Saturday 9th November - 10:32 Manchester Airport to Liverpool Lime Street

[AndyP]

Hello, I was due to board the above train at Deansgate but after Manchester Oxford Road, it went past Deansgate and other stations due to overcrowding.

I can't seem to find any football matches that were coming up around that time and I could see nothing major in Liverpool going on.
Does anyone know why there might have been more passengers?

Thanks
Andrew

 

[fodphil]

Apparently no ones travelling

 

[dk1]

Apparently no ones travelling

We are way beyond that and nobody has said that for at least 2-3 years. Not sure why it’s still recycled.

 

[Djgr]

Hello, I was due to board the above train at Deansgate but after Manchester Oxford Road, it went past Deansgate and other stations due to overcrowding.

I can't seem to find any football matches that were coming up around that time and I could see nothing major in Liverpool going on.
Does anyone know why there might have been more passengers?

Thanks
Andrew

On a Saturday, Liverpool and the trains heading in from every direction are always rammed.

 

[dk1]

On a Saturday, Liverpool and the trains heading in from every direction are always rammed.

Same at almost all cities in the UK these days and if it happens on trains run by some of the most unreliable UK operators in the last few years then the sky is the limit for the future.

 

[Horizon22]

I'd say Saturday (and to a lesser extent Sunday) between 1030-1300 is probably the time period in the week where capacity/supply is most out of sync with demand.

 

[Halwynd]

Hello, I was due to board the above train at Deansgate but after Manchester Oxford Road, it went past Deansgate and other stations due to overcrowding.

I can't seem to find any football matches that were coming up around that time and I could see nothing major in Liverpool going on.
Does anyone know why there might have been more passengers?

Thanks
Andrew

Manchester Christmas Market season started yesterday, no calls at Deansgate after 6pm Fridays and Saturdays until it's finished.

 

[Trothy]

Hello, I was due to board the above train at Deansgate but after Manchester Oxford Road, it went past Deansgate and other stations due to overcrowding.

I can't seem to find any football matches that were coming up around that time and I could see nothing major in Liverpool going on.
Does anyone know why there might have been more passengers?

Thanks
Andrew

I was told there was a big race meet at Aintree and that was too blame.

 

[TUC]

Manchester Christmas Market season started yesterday, no calls at Deansgate after 6pm Fridays and Saturdays until it's finished.

So yet again 'a lot of passengers might want this service so let's not stop there'.

 

[Kite159]

So yet again 'a lot of passengers might want this service so let's not stop there'.

More a case of Deansgate station being unsafe due to narrow platforms and 'passing' trains (although I can't remember the last time I was on a train which had a clear run to Oxford Road)

 

[voyagerdude220]

Looking into this in a little more detail, it looks as if the initial decision to not call at Deansgate was uploaded onto Northern Journey Check at 11:09 today. Looking at Realtime Trains the train sat at Manchester Oxford Road 10:57-11:11, so I'm guessing during this extended station call the Conductor or Station Staff will have been trying to get Northern Control to grant them permission to skip stations to reduce the risk of more overcrowding.

There was a further amendment at 11:22, where Control authorised for this train to also run none stop for the rest of it's journey from Newton Le Willows to Liverpool Lime Street.

 

[TUC]

Looking into this in a little more detail, it looks as if the initial decision to not call at Deansgate was uploaded onto Northern Journey Check at 11:09 today. Looking at Realtime Trains the train sat at Manchester Oxford Road 10:57-11:11, so I'm guessing during this extended station call the Conductor or Station Staff will have been trying to get Northern Control to grant them permission to skip stations to reduce the risk of more overcrowding.

There was a further amendment at 11:22, where Control authorised for this train to also run none stop for the rest of it's journey from Newton Le Willows to Liverpool Lime Street.

That does beg the question of what passengers who had boarded the train at the Airport for Deansgate or any of the other skipped stations were meant to do?

 

[jonnyfan]

The last 4 trains out of Liverpool back to Manchester were all completely full. There must have been some event on. My last service back to Piccadilly picked up delays due to the length of time at each station to give people time to alight, and it was a 156 and 150 combo via Warrington Central, so full number of carriages.

 

[mossleyhill]

The last 4 trains out of Liverpool back to Manchester were all completely full. There must have been some event on. My last service back to Piccadilly picked up delays due to the length of time at each station to give people time to alight, and it was a 156 and 150 combo via Warrington Central, so full number of carriages.

Liverpool were playing at home in a late 8pm kick off, so probably a lot of people heading home from that?

 

[SCDR_WMR]

Wasn't the EMAs this weekend in Manchester also?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

That does beg the question of what passengers who had boarded the train at the Airport for Deansgate or any of the other skipped stations were meant to do?

Or the ones waiting at the stations en route which only get 1tph.

 

[185]

It doesn't help matters Northern use those (195 / 331) contraptions with no door controls in the cab. This is precisely a situation where a guard will rightly refuse due to inability to work the train safely. Perhaps the ORR could step in and force Northern to fix them, allowing guards to use the in-cab controls in instances of trains being full to busting.

 

[Halwynd]

So yet again 'a lot of passengers might want this service so let's not stop there'.

It's far from ideal and puts more pressure on Piccadilly and Oxford Road, but, I think on balance I have some sympathy with the railway on this one.

Deansgate's platform space isn't going to cope well during busy events and you'll have punters for several services at any one time. Trains leaving Manchester are likely to be full and standing already, and the station is near a busy junction. Add to that the state that some Christmas market clientele get themselves into and you have all the ingredients required for delays and subsequent buggering up of the timetable.

 

[Trothy]

It's far from ideal and puts more pressure on Piccadilly and Oxford Road, but, I think on balance I have some sympathy with the railway on this one.

Deansgate's platform space isn't going to cope well during busy events and you'll have punters for several services at any one time. Trains leaving Manchester are likely to be full and standing already, and the station is near a busy junction. Add to that the state that some Christmas market clientele get themselves into and you have all the ingredients required for delays and subsequent buggering up of the timetable.

Agreed, it's amazing how much better the services flow through the Castlefield corridor after 1800 while the Christmas markets are on. And how much chaos would probably ensure if it was still open.

 

[TUC]

It's still not clear whether Northern bothered to make any arrangements for passengers already on the train for disembarking at those stations.