Parr Fold Park is a beautiful landscaped park just a couple of minutes walk from Walkden station.
The park is home to some newly laid tennis courts, a large crown green bowling green, and a children’s pitch and putt course. All are open (with equipment hire available too) on summer weekend afternoons and evenings, but they’re also open from 12 noon until 8pm all this week for the half-term holidays.
It’s a great facility to have in the locality … and so easy to get to by train !
The summer timetable starts today and runs through until October.
There are no major changes to the Manchester-Wigan services, but some services are running a few minutes earlier or later so make sure you check your times on the National Rail enquiries site, or pick up a new timetable from the station.
However, the direct train to Blackpool that has run Monday-Saturday during all recent summers will not run this year. We know this service was popular and have written to Northern Rail to protest the withdrawal.
If you’re affected by this cutback, we suggest you email customer.relations@northernrail.org to let them know what you think.
You may have seen on the news that a massive £244m of funding has been brought forward or released to improve public transport in Greater Manchester.
Initial reports suggest the majority of funding will be spent on Metrolink and bus schemes rather than rail, but we will be asking GMPTE if money can be found to fund any of Walkden station’s desperately needed improvements.
This year’s “Dales Rail” special services have started running again on Sundays from Preston and Blackburn up to Carlisle via Clitheroe, Settle and the world-famous Settle-Carlisle railway. The trains are specially timed to allow a good day trip including a few hours walking on the moors or visiting historic towns like Appleby.
Northern have special “DalesRail Duo” fares available offering half-price travel for a second adult … see the DalesRail website for full details.
Of course, there are still no trains from Walkden on Sundays, but it is possible to start your journey at Bolton and change onto the Dales Rail service at Blackburn, or travel from Wigan to meet the Dales Rail train at Preston. There is also parking available at Dales Rail stations like Bamber Bridge.
A trolley service is provided on most trains and there’s also a series of guided walks from the trains if you’re unfamiliar with the beautiful, remote areas the train serves.
For full details see the Dales Rail website.
Work has started at Victoria station to clean the glass panels on the platform footbridge.
As regular travelers will know the panels have become heavily stained with exhaust fumes over the years, making them difficult to see through and unpleasant to look at.
The clean up has already been completed on the section from platforms 4/5 across to 6 and is a great improvement !
Next week the last train (at 2320) from Victoria to Walkden is being replaced by a bus from Monday 11th to Thursday 14th.
Previously this has proved to be a slow and unsavoury experience – we don’t recommend it.
