First As Tragedy, Then As Farce

You spoke, and I listened.  That's democracy.  I wrote a woolly end of year post about where the blog might go in 2026 and you replied in your thousands [ed: pls chk] to say that you would actually read about me fannying around in the back end of Merseyside.  So it's back to where we started, back to Round The Merseyrail We Go.  (I will not be changing the header again).

There are sixty-nine stations on the Merseyrail network (nice) and the plan is that I'll visit one, have a poke around it, then have a wander round the vicinity too.  Merseytravel publishes Local Area Maps on its website, giving you a rough idea of what's worth checking out in the vicinity of a railway station, though in true Merseytravel style many of the links don't work and some stations don't have one.  That should be a good guide for me.  I won't be doing the City Line or any of the other stations on the map, because I need to draw a line somewhere, and I don't want to end up visiting the entire north all over again.  This is a then and now, let's see what's changed, kind of thing.

After all, a lot has changed on Merseyrail in nineteen years.  The trains are different.  The ticketing's different.  The city centre stations no longer have brown plastic seats, and they don't have that distinctive smell any more.  The city region, in general, is in a much better place than it was back then, pre-Capital of Culture, pre-Liverpool One, pre-tourist mecca.  No, it's not all perfect, and there are still regeneration projects, poverty, and a real need for investment and good jobs across the county, but it feels like a better place.  Also, I'm now in my thirtieth year of living here; it's a lot more familiar to me.

I'll let the fates decide where I visit each time.  I bought this lunchbox at Car & Kettle, in Settle; in fact, my blog post about that trip actually mentions me buying it.  I've not really used it much over the years - for most of the time it's been in a cupboard full of tupperware - but it's finally got a new purpose.

Each of those bits of paper is a Merseyrail station, and each time I go out I'll pick one at random.  Who knows where it could be?  Hillside?  Aigburth?  The prospects are endless!  Well, not exactly endless.  Not even slightly endless in fact.

You watch the very first one be Birkenhead Park.