Yesterday, 9th Dec, the Chancellor stood up in Parliament and said in his pre-budget announcement;
‘I can tell the House today that I have also given the go-ahead to further plans for rail electrification between Liverpool, Manchester and Preston. The SoS for Transport will announce further details shortly.’
This has been widely interpreted in the Preston region as meaning the line between Preston, Bolton and Manchester will be electrified.
Some are saying it will happen within 4 years. Others are saying it might mean the line between Manchester and Liverpool with the link into the West Coast Main Line. Even more extreme, others are saying plans have the go-ahead not the actual work.
Then there are the pre-election conspiracy theorists who see the line going through key Labour seats but in reality it being a pointless piece of electrification that won’t happen.
It does appear most trains on this line go on to non-electrified lines that weren’t mentioned, such as Preston – Blackpool, Oxenholme – Windermere, Manchester – Buxton. So unless a re-jig of the services is afoot it isn’t clear that this will be any more than a diversion line and only benefitting Manchester – Scotland trains. That would only need the extra line just south of Wigan electrifying not the Preston to Bolton section.
The full pre-budget statement appeared to contain more proposed spending than you would expect in an almost bankrupt economy so the conspiracy theorists have some credibility.
A full statement is promised next week, so we look forward to that with a mixture of optimism and scepticism.