Liverpool South Parkway - London service

[gazzaa2]

This is still ongoing while Lime Street is refurbished. Does anyone know why (going by the Trainline) it takes half an hour to get from South Parkway to Runcorn? Bearing in mind it takes 10 minutes to get from South Parkway to Runcorn on the Birmingham train.

The journey is about 20 minutes longer than the Lime Street-Euston service (which actually passes through South Parkway).

 

[MidnightFlyer]

It heads towards Lime St initially from South Parkway, then reverses back via a crossover between there and West Allerton to head towards Runcorn. Only platform 4 (?) was able to be modified [extended] to take 390s, hence the set up. No move is signalled to allow it to reverse in the station in the traditional sense.

 

[causton]

The Virgin script for explaining this:

"Good morning/Good afternoon, welcome aboard the xx.xx Virgin Trains service to London Euston calling at xxxx, xxxx, xxxx and xxxx. Due to arrive into London Euston at xxxx. As we are beginning our journey at Liverpool South Parkway today, to get to London we must head north first, we’ll then have a brief pause to get ourselves in a position to then head south where then we’ll proceed onto our usual destinations. So don’t worry if you think we are heading the wrong way. "

 

[gazzaa2]

Cheers