Ahh! Thx. Guess we will have to wait to see how that particular picture develops. In the case of the WCML; it gives First a little time to get the feel of the ship before anything radical occurs.
Thing is, the minimum spec calling pattern in the invitation to tender was that specific, that nothing radical is likely to vere off from the very high frequency timetable anyway. It's as specific as X times trains per hour must call at X station, X trains a day minimum, and X between X and X times.
Ok so a few extra services could be planned for say next December, like the extra North Wales services and Gobowen etc, but I don't know whether I'd expect the second Liverpool next December? Will the 23 replacement trains provide a lot of extra set availability after delivery compared to today with the 221s?
Don't forget as well that Grand Central have had their plans approved based on slots in the existing very high frequency timetable. So I wouldn't expect drastic changes as the ORR and Network Rail presumably envisaged the hourly times to remain broadly the same to be able to grant those paths for the coming years.
Out of interest with the second Liverpool being 'subject to ORR approval', does that mean the Liverpool is a sort of stand alone open access proposal but applied for by the franchise itself?