-The rail line that has been abandoned for decades and goes through Partington out towards Timperley will sadly remain abandoned for a while yet.
A bid to the ‘Restore your railway’ was submitted along with many others up and down the country, it was a delight that this line was chosen and passed stage one and two, sadly it was not chosen and now the abandoned rail line will continue to be that for the foreseeable future.
We have though seen plans though that the rail line will be a road for public transport and cycling, although plans at this stage as part of the redevelopment of Carrington.
Network Rail though class the line as ‘Live’ and could bring it back at a moments notice, however very unlikely, Sustrans the cycle charity once told us that they had been given the line and were making plans to bring it back to life as a cycle/walk path, this though fell through, similar to a business man in Irlam who had plans for steam trains, the last we heard was some legal things to sort out and the plans would be a reality.
Other plans seen suggested a rail depot could be built on land very close to the Heath Farm Lane housing development in Partington, or a route at the back of SAICA paper mill however it would be hard to link up with the track either over the bridge over Manchester Road, the possibility though to make a line turn and go under Manchester Road and then on to the route could be a good option since not much work needs to be done.
We would be open to anything, the idea of a rail line so long as it offered passenger services would be a good thing, having a cycle lane at the side even better, having a road again so long as a lane was given to cyclists would be a good one, having nothing is unacceptable since it will be the good people of Partington who will benefit the most in the coming years when all routes will be blocked due to traffic congestion.
You can view the winning bids here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/restoring-your-railway-fund-successful-bids
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