Doubling back between Mcr Piccadilly & Oxford Rd

[aye2beeviasea]

I've noticed recently that for any journey that would normally involve a change at Manchester Piccadilly between platforms 13 and 14 - e.g. Nottingham to Manchester Airport - I'm getting itinerarys on NRE and other apps to instead carry on to Oxford Road and double back.

If everything's on time that actually suits me - 5 more minutes in a reasonably comfy seat in a warm carriage beats standing around in the cold - but is it strictly speaking a valid journey? And what would happen in terms of delay repay if you got delayed between Piccadilly and Oxford Rd and miss the connection, but would have made it by changing at Piccadilly?

I assume the idea is to ease overcrowding at Picc, maybe platforms 1 and 4 at Oxford Road could put up signs saying 'Manchester Piccadilly Platform 15' and 'Manchester Piccadilly Platform 16' and solve the Ordsal Chord problem for good

 

[scrapy]

Yes absolutely fine they are group stations and you'd be able to claim delay repay if you were delayed on a journey via Oxford Rd provided you actually made that journey.

 

[aye2beeviasea]

Thanks scrapy

 

[plugwash]

Curious

Initially I thought this would be because of the smaller minimum connect time at oxford road (5 minutes for oxford road vs 10 for Piccadilly according to brtimes), but that doesn't seem to explain things. For example the 13:47 tomorrow would give you a 6 minute change time (1 minuite above minimum) at oxford road, but a 14 minuite (4 minuites above minimum) change time at picadilly.

 

[aye2beeviasea]

Yes, and every example I've seen so far has traded a platform 14 to 13 change at Picc - which is just walking back along the island - for a 1 to 4 change at Oxford Rd which involves stairs up to and down from the bridge.

 

[plugwash]

Yeah, I don't think the planners are smart enough to know that certain services are forced by the geometry of the station to use certain platforms though.

 

[sheff1]

Yes, and every example I've seen so far has traded a platform 14 to 13 change at Picc - which is just walking back along the island - for a 1 to 4 change at Oxford Rd which involves stairs up to and down from the bridge.

When did the EMR trains start using platform 1 at Oxford Rd ? I have never been on one which has.

 

[Bletchleyite]

When did the EMR trains start using platform 1 at Oxford Rd ? I have never been on one which has.

I don't think anything is scheduled to use it, but it gets used if something gets stuck in 2 e.g. because of Northern's insistence on doing crew changes there.

 

[aye2beeviasea]

Good point, I meant platform 2 at Oxford Rd

 

[jtuk]

Yes, and every example I've seen so far has traded a platform 14 to 13 change at Picc - which is just walking back along the island - for a 1 to 4 change at Oxford Rd which involves stairs up to and down from the bridge.

I would suggest that it's trying to divert people away from changing at a chronically crowded platform for something slightly more civilized, but I doubt it