St Helens rail travellers Up the Junction?

Northern Rail’s decision to introduce an extra 70 seats on the busiest evening train from Liverpool to St Helens has been welcomed by St Helens Green Party.

But Greens claim that commuters on the Liverpool-Manchester City Line, who are regularly forced to stand for the whole journey at peak times, will be disappointed not to get a share of the extra carriages the company is rolling out across the North-west.

St Helens Green Party spokesman, Francis Williams, explains:

“With the introduction of more than one million extra seats on some of the region’s busiest routes, Northern Rail are on the right track. But for some commuters from St Helens Junction and other local City Line stations such as Newton-le-Willows and Rainhill it’s a case of ‘I’m still standing’.

“Despite the announcement there remain thousands of frustrated rail users across the region. The government should ditch its £32billion High Speed Rail (HS2) fantasy and invest in local transport and improved links across the north-west and beyond for the benefit of local people, businesses and communities.”

Under the HS2 proposals, which are supported by St Helens Council through its Liverpool City Region partners, journey times between London and Birmingham will be reduced from the year 2026, and from 2033 between London and Manchester.

Francis Williams adds: 

“In these hard times, can hard-pressed people in St Helens really afford to be forking out a small fortune so that a few businessmen can shave a few minutes off the journey between London and Birmingham? Even if the line does eventually reach Manchester, and that’s a big if, then that’s where north-west businesses and jobs will head for – if they haven’t already gone south.

“The government is going to be asking an average £51million from every parliamentary constituency for this high speed link. That’s over £100million from St Helens taxpayers or the equivalent of £1,500 per household – money that could be spent on improving our public transport here and now, not wasted on vanity projects and vague promises of economic growth in 30 years time.

“If the government wants to improve our rail system, it should do something to cut journey times and improve infrastructure cross-country. The 200 mile train journey from St Helens Central to London Euston currently takes about 2 hours 50 minutes, yet it can take almost as long to get to Sheffield or Leeds.

“We have been in Merseyside for almost 40 years and yet services in and out of St Helens still lag behind the rest. Passengers want smart, comfortable electric trains, not ancient and rickety hand-me-down diesels. If nobody else is going to speak up for St Helens, we will."

St Helens Green Party also points out that HS2 trains will burn 50% more energy mile-for-mile than the Eurostar, produce more than twice the emissions of an intercity train and the track’s proposed 72 metre ‘no-vegetation zone’ means an area the size of Manchester will disappear under concrete.

Francis Williams adds:

“It’s hard to imagine a more environmentally damaging public transport scheme. HS2 will be environmentally damaging in its construction, its operation and its ongoing maintenance. It will be fuel and carbon hungry and also socially regressive, with the hard-up many paying for the fortunate few.”

St Helens Green Party is urging local residents to oppose HS2 through the government’s new e-petition page at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/353