A
Virtual
Stroll
Along
the
Mickle
Trafford-Shotton
Railway
The other side of the footbridge that connects Kingsway via the playing fields with Fairfield Road and the Newton Hollows- and, as described earlier, the point where the great improvements brought about by the construction of the SUSTRANS cycletrack unaccountably come to an abrupt and inexplicable end... In contrast, below, we can see the same bridge as featured in one of the council's (con?)- 'artist's impressions' of the CDTS busway as they imagine it would appear "five years after opening"- a dreary, utilitarian environment whose only function would appear to be to shift shoppers from the giant Manning's Lane Park & Ride to the city centre and back again. |
What
appeal
is
a
place
like
this
likely
to
have
for
Chester's
hard-pressed
families,
desperate
for
a
place
to
relax,
breathe
clean
air
and,
just
for
once,
enjoy
a
bit
of
peace
and
quiet
out
of
the
sight,
noise
and
smell
of
motor
vehicles? The trackbed at this point is fairly wide and, allowing for the destruction of the wildlife-rich embankment on the right of the above photograph, a two-lane bus road and cycletrack may conceivably be made to fit here. But, as we have observed in numerous locations throughout the course of our stroll, such is certainly not the case with much of the rest of the line of the old railway, where radical destruction of the surrounding trees and shrubs- not to mention the newly-constructed SUSTRANS cycletrack- seems inevitable.... |
The view from under the bridge on a snowy day in 2007