The line does at least pass through Bentham, but last time I checked skirts around the top of the Forest of Bowland.
This is obviously a good idea and would help the services fit between the Airedale and Wharfedale electric services, but how about in the alternate hours to Leeds - Carlisle services, introducing a Manchester Victoria - Hawes service as an extension of the Clitheroe, reopening the branch to serve what is by far the largest settlement in the vicinity of the line, giving an hourly service between Hellifield and Garsdale and connections to west side destinations instead of just Yorkshire.
Definitely not Ribblehead on request but the others perhaps yes. All trains should stop at Ribblehead and passengers should be encouraged to alight and spend an hour or 2 there. The alternating hourly Leeds and Manchester service would allow passengers to spend an hour at Ribblehead and an hour at Settle etc.
How about reversing the order of stops and running directly Carnforth - Bare Lane - Morecambe - Bare Lane - Lancaster - Bare Lane - Morecambe - Bare Lane - Carnforth? The WCML could do with a 3rd track on the west side between Lancaster and Oxenholme to be used by all Windermere, Barrow and Morecambe services, or northbound WCML services with the centre track bi-directional. This would also enable a greatly appreciated stop at Hest Bank which would be very popular, especially on a direct service from Bare Lane to Carnforth without reversing.
The Bowland Forest Line does pass through the Forest, though only marginally, but I don't see that as an issue - there is already 'alight here for the Forest of Bowland' marketing at Giggleswick, Clapham, Bentham and Wennington, for example.
Alas reopening of the Hawes branch looks like a very distant possibility indeed; having failed in the Restore Your Railway fund I would say that that project is as good as dead. Which is a real shame, because as you say, it's the only sizeable settlement for some miles!
I suggest request status for Ribblehead because, outside the peak services, it tends to receive few to zero passengers - the first and last departures in both directions certainly (almost) never pick anyone up. Of the stations I mentioned (Long Preston, Clapham, Wennington, Ribblehead, Dent and Armathwaite) it is the most used, however. As for the benefit of making such stations requests, though the overall time saving would be minimal (approx. five minutes on average) it would allow the possibility of making up time were a train to be delayed, which is especially important for services heading west along the Bowland Forest Line (due to pathing on the WCML).
There did use to be a service which ran via Morecambe North Curve, calling at Morecambe and Bare Lane (twice)
en route to Leeds, but this was removed at the May 2020 timetable change (I believe). It had been retained only for route knowledge purposes, which is now covered by drivers and conductors watching a brief cabview video of the section between Carnforth and Bare Lane Jct.; there's no real operational benefit to travelling via Morecambe, and it only serves to add an extra fifteen to twenty minutes to the journey time between far larger settlements (Lancaster and Leeds).
The skipton - Lancaster line only skirts the forest of bowland. Call it the Wenning line. It follows the river Wenning between Clapham and past Wennington.
I bet the preston signallers are pleased the leeds - lancaster trains are now 90 mph 158's rather than 75mph 150 or pacers.
I'm sure they are! Especially as Northern's Pacers were actually limited to 60 mph for safety reasons (!).
This sounds fine on paper, but surely
a) it means a downgrade for the Leeds - Carlisle service, which is sort-of 2 trains per 3 hours most of the day
b) Wouldn't it be difficult to path, especially on the Bowland Forest line?
I'm sure you're right regarding delays - but I suppose it comes down to costs, needing a dedicated crew to work the shuttle and also some loss of connectivity.
How much would this save in terms of schedules that would work realistically ? Perhaps 5 minutes? Might be worth it.
Rather than a mighty reshash of the schedules, sure the most crying needs are:
1) Another up morning 'late commuter' service into Leeds serving Horton, Settle, Helli-grave, ideally at 08.30 off Settle. (Because the current next train after the 07.30 is not until 10.00 - a horrible gap and disincentive over the most important section of the line regarding passenger usage.)
This could be an 06.50-ish off Carlisle, or an 08.15 turnaround off Ribblehead.
2) similarly, in the down, a second not-so-late commuter service into Carlisle 08.15ish off Appleby, arriving in Carlisle about 09.05.
But, the above also means a steep increase in costs - two sets of crews and stock - and then you have to employ the crew for the rest of the shift and the stock for the rest of the day. Whether the farebox increase could pay for these additions, I guess is very doubtful.
As an aside, I quite often look at how both these lines are working on RTT, and must say that, overall, the standard of services seems excellent* - especially on the S&C - although I noticed a few cancellations one day in late July.
* But yes, there do seem to be not infrequent 5 - 10 minute delays on the Bowland Forest line. This supports your experience regarding the Morecambe services.
Not a downgrade if timed well; if you were to run a bi-hourly service you would still have eight trains per day following approximately the same timings; there would also be scope to add a ninth daily return.
Again, not necessarily difficult to path on the WCML. There is a regular path available at xx59 CNF to LAN, and at xx46 LAN to CNF, which could be used without issue.
As for a dedicated crew - there already is, for the most part; Morecambe receives a rough half-hourly service on weekdays which is crewed by either Skipton (for the services which run through from Leeds, of which there are five), Barrow or Wigan Wallgate drivers and conductors, with I believe Wigan taking the majority of the workings, shuttling back and forth for most of the day.
As you say, the current long gaps in services (particularly at Long Preston on Saturdays, when there is a six-hour gap in up services!) needs to be remedied; to my mind this is best served with a clockface timetable (in an ideal world hourly, but realistically bi-hourly), as that would improve passenger familiarity whilst also removing the awkward gaps.
Again, as for crews, it's surprising what can be done just by 'jigging things around a bit' - the recent two additions to the Bowland Forest Line, added at the December 2021 timetable change, were achieved without any additional crews, merely by altering other diagrams in the early morning and late evening.
Separating it would also allow a clockface half hourly timetable on the Morecambe, or as close to it as the WCML allows, give or take a couple of hour gaps for the Heysham run.
As for "Bentham line" it doesn't sound nice, the word "bent" isn't exactly positive. I like "Forest of Bowland Line" as suggested even if not strictly accurate (though according to an OS map it does briefly enter that area). Another that might work is "South Dales Line", as it's located just to the south of the Dales.
"Wenning" doesn't sound particularly nice either. It is more important that it sounds nice than that it is strictly accurate, as it's a marketing name.
That would reduce the Lancaster-Morecambe service which is primarily a local train for local people - most are not travelling through to Yorkshire or even connecting anywhere, but if they are Manchester and London will be the main ones.
Better just to separate it out.
'Bentham' is pronounced 'benth-um', contrary to how the original TrainFX announced read it out as! The 'South Dales Line' is a decent alternative, though as mentioned above Northern have started placing marketing material on the stations already drawing attention to the line's proximity to the Forest, so I don't believe the name would be out of keeping.
In my experience, having worked the Morecambe line
many, many times, I've found that the vast majority of passengers are travelling only as far as Lancaster. Those that are going beyond tend, in the main, to be heading south, to Preston or Blackpool. After that the largest chunk are travelling to stations on the Furness or Cumbrian Coast lines, with the remainder going either to Scotland or, finally, to stations along the Bowland Forest or Airedale lines. As you say, better just to separate it and improve service frequency all round.
That's just my twopennyworth based on the foregoing comments. I would also like to see regular services from Blackburn to Hellifield, though as these would require turning at Settle Jct. it makes timing rather awkward (though not impossible); the pathing isn't really available for these to continue to Manchester, unfortunately.
