Chris Helliwell

Interests mainly relate to transport, including railways, and the well being of the North of England

[Chris Helliwell @RoydRover]

Being able to travel around The North during the working day, knowing reasonably how long a journey will take and having a RELIABLE means of public transport, is surely a cornerstone of any successful economy. It is not available to too many of us.

[HistoryandHeritageYorkshire @GenealogyBeech]

🧵 Thanks to Dr Mel for this. Rooley Moor Road, Rochdale or The Cotton Famine Road, is a lasting reminder of hardship, resilience and solidarity. During the Lancashire Cotton Famine, caused by the disruption of cotton supplies during the American Civil War, thousands of mill

[Alan Burnett @ABFixby]

When I look back at the pictures I took of Halifax in the 1960s and ’70s - the town I have always considered home - several things stand out. The town had a greyness then that went beyond an over-reliance on monochrome photography. There were still plenty of mill chimneys breaking up the skyline. Most striking of all, Beacon Hill was bare, devoid of any meaningful vegetation.

[Olga Tuleninova 🦋 @olgatuleninova]

Jessica Brilli (American, born 1977)
Joanne, 2018
Oil on canvas
50 x 72 inches
Private collection

[Alan Burnett @ABFixby]

This is a sight familiar to a whole generation of Halifax folk. I took the photo from on top of Godley Bridge, but you got the same view from the front seat of a Corporation bus. There was something quite cinematic about the constrained view as the bus made its way up Godley Cutting, and then you were confronted by this splendid industrial vista as it crowned the hill and made its way majestically down New Bank.

[Matt HB - matthodg.bsky.social @matthewhodg]

I mean it when I say every station in the country should be this nice and there should be significant funding available for it.

Stations are community hubs and public assets, generally 1000s of people walk through them every day, we deserve them to be beautiful, cared for places

[Chris Ogilvie @OgilvieCJ]

🚃 ⚡️Midland Mainline: “Labour’s indefinite pause in the next phase of electrification of London to Sheffield railway line risks costing the taxpayer £70 million and sapping £400 million in economic benefit, the rail industry has warned.” 🆓 ⬇️
https://t.co/NiD8pCePQV

[Gareth Dennis @GarethDennis]

This is what transport ambition looks like. And I'm all for it.

[Andy Burnham @andyburnham]

GM is growing fast.

We will expand @BeeNetwork⁩ over the next decade to meet the needs of our bigger economy.

BUT

There’s a limit to what we can do on a congested surface.

It’s why I am asking TfGM to start planning for an underground for GM around a remodelled Piccadilly.

[Olga Tuleninova 🦋 @olgatuleninova]

David Hockney

[Bobbie @bo66ie29]

“When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight, nor for present use alone; let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for.”

The descendants:

[Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire @MayorOfWY]

Yorkshire's business leaders are clear - action must be taken to fix our broken rail network.

From @LUFC and @VMO2News, to @ThePieceHall and @Yorkshire_BS, our region's heavyweights back us and are urging the government to invest in a modern railway for the North.

https://t.co/FeuunUoirE

[Paul Sweeney MSP @PaulJSweeney]

The East Kilbride Line reopened yesterday.

But SNP Ministers ignored Network Rail and scrapped dual tracking of the line. That would have allowed a 15-minute service between Glasgow and East Kilbride, Scotland’s sixth biggest settlement.

Another expensive wasted opportunity.

[Tom Harwood @tomhfh]

The only direct road linking Manchester and Sheffield, two of the country's largest cities, looks like this.

This is a policy failure.

[Jordan @jordanbhx]

Copenhagen (pop. 1.4m) opened its first metro line in 2002. The city has since built another 3. Annual ridership is 126 million.

The West Midlands (pop. 2.9m) opened its first tram line in 1999. It still has one tram line. Annual ridership is 8.3m.

It’s why the UK fails.

[David Milner @djjmilner]

The Northumberland Rail project has seen 250,000 riders in the time they forecast for just 50,000

Good news? Well yes, but this begs the question. How many high-demand transit projects like this dont event leave the station due to a wrongly predicted cost-benefit-scenario?

[PoliticsJOE @PoliticsJOE_UK]

"We're rolling back the 1980s. The country took a serious series of wrong turns."

Privatisation has failed. It's time to take back control, says Andy Burnham.

@AndyBurnhamGM

[Looking for Growth @lfg_uk]

Energy bills in Britain didn’t spike by accident.

They spiked because for decades, the British state has failed to deliver.

Ministers passed the buck. Regulators micromanaged. Lawyers got rich. And, Britain got stuck with sky-high bills.

Today, Looking For Growth (LFG) launches the UK Energy Dashboard at https://t.co/JQvZnIRAfj - a breakdown of how political cowardice, planning paralysis, and bureaucratic delay created one of the most expensive energy systems in the developed world.

[Jon Stone @joncstone]

passenger numbers for the reopened Northumberland Line are "five times their original estimate". the way the DfT estimates ridership for rail projects is very obviously broken, with negative implications on what actually gets built https://t.co/xyzeFKuiM0

[Gareth Dennis @GarethDennis]

@GJMarshy @transportgovuk @theTRUpgrade 100% this.

[Matt HB - matthodg.bsky.social @matthewhodg]

£10bn for a 23km of roads just to add traffic lanes over the Thames, big ol 👍.

£4bn for 60km of HS2 Phase 2a to make our existing £44bn investment usable and useful while relieving the most capacity constrained rail lines in the country. 👎. “Too expensive”.

🙄