• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Southport Line shortforming.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Mathew S

Established Member
Joined
7 Aug 2017
Messages
2,167
That may be the current demand for the line based on its service pattern, but might that change if a 2 or 4tph service to Liverpool operated? A cross platform connection at Wigan would not be "problematic", and it would be a significant enhancement for anyone travelling to Wigan itself.

It's quite possible that those headed for Liverpool drive to Kirkby and park up, or indeed drive all the way.
It's massively problematic, as evidenced by the period from May - December 2019 when the service was split at Wallgate and that's what people had to do. Once you introduce a change at Wigan - which by definition must add at least 5 minutes onto the journey - it becomes quicker for passengers who would otherwise travel from Orrell or Pemberton to drive into Wigan, and board a faster service into Manchester. Passengers from Wigan get no benefit - just as many of the stoppers that would otherwise have gone to Kirkby were late and cancelled when they were terminating in Wigan as they are otherwise. It's a cutback imposed with no benefit, and has been reversed for a reason.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Mathew S

Established Member
Joined
7 Aug 2017
Messages
2,167
But that's the connection without the benefits of a high-frequency, high-quality Merseyrail service on the first bit.
Orrell to Wigan is 8 minutes, Pemberton to Wigan is 5. You're not going to speed that up much whatever trains you run, it's such a short distance.
As for frequency, it doesn't really matter how frequent trains to Wigan are if people are actually travelling to Manchester. For example, it takes me maybe 10 minutes longer to drive into Wigan, park, and go from there than it does to travel from Pemberton. As a direct service, it's tolerable, just about. But, add in a change, and going from Wigan is just a better option all round.

I'm all for increasing the frequency of services on both the Kirkby and Southport lines, don't get me wrong, but they need to be through services at least as far as Manchester and, right now, there just isn't the infrastructure to make that happen.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top