TRAIN travel's very much back in vogue.

A number of stories we've covered at The Champion in the past few weeks show just how much the politicians are pushing for rail services across the region to move in the right direction, and in Ormskirk they've finally got something to show for it.




The town's newly revamped railway station (pictured) is hugely impressive, and where there used to be grubby floors and windy walkways are lots of curvy bits of wood and metal, and things that shine a lot.

So it's a shame the services themselves have still got a long way to go. Ormskirk's connection to Liverpool on the Merseyrail network is one of the most reliable in the country, but head the other way towards Preston and the trains themselves are infrequent, dated and stranded on a single track. It's Liverpool's most direct link with Preston, and it's being wasted.

If you get off at Burscough and take the 20-minute walk to West Lancashire's other main line - they still haven't been reconnected yet - you still find the dangerously outdated Pacer trains screeching their way between Southport and Manchester. Not only are they slow, noisy and not even slightly comfortable, a terrifying crash near Crewe a decade ago showed they're an accident waiting to happen.

With plans afoot to give Skelmersdale its long lost railway service back, maybe it's time for West Lancashire's movers and shakers to take another look at what's obviously a huge part of what drives the region.

Don't let the trains take the strain...

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