Wire and gantry overdose at Blackpool North
Regarding the picture of the reopened Blackpool North station ( RAIL 851): the electrification work is now completed with a new layout of (six) platforms, but the picture shows two rather old and tatty diesel trains using the platforms.
And I am rather amazed when looking at the gantry arrangements for the new electric wires. Is this over-engineering? I also feel rather sorry for the good people of the local area who have to look at these gantries and wires day in and day out - one man’s improvement is another man’s eyesore.
No wonder that many people in other parts of the UK are rather concerned as to what railway electrification will bring to them. Imagine all these gantries and wires in Sydney Gardens, in Bath!
Still, it is pleasing that we are going ‘back to the future’ in the North, with new trains consisting of engines and coaching stock, with increased passenger capacity.
I used to travel across the Pennines in the 1982-86 period (Liverpool to Newcastle), on a service with five passenger coaches and a diesel engine. In 2004, this service had been reduced to a two-coach Sprinter jam-packed with passengers.
It is high time the capacity issue outside of London in peak hours was addressed. The last time I saw Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham on TV, he was stood at Manchester station with a one-car train rolling into view behind him.
Solving much of the capacity problem outside of London and the South East does not require ‘rocket science’, nor loads of engineering money, nor HS3! A J Slatter, Reigate