MPs join forces to improve rail links
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have formed a crossparty PS from Southport and Lan@jamie_lopez1cashire alliance in a bid to restore the Burscough Curves rail links.
Conservative politicians including Southport MP Damien Moore, South Ribble MP Katherine Fletcher, Lancashire County Council Leader Geoff Driver have joined forces with Labour MP Sir Mark Kendrick and Rosie Cooper and submitted a business case to the Government to restore the Burscough Curves, which were axed during the infamous Beeching Cuts during the 1960s.
Restoring the links would allow better rail connections between the likes of Southport, Ormskirk and Preston and those campaigning claim it would “recreate a relatively low cost rail project that would restore flexibility for passengers and add valuable options to direct travel across West Lancashire”.
Mr Moore is now calling for further unity in the campaign after Sefton Council Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr John Pugh warned that the odds are stacked against the plan ever coming to fruition.
Cllr Pugh, who was formerly Southport MP and has spent a long time lobbying for the reinstatement, argued that the complexity of the plan and number of different agencies required to work together may make it unworkable.
He also suggested that the amount of money earmarked for Beeching restorations would not be great enough to achieve all the proposed projects, especially considering many local efforts and resources are being focused on efforts to create a Skelmersdale rail link.
Cllr Pugh said: “It will need a very strong signal from the government to bring things together.
“I am by nature an optimist but we all need to recognise that restoring the Curves will be a hard project to pull off.
“At the moment the government seem to think links to Skelmersdale are more important than links to Southport.”
He added: “I am by nature a bit of an optimist, but a project like this is like knitting fog.
“There are too many agencies involved, there are two few big players in our corner.
Mr Moore disagreed with those comments, saying that a “very strong team of regional MPs and council leaders” were working together on the project.
MHe said: “We have all been pushing this scheme with Ministers and with Civil Servants in the Department For Transport.
“We have also enjoyed great support from the Ormskirk Preston and Southport Travellers’ Association.
“Together we have put together and submitted a very strong business case which I am confident will tick all of the boxes in terms of the viability of the scheme, its environmental impact and much more besides.
“Restoring the Burscough Curves will dramatically improve rail connections not just between places such as Southport, Preston and Ormskirk but further beyond, up to Scotland, further strengthening links with the Union.
“Southport is well known for its outstanding events. We host a brilliant Southport Flower Show, Southport Air Show, Southport Comedy Festival, Southport Food and Drink Festival, as well as having great attractions such as Southport Pleasureland, The Atkinson, Southport and Ainsdale beaches, and Southport Pier.
“We now need to ensure that we have the ability to be able to bring more people into Southport. We have to assert ourselves to become the premier North West coastal resort. Southport businesses can then do what they do best, which is to wow visitors when they arrive. “We have got a very positive agenda. “I am not saying this is going to be easy, but we are all determined that this will happen.”