Longest tunnel in Liverpool?

[pablo42]

Nice one WW. I've not seen any posts from you regarding the trams and the news they've been scrapped.

[Waterways]

Nice one WW. I've not seen any posts from you regarding the trams and the news they've been scrapped.

I wrote this on the Mersey Tram thread...........

Daily Post today...

MERSEYSIDE?S plans for a tram system have been ?virtually killed off? by the Government, a month after the scheme was formally revived.

Transport minister Sadiq Khan has written to civic leaders in Merseyside telling them they have missed a crucial funding window for the ?400m-plus Line One Liverpool to Kirkby.

He has warned transport authority Merseytravel and councils to ?look carefully at their continued development of the scheme?, which has already had more than ?70m spent on it without a single track having been laid.

He said there were other ways the objectives of the Merseytram scheme could be met and other key transport issues that needed addressing in Merseyside.

Liverpool Council leader Warren Bradley said: ?This letter virtually kills off Merseytram once and for all.?

Great news!!!!

Note: He said there were other ways the objectives of the Merseytram scheme could be met and other key transport issues that needed addressing in Merseyside.

A reference to extending Merseyrail metro? Click on the link in my sig, or this:
Click here

Merseytravel, by pursuing this ridiculous tram notion instead of extending Merseyrail onto existing disused rail infrastructure, have wasted a decade. They have to focus on Merseyrail now, starting designs to use the existing tunnels under the city.

If Merseytravel had focused on extending Merseyrail around 8 to 10 years ago instead of attempting to implement misplaced trams because Manchester had them and it was way of spending government money for the sake of it, we would have a rather more comprehensive rapid-transit metro system. This would have encouraged investment into the city as underground station have proven in London and other European cities.

At least a whole decade wasted. The Transport minister has virtually told them to drop any more wasting of time and money on the project and get sensible.

[pablo42]

Nice one WW. Do they now intend to do this or are they gonna sit back on the fence.

[Waterways]

Nice one WW. Do they now intend to do this or are they gonna sit back on the fence.

Who knows what these people are going to do. Merseytravel came up with a silly trams scheme when extending the metro onto existing infrastructure and mothballed lines made so much more sense. It was rightly cancelled because of incompetence of design - Line 1 was joke - and misuse of funds (?70 million already spent). Despite the political dig Martin on the other thread puts in, this government did approve the trams and only because of incompetence was it cancelled - if they did it right the trams would have been built by now - thank God they were so inept. All Merseytravel have done since cancellation in 2005 is tried to save face instead of getting on and focusing on need - which is expanding the metro into inner-city districts. These districts need a boost to get investment and out of the black hole which mass of government money is needed to keep them alive.

Merseytravel appear to be concerned with extending the outer perimeter of Merseyrail: Burscough Curves, Halton Curve, line to Skem, etc. The inner -cities need attention and they have tunnels and disused stations under them. That is where the focus should be. Sefton and Wirral opposed the trams because they got nothing from them. Any extension to Merseyrail benefits all as it is all one network. For e.g, a train could be run from West Kirby on the Wirral to St Helens, via Liverpool Centre. A train could be run from Southport to St Helens.

They need to:

1. Get the two long tunnels up and running.
2. The Canada Dock Branch Line up and running - if LFC build at Stanley Park.
3. Get the Outer Loop up and running with some stations as local hubs with local hopper bus connections.
4. Use the electrified Liverpool-Manchester Line for Merseyrail running east, to electrify all the network.
5. Get dual-voltage pick-up trains running through Mossley Hill - electric overhead lines are there.
6. Get a station into Liverpool John Lennon airport.
7. Introduce light-rail trains when renewal is up in a few years time - these can easily negotiate tight curves when extending into Liverpool and Wirral Waters, and easily over water spaces as London's Docklands Light Railway has proven.

Once all done then the Welsh may pay to electrify the Borderlands line and bring it onto Merseyrail.