Tomnick said:The Bidston example sounds a little unbelievable - since the Wrexham service must leave from the same platform, the DMU surely can't be booked to leave the reversing siding for a good couple of minutes after the EMU has left the station, with a few minutes more before it departs in service? That'll leave your EMU standing out on the main line for a good while - probably to the point where it'll delay the return working! A delay of five or ten minutes I can understand; two sounds a little less reasonable.
In general, there's lots of good reasons why connections can't always be held (particularly at a busy station like Doncaster or York, where the connection could then be left standing a few minutes more to let a couple of expresses go by!), as well as a few valid but not-quite-so-good reasons (arguments over which TOC pays the delay minutes etc.!) - that's the modern railway though!
Incidentally, how do you define a 'booked connection'? I'm probably as guilty of using this word as the next man, but what does it mean? I know there's 'valid' connections (where you've got at least the minimum connection time for that station), and connecting services are sometimes shown in public timetables based on this information. What makes it a booked connection though?
its true.. if the merseyrail service is late by 1/2 mins then it stops just outside bidston, waits for the arriva trains to arrive and depart, then the merseyrail pulls in.. its a joke!!
wouldnt mind but the arriva is once every hour. spoke to some fella today and he agrees its a joke.. the borderlands train is nearly always late and sometimes never arrives, and because the borderlands stations are unmanned ( except shotton, bidston and wrexham general ) you never know how the train is performing, and national rail website can only ( no report ) because there is no recognition on the line except the 3 listed stations
merseyrail are talking of electifying the line to Neston, but i doubt it, not enough people use the line as its far to unreliable