Burnley To Liverpool Airport On A Sunday
To get to Liverpool Airport from Burnley on a Sunday wasn’t easy.
I first got a train to Preston where I got a train to Ormskirk. There was this unusual end-to-end interchange between one of Northern Rail’s Class 153 scrapyard specials and one of Merseyrail’s smart Class 508s.
Changing Trains At Ormskirk
Merseyrail has been pushing to electrify all the way from Liverpool to Preston, which would remove this change of train. Wikipedia says this.
Electrification from Ormskirk to Preston has been considered in conjunction with the Burscough Curves reopening. It would re-establish the most direct Liverpool-Preston route and is one of Merseytravel’s long-term aspirations.
This whole corner of Lancashire seems either to be sprouting wires or growing third rails. Many of which lead to Liverpool or Manchester.
Once in Liverpool, I alighted at Moorfields station and walked a hundred yards or so to Carluccio’s, where I had a supper to prepare me for the journey.
I did search for a bus to Liverpool Airport, but even at the main bus station, there was no information or anybody to ask.
When will these people learn, that one of the way to get people to use buses is to provide information everywhere as London does.
So I reluctantly took a taxi!
Slow Train To Liverpool
On Saturday, I’m flying out from Liverpool to Gdansk in Poland to start one of my home runs by train back to London.
You might argue why I’m starting from Liverpool rather than one of the London airports.
It’s because I’m seeing Ipswich Town play their last away match of the season at Burnley and it seems logical to take a flight from the more convenient Liverpool Airport.
I had thought, it would be easy to get a train between Burnley and Liverpool, as I’ve driven the route in the 1960s and it must have taken about two hours in my 1950s-vintage Morris Minor. So surely, there must be a train in about that time to speed me on my way, with a change at Preston.
If I was to do it today, I can do the journey in two hours and eight minutes with just that single change, but on Saturday, it’s a journey of two and a half hours changing at both Preston and Ormskirk. At least I end up in Liverpool at the station nearest to Carluccio’s, so there should be just time for a good late lunch and then a taxi to the Airport, from the rank next to the restaurant.
Fifty years on, we don’t seem to have made much progress!
Although things should get better in the next few years, as the Northern Hub spreads its electric tentacles.
Affordable Football At Watford For £15
Today, Ipswich play a home match against Bournemouth and the match will cost me a proportion of my season ticket and the rail fare. The minimum that I could do this for, is probably about forty-five pounds, although I pay more for better seats in the ground and on the train.
But on Saturday at Watford, my Senior Visitors ticket cost me just fifteen pounds, as transport to Watford was free, as Watford High Street station is accessible using my Freedom Pass.
So next season, when Ipswich are away in somewhere unattractive or inaccessible like Middlesbrough, Blackburn, Blackpool or Yeovil, I might look to see which teams are playing in London and buy myself an affordable away ticket, as often these are very reasonably-priced, judging by some of the tickets that I’ve bought this season.
Vicarage Road On The Up
I’ve probably seen Ipswich play at Watford, five or six times in the past and have always been struck at the dilapidated main stand to the left of where the visiting supporters sit.
This year though things are different, in that not only are the seats less rickety in the Away stand, but that a new stand is going up to the left.
Vicarage Road On The Up
One thing that wasn’t different was the result! I can’t remember ever seeing Ipswich win at Vicarage Road.
So Who Will Ipswich Be Playing In 2014-5?
I am assuming, that Ipswich at least manage to stay in the Championship next season. After all it is now impossible that they’ll get relegated. And they might go up to the Premiership! But only might!
At least it is unlikely that we will be playing Leicester, as it is not a ground of happy memories for me. Especially, as after one of our losses there, C told me she’d got breast cancer in the morning.
It looks like the other place to go up without a play-off will be either Burnley or Derby. I hope Burnley beat Wigan on Monday, as although I like going to Burnley and will do next Saturday, it is a long way to go for the day.
But who will be coming up to the Championship?
Wolves and Brentford are definitely up and as Molineux is one of my favourite stadia and Brentford is relatively local, I can’t complain there.
The others with chance of promotion would seem to be Leyton Orient, Rotherham, Preston and Peterborough. My preference is for the Orient, as they are local.
To The Football At Huddersfield
I arrived in Manchester on my trip from Southport at Piccadilly and had the long walk from Platform 13 to the main concourse to get the tram to my hotel. There are plans to put another two platforms here, so careful design must be used to avoid worsening a nightmare interchange.
I had a bath and then returned to Piccadilly for supper in Carluccio’s. This branch seems to be much faster than most and I’ve not missed a train yet there, due to a slow meal.
I nearly did this time though, as the next Huddersfield train left at 18:11 and I didn’t get to Platform 13 until 18:15. But the crowded train was late!
I was in my seat half-an-hour before the match started.
Ipswich won 2-0 and I was able to catch the 22:00 train back to Manchester, where I had a non-alcoholic nightcap in Carluccio’s.
I suspect that Piccadilly needs almost to create a new concourse linking the dreaded Platforms 13 and 14 and the proposed two new ones to the lines in the main station, at the far end of the station.
Let’s hope some of the UK’s best architects are working on creating a station fit for the twentieth century, let alone the twenty-first!
Will Ipswich Make The Play-Offs?
This looked extremely unlikely after David McGoldrick got injured a couple of months ago, but after three wins out of the last four games, it just could happen!
C would now be going on about the dreaded play-offs. I don’t know why she hated them so much, but it could be that it made me increasingly edgy.
But if they do make the play-offs, after last night’s win against Derby, where they gave away a goal in the first minute and didn’t score the winner until the last, they won’t do it the easy way!
It’ll probably be a roller-coaster ride all the way to Wembley! That’s if we get there!
Comfy Seats At The AMEX Stadium
The AMEX Stadium is one of the few in the country, that have comfy seats for all.
Comfy Seats At The AMEX Stadium
As you get free train travel in the price of tickets, surely the attitude of the club and the stadium design, did all this contribute to a full stadium.
Sadly for Brighton, Ipswich spoiled their party.
Why All The Fuss About David Moyes?
The phone-in on BBC Radio 5 this morning, is about David Moyes and his tenure at Manchester United!
I have been following and watching football for sixty years and I can name probably ten or even twelve very good or great managers, whose successors had problems. Those at the top level, who were followed by one who was equally good are extremely rare and the only one I can name is Bill Shankly at Liverpool.
But it’s not just in football, that the succession is a problem. Look at Kings and Queens, politics, Presidents and prime ministers and business leaders!
The only rule that seems to apply is that the more charismatic the leader, the bigger the problems.
So all those angry Manchester United supporters, should just remember than David Moyes’s problems are par for the course. Especially, when they have the example of Matt Busby.
Did Jack Warner Take A Bribe To Vote For Qatar?
It is being reported in the Telegraph, that Jack Warner took a bribe of over a million pounds to vote for Qatar in the bidding for the 2022 World Cup.
I file stories like this under the heading of Is The Pope A Catholic
The Anonymous Widower 