The ECHO pointed out that the wording on the sign could be seen to be erasing a crucial bit of Scouse railway heritage
A sign at London Euston train station is set to be corrected after the wording was seen to ignore one of Liverpool’s proudest achievements.
An eagle-eyed traveller contacted the ECHO to raise his concerns about the signage, which is advertising the High Speed 2 rail project at London Euston. HS2 will provide high speed rail connections between London and Birmingham – but not to the north of England after the previous Conservative government controversially scrapped the northern leg last year.
The hoarding, which surrounds the area where work is taking place at Euston, explains how: “In September 1838, Britain’s first intercity train left Euston,” adding: “It took over five hours to reach Birmingham. Almost 200 years later, that journey will take 45 minutes with High Speed Two.” Finally, the advert promises: “World-class engineering for the new rail revolution with HS2.”
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The attentive ECHO reader pointed out that the wording on the hoarding makes it sound like Britain’s first ever intercity train took its first journey in 1838 from Euston to Birmingham. This is of course wrong.
The first ever intercity railway, not only in this country but in the world, ran between Liverpool and Manchester. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened on September 15, 1830, a whole eight years before the date advertised on the Euston hoardings. People in the North West are rightly proud of this incredible piece of history.
As the concerned commuter said in his email to the ECHO: “On the boards by the new terminal at Euston they’re claiming the line from there to Birmingham was the first inter-city train line in Britain. Disregarding the fact we were first in the world 8 years earlier.”
We decided to contact the team at HS2 to question them on this perceived snub for Liverpool (and Manchester’s) railway history and ask if they could do anything to rectify the issue.
In a response, a spokesperson for HS2 clarified that the message on the hoarding is meant to point out that the first intercity trains left Euston in 1838 and not that these were the first intercity trains anywhere in the country.
The spokesperson said we were quite right to point out that this was not actually Britain’s first intercity train and said they will aim to correct the wording. We will chalk that one up as a win for the north.
