Oldest city line to go electric

The world's oldest inter-city railway line passes just north of Irlam and Cadishead across the enchanted Chat Moss. In a typical example British planning its only taken 150 years to modernise a line which connects two of Britain's largest cities. Of course this line was scheduled for improvement in the 1970s until Thatch got into power. Now Britain has a public transport to match any found in the Third World (apart from India, where rail transport is vastly superior). The decision comes shortly after Peel's successful planning application to construct a spur from the line to handle freight traffic heading to their planned port facility at Barton.The benefits to the town however will be minimal, other than slightly reduced noise and pollution across the Moss. The proposal to reopen the old Altrincham/Wigan line and the defunct Cadishead station, a victim of the Beeching Report, seem to have disappeared into a black hole of other infrastructure improvements proposed for the area.

Source: BBC NEWS | England | Oldest city line to go electric

Section 27 - now you know

Irlam, believe it or not, or more specifically the Railway Pub has found itself at the centre of an international debate on civil liberties. This relates to the well documented case of a group of Stoke City fans en route to Old Trafford. As many away fans can testify, it is customary these days to stop at a suburban pub miles from the away ground because of drink restrictions. Often it is not possible to go to a pub, as police insist you travel straight to and from the ground without stepping foot outside the stadium car park.

Section 27 was introduced (or rather sneaked onto the statute books, in 2006 as a reaction to concern over alcohol related violence. The law gives police the power to enforce the removal of any group or individual from a specified area for up to 48 hours.

However, the police seem to be waywardly using this power to target football fans in particular even when there is no suggestion of alcohol related violence, as would seem to be the case in Irlam. Section 27 eats at the very heart of British freedom - undermining any notion of innocent until proved guilty. But the ordinary British folk are now only beginning to feel the wrath of a progression of measures to control the movement of working class people - dating back to the outlawing of secondary picketing and restrictions placed on ravers and travellers in the 1980s to New Labour's Asbos. People are being denied basic rights on the basis of what they might do, not on what they have done (supported by evidence of the facts).

The police have been roundly criticised for their actions in Irlam and elsewhere. Following on from the terrors of the G20 protest in London, never has it been more necessary to police the police. But with Anti-terror legislation, ID cards, the illegalisation of even taking a photograph of the police - even policing the police may become an offence.

What is most annoying, is that I actually find myself agreeing with that spurious rag, the Daily Mail. Atlee and Bevan must be spinning in their graves!


Source:JAMES SLACK: Now this Kafkaesque State is even targeting sport. Will this clamp down on our liberty ever end? | Mail Online: "Section 27"

Port plan could create 2,000 jobs

The planning decision everyone has been waiting for has finally come, with approval of Peel's inland port on over 100ha of unmanaged openspace between Irlam and Barton. The scale of this development is huge, parking for a 1000 vehicles, a new rail spur across Barton Moss, 4 600m railway sidings, 180,000 sq m of warehousing, 8 25m loading gantries. Romantically the development restablishes the city as a port, and undoubtedly will impact on regional development. However, important improvements to the surrounding road infrastructure, such as a connection to the M62 and a new road bridge across the canal at Cadishead are no longer part of the planning application. A new road bridge linking the port to the Trafford Centre (another Peel development) will be created along with a complex reworking (again) of the M60 high level section. In other words, the transport plan for this development is a dog's dinner - a typically British approach of build it first, and then spend decades trying to sort the infrastructure. In a normal country, this development would not start until the surrounding access and transport issues had been dealt with first. However, the financial and political expediences of the regional governance regime take priority.

Source: Port plan could create 2,000 jobs - News - Manchester Evening News

Australian traffic flows to ITIS

ITIS was formed in 1997 and principally provides real-time traffic and travel information over mobile phone networks and the Web

Based in Altrincham, the company operates widely across the globe including Barcelona, Baltimore, Missouri, Belgium, Israel; Australia, Prague, Ireland, South Africa and Asia. The company operates a data analysis centre in Irlam which provides information, for example, to Australians about traffic movement.

Source: Australian traffic flows to ITIS - Business - News - Manchester Evening News