Some thoughtful soul has started a petition on the official UK Parliament petitions site calling for urgent implementation of the Castlefield corridor quadrupling project. Perhaps the most important part of the scheme is the two additional through platforms for Manchester Piccadilly. Unfortunately the petition doesn't seem to have reached a wide audience, with the 14th May deadline looming it has attracted only 657 signatures. I only found it because I happened to be signing another petition there and thought to have a look for any other worthy cases.
Sadly reaching the 100,000 signatures required for a debate in Parliament in around two weeks doesn't seem like a realistic prospect. But, could the collective might of the membership here circulate it widely enough to reach 10,000 (I'm sure many of you are on Facebook)? At 10,000 the government would have to respond to the petition, which one hopes would focus minds on unblocking this important project. Even if it doesn't go that high, getting to a few thousand might help.
I read something a few weeks back about red lines and shouty staff on platforms 13 & 14 due to fears passengers could spill over onto the tracks due to overcrowding. I'm not sure if that was an April fool, but even if it was there are some long-distance services passing through there. These shouldn't be turned into another Thameslink (passengers having to do long distances on a metro-style train) to keep the dwell times down when Network Rail have a solution in mind (extra platforms).
Sadly reaching the 100,000 signatures required for a debate in Parliament in around two weeks doesn't seem like a realistic prospect. But, could the collective might of the membership here circulate it widely enough to reach 10,000 (I'm sure many of you are on Facebook)? At 10,000 the government would have to respond to the petition, which one hopes would focus minds on unblocking this important project. Even if it doesn't go that high, getting to a few thousand might help.
I read something a few weeks back about red lines and shouty staff on platforms 13 & 14 due to fears passengers could spill over onto the tracks due to overcrowding. I'm not sure if that was an April fool, but even if it was there are some long-distance services passing through there. These shouldn't be turned into another Thameslink (passengers having to do long distances on a metro-style train) to keep the dwell times down when Network Rail have a solution in mind (extra platforms).