SR-N1

It seems that the Wirral is about to embark on a pioneering water transport system which will see passenger carrying hovercraft take people to the North Wales holiday resorts (some mistake surely) of Rhyl and Llandudno as well as to Blackpool further up the Lancashire coast.

The service is due to be launched in 2015 and will use the New Brighton lifeboat slipway as the embark and disembark platform. Travel times are due to be in the region of 30-40 minutes which in all cases is considerably quicker than making the journey by road. It will be interesting to see how the enterprise maps out.

Sir Christopher Cockerell was thought to be the forefather of the hovercraft principle, and most young boys in the late 1950's and early 1960's had a model of the SR-N1 as part of their play group. The concept has been used for passenger transfer before, of course, primarily across the English Channel. It was first used though when  the passenger-carrying hovercraft , Vickers VA-3,in the summer of 1962 carried passengers regularly along the North Wales Coast from Moreton, Merseyside, to Rhyl. So it seems the new service is trying to resurrect the old.

This is another initiative generated as a spin off from  the investment in the Wirral waterways, by Peel Holdings. This large land developer has the objective of making the North West of England  the leading economic region in the Country. It first built and managed the Trafford Centre shopping complex near Manchester, but it has sold that as it now focuses on the Ocean Gateway.

This project is aimed at linking the new  port of Salford with a new port called Liverpool 2, via the Manchester Ship canal which it owns already.It is also driving the development of Wirral Waters and Liverpool Waters, the first of which is already underway and has approved planning permission for a trade centre and other early return projects. The Chinese are already active in their involvement with it.

To complement these developments Peel Holdings have acquired Liverpool John Lennon airport, the Lowry shopping complex in Salford and own and built the Salford media city into which the BBC recently moved.

Interesting times for the North West indeed.