Trains - big changes to timetable

[RAPC]

For anybody who commutes from Leyland to points south on the Manchester line, there looks like there will be big changes to the timetable from next month.

At the moment all trains all go through to Manchester via Deansgate, Oxford Road and Piccadilly. The same is true in reverse, with reasonable peak hour services in both direction.

As from the new timetable in mid-December, the trains will be split between heading to Victoria and Piccadilly. The first train to Manchester in the morning is about 10 mins later, but it looks like we will have an additional service or two to Manchester. On the way back from Manchester it is the same split service, with a glut of trains around 5:30pm. However nothing at all from the Piccadilly route from 6pm onwards. After 6pm it is an hourly service from Victoria. Not ideal for the band of commuters who catch the two trains currently leaving Piccadilly onwards between 6:15 and 6:35pm. Now we have a wait of over an hour and a trek to Victoria. [:0]

On the one hand there looks like they will be some improvements with more morning trains and more trains in the day. On the other hand, the planners have forgotten that not every commuter finishes at 5:30pm on the dot. I'm sure the extra hour a day it will add to mine and a good 35-40 other regular Leyland commuters won't be a worry to the planners though. The other solution is to catch a train to Preston and then connect back down the line. Well it would be a solution, except Transpennine Express wish to charge us the Preston fare for doing so. Even those of us with existing annual season tickets.

According to Transpennine Express, the best solution is to drive to Chorley and catch the train from there. Brilliant - just the solution to get cards off the roads and make better use of public transport!

[JDH]

Catch the bus to Chorley? Silly suggestion from TPE on that and I don't see the need to split trains between the two stations

[RAPC]

Well the bus is an option, but at additional cost, plus the times don't co-ordinate with the trains either. It's a case of spending an extra hour at work and then a walk across Manchester basically by the look of it.

quote:

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Originally posted by JDH

Catch the bus to Chorley? Silly suggestion from TPE on that and I don't see the need to split trains between the two stations

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[anacortesdamp]

When I was commuting to college in Salford (1962-65), you never knew which way the train was going to go, but they all ended up going through Salford to Manchester Victoria. At that time there was no link between Piccadilly and Leyland/Preston. Unfortunately, a lot of the tracks that made it possible to get from Wigan and still go to Salford and Victoria are now the province of the trams.

Initially the route was steam-hauled slam-door carriage stock, but a year into my college time, the original DMUs appeared. I went back to motorcycle commuting and stayed in digs in the Salford area. Eileen and I were married between years 3 and 4 of my degree course and we went to live in Duke Street, Bamber Bridge, about a half mile from the pub on the roundabout. I could catch the Ribble X-60 from there and get dropped about a half mile from school and the same coming home, so I didn't ride the train much in my final year.

I agree that the Manchester-Preston service should go from Victoria through Chorley and vice-versa. I'm sure the majority of riders are on that route, particularly with the new station at the old ROF site. I wouldn't have thoght that the resurrected Euxton/Balshaw Lane station has the ridership to warrant trains to Manchester going that way. Mind you, I never thought they'd resurrect that station. Is there anything in the works to re-build the old Farington station?

I've been away too long to really know the dynamics, so maybe I'm over-endowed with that well-known barnyard exhaust emission!


Frank

[LDunlop76]

Stopping trains from the Piccadilly/Oxford Road end after 6pm would seem to be a big change for the worse, esp as those stations serve such a big sector of the business community, plus the universities.
There is a little known fact about Manchester's tram service - if your train ticket is for a journey which involves swapping between Piccadilly and Victoria, you can use the tram for free if you show the driver your train ticket. It might be worth asking, RAPC, if you can use your existing season ticket in the same way, if it names Piccadilly and your train has been moved to Victoria.

[Colin Damp]

I suspect this topic answers a question that's been on my mind for some time - namely to what extent Leyland has become a dormitory suburb for Manchester. With the demise of the old industrial base we grew up with, I couldn't help wondering what the people who could afford the houses on the Beechfield site did for a living.

As it happens, I commuted to Preston daily when I worked on the LEP, but did so by car, using the M6 and dropping my sister off at the school where she taught in New Hall Lane on the way.