Would certainly help, as you then have a 55-minute end-to-end journey so it's 5' turnrounds every time which means a 2-hourly return trip is perfectly feasible, giving a 2-unit hourly service if they wanted, with a 3rd shuttling up and down. It wouldn't even need any infrastructure at Wrexham as the shuttle would stay on the old Exchange platform while the Bidston trains use 3.
The key difference with Cardiff Bay line is the amount of onward connections available and the fact that the distance is just enough for a shuttle. Wrexham General to Central is literally a 5 minute walk. If anything, there is a bigger business case for closing Wrexham Central or making it into a parliamentary service given it rarely sees any trains. There are some benefits to this as well such as from Platform 3 at Wrexham General, it gives a much better interchange between the longer distance trains.
And use the 5 mins saved at the other end to run through to Birkenhead North perhaps, once the 230s start saving the minutes they’re capable of?
Haven't earlier postings spoke of the reasons why an extension from Bidston to Birkenhead North would be operationally difficult as it would pose problems for the other services on the West Kirby and the New Brighton lines?
If you're going to use a third unit, it would be more useful to increase the layover times at each end (as I said above, you would get about 20 minutes as the bay platform at Birkenhead North is a better place to do this than occupying a running line at Bidston)
This was looked at years ago and - short of some huge infrastructure cost emerging - doesn't make any sense.
Better performing modern stock on such a frequently stopping service should be able to shave a bit off each point-to-point timing. Current times are for sprinters so perhaps D-trains supplementing their diesel output with hybrid batteries might perform a little better.
TO General/town centre/hospital from other places more than between those three places.
The junction connections for all of that don't exist today, although additional points might plausibly be provided at some expense. Would introduce additional conflicts however. The Bidson - Wrexham service doesn't impact on the Chester - Shrewsbury axis at all currently.
I was wondering about an hourly semi fast to Oswestry and an hourly stopper to Central, but I'm not sure that helps with the timing problem.
Either that, or as a halfway house you could turn the stopper back at Shotton and reverse in Dee Marsh. Most of the business on the line is on the Welsh half because as anybody who’s ever tried a rail replacement bus on that route knows, most of the road network in the area is based on Chester and Mold.
