The Traincard Project: An Introduction

The idea to start this came after a throwaway comment I made to a friend while we were going through Longsight on the bus last Sunday. A couple of hours short of exactly a week later, I am writing the introduction to it. From "initial idea" to "getting it up and running" in one week for anything is a record for me, given my terrible procrastination habit.

Jason (my aforementioned friend) and I were talking about rail travel, a conversation that had arisen from my saying something about the GMPTE (Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive) monthly traincard, which I use. He asked me where you can travel with it.

“Quite a distance,” I said. “You can get as far as Littleborough, just past Rochdale. And if you’re going towards Liverpool, Glazebrook’s the last stop – it’s close to Warrington. Glossop, of course (which is where I live). I think you can go as far as New Mills as well. It covers a big area.”

Then the throwaway comment:


”I think I’ll do a photography project, taking shots of each station that it covers.”

And that was it. I’ve spent the last week thinking about it. I was going to start snapping away and posting the results on Flickr – I’m hooked on it at the moment, posting photos of the Captain America set on Dale Street, Manchester, every few days.

But why stop at photos? Why not write a bit about each station? And, while I think about it, why not explore the surroundings a bit, meet some people and find out a bit about the local area and the history?

So that’s what I decided I would do.