The West of Lancashire CRP held their quarterly management group meeting on Tuesday 12th July 2022. The meeting was held online and representatives from Community Rail Lancashire, train operators Northern & TransPennine Express, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), Sefton Council, West Lancashire Borough Council, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and the South East Lancashire CRP were present.
Richard Watts, secretary of the CRP presented the latest Activity Plan and highlighted a number of points:
+ Richard spoke about the last Community Rail Executive Group (ComREG) meeting and in particular about the Bentham Line’s Year in Industry students project about Access for All and the launch of a new booklet. https://thebenthamline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/access-guide.pdf
+ Richard also mentioned that the ComREG meeting had talked about problems across the North of England with anti-social behaviour and that a working group is to be formed.
+ Also mentioned Northern’s ‘Stations as a Place’ project and asked for any suggestions about the future use of stations.
+ Richard also spoke about the changes to the Lancashire triangle services and that from December 2022 the South Fylde Line will become a ‘stand-alone’ service and the Ormskirk & Colne services will be linked. The services will continue to use platforms 3C & 4C at Preston and work is under way to brighten up this dismal part of the station.
+ Richard also spoke about the various Friends of Stations groups and their continued excellent work, including distribution of the mini timetables. The cycle shelter at Rufford station has recently seen some artwork unveiled that highlights the new path to Mere Sands Wood.
The full Quarterly Activity Report can be down loaded on this link: WoLCRP Activity Update
Owain Roberts & Simon Abbott from Northern gave an update including details of post covid demand on the routes, performance, the latest on the industrial action, community rail matters and the launch of Northern’s ‘Blue Plaques Map’. The full presentation can be downloaded on this link: Northern Update