Outwood - Liverpool South Parkway - help!

Hi guys,
I need a bit of help planning a journey. Travel time is much more important that ticket price in this case!

On Wednesday 15th May, I need to get from the Outwood (OUT) area of Wakefield to Liverpool South Parkway (LPY) station for around 10am. That's relatively easy as I can go OUT - Leeds (LDS) - Sheffield (SHF) - LPY, leaving around 7am.

The issue is the return journey - I need to leave LPY around 1530. At the moment that gets me back to Outwood for 1759 at the earliest but I need to be back earlier than that if at all possible.

So here's the thing - how can I get to and from LPY quicker? I'm happy to drive and travel from another station as long as I can park nearby without needing a second mortgage, if that will significantly reduce the journey time.
I can for example get to Meadowhall in around 30 minutes but not sure if connections into Sheffield are good enough to improve my journey time at all.

I could probably stretch to leaving at around 1515 at the earliest but getting the 1430 (my preferred) is unfortunately off the table.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!

Unfortunately, I can't really see any better options - the line from Leeds to Huddersfield via Dewsbury is shut that week, so going that route isn't going to help, meaning via Sheffield is pretty much you're only option - driving to Meadowhall could save you 10-15 mins on the return and give you slightly more options (theres a 15:02 from Liverpool South Parkway to Sheffield that connects into trains to Meadowhall) but I don't see any way to speed up the journey.
edit: the only other possible option is driving to Huddersfield and connecting onto TPE trains there, since that is after the diversion, and if you make the 15:54 from Liverpool Lime Street it gets you to Huddersfield at 5pm exactly, which might work out slightly quicker, but I don't know what parking in Huddersfield would be like, plus on the TPE website it says the station car park is shut due to the upgrade works there, so you'd have to find parking nearby.

Could be tricky. As @mangyiscute has just mentioned, there's engineering works scheduled on the Manchester Piccadilly -> Leeds route via Huddersfield/Dewsbury. Changing at Warrington Central in order to schlep over to Warrington Bank Quay for the Chester -> Leeds train via Manchester Victoria/Rochdale doesn't help much either.

Going "wrong way" into Lime Street to catch the 1554 TPE service to Newcastle would get you to Leeds for 1738.

Would Mirfield be possible? It looks like there's a TransPennine train each way at least every couple of hours, plus buses to and from Huddersfield for train connections.

mangyiscute said:

Unfortunately, I can't really see any better options - the line from Leeds to Huddersfield via Dewsbury is shut that week, so going that route isn't going to help, meaning via Sheffield is pretty much you're only option - driving to Meadowhall could save you 10-15 mins on the return and give you slightly more options (theres a 15:02 from Liverpool South Parkway to Sheffield that connects into trains to Meadowhall) but I don't see any way to speed up the journey.
edit: the only other possible option is driving to Huddersfield and connecting onto TPE trains there, since that is after the diversion, and if you make the 15:54 from Liverpool Lime Street it gets you to Huddersfield at 5pm exactly, which might work out slightly quicker, but I don't know what parking in Huddersfield would be like, plus on the TPE website it says the station car park is shut due to the upgrade works there, so you'd have to find parking nearby.

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I'll look into Meadowhall closer, thank you. Huddersfield may work, I used to live there so know how awful parking around is! I'll do some digging.

Mcr Warrior said:

Could be tricky. As @mangyiscute has just mentioned, there's engineering works scheduled on the Manchester Piccadilly -> Leeds route via Huddersfield/Dewsbury. Changing at Warrington Central in order to schlep over to Warrington Bank Quay for the Chester -> Leeds train via Manchester Victoria/Rochdale doesn't help much either.

Going "wrong way" into Lime Street to catch the 1554 TPE service to Newcastle would get you to Leeds for 1738.

Click to expand...

Ahhh I didn't realise that's why trains were so bad that week. How annyoing.

Wandering Pom said:

Would Mirfield be possible? It looks like there's a TransPennine train each way at least every couple of hours, plus buses to and from Huddersfield for train connections.

Click to expand...

Just checked... would take longer overall but thank you!