Blackpool branch lines 2 miles of the M55 also occupy the former trackbed, until the Blackpool North line travels under the motorway at the point where the lines used to merge. The electrification of the Manchester to Blackpool North route was announced in December 2009. The main work of piling etc. to accomplish this commenced in early 2017. Bridgeworks along the route to raise and rebuild those that had insufficient clearance for overhead wires was completed first. Services over both the Blackpool South and Blackpool North branches temporarily ceased on 11 November 2017 to allow the track layout at Blackpool North and Kirkham
M6 motorway July 1972 the UK Minister for Transport Industries announced that of UK motorway particularly prone to fog would benefit from lighting in a project which "should be" completed by 1973. Sections to be illuminated included the M6 between junctions 10 and 11, and between junctions 20 and 27. In March 2006, after 15 years of debate, the government authorised the construction of a extension of the M6 from its then northern terminus near Carlisle to the Anglo-Scottish border at Gretna (the so-called "Cumberland Gap"), where it links into the existing A74(M). The road opened on 5 December 2008, the 50th