2008 is a big year for Southport.
There’s The Open at Royal Birkdale while other events, such as Southport Flower Show, Southport Summer Classics and Southport Air Show – not to mention nearby events such as the Grand National – will also help to bring millions of visitors to our town.
European Capital of Culture celebrations in Liverpool will also be a huge driver for us.
And local tourism chiefs are already preparing for a marketing blitz proclaiming our home town as ‘the North West’s Classic Resort’.
But will visitors get that immediate impression when they arrive here?
A bus and rail interchange was one of the key elements of the £4million Chapel Street redevelopment scheme when it was announced. But it was very quietly dropped from the schedule of work.
Now we learn that bus passengers displaced from Chapel Street will be catered for with a quick redesign of London Street, with ‘no immediate plans’ for a bus and rail interchange in sight.
People living in Ormskirk and Preston will continue to have difficulty in reaching us, with the Burscough Curves re-opening campaign still falling on deaf ears, while the quality (and many commuters tell us) reliability of trains from Manchester and Wigan dreadful.
Thankfully work is currently being undertaken to give the ugly carbuncle that is Southport station a timely facelift. And over the past few years, Merseytravel has done wonders in improving the quality of rail services between Liverpool and Southport.
However, while they have spent fortunes on creating a top quality bus interchange at Bootle Strand, and revamped stations such as Aintree, Old Road, Bootle Oriel Road and Birkdale, Southport station is a phenomenally busy transport gateway – used by 1.5million passengers a year – and it should be a priority for complete redevelopment, rather just given a new look.
People using public transport both within, and also to and from Southport deserve so much better.
Let’s hope that the phrase ‘first impressions last’ in this case proves to be a myth.
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B. Brown wrote...
Did we really believe them when they said we might get a bus interchange? No I don't think so. How can they when they have spent all the money on Bootle Oriel Road and Birkdale.
It would be interesting to know what the footfall is at these two stations compared to that of Southport Station.
Yes they are improving Southport Station. I noticed the new flagging which is far superior to the old, but will the 'MtoGo' really facilitate people in the way that the 2 kiosks did.
There is very little chose in magazine, but as long as you only want crisps or cold drinks then you are ok. the area set aside for the hot drinks machine is an accident waiting to happen.
Also, who is going to queue behind a passenger making enquiries about a ticket price when all they want is a bottle of pop?
The powers that be obviously don't think that we, here in Southport, are worth anything more.
Posted by: B. Brown | December 3, 2007 6:04 PM