daodao
Established Member
A significant reason for diverting TPE North trains via Victoria to both Liverpool and the Airport was precisely to avoid having trains from the Guide Bridge direction crossing the entire throat to get to 13/14 or the Airport route. It would also lead to a slower journey time between Leeds and Manchester. Running them via the Ordsall Chord makes sense, it's just that there are too many other services on both the Castlefield and Airport lines at the moment for it to be consistently reliable.
I agree with diverting Leeds-Manchester express trains on the Standedge route via Victoria to Liverpool to avoid having trains from the Guide Bridge direction crossing the entire throat to get to platforms 13/14. However, in my view, the disruption and unnecessary occupation of key paths caused by running trains from the Standedge route via Victoria, the Ordsall chord and platforms 13/14 to the Airport is greater than that caused by reversing them in Piccadilly platform 4 (one per hour in each direction) and then running them direct to the Airport. The paths from Victoria to platforms 13/14 via the Ordsall chord would be better used by trains from the Rochdale direction, as suggested in post 807 above.