It was a surprise to discover the good news announced in the governments spending review on 21st October 2010 seemed to have no coverage. Here is what the chancellor said:
‘In the North West, we will invest in rail electrification between Manchester, Liverpool, Preston and Blackpool and we will provide funding for a new suspension bridge over the Mersey at Runcorn.’
Must admit that when it was first announced it appeared to be a stunt by the last government to get votes and there is no saying it’s still not a vote buyer. No dates have been announced but little detail was announced on many items. Presumably the transferring of rolling stock from London is still on the cards and probably offsets some of the cost. With the doubt over routing of the High Speed Train this is presumably a shorter term improvement and will enable a lot of service improvements by allowing electrified trains to travel between Manchester and Blackpool as well as to Scotland from Manchester and Blackpool from the south.