First train South from Preston to london on a Sunday is 11am. Doesn't matter how fast it is, it's ridiculously late for first train of the day and nothing to do with capacity - completely useless for people wanting a "day trip" to the capital which is a disgrace in this modern 7 day world. People keep going on about freight - why can't they be shifted more to the quiet parts of the day/week, i.e. overnight and Sundays? Building a new line without proper reform is crazy - it just perpetuates the poor working practices from a bygone age.
That's because the railway needs engineering access to the railway late Sat early Sun to keep it in good shape for intensive use during the week.
It's also why the WCML shuts up shop most bank holiday weekends for an even longer maintenance period for bigger jobs.
HS2 will give some valuable alternatives for this sort of engineering work, and in any case will be built with bi-di signalling to keep trains moving.
So (eg) Preston-London services will become more reliable than now, and might even have a service before 1100 on Sundays!
Freight, by the way, is often as time-sensitive as passenger trains, and they pay for their paths on the network.
Try telling the "just in time" brigade they can just use slower routes and quiet times of day.
The WCML is largely a 2-track railway north of Crewe, so all types of traffic have to be accommodated.
I do object to single class 66s struggling up Grayrigg, Shap and Beattock with big container trains though, this seems to be needless capacity-eating.