Northern Alderley Edge services split at Piccadilly 20-27 July and 29 July - 03 August

[Greybeard33]

Not sure I follow your logic there, Greybeard33. Is Piccadilly not a 'normal' stop on the Euston-Piccadilly via Crewe service?

Piccadilly is normally the terminus, which by default makes it set down only northbound/pick up only southbound. Whereas the service normally serves travellers in both directions at Stockport/Wilmslow/Crewe.

 

[Bovverboy]

There aren't going to be any more trains than usual through the Castlefield corridor.

Correction, there are going to be a few diverted freights, particularly Daventry to/from Mossend.

 

[Crossover]

I didn't see it myself (just saw a pass of each set in one hour at Oxford Road), but the station Tweeted a photo of the island full of Pendo, which a friend sent me a link to earlier
https://twitter.com/NetworkRailMAN/status/1152514521665363968

The high-vis guys are going to have a great few days at work with the increased passenger flow and their newly repainted red lines!

The island platform was very highly visible today (well, yesterday, technically!), that's for sure. I have no idea how many high vis staff there were, but there were numerous (well into double figures I would have thought)

 

[_toommm_]

The island platform was very highly visible today (well, yesterday, technically!), that's for sure. I have no idea how many high vis staff there were, but there were numerous (well into double figures I would have thought)

They were indeed! Pretty much a physical barrier of pink high vis people who know nothing about trains or the local area so aren't much use either!

 

[Class 170101]

Not sure, though diverting via Liverpool is finding another path from Crewe to Golborne/Wigan whereas via Manchester is just the bit via Chat Moss. Extending the existing Liverpool would cause overcrowding I suspect as you can't spread the existing load as you can on the Manchesters.

Would have been interesting to see whether the London to Scotland via Birmingham could have worked via Liverpool or extend those just to Liverpool and extend the regular Liverpool trains onto Wigan and Scotland.

 

[The Planner]

Would have been interesting to see whether the London to Scotland via Birmingham could have worked via Liverpool or extend those just to Liverpool and extend the regular Liverpool trains onto Wigan and Scotland.

Extending the Liverpools would have caused overcrowding. I doubt you could have diverted the West Mids ones without dropping into the next hour and sitting somewhere. Virgin didnt want to do that anyway.

 

[Bovverboy]

Whatever the reason for splitting the Alderley Edge to Wigan/Southport service at Piccadilly, it would have been an opportunity to run the Alderley Edge section with EMUs. Trouble is, Northern is just as short of EMUs at the moment as DMUs.

There has been an EMU on Picc-Alderley Edge today (323232). That particular duty is a Stockport CMD start, so it may have been an EMU covering Sat/Mon/Tues too, I don't know. The other duty on the current Picc-Alderley circuit is a Newton Heath start, so we can be pretty sure it won't be an EMU.
There appeared to be fourteen 323s in use this afternoon, which seems to be the current maximum.

In addition to the DMU under the wires on the morning extra from Alderley Edge, there has been limited DMU substitution elsewhere in recent days. I was surprised to find a 156 turning up on the 1628 Liverpool-Crewe yesterday, and there appears to be a 2-car diesel on Liverpool-Blackpool as we speak. (The duty commences with two Liverpool-Wigans, which I believe were also DMU-operated).

The current favourite for DMU substitution seems to be the one which starts 0616 Crewe - Liverpool, which is an Allerton duty. It was a 2-car DMU today, not sure if it was a 150/2 or a 156, it had gangways.

 

[Jamesrob637]

One evening Alderley to Southport isn't running this or next week. It leaves Heaton Chapel at 21:10. However, HTC still gets 3 trains within quarter of an hour thereafter. When this Alderley to Southport is running, HTC sees almost London Underground frequency for a little while in the evening!

Why wouldn't it be operating though? Not just as far as Piccadilly even?

 

[prod_pep]

323231 on the EMU Alderley Edge duty today. Saw it forming the 1637 from Piccadilly.

The 1616 Crewe - Lime Street was back to an EMU today (323238), while at least 3 of today's 319 diagrams had a 156 substituting.