LNW-GW Joint
Veteran Member
The enforced split at Preston on off-peak services won't have helped.
Essentially, the only real improvement has been in capacity, with trains that were mostly 2-car rattletraps now reliably 4-car 319s which whatever anyone says is a marked improvement on what went before.
Speeds are due to go up a smidgeon in December, but nothing dramatic.
So far they have used the time gained by the 319s for longer turn-rounds at each end, and I expect the PRM figures are up.
Frequency is still very poor on Sundays, the 319s hardly get out of bed.
Wavertree is also due to lose its Manchester/Airport semi-fast once the switch with the CLC line is enacted.
There's nothing in the literature that says TPE will stop there.
The odd spot of congestion near Huyton (eastbound fasts catching up stoppers) should improve with the 4th track.
I'm not sure your figures demonstrate a "sparks effect", as usage across the network is growing at about the same rate.
There was however a tendency for numbers in this region to go down in recent years.
The effect of the Merseytravel ticketing system also skews any Merseyside rail numbers - the station data never seems to match the numbers put out by Merseyrail, for instance.
One suggests a slowly declining railway, the other a steadily growing one.
Last edited:
