1832 Llandudno-Chester Flyer!

[PHILIPE]

The front portion of the 0850 from Manchester Piccadilly runs non-stop from Chester to Llandudno Junction also.

The rear portion then runs from Chester to Llandudno and "mops up".

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

if i may interject with a visitors view: The service to North Wales seems quite good.

I have traveled up there a few times from MK and it is very easy. There are regular trains form London and the option of the ATW train from Manchester.

The service, for what seems like a generally pretty rural/coastal area with smallish towns, seems decent to me. Obviously the service pattern may meet the needs of off comers more than it meets the needs of residents.

I think it's a good service too, where I think it is lacking is that there are not more 'express' services (as in the thread title). It can be frustrating sometimes travelling to and from Bangor (the busiest station) on an ATW almost all stations stopper. When I first moved to this part North Wales in the early 1980's there were Holyhead - Llandudno locals, which stopped at all stations and allowed passengers from Llanfair and Pen - and subsequently Conwy) to change at the Junction, if they were travelling further east. Of course, this was before the construction of the A55 and it was the quickest way to Llandudno avoiding the horror that was the road through Conwy.
Of course, reducing a service to one of the 'small towns' would be politically unacceptable, I recall that their was immense pressure to get the WAG Express to include a stop at Colwyn Bay.

 

[Altfish]

~0.5 million passengers annually. The only station on the coast that is busier is Bangor, at ~0.6 million.

I suppose a case could be made for regularly skipping Rhyl on some fast services, if it still sees a regular 2tph from other services. I wouldn't advise trying it on the current service level.

About the same usage as Knutsford which has 1tph for most of the day.

 

[krus_aragon]

About the same usage as Knutsford which has 1tph for most of the day.

A fair point; I hadn't considered comparable stations beyond North Wales. I note, however, that Knutsford is due to see 2tph by 2017 as a result of the new Northern franchise specification.

 

[driver_m]

It must be a nightmare to accurately plan the NW line because it has huge variations in what boards and alights the trains. I can only really go off our (VT) services but Bangor can be absolutely heaving with passengers, Rhyl can gorge out a load too, other days can be relatively quiet. IMO I think the line has got massive potential for growth and I'd like to see Llandudno and Bangor extensions of our services as a way of benefitting both towns and us getting more passengers. You only have look at the roads both A55 and the A548 coast road to see how busy they are and wander why the railway isn't doing more to grab those road users. Though it's also probably the easiest Buck pass for a politician seeing as there are that many to pass said Buck onto ..

 

[backontrack]

I already said what I'd do west of Llandudno Junction - every two hours stopping between Llandudno Junction and Bangor and then non-stop to Holyhead.

On the other hour non-stop from Llandudno Jctn to Bangor and then all stops to Holyhead.

I would stop the second service you mentioned at Conwy every 4 hours - giving it a frequency of 3tp4h.