First North Western service over Parkside chord

[Philip]

I've been looking at a 2003 First North Western timetable for the Manchester-Cumbria route and have come across a 07:xx from Barrow which arrived into Man Airport approx. 09:15, so this would've most likely been booked as a 175 considering the year. The odd thing is that after departing Preston not long after 8, it ran non-stop to Manchester and this was well before the decision was made to start diverting regional Manchester-Preston services away from Bolton.

Does anyone remember this service? I think it ran until the timetable was changed when Northern started in Dec '04. Did it run via Parkside or Atherton, or through Bolton but without stopping?

Also in general were there any booked workings over Parkside in the years before the TPE services were diverted that way?

 

[Ianno87]

Doesn't seem to be listed in any PSUL editions from the period that I can find (https://www.branchline.uk/PSULdocs.php) for Golborne Jn-Lowton Jn.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Only time I've been over it before recent times was in a diverted Liverpool-Wigan Pacer - I have a feeling there was a Parly working though, crack of dawn Saturday springs to mind, almost certainly from the Scouse side.

 

[Llama]

I don't remember any booked workings over Parkside-Golborne either way until the TPE service started, it would be strange for it not to stop at Bolton but then there were VXC services running via Bolton in those days, headways were pretty tight.

 

[Philip]

https://web.archive.org/web/20030619010230/http://www.firstnorthwestern.co.uk/

It's in this timetable, the 06:49 from Barrow, arr. Preston 08:10, then Oxford Road at 08:47.

 

[King Lazy]

I can’t give a definitive answer. What I can say is that if it was a Barrow crew all the way to Manchester they didn’t sign Parkside until much more recently.

They did sign Atherton and Westhoughton.

My guess is that it went via Atherton hence missing Bolton.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I can’t give a definitive answer. What I can say is that if it was a Barrow crew all the way to Manchester they didn’t sign Parkside until much more recently.

They did sign Atherton and Westhoughton.

My guess is that it went via Atherton hence missing Bolton.

At the time the Barrows generally went via Westhoughton, so this probably makes sense - that or the stop wasn't there to give flexibility of routeing for engineering works purposes, such as the middle of the night Liverpool-Manchester-Liverpool run which was non-stop and slackly timed to allow any of about 3 possible routes (Chat Moss, CLC, Wigan - have I missed any?) to be used.

 

[Ianno87]

At the time the Barrows generally went via Westhoughton, so this probably makes sense - that or the stop wasn't there to give flexibility of routeing for engineering works purposes, such as the middle of the night Liverpool-Manchester-Liverpool run which was non-stop and slackly timed to allow any of about 3 possible routes (Chat Moss, CLC, Wigan - have I missed any?) to be used.

Barrows went via Westhoughton until May 98, when they switched to via Chorley (and the Southport-Airport service was introduced in place of Southport-Chester to keep the Wigan-Airport link)

 

[Bletchleyite]

Barrows went via Westhoughton until May 98, when they switched to via Chorley (and the Southport-Airport service was introduced in place of Southport-Chester to keep the Wigan-Airport link)

Sorry, for some reason despite the first post clearly stating 2003 I had it in my thick skull that we were talking about the pre-1998 timetable (aka the last time the North West had a punctual rail service and anything like adequate capacity, albeit on much lower frequencies than now).

 

[Philip]

Sorry, for some reason despite the first post clearly stating 2003 I had it in my thick skull that we were talking about the pre-1998 timetable (aka the last time the North West had a punctual rail service and anything like adequate capacity, albeit on much lower frequencies than now).

175s weren't too bad for the route capacity wise, at the time. I think Chester depot prioritized allocation for the North West routes over Wales to ensure the peak services into and out of Manchester were 3-car or doubled up. I can even remember as late as 2006 taking a 175 from Salford Crescent to Bolton during the off peak daytime hours and there being plenty of spare seats; that wouldn't happen now!

Things went downhill when the additional 2-hourly Scotland was removed and instead squeezed into the Barrow/Windermere path.