Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
I thought the Airport to Cumbria services were introduced by North Western Trains, which meant they couldn't have been introduced before 1997.
They were introduced circa 1994-1995 ish (possibly a bit earlier) by Regional Railways well before privatisation, as part of the "NorthWest Express" project involving the green-stripe branded Class 156s. They left Manchester Oxford Road at I think xx07 every 2 hours and ran via Wigan (not Parkside; nothing ran that way back then other than a Parly and diversions). Between the Airport and Bolton they ran joined to the CrossCountry Express service to Scotland (Class 158), splitting there, whereupon that headed off and ran via Chorley.