Blackpool Is Finally Going To Link The Tram To The Train
I must admit that I don’t like Blsckpool and this post in my view sums up the seaside resorts attitude to visitors.
As I say in the post, Blackpool doesn’t have many useful maps, but one of the biggest problems is that the newly rebuilt tramway, doesn’t link up to Blackpool North station. Imagine if a main line station like Kings Cross or Paddington didn’t connect to the London Underground.
But Blackpool updated the trams a few years ago spending over £80 million. Surely, this upgrade could have been stretched to connect the trams to the station.
At least now this missing link is being built according to this report on the BBC.
Hopefully next time I go to support Ipswich at Blackpool, I’ll be able to get on a tram at the station to take me to the ground.
Will The Northern Line Extension Open Before Crossrail?
That is what this article in Global Rail News is saying.
It looks to me like some clever project manager has examined the critical path and found a way to build it quicker.
Or could it be, that Crossrail has shown that digging tunnels through London has got a lot easier since they built the Jubilee Line Extension, as tunnel boring machines are now much bigger and faster? Crossrail have also shown how stations can be built independently of the actual railway, as commercial projects, at the same time as the railway is being dug or fitted out.
From Wikipedia too, it would appear that both station sites are not cramped and hemmed in by existing buildings.
So are we going to have a race between the Northern Line Extension and Crossrail, to see which opens first?
I think that Crossrail will open first, as it is a big project that has almost got successfully past the difficult parts and there are still questions to be asked of the Northern Line Extension, before construction can start.
One thing that might delay the Northern Line Extension is to build the line to Clapham Junction station in the first phase, rather than as a second one.
A Memorial To Lee Rigby
There has been discussion on the BBC and an article on their web site about a memorial to Lee Rigby.
The only real memorial will be for something like his murder never to happen again.
All parties should work for that aim.
The Anonymous Widower 