Now Reopen the Woodhead Line!

A57/A628 Mottram-Tintwistle Bypass funding rejected

Courtesy of an email from one of my fellow comrades, I am proud to announce one ‘No’ vote which will have greater benefits than that of The Car Lobby v. The New Trams.  It is of great pleasure for me to announce that the North West Regional Development Agency and 4NW has rejected funding for the Mottram – Tintwistle bypass.

The bypass would cut through the heart of Swallows Wood and Arnfield Reservoir, which would lead to degradation of the environment, increased noise pollution and traffic fumes.  Among the successful lobbiests against the bypass were Save Swallows Wood and the Tameside Nine Towns Green Party.

Estimated costs for the bypass increased from £184 million in July 2007, reaching £223 to £315 million by June 2008.  Emma Lawrence from Save Swallow’s Wood stated “Of all the schemes being proposed Mottram Tintwistle was the most expensive and the most environmentally damaging. This is the first time a sensible decision has been made relating to the bypass and is a real cause for optimism amongst campaigners”.

The Tameside Nine Towns Green Party also support proposals to extend the proposed Piccadilly – Droylsden Metrolink line to Glossop, with extensions to Denton and new rolling stock.

A good move I say, but I reckon we should seriously think of reopening the Woodhead line.

Closed under the Thatcher led Conservative government in August 1981, the Woodhead line was considered as a trunk route for bulk freight in Dr Beeching’s ‘The Reshaping of the Railways’.  Reopening the Woodhead line would potentially bring improved links with Sheffield and Barnsley from the Tameside area, assuming Guide Bridge becomes an intermediate station for Sheffield bound trains.  The current journey from Manchester to Barnsley by rail involves changing at Huddersfield for the Penistone line (which is no bad thing if you love scenic routes but not speedy travel) – at least 90 – 120 minutes – compared with up to 90 minutes by road.

The Woodhead line could also be a suitable diversionary route for East Midlands Trains services to Norwich, whilst the Hope Valley line is closed for engineering works.  This could avoid the need for reversal at Sheffield before continuing to Chesterfield or Manchester.  Reopening the Woodhead line could increase journey opportunities for Glossopians whose only way of travel to Sheffield is likely to be the Woodhead Pass (A628) or Snake Pass (A57).  Rail using Glossop folk are forced to change at Piccadilly.  A Sheffield service over the Woodhead line could call at Dinting, providing connections with the stopping service.  This could only work if the Hadfield – Glossop section is doubled.

Now the funding has gone for the bypass, let’s campaign for improved public transport based solutions for Tameside and Glossop.

Hopefully, those bypass signs near The Gun Inn will be demolished.

S.V, 18 March 2009.

Sunday Night Terrors: The Not So Perfect Ten

“…Heartbeat, why do you miss when my baby kisses me…” – Buddy Holly

The strains of ITV’s much loved period drama may no longer haunt the screens in a few years time due to falling ad revenues, which may well be a blow for the North Yorkshire village of Goathland. Viewing figures have halved since the programme made its debut in 1992. I reckon it could down to the fact the programme may have ran its course, but that’s another story best left to another topic.

On the whole, has anybody else realised how Sunday night programmes tend to be more sombre? I don’t think it leaves any of us in a sunny disposition for Monday mornings. It is this concept which has led me to a new Not So Perfect Ten. Today’s subject, ‘Sunday Night Terrors’ is a rundown of the most sombre programmes ever to have graced the Sunday night schedules. They merit inclusion on the grounds of its mawkish nature, sheer crapness, apocalyptic doom and an unedifying blandness which screams ‘Monday is on the way’.

1. Little House on the Prairie (ITV/Channel 4, 1979 – 1994);
2. The Love Boat (ITV, 1978 – 1987);
3. Antiques Roadshow (BBC, 1979 – to date);
4. Duck Patrol (ITV 1996);
5. Surprise Surprise (LWT/ITV, 1983 – 1996);
6. Beat The Star (ITV, 2007);
7. Dancing on Ice (ITV, 2007 – to date);
8. Where the Heart Is (Anglia/ITV, 1998 – 2004);
9. Threads (BBC 2, 23/09/1984);
10. Hart to Hart (ITV, 1981 – 1986);

There are probably several more to list which may form a follow-up to this subject. Please note that the transmission dates within this list above refer to the UK transmission dates.

Before I discovered the joys of real ale, Sky Sports, and Sunday bus services, Monday was almost on its way when Channel 4 reverberated to the strains of Little House on the Prairie. Though the sets were lavish, I couldn’t get into the programme, unlike my mother.

There must be an unwritten rule that Sundays had to be a schmaltz-fest. There was the awful ‘Small Wonder’ which included the non-adventures of a girl and her robot. Then ‘Highway to Heaven’ would come on after ‘Weekend World’ or ‘Aap Kaa Ark’. Coinciding neatly with Sunday pub closing times (before 1994, you couldn’t get a pint between 1500 and 2000 hours) was The Love Boat. The premise was that romantic and funny adventures took place on cruise ships around the world. Interesting. Could we have some football on instead? Thankfully, Bullseye used to start shortly after, which neatly finished for the UK Top 40 Countdown.

For me, the weekend finished as soon as the UK No. 1 chart single was announced. Now that I no longer listen to the music charts, Antiques Roadshow will suffice instead. Though I find this programme mildly interesting, it doesn’t quite stir my senses the same way as a rare home win for Stalybridge Celtic. Now that Fiona Bruce presents this programme, I have started watching it more, so I’ll leave this to your imagination…

Sometime in 1996, Richard Wilson returned to ITV for the sitcom Duck Patrol. After doing the successful One Foot in the Grave on ‘the other side’, ITV thought this would be their equivalent to ‘Last of the Summer Wine’. My family and several other viewers thought otherwise as we tried to force a titter.

Around about the same timeslot as Antiques Roadshow was Surprise Surprise, a televisual equivalent of the ‘missing persons’ column with ‘our Cilla’ at the helm. I found it rather schmaltzy, making at the Anne Nightingale’s request show on Radio 1 a more inviting proposition. When I was young, I hated the programme and thought ‘Ho hum, school is on the way’. Now if there was a quiz show element to it…

In a bid to make Sunday night the new Saturday, ITV decided to give its Sunday night schedule an overhaul. Spurred on the success of Dancing on Ice, ITV thought Beat The Star would become another. Alas it wasn’t. The Vernon Kay fronted programme [Beat The Star] encouraged the general public to take on celebrities at challenges akin to ‘You Bet’. The biggest challenge was sitting through 90 minutes of this programme, despite not fulfilling the ‘depressing’ nature of Sunday programme.

If trying to impress us with ice dancers weren’t enough, trying to create a similar programme to an already successful one was bad enough. Enter Where The Heart Is, produced by Anglia Television, yet set in West Yorkshire. I found the storylines maudlin and unadventurous. Where was the suspense laden plots, or the fear factor?

The fear factor was something Threads did have - in buckets – one Sunday night in 1984. Ticking all boxes for a Sunday night doomfest, the docudrama was set in Sheffield before, during and after a nuclear attack. It is also something of a cult classic (and rightly so), not least for a social history of 1980s Sheffield, its shoestring budget, and ability to scare anyone into joining CND. Even on repeated viewing, I cannot fail to be stirred by the anti nuclear weapons demo scenes, and the first nuclear strike which occurs 55 minutes into the programme (nicely timed before Spitting Image when shown on the 23rd September 1984).

For the terrified feared of the nuclear reality approaching them at the time, they could have chickened out and watched something more asinine, like Tales of the Unexpected or Hart to Hart.  Featuring Stefanie Powers and Robert Wagner, the titles were, in my opinion were as good as the programme got.  Then again, I was sent to bed well before that programme started, and it is only through anecdotal evidence I was told that Freeway was the best actor (and he was their dog).

Now I know why we get this ‘OMG, I’ve got to go to work/school/college feeling’.  It is almost as if the programmes are selected to numb us into work.  Unless of course it happens to be a decent horror film or the excellent Threads.

Bring on the trumpets!

S.V. 05 March 2009.