Trip Report - Merseyrail to Southport, Northern to Wigan and Bolton - 2024/04/13

[duffield]

​

Leg

From

Dep. WTT

Dep. Real

To

Arr. WTT

Arr. Real

Distance

ID

Oper

Origin

Destination

Class

Car.

Loading

Ref.

1

Nottingham

0844

OT

Liverpool South Parkway

1118

1120+2

112m25c

1R60

EM

Norwich

Liverpool Lime Street

158

2+2

Medium/Full

*1

2

Liverpool South Parkway

1124

OT

Southport

1227

1228+1

24m57c

2S22

ME

Hunts Cross

Southport

777

4

Medium

*2

3

Southport

1505

OT

Manchester Oxford Road

1618

1619+1

37m67c

2O79

NT

Southport

Manchester Oxford Road

769

4

Light

*3

4

Manchester Oxford Road

1639

OT

Nottingham

1834

OT

83m61c

1L15

EM

Liverpool Lime Street

Norwich

158

2+2

Medium/Full

*4

ALL

Nottingham

0844

OT

Nottingham

1834

OT

258m50c

Notes:
*1: Service got increasingly full with racegoers (for the first day of the Aintree meeting) from Stockport onwards. Some standing, but not too difficult to get off at Liverpool South Parkway
*2: More (presumably local) racegoers on this service, as far as Liverpool Central where they changed for the “Aintree Express”, special class 1 services only stopping at Central, Moorfields and Aintree. The 777 still had the “new train smell”, and the fancy PIS was quite impressive. The seats seemed generously wide, a bit hard but fine for the journey length. Ride was smooth and quiet, no issues at all, we arrived at Southport just 1 late. Southport was pretty busy for a weekday in April, presumably due to the school holidays. The pier was closed for maintenance (apart from the arcade at the entrance). As expected the station was a sad sight, the diminished but still fairly impressive train shed leading to the grotty shopping centre that replaced the original splendid entrance. There’s not even the convenience of being able to access M&S from the platform side, since that entrance is closed and it’s necessary to walk round the front.
*3: Much evidence of electrification between Wigan and Bolton - masts, bridge raising in progress etc.
*4: Fortunately this journey allows joining the Liverpool to Norwich service at Manchester Oxford Road rather than Piccadilly, where a large crowd boarded resulting in many people standing.

 

[duffield]

769456 at Southport station:

 

[duffield]

The beautiful 1970's frontage of Southport station:

 

[childwallblues]

You failed to mention thw NEW platform extensions for 8 car 777 trains to Platforms 2 AND 3.
I think that the entrance from the concourse into M & S was closed when the barriers were moved to accommodate the platform extensions.

 

[railfan99]

Special events like the races increase patronage, but very encouraging to read your excellent report.

The columns included were extremely well done. Glad you enjoyed the day.

I've not yet been to Southport, so thank you for the tip but in September 2022 was at Manchester Oxford Road for part of a weekday morning peak, locating a mini supermarket (Tesco) after walking 200 metres up a fairly hilly street. It lacked the grandeur of Manchester Piccadilly, but was well used and hopefully with more returning to the office is even busier today. I only saw the outside of Manchester Victoria froma Metrolink tram, but it didn't look overly impressive.

From my September 2023 trip, Hull station was beautiful (from which I departed after catching a train on my 1st class Global Eurailpass to Barton-on-Humber and then a private bus across the suspension bridge). Hull looked like Southport to my foreign eyes (relatively untrained for the UK despite a few trips).

 

[AntoniC]

You failed to mention thw NEW platform extensions for 8 car 777 trains to Platforms 2 AND 3.
I think that the entrance from the concourse into M & S was closed when the barriers were moved to accommodate the platform extensions.

When they extended platforms 2 & 3 at Southport , they blocked off access at the bottom of those two platforms while they excavated to extend the platforms.
My safety concern was to access the Merseyrail platforms 1, 2 & 3 was through a short but narrow corrider.
However it`s all been done now.

 

[507020]

There’s not even the convenience of being able to access M&S from the platform side, since that entrance is closed and it’s necessary to walk round the front.

I think that the entrance from the concourse into M & S was closed when the barriers were moved to accommodate the platform extensions.

The M&S station entrance has been closed since the first covid lockdown in March 2020, when all customers had to be counted in and out through a single entrance to maintain social distancing and it has never been reinstated.

There was much talk of M&S closing the store and replacing it with a Simply Food one located elsewhere with plentiful vacant retail space available in Southport, allowing the platforms to be extended further.

The pier was closed for maintenance (apart from the arcade at the entrance).

Southport Pier has also been closed since December 2022, with no maintenance work having been carried out since then and Sefton Council, who are not based in Southport, refusing to be transparent about the reasons for this or take any action that will see the pier reopened.

It really is a shame and has only damaged the tourist economy of Southport even further than was necessary in the aftermath of the pandemic.

As expected the station was a sad sight, the diminished but still fairly impressive train shed leading to the grotty shopping centre that replaced the original splendid entrance.

What is impressive though is that despite all the railway innovation of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway for which Southport is not widely celebrated, with electrification centred on Southport and the quadrupling of much of the route to Manchester prior to the First World War, Southport continues to see such innovation not seen elsewhere in the form of Classes 769 and 777 which themselves are able to draw visitors such as yourself.

Fortunately this journey allows joining the Liverpool to Norwich service at Manchester Oxford Road rather than Piccadilly

But I would not describe this as at all fortunate. Perhaps only in that EMR stopping at Oxford Road allows connections at all with the truncated Southport service, but otherwise it isn’t a good interchange compared to Piccadilly, especially when it necessitates use of the footbridge.

 

[scrapy]

M&S (and a few other retailers) have closed back/side entrances at a number of stores as it means there are less entrances/exits to monitor for shoplifters who tend to prefer these entrances. They've obviously done their sums looking at the cost in lost sales from those who don't want to walk round against the savings from less stock going missing.

 

[duffield]

The M&S station entrance has been closed since the first covid lockdown in March 2020, when all customers had to be counted in and out through a single entrance to maintain social distancing and it has never been reinstated.

There was much talk of M&S closing the store and replacing it with a Simply Food one located elsewhere with plentiful vacant retail space available in Southport, allowing the platforms to be extended further.

Southport Pier has also been closed since December 2022, with no maintenance work having been carried out since then and Sefton Council, who are not based in Southport, refusing to be transparent about the reasons for this or take any action that will see the pier reopened.

It really is a shame and has only damaged the tourist economy of Southport even further than was necessary in the aftermath of the pandemic.

What is impressive though is that despite all the railway innovation of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway for which Southport is not widely celebrated, with electrification centred on Southport and the quadrupling of much of the route to Manchester prior to the First World War, Southport continues to see such innovation not seen elsewhere in the form of Classes 769 and 777 which themselves are able to draw visitors such as yourself.

But I would not describe this as at all fortunate. Perhaps only in that EMR stopping at Oxford Road allows connections at all with the truncated Southport service, but otherwise it isn’t a good interchange compared to Piccadilly, especially when it necessitates use of the footbridge.

Fortunate *for me* in this particular instance, I mean. I'd agree the interchange at Oxford Road isn't good for wider connections, or when travelling in the other direction, but it was ideal for my particular journey, with the platforms adjacent, the toilets right in between, and even a free bench to sit on.

 

[507020]

Fortunate *for me* in this particular instance, I mean. I'd agree the interchange at Oxford Road isn't good for wider connections, or when travelling in the other direction, but it was ideal for my particular journey, with the platforms adjacent, the toilets right in between, and even a free bench to sit on.

I have actually connected between Southport and Nottingham at Oxford Road before, when I went to get an EMR 180, which was 1 year ago this week in fact and in 25 minutes I was able to visit Sainsbury’s across the road and use the toilets. The issue is that any delays can cause either the Southport or EMR services (but not both) to use Platform 3, necessitating use of the footbridge which makes the connection much worse.

Just walking from Platform 5 to 4 via the toilets in isolation is bearable enough as long as there aren’t any crowds, but the next thing we’ll here is Northern are to start charging to sit on it’s benches. Don’t give the railway ideas!

 

[plugwash]

necessitating use of the footbridge

If you've got time and would like something different you could try using the subway instead, probablly slower than the footbridge though.