IT'S now almost seven years since £6m was spent removing the Victorian interior of Blackburn railway station and turning it into something we were told was more fitting for the 21st century.
And for the past seven winters passengers travelling west to Preston and Blackpool or south to Darwen, Bolton and Manchester have had stand in driving wind and rain on bleak platform 4 - unless they were fortunate enough to be able to squeeze into the tiny, door-less bus shelter which is the only way of escaping the elements.
Quite why the domed canopy that formed the centrepiece of the 2001 revamp didn't cover what is probably the busiest platform at the station has never been coherently explained by Network Rail.
advertisement
It seems symptomatic of a lack of joined-up thinking which has shunted our railways into a siding so that they lag woefully behind most of the rest of Europe.
Now only after years of lobbying are we about to get what should have been in the original renovation - for a further £1.5million!
The urgently-needed £8m worth of work to upgrade the single track between East Lancashire and Manchester must not be allowed similarly to fall by the wayside for years in this lazy fashion.
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
Comment
