Blackpool - Manchester Electrification

I think that one goes on Victoria-Buckshaw all day (leaving Vic at 0805, 1005 etc).

It's only taken 9480 posts on this thread for the first passenger train to run.
NR has finally got there. Well done.
Time for the PR to turn positive at last.

 

At last! A small number of electric trains running through Bolton from today, video on this link:-

https://twitter.com/TheGNRP/status/1094868678183714817

 

It was almost 319 pages too!

Good news, fantastic. The changes this year will be immense .

 

From the Northern assist twitter page

https://twitter.com/i/status/1094868678183714817

https://twitter.com/i/status/1094865800987639809

https://twitter.com/i/status/1094860391887319040

https://twitter.com/i/status/1094855790228324355

Yo !!

 

I'm fascinated that 319s have been introduced so quickly via Bolton, considering the mega-issue that training seemed to be last year.
Clearly the crews already know the electric units, and the route in diesel mode.
But today must have been the first live run over the route in electric mode for the crews involved?
There didn't appear to be any familiarising runs without passengers.
Sometimes the railway baffles with its slow adaptation to change, and at others it surprises with its rapid progress.
All this and no strikes either.
Our cup runneth over.

I suppose the next question is whether TPE will use the wires with their 350s before May (or Virgin with ECS 390s).
There would seem to be nothing stopping TPE using the route with the non-stop Manchester-Preston services (if there are paths in the current timetable).

 

Announcement by Andrew Adonis of the electrification scheme for Manchester to Preston in December 2009, first electric trains run in revenue-earning service 11 February 2019 — not a very impressive performance to wire up 25 miles of railway where the large end-station at one end is already fully electrified and the end-station at the other end has a very simple modern layout. And all the associated new infrastructure work still isn't going to allow Pendolinos to run at the new speeds above 75 mph. And whilst it's really good news to have this section of railway finally electrified, we shouldn't forget that this should have been done 45 years ago (until Leverpool/Manchester-Preston were dropped from the Weaver to Glasgow scheme).

 

Wow. I was beginning to doubt it would ever happen. Presumably three 4 car emus will release 6 dmu's.
I wonder how many emu's will be required for the finished article.
K

 

Just got on a TPE 185 from Salford Crescent to Manchester Airport, was hoping for electric traction but I guess declassified first class will do! Any idea what proportion of services running piccadilly direction will be 319's?

 

That was route learning, but presumably nobody needed any route learning specially for this.

Class 319 training has been ongoing for years, so my guess would be that the large majority of the relevant crews already sign 319s.

 

For the current timetable it would be roughly 9. 2 on Buckshaw Parkway services, 4 on Man Picc - Blackpool North and 3 on Man Airport - Preston, though for the latter some extend to Barrow which obviously couldn't be replaced by EMUs.

 

Just done Lostock -Victoria and back on the Buckshaw 319, also saw three 319s go through Lostock between 10.18 and 10.32, Blackpool - Picc, Airport - Preston and Buckshaw - Vic, are we being spoiled now? Photos going to Dave who will put them on the forum on Wednesday. They are beating the dmu timings and being held for a few minutes at Bolton and Salford Crescent. My only moan is that the transformer coach has a very loud hum on startup, the first and last coach are much quieter.

 

My father uses the LIV-MAN 319 service and has said the same

 

Much quieter and due to the lack of weight, ride only slightly better than a pacer.

 

As expected, three diagrams on the Bolton line were worked by electric units today. I travelled into Manchester Vic and caught the 1005 Buckshaw Parkway service, formed of 319361, as far as Bolton. This came back as the 1009 ex Buckshaw then worked the 1205 from Vic, so every other trip on this service.

On arrival at Bolton I noted 319368 departing on the 0921 Blackpool North - Piccadilly. This came back as the 1131 Piccadilly - Blackpool N. I returned as far as Salford Crescent on 319365, which was working the 1124 Preston - Manchester Airport. These were the three diagrams worked today (out of a possible nine) and I assume the same ones every day. There was still a 319 sitting outside Victoria in between peak trips to/from Liverpool.

EMUs are having to wait time at both Bolton and Salford Crescent and no doubt elsewhere as diesel timings of course still apply (until May?).

Good news then despite all the delays to this project. Now for Stalybridge and Lostock - Wigan!

 

Just for the record 319368 on 0523 from Blackpool North, unless anybody says otherwise.

 

Is anyone in a position to confirm that 1Y61 1424 from Preston is a 319?

 

There are two EMU diagrams running to Piccadilly, the third runs to Victoria. I suspect that the TPE hire-in diagram will remain the same until the May TT change.

The Buckshaw diagram appears to be:

2J31 06:34 Blackpool North- Manchester Victoria
2P42 08:05 Manchester Victoria- Buckshaw Parkway
2J43 09:09 Buckshaw Parkway- Manchester Victoria
2P44 10:05 Manchester Victoria- Buckshaw Parkway
2J45 11:09 Buckshaw Parkway- Manchester Victoria
2P46 12:05 Manchester Victoria- Buckshaw Parkway
2J47 13:09 Buckshaw Parkway- Manchester Victoria
2P48 14:05 Manchester Victoria- Buckshaw Parkway
2J49 15:09 Buckshaw Parkway- Manchester Victoria
2P40 16:05 Manchester Victoria- Buckshaw Parkway
2J41 17:09 Buckshaw Parkway- Manchester Victoria
2P42 18:05 Manchester Victoria- Buckshaw Parkway
2J43 19:09 Buckshaw Parkway- Manchester Victoria
2P44 20:05 Manchester Victoria- Preston
5P44 21:15 Preston- Blackpool North CMD

 

Images from today

319368 at Bolton bound for Blackpool North


First day of Bolton Electrics by Mike McNiven, on Flickr

319365 coming into Bolton bound for the Airport


First day of Bolton Electrics by Mike McNiven, on Flickr

319361 at Salford Cresent bound for Buckshaw Parkway


First day of Bolton Electrics by Mike McNiven, on Flickr


First day of Bolton Electrics by Mike McNiven, on Flickr

 

Brilliant news to see electric trains in active duty on this line at last.

 

Hey thats great news they have started

 

It is fantastic to see these finally running.
Appears to be no short forms whatsoever on these routes today, and Northern's Journeycheck is the most promising it's looked in a long time (the vast majority of shortforms listed actually state 'This train will now be formed of the usual number of coaches').

To some ears, that's the beautiful sound of a 1980s DC traction motor! Wait until the 323s make an appearance if you find the 319 motor sound intrusive during acceleration!

 

A long train running or something like that... This day seems to have taken forever but I finally copped a 319 at BSV today. For reasons various it wasn't until this afternoon however I thought I'd share it with subscribers of this thread.Some new and some not so new. Lol.
Images are 319361 with today's 2P48 arriving BSV from Vic and 2J49 from BSV to Vic.

 

I created a thread about it last year as I did wonder https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/buckshaw-parkway-terminators.165127/

 

Thanks for that all the work put in by ALL contributers to this long thread .It will not have gone unoticed that the 319s are pictured in a nice sunny day here in Lancs ..maybe a thank you from nature in finally getting electrics @Bolton.

 

I also wanted to bring some historical pictures from today, from Chorley, but despite my birthday today, everything went wrong (I wanted to take pictures of entering EMUs) - too long to explain, but here they are:

 

Seconded. A fantastic thread, and great photos from today.

 

You now know the answer. Sit somewhere else!

 

Thank you very much! As you can see I did some pictures yet, but not ones I wanted most.

 

Great news, I hope to sample things on Thursday.