Is this a 221 on Saturdays only ?
Yes was a 5 car , was not too busy . Coach c was stated as unreserved , yet there was a few reservations in coach c. Im sure the 0800 is 390 during the week and busier. Both the via Brum and Trent Valleys are as about busy as each other now.
It is not surprising as they are a whole hour quicker. I have wondered whether there are many people travelling from Birmingham northwards during the week as most people in the northern cities have much better TPE servicesI think we may need to start seeing a 2nd train per hour between Glasgow and Euston. The Trent Valley services are simply starting to get busier.
According to NR's RUS (route utilisation study) they are very busy at first, but most passengers have left by Lancaster.
We've done this so many times on here. The bottleneck is Preston - Wigan - Warrington - Crewe which is only 2 tph, only one of which calls at Crewe. Bung in an extra service, possibly calling at Earlestown, Newton le Willows, and somewhere like Hartford on the way, and it would make a big difference. There's capacity on the network to do it, which is currently used for training/testing, and it could easily be operated by any one of Northern, TPE, or LNR using off-lease EMUs.Off topic, but maybe if there was an extra train an hour between Lancaster or maybe just Preston and Birmingham and vice versa. It's a shame the Bristol to Manchesters couldn't be diverted through to Preston.(from Stafford via Crewe, not north of Manchester)
I feel Preston deserves a more frequent service towards Birmingham.
That's precisely why it doesn't, though. The service was being overloaded between Euston and Crewe by people connecting onto Liverpool and North Wales trains. Better to skip Crewe and focus on Warrington and stations to Scotland.2nd Glasgow to Euston should call at Crewe for connections.
That's precisely why it doesn't, though. The service was being overloaded between Euston and Crewe by people connecting onto Liverpool and North Wales trains. Better to skip Crewe and focus on Warrington and stations to Scotland.
I agree it's inconvenient for passengers travelling from north of Crewe, to Crewe, but stopping the Glasgow fasts at Crewe isn't the answer. Better to run another service Preston-Crewe (plenty of fast EMUs going spare to operate it) and create a bit of competition.
I guess pick up/set down is possible - be a faff to enforce though.Could it not be pick up/set down only?
Competition? Rather not. The competition is the car and plane.