Quick question about services in the Acton Bridge area c. 1990

[Hassocks5489]

Evening all,

I'm doing some research into the North West Day Ranger ticket of the early/mid-1990s. I found a scan of a leaflet from 1990 which indicates the ticket was not valid on direct InterCity services between Crewe, Warrington BQ and Wigan NW, but could be used between Crewe and Warrington BQ on local trains via Acton Bridge. Could anybody with access to a 1990 or thereabouts timetable confirm what the service level would have been between Crewe and Warrington BQ for non-InterCity trains, and their typical origin and destination points? Cheers!

 

[Polarbear]

As I recall, there would have just been the main line service (BR West Coast IC & Cross Country services).

There used to be a token local service between Crewe & Preston in the mid 1970's (usually a 304 I think), but that stopped before the 1990's.

It was a bit of a pain with NW day rangers having to avoid that bit of track.

 

[Bevan Price]

Evening all,

I'm doing some research into the North West Day Ranger ticket of the early/mid-1990s. I found a scan of a leaflet from 1990 which indicates the ticket was not valid on direct InterCity services between Crewe, Warrington BQ and Wigan NW, but could be used between Crewe and Warrington BQ on local trains via Acton Bridge. Could anybody with access to a 1990 or thereabouts timetable confirm what the service level would have been between Crewe and Warrington BQ for non-InterCity trains, and their typical origin and destination points? Cheers!

May 1990 Timetable - precisely zero.

(A similar situation applies to the 1980s & 1970s, although the trains were mostly not identified in the timetable as "Inter City" status.)

You would have needed to use a Crewe / Liverpool service. For Warrington Bank Quay, then change at both Lime St. (or Edge Hill) & Earlestown. Or you could have reached Warrington Central by changing at Allerton - now renamed Liverpool South Parkway.

In addition, even by Inter-City there was only one train per day each way between Hartford & Warrington Bank Quay.
I don't think there have been any direct trains between Acton Bridge & Warrington Bank Quay since the 1960s (or late 1950s.)

 

[Hassocks5489]

Interesting. Thanks for checking. The map in the leaflet shows Crewe-Acton Bridge-Warrington, but I did think it looked dubious. (Apparently when the tickets were launched in their original form in 1989, all the publicity material had to be scrapped because of differences between the map and the accompanying wording leading to conflicting information about validity!)