Preston - Platform 3C

[snail]

Not quite, TPE still have some trains that split there.

I know that but they just refer to front or rear train on platform 3, not 3a or 3b.

 

[mwmbwls]

One quick fix would be to indicate the location of the platform when the train departure announcements is being made. The expansion of Edge Hill University in Ormskirk and its increasing reputation does mean that more new passengers for this route are travelling on the route.Students returning after a weekend at home are finding the lack of a Sunday service a real problem.

 

[crispy1978]

I caught the Ormskirk train from there today. Remembering this thread I thought I would look out for signage. Starting at the subway there is an information board on P3 labelled 3b; between there and 3c I counted seven signs, on the floor and on walls.

I presume 3b is a legacy of BR days when trains used to split.

Correct - plenty between subway and lift. I spotted that. Not so many after the lift, and the platform still isn't visible from there.

 

[driver9000]

I know that but they just refer to front or rear train on platform 3, not 3a or 3b.

The A and B sections of the platforms are mentioned both on the departure boards and by the announcers but they supplement it with front 3 or rear 3 coaches as necessary.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

One quick fix would be to indicate the location of the platform when the train departure announcements is being made. The expansion of Edge Hill University in Ormskirk and its increasing reputation does mean that more new passengers for this route are travelling on the route.Students returning after a weekend at home are finding the lack of a Sunday service a real problem.

I studied there and the lack of a Sunday service was indeed an issue, as was the non-clockface timetable on Monday to Saturday. I'd even go as far as saying a 2-hourly service would have been preferable. Though as my parents lived in Taunton at the time, the loss of XC services from first Liverpool and then Preston was a bigger issue!

 

[Class 170101]

Platforms can be different on the ground to the planning world.

Upminster:-
Planning World the bay there is 1B in the real world its 1A

 

[QueensCurve]

One quick fix would be to indicate the location of the platform when the train departure announcements is being made. The expansion of Edge Hill University in Ormskirk and its increasing reputation does mean that more new passengers for this route are travelling on the route.Students returning after a weekend at home are finding the lack of a Sunday service a real problem.

Does Edgehill Station serve an Ormskirk University?

 

[Bletchleyite]

I studied there and the lack of a Sunday service was indeed an issue, as was the non-clockface timetable on Monday to Saturday. I'd even go as far as saying a 2-hourly service would have been preferable.

As a former local I don't. The services that do exist (despite being near enough the only thing at Preston that isn't clockface) are timed at relatively useful times. With strict 2-hourly you can rarely achieve that.

What is needed is an extension of Merseyrail so it could run as Burscough-Preston hourly with a single unit.

As for announcing the location of platform 3c, they always used to do that.

 

[berneyarms]

As a former local I don't. The services that do exist (despite being near enough the only thing at Preston that isn't clockface) are timed at relatively useful times. With strict 2-hourly you can rarely achieve that.

What is needed is an extension of Merseyrail so it could run as Burscough-Preston hourly with a single unit.

As for announcing the location of platform 3c, they always used to do that.

It surely could operate though at 75 minute intervals during the day, but I assume that other operations at Preston preclude that?

 

[Bletchleyite]

It surely could operate though at 75 minute intervals during the day, but I assume that other operations at Preston preclude that?

At present the timetable is well-designed for anyone wanting to:-

1. Work 9-5 or 9-5:30 in Preston (0807 off OMS, 1745 off PRE)
2. Commute to Manchester or elsewhere further afield (0658 off OMS, 1904 off PRE)

If you go to a rigid interval, I expect some of those times wouldn't fit so well. In these days of journey planners, with a low-frequency service is it not perhaps better that peak journeys are timed for convenience with some fill-ins off peak?

 

[mwmbwls]

What is needed is an extension of Merseyrail (from Ormskirk to Burscough Bridge) so it could run as Burscough-Preston hourly with a single unit.

I agree heartily.
This is on the wish lists of both West Lancashire Borough and Lancashire County Council following the announcement of up to an extra eight hundred to a thousand houses in Burscough in the latest Local Plan. The concept is nowhere near as developed as the Skelmersdale link. However with the scale of DfT cuts and the diificulties experienced by Network Rail in delivering its capital programmes I would expect at least a ten to fifteen year gestation period.