Recent content by JMan

Is anything going to be done to improve the ride quality on the 331s? You can feel every little bump in the track. This isn’t just a one-off - all of the 331s I’ve been on vibrate terribly, like they’re “hunting”. I didn’t realise how bad it was until I was on a 150 on the same stretch the other...

Well I think it’s fair to say that it’s not been an entirely successful introduction of 331s on the Manchester - Blackpool services. Not sure if this is due to lack of staff trained to drive them, new timetable or combination of the two but the service this week has been shocking! Bring back...

I agree! There was a 2 carriage 142 covering Victoria to Preston today - so much for them disappearing from major routes!

or 7! The 0632 Blackpool to Hazel Grove was initially showing as 7 carriages before departure - ran as 4.

You do have to wonder what the point in ASDO is then - technically shouldn’t be a problem running 7/8 carriages or am I missing something - suppose would be a bit of a nightmare at Oxford Road trying to communicate to people to move down the train...

apologies - amended for my first impressions

The 06:53 Blackpool to Manchester Airport was an 8 carriage 331/1 - back 4 carriages locked out - everyone crammed into first 4 - quick way to annoy everybody on a Monday morning. Can only assume this was meant to be 2 331/0 (i.e. 6 carriages). The 0723 to Hazel Grove was showing as 6 carriages...

The 06:53 Blackpool to Manchester Airport was an 8 carriage 331/1 - back 4 carriages locked out so everyone crammed into first 4. First impressions are needs more grab rails for those standing but smoother ride through Bolton and Salford than a 319.

Observation from the new timetable at a hyper-local level: last week the 0724 Horwich Parkway to Hazel Grove didn’t call at Lostock. This week now calls at Lostock at 0728 - back in the journey planners but not in the printed timetable! Looks like an oversight so must be more examples.

Interesting too that it was the 195s testing not 331s (presumably will have to be repeated with 331s). Wouldn’t expect to see many 195s on this line, especially north of Lostock

Interesting they’re testing ASDO on this line... anyone know why? I thought most platforms could fit 6 x 23m car trains now, with the exception of maybe Adlington and Blackrod (although wasn’t Blackrod extended?). And that’s if we get regular 6 car trains!

Are they actually extending the platforms at Lostock or just re-surfacing? Searching online suggests the platforms are currently 155m. The only reason I could see to extend would be to accommodate a double (8 car) Class 319 at around 160m - given Northern’s woeful performance recently, I see...

At least they recognise there will be overcrowding going from 5 trains to 2... But I just don’t get how this has slipped through TfGM, etc I accept there’s a shortage of DMUs but in some cases, like the 0750ish and 0850ish departures at Lostock, the trains are still running in those paths...

Is there a case of the Bolton line caused this, let’s punish them? Northern have completely messed up calling patterns, especially at intermediate stations like Lostock. Lostock loses a morning peak service with a 43 minute gap between 0735 and 0817 - what happened to the 0750ish departure...

I realise that the May timetables haven’t been confirmed yet, and the likelihood is that an interim timetable will be put in place but how likely is it that the ones loaded in opentraintimes will be the service pattern once electrification is complete? I only ask as there is a concerning change...