Joseph_Locke
Established Member
A crossover was installed between Buckshaw and WCML at Euxton Junction so as to avoid conflicts of services with WCML , therefore I assume Buckshaw will be a terminating station ideally using EMUs in the long term plan as and when there are enough EMUs to operate the stand-alone service.?
Errr ... a new 60mph turnout was added to the Up Fast at Euxton providing a bit more parallelism, but it connected to the Up Bolton, converting the existing single turnout into (effectively) a crossover - that was back in the mid-2000s. The trailing crossover on the Chorley side of Buckshaw is Friday Street Ground Frame crossover, relocated (the old one being one of the many issues that existed at Chorley prior to electrification). At the time the GFX was moved there was no regular service over it, but it was retained at the behest of the Operators to help with turnbacks in perturbation, but from the Preston direction originally. Had anyone asked us to design something to use as a regular turnback from Manchester, we would have provided a bay!
That said, I'm a happy regular on the xx.05 ex Victoria and fear it will become deeply unreliable when it becomes a Preston service.