Hopes for an improvement to Southport’s rail links with Manchester and Lancashire have been deflated by a series of government announcements.

According to Cllr John Pugh, it’s the same old story of Westminster ignorance and indifference that is seeing Southport lose out.

The former MP, who has lobbied continuously for projects like the Burscough Curves stated: “I don’t believe that we are getting a serious hearing, just being strung along with vague and patronising waffle.”

In the last month, the government has announced a billion pound cutback in railway funding on funding to Transport for the North but made a £800 million pledge to restore the line Beeching cut between Oxford and Cambridge.

That £800 million is more than the entire £500 million the Tories claimed would be spent on Beeching restorations at the election and of course completely overlooks the Burscough Curves that would cost a small fraction of that price.

To make matters worse the result of the successful campaign begun under the Coalition to keep Southport’s business links with Manchester Piccadilly is now in danger of being reversed.

The Transport minister, Grant Shapps, has just launched a new consultation on “how best to improve Manchester’s railway” and one of the options under consideration is to cut out out our Piccadilly link - none of the options improve access to Southport.

“It is not unusual for southern based governments to overlook our needs,” said John Pugh, “what is new is the false assumption that we are stupid enough not to notice.”

Typical.....More money for the South, while the North can go whistle - duh!

So much for Boris's claims of "levelling up".

Now confirmed as a pack of empty waffle. Why should one ever trust the Tories?

Originally Posted by Nash

So much for Boris's claims of "levelling up".

Now confirmed as a pack of empty waffle. Why should one ever trust the Tories?

Similarly why would anyone bother getting a Lib Dem MP as it’s a protest vote at best. John Pugh unintentionally highlights how ineffective his time was for Southport at a national level as most of the decline was on his watch as MP.

So in the vain of “same old story” it’s just another politician blaming others to distract from what they achieved.

There does need to be levelling up but the libs are not the party to do this, their coalition behaviour shows that they’ll fold to the other party.

There will be no improvements to our rail links,it was always jam tomorrow under whatever government is in power.
It looks and sounds good as a press release but years later the situation is still the same

Originally Posted by Red devil

There will be no improvements to our rail links,it was always jam tomorrow under whatever government is in power.
It looks and sounds good as a press release but years later the situation is still the same

Just thank yourself lucky the full recommendations of the Beeching Report were not implemented or Southport would be 17 miles from the nearest Railway.

Originally Posted by Little Londoner

Just thank yourself lucky the full recommendations of the Beeching Report were not implemented or Southport would be 17 miles from the nearest Railway.

No...no i better not say it