The Irregular Carlisle and Lancaster/Morecambe to Leeds Services

[Bletchleyite]

Or an English version of Sausalito, California, as Bill Bryson once suggested.

It could be many things all of which would have their merits, but the one thing I'm sure of is that it shouldn't be what it is now.

 

[Zooty]

There may have been the odd shuttle worked by the Leeds unit, but certainly not the majority. I notice that the ECS for the Morecambe branch 5C79 is currently from Blackpool - I'm sure in my day it was from Barrow at a similar sort of time. Perhaps some current Northern staff could confirm operational details at some point.

I'm not Northern staff but the shuttle is currently provided by a dedicated unit that comes from and returns to Blackpool It's been that way since May 2018. Prior to that it was worked by several different units that interworked with Barrow/Carlisle services. The first service came ECS from Barrow and the last went off to Preston and thence Blackpool as at present. Crews are from Barrow, Blackpool and Wigan.

Skipton crew stick with their incoming unit to Morecambe and take it back again. The slightly odd case being the mid-afternoon service (not running in the current temp timetable) which does a double run to Morecambe with a Wigan crew while the Skipton crew have a PNB.

I've been in Lancaster and Morecambe a few times over the past few months, and it's been a 158 there more often than not, very often a 3-car set. Though I think the random unit generator is still in full service.

The Skipton services have been booked 158 since the demise of the Pacers. The last few weeks have seen a sudden and almost complete change to 150/2. I wonder if Skipton were running out of competency and the 150s will be booked traction for (some of) the enhanced service at the timetable change.

The 3-car 158s were a blessing of the key worker timetable over the summer and operated a reduced shuttle service coming from and returning to Springs Branch each day. It's been a while since we've seen one of them round here! They were regulars at one point on the 1725ish Leeds-Morecambe pre-Covid so maybe we'll yet see them again.

 

[janb]

Not a huge number in absolute terms, no, although perhaps a more attractive service (and a more attractive vision of Morecambe!) might improve numbers.

There may have been the odd shuttle worked by the Leeds unit, but certainly not the majority. I notice that the ECS for the Morecambe branch 5C79 is currently from Blackpool - I'm sure in my day it was from Barrow at a similar sort of time. Perhaps some current Northern staff could confirm operational details at some point.

As said there is a unit from Blackpool that works the shuttles all day, seems to be 156452 most of the time lately. Not sure if Blackpool crew do that first service or if taken over by Barrow, whoever does has knowledge for Hest Bank North curve anyway. Then you've got a mixture of Barrow and Wigan crew working through the day. Barrow do the Heysham service. Afternoons seem to be a Barrow driver doing multiple shuttles with a variety of Wigan guards (which means that an unavailable driver tends to have more impact in cancellation terms than a missing conductor). In the normal timetable there is the 1418 from Leeds that works 1643 from Morecambe/1715 from Lancaster before going back to Leeds as the 1731 from Morecambe but otherwise the Leeds-Morecambe operations are separate.

 

[30907]

Lancaster - Morecambe shuttles are indeed worked mostly by Barrow, as far as I'm aware. If you are suggesting truncating the Leeds - Morecambe service at Lancaster, it might make operational sense but there are still some through passengers (often pensioners) for whom a change at Lancaster would seem a massive disincentive.

I don't know how far back you would have to go to find west-side involvement on the line, but I would suggest at least before FNW. When I was involved in Northern's planning in 2007/8, you could have easily split the company down the middle into its former constituents from the crew diagramming point of view. Only the Calder Valley / Copy Pit lines were jointly operated, and I'm not aware that situation has really changed since.

The last time I caught the 1032 ex Shipley, a fair number of passengers had suitcases. ISTR it was a Monday in early July - West Yorks seniors obviously enjoy their short breaks!.
The line went to RRNE pre privatisation - sometime around then the early train from Morecambe (Heysham?) was withdrawn and replaced by a Ribblehead starter (which now starts back from Carlisle). Ditto the last westbound.