However, if both those trains goes to Victoria instead you would have to be away from home for longer as it would not be possible to do a 8 hour shift leaving Southport at the same time in the morning and arriving back at the same time in the evening. On top of that there is the risk of a missed connection at Salford Crescent adding an additional 30 minutes or more to your journey time. Hence, it could be significantly worse for some people.
But equally, for just as many people having twice as many direct trains to Victoria may save half an hour off their day.
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I have seen some of the largest sized wheeled suitcases that I have seen arriving with passengers arriving at Manchester Airport railway station, usually with passengers on the long-distance PIA flights
I have a very large wheeled case I use sometimes. It is wheeled, which means that pulling it along is not a major hassle. Manchester Piccadilly station has lifts, therefore there is no need to do anything other than wheel the case except for the single step up to and down from trains.
I would suggest it most likely that anyone with much more than that is going to take a taxi or be picked up by friends or family. Particularly from the PIA flights; in Asian culture family bonds tend to be far stronger than in British culture, so families will typically put themselves out to solve the problem. The railway won't even enter into it.
but the point that I was hoping to make was the trouble involved in disembarking at Manchester Piccadilly was the taking off the large suitcases from the train luggage racks at the same time that other passengers were hoping to do the same, whilst disembarking passengers are stopped and unconvinced until this is done.
You could say that of any passengers.
Then after making their way to a shuttle train, who is to say that the same amount of luggage space will be available and the same group seating made available to them
Who cares about "group seating" if you're on a train for 20 minutes? But if 319s were used as built, there'd be plenty of groups of 4 and 6 to choose from. Large overhead racks, a 4-car rather than typical 3- or 2-car, some with extra luggage space for Gatwick services. Space between the seats too.
So to sum up, a direct train service means one movement of luggage on and one of luggage off. whereas the shuttle connection means an extra movement off luggage off and of luggage on.
It does, but to me that is far less of an overall evil for the number of passengers involved than the people who have to stand in cattle conditions day in, day out on Northern and TPE services due to the chronic shortage of DMUs.
The services could always be reinstated when the new DMUs ordered have been delivered in a few years' time.
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From a purely personal perspective, being in neither of those categories, I repeat that it is those whose current travel arrangements to South Wales and beyond, or London Euston, who will be majorly inconvenienced.
I'm not clear who is travelling from Southport to either of those destinations via Manchester. Via Wigan will be far quicker. Indeed, is Manchester even a Permitted Route?
Those travelling from Wigan itself and other stations closer to Manchester will, AIUI, still have a service to Piccadilly.
As far as I can tell, the connections that would be made less convenient are:-
- Sheffield-Nottingham-Norwich (but a Sandgrounder or Burscoughite (is that a word?
) could instead go via Liverpool)
- Stockport (but you'd have to change for that now)
- Hadfield/Glossop (is this really a significant flow?)
- Marple and the Hope Valley (again, apart from maybe early on a Saturday and Sunday morning for day walkers, is this really a significant flow?)
None of these seem to be a massive problem.
