100 signatures reached
To: Network Rail
Save the very first railway from destruction.
The future of the first inter-city passenger railway is under threat.
Network Rail plan to sever this 185 year old train line, which connects the first and oldest surviving railway station to the rest of the railway network, as part of a wider rail improvement scheme. This railway is a remarkable part of our global history, which should continue as a fully functional railway: this is LIVING history.
We ask National Rail to:
- Withdraw from the expensive legal wrangling they are engaged in to try and push this plan through.
- Revert to a plan which protects the Liverpool and Manchester railway and it's station.
- Propose that the line and station in become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so they can be properly protected.
Sign today and help save the first ever railway!
Network Rail plan to sever this 185 year old train line, which connects the first and oldest surviving railway station to the rest of the railway network, as part of a wider rail improvement scheme. This railway is a remarkable part of our global history, which should continue as a fully functional railway: this is LIVING history.
We ask National Rail to:
- Withdraw from the expensive legal wrangling they are engaged in to try and push this plan through.
- Revert to a plan which protects the Liverpool and Manchester railway and it's station.
- Propose that the line and station in become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so they can be properly protected.
Sign today and help save the first ever railway!
Why is this important?
The future of the very first inter-city passenger railway, which opened on 15th September 1830, is under threat. The Manchester Liverpool Road railway station is where it all began: from the railways of old, which made our modern civilisation possible, to the railways of the today, which provide the sustainable transport needed to combat climate change.
This incredible part of our international history, with its grade 1 and 2* listed buildings, is in essence, a working station, though it is cared for by the Museum of Science and Industry. It is still connected to the National Rail Network: you can visit the station today, on a real steam train, just as people have done for the past 185 years.
Network rail want to change that: as part of an otherwise welcome scheme to connect Manchester Victoria to Manchester Piccadilly, they plan to sever the line. The very first railway will no longer BE a railway: just a museum piece, nothing more.
Part of a depressing wider trend of poor strategy and planning, slow obliteration of Northern history and culture and legal wrangling over common sense issues at the tax payers expense, this case involves a 3 million pound "deal" with the Museum of Science and Industry who have abandoned their responsibility to protect this site and a crass lack of respect by National Rail for the history of their own raison d'etre.
This incredible part of our international history, with its grade 1 and 2* listed buildings, is in essence, a working station, though it is cared for by the Museum of Science and Industry. It is still connected to the National Rail Network: you can visit the station today, on a real steam train, just as people have done for the past 185 years.
Network rail want to change that: as part of an otherwise welcome scheme to connect Manchester Victoria to Manchester Piccadilly, they plan to sever the line. The very first railway will no longer BE a railway: just a museum piece, nothing more.
Part of a depressing wider trend of poor strategy and planning, slow obliteration of Northern history and culture and legal wrangling over common sense issues at the tax payers expense, this case involves a 3 million pound "deal" with the Museum of Science and Industry who have abandoned their responsibility to protect this site and a crass lack of respect by National Rail for the history of their own raison d'etre.
