RAILWAY expert and author Dennis Sweeney reckons busway plans are misguided.

And he believes it would be wiser to give the public what they really want and reconnect Leigh and Tyldesley to the rail network.

Transport planners want to convert part of the old Leigh-Tyldesley-Manchester rail route to a guided busway (see picture) between Leigh and Ellenbrook.

And an offshoot could be a normal bus service running through Higher Fold joining the busway on the outskirts of Tyldesley.

A six weeks public consultation exercise begans on Monday and the idea would need to go to a public inquiry for full approval.

Dennis says: "In an ideal world the reinstatement route from Kenyon Junction via Pennington, Leigh, Tyldesley and Worsley to Eccles Junction would undoubtedly be best.

"But developments over the former trackbed at Eccles would make this prohibitively expensive and nigh impossible.

"But demolition of properties is not seen as a hindrance when considering motorway proposals.

"A rebuilt railway from Kenyon via Leigh and Tyldesley connecting with the Atherton-Walkden line at or near the former Combermere Colliery site is, in my view, feasible.

"Alternatively continue to follow the trackbed to Mosley Common, reinstate Ellenbrook station to serve proliferating housing development and diverge towards Walkden.

"This route (from Leigh) was part of the Wigan Metro 1991 Unitary Development Plan reiterated in the GMPTE Transport Plan 1992-2002.

"It has fallen out of favour simply on the cost issue.

And he feels a two mile extension to the still in situ Bickershaw branch line to Kenyon would be a money-spinner serving housing developments, the proposed Xanadu complex and Pennington Park.

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