Phil Gillam: Keeping railway project on track
The actress Dinah Sheridan, who played the mother in the classic film, The Railway Children, said years afterwards: "The corsets I wore in The Railway Children are still in my undies drawer, a prized relic of my favourite film."
Of course it is a wonderful film and I can fully understand her keeping a prized relic.
But although Miss Sheridan and Bernard Cribbins and Jenny Agutter led a fabulous cast in that film, I've always felt the main star was the railway itself.
The romance of the railways really came to the fore in that film, set as it was in genteel Edwardian Britain.
However, by the 1970s the romance of the tracks was fading fast and it looked as if the railways in this country had been superseded by the motorways in the same way that the canals had once been superseded by the railways.
But in recent years our railways have benefited from serious investment and a whole range of improvements, and - I'm happy to say - it looks as if they're here to stay and here to prosper.
Being a big fan of the railways, it does my heart good to hear that they're not being consigned to the history books after all.
Okay, progress to bring the network into the 21st century does seem painfully slow sometimes, but it's progress nonetheless.
An example of this (both the investment and the painfully slow progress) comes with the news that multi-million pound improvements on the Shrewsbury to Chester line will not be finished until next year – 18 months behind schedule.
Network Rail has announced that work to replace signalling cable on the route will not start until March.
It will also see the stretch of the line between Shrewsbury and Gobowen closed for 24 hours.
The work is part of a £44 million Welsh Assembly-funded project to double a section of the line in North Wales, which will lead to an improved timetable in the future including more trains on the route and enable trains to travel at increased speeds of up to 90mph. Well, they certainly didn't travel THAT fast in The Railway Children!
It's reported that most of the tracks and infrastructure between Rossett and Saltney junction, north of Wrexham, were put in place last autumn.
The project was set to be finished by October last year until it was discovered that cable needed replacing and there was no money left in the budget to pay for it.
The line is the main route to North Wales for commuters and holidaymakers from Shropshire and the West Midlands.
Welsh Assembly member Mark Isherwood, who has been pressing Network Rail over the delays because of frustration from passengers, has said he had received confirmation of the dates of the work.
He said: "I am delighted that a date has now been given, although it is disappointing it has taken so long.
"Last October the project appeared nearly complete, with two lines of track in place and a lot of infrastructure done.
"Local rail users told me that at that time the Network Rail project engineer was saying that the work would be completed on time and on budget and passengers had expected trains to be using the two tracks during last winter.
"But work came to a stop when it was discovered that signalling cable needed replacing."
Delays are always frustrating, but this project still seems to be going in the right direction.
