I would suggest a data error.So according to the national rail website, the southbound evening Chathill-Carlisle service will no longer stop at Newcastle. Presumably a mistake, as it would render the whole service pointless to have it pass straight through the main station everyone is using it for
https://imgur.com/a/grGXfjM
I've noticed on a number of occasions that Northern have released timetable data with station calls in the Working Timetable, but not in the Passenger timetable. The most noticeable ones I came across were on the Whitby line a few weeks ago, where several trains were shown as running non-stop from Middlesbrough to Whitby in the passenger timetable, but stopped at all stations in the working timetable. These have been slowly rectified, but the Chathill - Newcastle train could still be one.
I don’t think there’s been a WMR timetable thread as such in this part of the forum, but this thread may include what you need:
As a result of the changes to Northern services to/from Southport, trains from Leeds/Blackburn via Calder Valley now run to/from Wigan only. Most terminate at Wallgate, with a few at apparently random times going to NW. Why is this - it will only cause confusion, passengers going to the wrong station etc. Surely it would be better to run them all to NW, where there are spare platforms and better onward connections, whereas terminating at Wallgate requires a shunt move.
They have to run some trains to North Western as 153s are now running on some Leeds services from today and are banned from Wallgate and also for stabling purposes. Network Rail wanted Northern to use the bays but they are not long enough for some 4 car formations so platform 1 became the default platform, which Network Rail would rather keep clear. Northern prefer to use Wallgate where possible as access charges are lower, they don't have to pay Avanti for dispatchers, they have train crew based there and barriers are in place for revenue protection.
Thanks. I assumed it was because of freight paths and/or route knowledge retention. Avanti dispatchers are still needed for other Northern services. If they are not dispatching trains towards Hindley, what else will they be doing?!
Today two of the Calder Valley diagrams - a Leeds and a Blackburn to Wigan NW - did indeed have a 153 in the formation. Why exactly are they banned from Wallgate?
They don't fit in the platforms. I believe it's the steps on the 153s that are the issue, but I'm sure someone will say if I'm wrong.
Thanks. I was going to write that we never used have all these gauging problems in BR days, except the obvious ones like Tunbridge Wells - Hastings, but the 153s date from BR days.
Thats not Northerns problem, they pay per train. The 2ph trains towards Hindley were timed at roughly the same as Virgins London ones resulting in either more dispatchers required as they can't be in 2 places at the same time or the Hindley trains departing a few minutes late waiting for a dispatcher.
That's not strictly true. Only the xx08 clashed with a Virgin service. The xx50 clashed with Northerns own Lime street services at xx48 and xx51 (roughly).
Yep, 2 minutes earlier out of New Street allows it to be 16 minutes earlier leaving Derby, which puts it in front of the "flight" at Doncaster rather than behind it, for a net gain of about 22 minutes. All thanks to the Derby remodelling for allowing faster entrances and exits to the platforms!
The 10:28 departure leaves Derby at 11:00, gets to Doncaster at 11:53 and Newcastle at 13:16.
