According to 'Journey Check', two 319 duties were being operated by 2-car DMUs today (Friday 26/7). One was on Lime Street - Wigan, which is nothing new, but the other was a surprise, Manchester Victoria to Preston. Didn't the service get cut back to Buckshaw Parkway for quite a while, because diesels weren't going to be able to do Manchester - Preston and back in a two-hour round trip?
There's nothing like putting something to the test, and, lo and behold, the diesel was running late for most of the day, although there were one or two journeys where time was recovered, to a point. However, the last departure which was made on time was the 1105 from Victoria.
After the 1705 from Victoria (actual departure 1717) arrived at Preston 21L it was evidently decided that something needed to be done, and the 1804 departure from Preston skipped the scheduled stops at Leyland, Buckshaw Parkway, Chorley, Adlington, Blackrod, Horwich Parkway, and Salford Central. The only calls made were Lostock, Bolton, and Salford Crescent. The final journey, 1905 Victoria to Blackpool North, was made with no skipped stops but four minutes was lost during the trip.
I caught up with the unit as it departed Victoria on the scheduled 1705 journey (156426). Surprisingly, at least to me, bearing in mind the time of day, it was nowhere near full.