ValleyLines142
Established Member
I was on the same route (1515 from Manchester). Not helped by various other factors such as the Great Manchester Run, beautiful weather, engineering works so diverting via Bescot and Perry Barr as you say meaning that there was only 1tph from Manchester to Euston vice 2tph and the fact that the only unreserved carriage on board 9 cars is Coach C in which half of that is the shop!Travelling back from Manchester yesterday on a VERY full 9 car Pendolino does highlight how short sighted it was not to extend all of the class to 11 carriages. I know there were engineering works ( I had a nice trip via Stafford and Bescot) limiting the available number of trains running but it seems so short sighted not to extend all of the class.
Two questions:
- Why did that total extension not happen?
- Is there any logic behind allocation to services?
(I am sure the answer to the first will be money but hoping there might be more to it!)
At the very least, they should have made a whole carriage unreserved (i.e. Coach F which is on both 9 and 11 cars) on the 9 cars.
It was pretty shambolic but thankfully I boarded the set almost 40 minutes before departure as they were dwelling for almost an hour. Even 30 minutes beforehand, the train was practically full.