Liverpool to Gdansk
I’ve flown out of a lot of the UK’s bigger airports in my own aircraft like Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Cardiff, Bristol and Liverpool, several times. But compared to say Edinburgh, where I flew many times, my single visit to Liverpool doesn’t rate high up the number scale.
But it was a memorable trip for one big reason; the weather.
I’d been to collect my eldest son and fly him back to Suffolk. The terminal was then small and you can just see it in this picture I took as my flight left for Gdansk.
The Leaving Of Liverpool
Then it was a small red and grey steel prefabrication. Now the terminal is many times bigger.
The weather on this trip was good, as the picture shows.
But on that day, we had to wait two or three hours to get a gap in the weather so we could take off.
When we did leave, we had tremendous thunder and lightning and it was a fight to keep the plane straight and level.
But we eventually made it back to Ipswich Airport, which now has been lost to developers and their concrete. Mainly because Ipswich’s geriatric Labour council at the time seemed to believe that private flying was all about rich mens’ toys. Despite the fact that the airport housed one of the biggest parachute training schools in the south of England.
I sometimes think that my life would be very different if Ipswich Airport hadn’t been closed.
The flight to Gdansk from Liverpool was uneventful, even if the Wizzair A320 was rather hot. But I made it off the plane with no problem.
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.
Countryfile Is Showing The Gormley Statues
Just watching Countryfile and it’s showing the Gormley statues on Crosby Beach.
My Poor Boots
I took this picture when I got home yesterday.
My Poor Boots
The sand from the walk on the beach just doesn’t seem to drop off!
Why Wasn’t The Picc-Vic Tunnel Built?
The Picc-Vicc Tunnel, which would have been a rail bypass under Manchester. Having experienced the tunnel under Liverpool,earlier in the day, I was wondering, why a similar tunnel hadn’t been built in Manchester.
On the way back from Huddersfield to Manchester, I was discussing with several Huddersfield fans, how the Northern Hub would affect their journeys. All seemed to be welcoming the upgrade, so I asked why the Picc-Vicc tunnel wasn’t built.
One guy, said that he’d been to a lecture at the local historical society. He said that British Rail and the government were planning three tunnels in the 1970s; Liverpool, Manchester and the Tyneside Metro.
So because of cost, one had to be dropped, and Manchester was chosen.
As we’re getting much better with tunnels every year, I wouldn’t say that the Picc-Vicc tunnel is dead. Crossrail was on the back-burner for so long, no-one ever thought it would happen!
Could we for instance see a tunnel under part of Manchester for HS2?
On To Southport And Manchester
I don’t ever remember ever going to Southport and I certainly have never been there by train. I took these pictures as I finished my trip to Manchester after my walk on the beach.
It is a pleasant route and as Merseyrail don’t seem too bothered if you break your journey, it is an interesting excursion, with lots of opportunities for a walk.
Note in the pictures approaching Manchester the new electrification work.
Is this line from Manchester to Southport one of those extra lines that will eventually be electrified under the developing plans for the Northern Hub? It must have strong claims as Southport is a town of 90,000 people and is still a major resort for the beach and golf. It certainly has a clean modernised station, which almost uniquely is in the main shopping street. It also already hosts electric trains, so it might be an easy line to upgrade.
In Wikipedia’s article on the Manchester to Southport line, there is this paragraph.
Additionally Network Rail has identified electrification of Wigan to Southport, together with Ormskirk to Preston Line and the Burscough Curves as a possible source of new services.
So it looks like Network Rail is on the job.
Upgrading the Ormskirk to Preston line would enable better Liverpool to Preston services and the curves would help all services in the area, according to campaigners.
A Walk Along The Beach
I took the Nortern line to Blundellsands and Crosby station from where I walked along the beach and the promenade to Hall Road station.
It was an easy walk of a couple of kilometres, although it was extremely windy.
I was reminded of the story Jimmy Edward told of eating a sandwich on a horse in a high wind, when he missed and took a large bite of ,moustache instead, as I tried to eat my lunch in the small amount of shelter on the promenade.
I was able to get close to Antony Gormley‘s figures called Another Place. I liked them and so did a couple of local dog walkers. On the rest of my trip, I said I’d been to see them several times and everybody I spoke to, said that they liked them!
As the trains run every fifteen minutes, you shouldn’t have to wait long for a train, at the end of your walk.
My only regret was that I didn’t walk it in a Southerly direction, as that way, I would have been blown along in just a few minutes.
Liverpool’s Cross City Underground Railway
Liverpool is unique outside London in that railways on two sides of the city are connected underneath the city with a tunnel. This the Northern line that links the north and south. To get to this line I took the loop of the Wirral line between Liverpool Lime Street and Central stations. I took these pictures as I changed trains.
The trains these days are Class 507, which date from the late 1970s and the slightly younger Class 508. However they have been refurbished and are not of the standard you would expect from an over thirty-year-old train. I’ve travelled on them several times in the last few years and I can’t remember being in a dirty train or one with bits hanging off.
I often decry railway engineering of the 1960s and 1970s, but Liverpool’s Underground lines seems to be something that British Rail got right.
Surprisingly, this was the first time that I have used the Northern line and quite frankly, I was impressed. It has the feel of the Northern City line, that I sometimes use near my home in London. But it is a bit more upmarket with refreshed trains and stations.
Liverpool To Manchester By The Scenic Route
My objective was to get to Huddersfield to see Ipswich play and then spend the night in Manchester before returning to London Wednesday.
Arriving in Liverpool Lime Street station just after mid-day I picked up some gluten-free sandwiches in M&S and then made my way to Southport taking in the Anthony Gormley statues on the way.
I then took a train from Southport to Manchester Piccadilly.
A Ticket To Ride For £7.85
All of this cost me just £7.85 and the guy who sold me the ticket said I could get on and off as I required.
The Anonymous Widower 