an underpass to get across the main road at the station.  I think that it might be possible to put an underpass in alongside the railway. 

To be fair to Burnley Council, they are thinking about improving accessibility in the town, as this page shows. 

I did finally reach the bus station, where I found a bus map, which gave details of where I needed to go to get to Towneley Park.

April 3, 2011 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Burnley, Trains, Walking