The First Shoots Of Electrification
Huyton lies on the original route of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and you pass through Rainhill, where the trials were synonymous with the Stephenson’s Rocket, on your way to Manchester. As you travel you notice the pylons for the electrification of the line by the trackside.
It reminds me of watching as a child, as the pylons started to be added to the Great Eastern Main Line electrification was extended to Chelmsford and Colchester in the 1950s and 1960s.
There is one big difference. The modern pylons are much stronger than those of the past. Hopefully, these will cure some of the overhead wiring problems encountered on some of the lines electrified in the last century.
Huyton Station
To get to Manchester from Preston, you can go directly to Manchester Victoria, but I wanted to go to Eccles to see the start of the electrification of the lines in the area.
I changed trains at Huyton on the edge of Liverpool.
A Train Leaves Huyton For Liverpool
The station is a bit different to when I used it years ago in about 1965. At the time, I was in digs in the area, whilst studying at Liverpool University and went there once to catch a train into the city. I think I may have cycled there from my digs, but I have no memory of the details.
But it wasn’t the smart station it is today. Although Wikipedia says here it will be getting better. it will in a couple of years be on a fully electrified line between Liverpool and Manchester, with four platforms instead of just two.
Lots Of Taxis But No Buses
I felt hungry, so I felt the best thing to do was move on towards Manchester, as there didn’t appear any good coffee or gluten-free snacks. This greeted me as I walked back to Preston station.
Lots Of Taxis But No Buses
Is this the cause of the city’s bus problems at the rail station? Moving the taxi rank to the side would allow buses to call at the station properly. But then rule one in planning traffic around railway stations and city centres is not to annoy the taxi drivers. and as I suspect many taxis are driven by ethnic minorities, rule two is not to annoy ethnic minorities.
But something must be done in Preston to make the city centre more viable. With a proper interchange at the station, it might encourage the use of buses to get to the outlying towns around the city. At present I suspect, that you have no excuse but to drive.
As a coeliac, Preston is a place, I wouldn’t put on a list of places to change trains. the only restaurant I know there, that I’d trust to do gluten-free well is Pizza Express.
The best thing about Preston was the train I took to Huyton.
Wayfinding In Preston
Preston didn’t offer much in the way of information to help walkers. Typical was this finger post and map.
Signposts and Maps In Preston
It’s not even as good as it looks, as some of the fingers weren’t pointing in the right direction.
Preston Bus Station
Preston Bus Station is a classic 1960s building in a brutalist style. I decided to visit, when I heard about the rows raging around the building as I discussed here.
The council has a problem in that the building needs a lot of repairs and have proposed its demolition. But there is a heritage lobby opposed to this and so the row is set to continue. The building has now been given a Grade 2 listing.
I quite liked the building and it does seem to my untutored eye that it does need a bit of work to be done.
But you can’t help but think that the building has problems that refurbishment won’t solve.
If you take the best train-bus interfaces in the country like Barnsley, Canning Town and now Kings Cross, the bus station at Preston is not in the right place for those arriving in the city by train. It’s akin to expecting passengers arriving at Kings Cross to walk to Euston to get a bus. They wouldn’t and I suspect in Preston they don’t!
So I come to the reluctant conclusion, that the bus station should be knocked down, despite the fact I like the building a lot.
The only way to save it, would be to create an innovative solution perhaps using a free bus that connects the rail and bus stations via the main shopping street.
But I suspect that has been looked at and discarded.
Incidentally, I wasn’t the only visitor interested in the bus station. There were perhaps three others photographing the building.
Buses In Preston
I arrived in Preston and found this information board and bus stop map at the station.
Bus Information In Preston
But it was a start and is so much better than you get in many places.
However, the stop I needed to use to get to the bus station is on the other side of a busy road. How’s that for joined up thinking?
The Bus Stop At Preston Station
So it had a seat and a litter bin, but the light controlled crossing was some distance away. Why wasn’t the stop for the bus to the bus station actually inside the entrance to the station? The whole station entrance road seemed to be full of taxis waiting for not many passengers in the middle of the morning
Getting on the bus was the usual palaver of taking your ticket out putting it flat on the machine and then being issued with a pointless ticket. Why do bus companies outside London not have a touch and go system that recognises free bus passes, like London does? Or even one, that allows you to show your ticket to the driver, as you do in London with a British Rail ticket with an added London Travelcard?
The bus was one of those single entry/exit types and I was the only passenger, although a lot had got out at the station.
All Alone Am I
How does a driver organise someone getting out in a wheelchair, at the same time as someone with twins in a double buggy gets in, on these outdated single door buses? It always puzzles me, that new buses as this one undoubtedly was, are still built this way!
But at least it got me to the bus station!
Are East Midlands Trains Serious About Running Trains?
Although, I’m an Ipswich Town supporter, I live in London, a short bus or Underground ride from Kings Cross and St. Pancras stations. So as this week, Ipswich are playing at Derby and Sheffield Wednesday, you’d think it would logical that tomorrow, I go to Derby and on Saturday I go to Sheffield from St. Pancras.
You would be wrong!
As there is no direct return train from Derby back to St. Pancras, I decided to go via Preston and Manchester to Derby, as I have things I want to see for this blog and someone to meet in Manchester. The latter solves my supper problem, as we’re meeting in Carluccio’s in Piccadilly. I can also get an excellent gluten-free breakfast on Virgin trains on the way up.
I did think about staying overnight in the Travelodge by Derby station, but after trying to buy a ticket to get back on Wednesday morning, I decided that the prices on offer, were just too steep. Other similar distance journeys, early in the morning to London, were certainly cheaper than those on offer from East Midland Trains.
So I decided to get home via Birmingham and Virgin Trains for £22.00 after the match. And that includes First Class from Birmingham to Euston. But I do get into London at 01:30 on Wednesday morning.
On Saturday, I’m going to Sheffield via Lincoln, as I have an old friend I want to see and can get a train from Lincoln to Sheffield. It’s not as roundabout as you’d think.
But I’ve done this before, as last time, I went to Sheffield Wednesday, I went via Doncaster, as the First Class on East Coast, is so much better than that on East Midland Trains.
Greater Anglia Get It Together
I travel to Ipswich regularly to see Ipswich Town play.
My last two tickets cost me £34.95 and that was made up by buying a Senior ticket from the Zone 6 boundary (Harold Wood) to Ipswich and then upgrading it to First.
Yesterday’s ticket was much simpler in that it was a Senior First Class ticket all the way and back for £32.60.
I’ve just looked it up the 19th of October, when Ipswich play Burnley and I can now buy one on-line for £32.60.
it also looks like that for a Tuesday night match, I can get an Off-Peak First Return to Ipswich for the same price, provided I leave before 16:30. I don’t remember that being possible before. i could of course be wrong. The only returns to Ipswich I can find in my credit card statements are £34.95.
It looks like the price has got down for me and I’ll now be able to avoid the queues at Liverpool Street station on a Saturday morning, by buying my ticket on-line. I’ll also have time for a proper lunch before I travel.
That’s progress.
I’ve never found any fault with the staff on the trains to Ipswich, but today they seemed to have gone up a gear in cheeriness. The steward was also offering more than the usual single complimentary drink with your First Class ticket.
I have no complaints and let’s hope it all gets even better.
For instance, it is known that Herculean efforts are sometimes needed to keep the Class 90 locomotives on top form. As passengers generally like the smooth riding Mark 3 coaches, could a small injection of the new Class 88 locomotives, allow some Norwich services to be extended to Great Yarmouth, as they used to be in the past. Would they also enable proper trains to be run to Bury St. Edmunds and Lowestoft?
Roll On 2016
I saw this article in Global Rail News, about Eurostar starting services between London and Amsterdam in 2016.
About time too!
The Anonymous Widower 