The view of the railway is probably Liverpool John Lennon is a thing. But the last time I checked, there aren't many international flights from John Lennon.
) along with the engineering challenges meant that this went through first before a certain Minister got cold feet. That's just speculation on my part, you'll need to ask the bald one exactly why as he is most likely to know, if least likely to answer. But the premise remains, mothballing the chord will send the wrong signals to all the wrong people. The Castlefield congestion is not insurmountable, it must have been planned long in advance knowing that TPE would be throwing their services across it, and before the utter shambles of the DafT, NR, and TOCs botched May timetables. So why not try to solve those problems and use the paths as planned, instead of running around in a 'Dad's Army' style panic?Perhaps because it has given Liverpool a faster TPE service to Scarborough, via Huddersfield, Leeds and York, and vice versa? With your opinion of "Ringway", do you not consider those links to be more useful?
Quite honestly I don't know, the proposed Calder Valley to Airport run would be more useful. And yes, people do use the airport service from east of the Pennines, why wouldn't they? Given that the alternative is a run across the new M62 car park, with it's almost daily issues and the prospect of finally reaching the equally troubled M60 car park. The airport station as a whole is seeing significant growth, and although I don't have figures a cursory glance at the many suitcases heading east with 'MAN' tags on them suggest that either they boarded at Manchester Airport, or parachuted out over east Cheshire on approach and landed at Stalybridge. And suitcases seem to be a regular feature on services heading west so that is at least some anecdotal evidence.
As stated, Northern do want to run an hourly Calder Valley airport service at some point in the future.
I don't know why the Chord project was prioritised over others, but at the time of signing off it was still planned to be part of a wider scheme, perhaps the added difficulty of getting planning permission in the light of a certain Mr Whitby (hey, that's not you is it?
The CLC did have problems, as did the North TP. This is not speculation, it was as it was and subsequently the May timetables have further manifested problems in Castlefield. But even if the pathings were dialled back, there would still be problems and if a TPE serving connection were to be introduced through Victoria still have a similar number of services ramming their way through, getting short-terminated, still having crew changes etc etc, blah, blah. Moving some of the problem from A to B is what has been happening in the North for decades. Perhaps this North West timetable meltdown is a blessing in disguise, and maybe it will focus minds onto making sure services have the capacity they need instead of sticking plaster remedies?
Not faster for those of us who live in south Liverpool (a big slice of the city's population and probably the most affluent and hence more likely to travel frequently). Travelling from South Parkway now involves schlepping back to Lime Street (via two changes or a walk) or changing in Manchester with almost the same hassle. [sorry, editing to clarify the latter: I was thinking of Merseyrail to Lime Street which is the obvious route from most stations in south Liverpool but not of course S Parkway itself]
At the time it was a good idea and saved them from the horror of early privatisation.
But Metrolink has given the city centre better links. There are 4 stations serving the main city centre and 4 more transport exchange stations within the city centre. And the Arndale has double the amount of stations as it would have under Picc Vic. Royal Exchange vs Market Street and Exchange Square.
Mate West Allerton station is at the end of my road and has been for the last 35 years and I can assure you that although it has always been difficult at peak periods for some time it is now hopelessly unreliable since the May timetable change. I only use it for social meet ups as does my brother and even then it is frequently a write off. Fortunately I live close enough to work and also the city centre that I don't have to rely on it. I feel sorry for the people I speak to regularly who work for Northern and have to deal with people less reasonable than myself.
It isn't just a few minutes added for people travelling from Liverpool to Manchester Airport. It has been a complete disaster for everything along the CLC and Liverpools connection to Manchester Airport becoming one of the first things to get axed when things go wrong, which they often do.
Not strictly true. Manchester had at least a hand in its own downfall with its fascination with a monorail. By the time sense had prevailed and they finally listened to people who knew what they were talking about, all the available money had been allocated to the likes of Newcastle and Liverpool, so Picc-Vic was off the table and trams were the only answer.
There are not many of those "...holes gouged through greater Manchester for un-built motorways which would be ideal for street-level tramways,...", the only one that comes to mind that is left is the M60 /Hazel Grove by-pass. I doubt Hazel Grove will be impressed if that became a tramway rather than a badly needed road.
IIRC, the monorail was a very short-lived alternative to the Pic-Vic scheme and I don't recall it ever being taken seriously.
Undoubtedly the timetable change has been disastrous for performance on the CLC line, and most of the other lines out of Manchester. But the chaos has multiple causes, as discussed at length in this and other threads. Not specifically due to the swap of the TPE and Northern services between the CLC and Chat Moss lines.
