Through ticket from Manchester to Sandhills via Kirkby?

[MKB]

In a remarkable, but sadly typical, piece of event planning, the Premier League have moved the Liverpool v Man City game on New Year's Eve to a 17:30 kick-off.

Although I'm a red, I'm actually in Manchester that night, so I'm facing the same transport problems as the City fans.

The Manchester-Liverpool trains seem to be replaced by buses. How that's going to work with several hundred footballs fans remains to be seen.

Going to the match, I see I can get a Northern train from Manchester Victoria to Kirkby then a Merseyrail service on to Sandhills. It looks like the return will have to be by a replacement bus from Lime Street.

My questions are:

1) Why are the booking engines refusing to sell me a through ticket from MAN to SDL via KIR?

2) If I book a Manchester Stations to Liverpool Stations Off-Peak Day Return, will it be valid for my journeys?

 

[Bletchleyite]

1) Why are the booking engines refusing to sell me a through ticket from MAN to SDL via KIR?

Because, utterly ludicrously, it is not a Permitted Route.

2) If I book a Manchester Stations to Liverpool Stations Off-Peak Day Return, will it be valid for my journeys?

No. You probably will have to split.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
By the way - it's quite possible you may fall victim to the NYE early finish which may not be in the planners yet?

 

[Romilly]

As regards (1), probably because the last train from Kirkby to Wigan is at 1907 that day. [Or maybe because of the permitted routes for the proposed ticket - see post 2 above].

Given that you are therefore going to have to travel back via Liverpool Lime Street, maybe a Manchester to Rice Lane ticket will cover you: outwards from Manchester to Rice Lane; switch to the return portion for Rice Lane to Sandhills; break your return journey at Sandhills; then continue your return journey by going from Sandhills into Lime Street and then on to Manchester. £12.40 offpeak day return.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Good idea.

The last train is early every day, by the way, not just NYE - the evening services were pulled by BR in the late 80s/early 90s allegedly due to antisocial behaviour and have never been reinstated.

 

[Merseysider]

Even cheaper would be a CDR from Manchester to Kirkby route Wigan at £8.30. A change of route excess of £2.05 would be due (payable at any point before or during the journey) to excess the return half to Any Permitted which is valid via Liverpool.

 

[MKB]

Thanks. Some excellent teamwork there!

 

[Bletchleyite]

An update - it seems to me that this routeing issue has been fixed, as National Rail Enquiries *will* list a through ticket via that route, a £12.30 Off Peak Return. However JakeF's solution is cheaper anyway!

London Midland's otherwise terrible ticket sales site will appear to sell it.

 

[scrapy]

If you desperately want to avoid buses a Manchester stns to Formby (route Wigan) CDR £12.40 is valid via Kirkby and Southport and would be valid to return via Southport from Sandhills if you've broken your outward journey at Sandhills after travelling via Kirkby.

Note I haven't checked for engineering work on this route so it would be wise to do so before taking this option.

 

[Starmill]

The New Year's Eve finish probably won't be any earlier than the normal finish for services between Wigan Wallgate and Kirkby. Everywhere else though it will probably be much earlier than normal, although bizarrely TransPennine don't always do late starts or early finishes, and they operate through the North East when Northern don't. One way or the other the service would not get one to Liverpool and then back to Manchester again. So that may be why the bus replacement is taking place that day...

 

[hairyhandedfool]

The New Year's Eve finish probably won't be any earlier than the normal finish for services between Wigan Wallgate and Kirkby. Everywhere else though it will probably be much earlier than normal, although bizarrely TransPennine don't always do late starts or early finishes, and they operate through the North East when Northern don't. One way or the other the service would not get one to Liverpool and then back to Manchester again. So that may be why the bus replacement is taking place that day...

No direct trains between Manchester and Liverpool all day due to engineering work. TPE and EMT using buses west of Manchester, Northern operating buses between Victoria and Eccles and also between Piccadilly and Urmston. Northern's service shuts down much earlier than TPE, with the last Northern services out of Lime Street being the 2020 to Eccles and the 2055 to Warrington Central.