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The timescales on the Northern disruptions page has changed from the 6th May to "disruption is expected until further notice" and "the line is not expected to reopen before the end of May 2024". I've been told that the land around the landslip is still moving, so until the movement stops, work...

It did, the Up line remains open, it is the Down line that is closed. So services to and from New Mills Central will use the Up line with Single Line Working in place.

The Piccadilly to Sheffield services will all divert via Stockport (without stopping). The New Mills Central terminators will use Single Line Working between Marple and New Mills.

There was a notice at our depot for volunteer drivers to take a Class 331 from Longsight MID to Victoria and back some hours later during March. I've forgotten the exact date, so I'd take a punt on a Class 331 to test out the wires.

RA2 has been appearing more and more around the Northern network. Most recently I've noticed that Guide Bridge has had all it's signage changed to RA2. A mixture of stickers over existing signs and new signage. As well as the stations along the Hope Valley.

It was entirely predictable, it's been a complete failure of upper management to prepare for this situation. A reasonable acknowledgement, a few weeks earlier with a reasonable offer to conductors would have avoided all of this.

I can imagine an emergency timetable will be needed for Xmas eve and new year's eve for Northern services in the North West, guard availability will be at rock bottom.

That service is booked as a 333 from this Monday onwards, so there should be lots more room for everyone! All the 3-car 331s on the triangle are booked on services to & from Bradford FS all day, apart from some early morning and later evening services where they'll venture on Leeds to Skipton...

It's a swap of all 12 x 4 car 331s moving from East to West, and 9 x 3 car 331s moving West to East. So the West gains 21 carriages, but loses 60 carriages (15 x 4 car Class 319s), so a 39 net loss...although the 331 carriages are longer at ~23m compared to 20m 319s. EDIT: also the single Class...

The Sunday timetable needs a good re-write, just like they did with the Mon-Sat timetable which gives a pretty much clockface timetable all day. On Sundays the Buxton's interwork with the Chester's, which gives some trains limited turnaround times at Piccadilly. Also the Crewe line uses only 2...

2 x 156 units are far longer than both platforms at Greenbank, a 150 & 156 don't fit either. Navigation Road can be an issue if the signal is at red toward Chester (very common), as the train will not be able to use the full length of the platform. The only times in the schedule are in the...

The issue is that Class 156s are diagrammed and appear far more frequently on the mid Cheshire line, which are longer than Class 150s. So when a Class 156 works in multiple, then both platforms at Mouldsworth, Delamere, Cuddington and Greenbank, and one platform at Hale and Northwich cannot...

That's an improvement then, glad to hear it!

There are no guard door controls in the cabs, the only door control buttons are on the drivers desk, which are not in a suitable position for use by the guard. They were only built with door controls in the saloon, which will partly be because of Northern's policy over the years of having guards...

I'd expect we will see 4 car Class 331s on the Chat Moss. It's possible double Class 323s will run on the Blackpool N to Manchester Airport line, as all the platforms on that route will be able to fully accommodate 6 carriage trains in the next couple of months.

In my opinion I would stick with: 10tph out of Euston HS2 seems a sensible maximum with just the 6 platforms. All trains would be 200-250m. With the following destinations served: 3tph to Manchester 3tph to Birmingham Curzon 2tph to Glasgow 1tph to Liverpool 1tph to Chester/Holyhead (if...

Sadly the Northern 195 fleet is more heavily used on the Cumbrian routes to run 6 car services, which means there are no longer spare 195s since the December 2022 timetable to strengthen Hope Valley services. Capacity now managed with higher priced advance single tickets. The dft and treasury...

I was wondering that, I'm sure they'll be cracking on with electrification works, and maybe even starting works for the new platform at Salford Crescent and turn-backs at Salford Central as there won't be anything running through those stations.

It looks to be engineering related, no weekend services on the Atherton line or between Bolton and Manchester all January and into February by the looks of things.

From what I understand, the train moved off with the guard on the platform. This safety feature of the doors closing over 3.1mph makes sense now to me, I've worked 323s for years and once the train starts to move you hear and feel the cab doors lock secure (they are already closed of course)...