does network rail hate liverpool?

By Catherine Jones on Aug 30, 09 01:59 PM

Remember last year, Capital of Culture, when every weekend visitors ran the gauntlet of strack engineering work on the West Coast Mainline?
Then, Network Rail decided to carry on with its work schedule, despite the pleas of the city council and Virgin trains, saying it would mean it got the upgrade completed more quickly.
Well, here we are on the busiest weekend of Liverpool's year, and what do we have?

Network Rail has closed down the route north to Liverpool so it can do yet MORE work, this time apparently on points and such like.
It disingenously sells the wholesale shutdown of the route as "more than £47m-worth of rail improvement projects" and describes how "more than 4,750 Network Rail people will be at sites across Britain completing 220,000 hours of work".
Oh, and if you're not appeased, apparently this bank holiday "will also see 3,500 more trains running compared to last year as Network Rail continues to reduce disruption to journeys".
All fine and dandy, unless you happen to be one of the tens of thousands of people trying to get to Liverpool for the Mathew Street Festival, or using the route to make your way to Daresbury for Creamfields.
Then, there is a service, it just happens to be on one of the grim "rail replacement" buses.
Sigh.
No Christmas cards for Network Rail's chief executive Iain Coucher this year.