northwichcat
Veteran Member
I don't believe the franchise stated which train should be the semi-fast; but yes, I understand that MCRUA did push for the Greenbank service to be the semi-fast.
Back when the ITT was released there was a mention in an accompanying document of the off-peak daytime Chester services being the semi-fasts but MCRUA dismissed that as guidance not a mandatory requirement. Then when the actual franchise documents were released it was revealed I think 8 services between Chester and Manchester in each direction have a different maximum journey time requirement to the others. That requirement means that if the off-peak Chester services are to be all-stops dwell times have to be reduced plus the option for adding extra minutes in leaf fall season would not be available.
Only time will tell what the loadings will be; your leave half an hour earlier example is not really fair as you actually arrive 35-minutes earlier!
And why would someone from Knutsford who has an appointment in Manchester at 2pm, 10 minutes from Piccadilly want to arrive at 12:55 instead of 13:30? They're going to catch the train arriving at 13:30 and not care about the fact the previous train is 5 minutes faster. Likewise a part time worker is going to get the train closest to their working starting and finishing times regardless of the calling patterns.
If the midweek stopper trains terminated at Greenbank then they would lose my current custom and the car would be used instead.
Is that because you actually use them or would do it in protest?
Add in the Music Trains which currently pick up at all stations and the proposed service makes more sense.
The Greenbank extras won't run after the evening peak, so unless MCRUA are planning to have weekday off-peak music trains the music trains don't come in to the equation.