FELLOW Champ reporter Jim Sharpe’s piece on plans to serve a Maghull prison with a new railway station got me thinking; why not add a few other ideas as well?

The region’s railways - or the lack of them - are a big issue, particularly if you live in Skelmersdale, where you haven’t been able to catch a train since the Sixties. It’s also something that as a journalist I’m actually quite interested in covering, and the reason why I’m waiting on the words of any campaigners, councillors and politicians who might have something relevant to say on the subject.

Yet, as regular Champion readers will know, any projects to do with the rail network are likely to be either late departures, or worse, cancelled altogether. The Burscough Curves, for instance, is a scheme with trackbed already in place, support from across the political spectrum, and coverage in our paper dating back long before I joined the paper. Amount of track actually laid down? Er, none.

That’s why I’m not holding my breath for my own suggestion for a railway station - the currently unused Park and Ride site in Kew, on the outskirts of Southport.

Every time I go past it in the car, I see the signs politely explaining that it’s not being used at the moment, largely because not enough motorists want to get out of their cars and onto a shuttle bus into the town centre. But every time I go past it on the train - and the Southport line to Manchester runs right past it - I see a missed opportunity.

Stick a small train station at that exact point of the line, reopen the Park and Ride, throw in a couple of bus services going to places other than Southport town centre (one colleague’s already suggested a shuttle service to Edge Hill, to cut down on their parking problems), and presumably watch the punters pull in. As a link between Southport town centre, Kew and the wider north west, it’d be brilliant. The powers that be could even pinch Liverpool’s ideas and christen it Southport Parkway.

Any cheques from Network Rail for my brilliant idea to the usual Champion address, please.

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