No, it had exactly the same number of stops, but called at Birchwood instead of EM's Widnes - as the current NT semi-fast service still does. When the TPE Liverpool to Newcastle service was introduced (running non-stop between Lime Street and Manchester Victoria) the best start to stop scheduled time Liverpool to Victoria was, I think, 36 minutes. So Liverpool to Piccadilly via the CLC (which is a noticeably longer route than Liverpool to Victoria via Chat Moss), together with calls at South Parkway, Warrington Central, and Birchwood, couldn't possibly have been done in anything like 35 minutes.