Hopefully patronage will shoot up when 319s or similar are used on services from Manchester to Liverpool, and both to Blackpool.
At present the issue with 319s on Preston-Manchester is going to be how can they be used to replicate the existing peak time capacity, considering many platform lengths are 6 car and 319s don't have SDO and can't be reformed.
Currently the two Northern services arriving in Manchester between 8 and 9 are 180s while the two TPE services are 6 car 185s and these services all usually have people standing. I accept a 319 will have similar capacity to a 180 despite having a carriage less.
One solution would be to use 2x323s on Blackpool to Airport services and put the 319s on existing 323 routes. However, the existing 323 routes aren't crying out for extra carriages in the way other lines are.
Finally - Cheshire no investment? How about the hourly Virgin trains to Chester? A huge boost to the local economy. If east of there, choose from any of Warrington, Stockport, Wilmslow, Macclesfield for fast and frequent trains to London, Manchester and Birmingham.
I said in the last couple of years. More frequent London trains from Chester and Wilmslow were introduced in 2008 and there wasn't really much of an investment to introduce that then as the enhancements were made using existing rolling stock.
You mention Warrington but Warrington actually lost out as a result of the 2008 timetable change. The half-hourly Warrington-Crewe service became hourly. While Chester did gain more direct services to London they replaced some services previously operated by ATW so the number of train services to and from Chester has remained fairly constant even though trains that previously terminated at Crewe now continue to London.
There are quite a few other places in Cheshire that lost out as a result of the 2008 WCML timetable change.