Lancashire and Cumbria Route Utilisation Strategy 2008
Lancashire and Cumbria Route Utilisation Strategy August 2008 Foreword I am delighted to present Network Rail’s Route There are currently aspirations for a service Utilisation Strategy (RUS) for Lancashire and between Southport, Preston and Ormskirk. Cumbria, which considers issues affecting This is partly facilitated by work to enhance the railway in this part of the country over the track and signalling between Preston and next decade and gives a view on longer-term Ormskirk, which will allow a standard hourly issues in the years beyond. service pattern with improved journey times but without the need for more rolling stock. Getting to this stage has involved following a now well-established process. However, there Services into Sellafield during peak hours are two key differences with this strategy. suffer from overcrowding, though Northern The first is that no part of the area it covers Rail’s anticipated service from December is the responsibility of either a Passenger 2008 will address that to a degree. It is Transport Executive or a regional body with important services on this route firstly cater public transport responsibilities. Secondly, for peak traffic at Sellafield and Barrow, with the challenge usually faced when producing services outside the peak being on as close a RUS, that of insufficient capacity to meet to an hourly pattern as possible. current or future demand, is not a major A number of consultation responses were problem here. As a result, this strategy received regarding a direct service between focuses on how to make the best use of Manchester and Burnley, including a report what is already available.
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