We've had a week of operation of the new layout at Huyton and Roby (Although no trains yesterday.) and it seems to have gone pretty well, in general. I've been watching the signal box diagram and trains have been flowing smoothly.
The new configuration has shorter signal spacings than previously, which should help.
I spotted an unusual overtaking move on Saturday evening, a slow train from the Chat Moss route ran on the Down Chat Moss Fast stopping at Huyton and Roby and was overtaken by a following fast train also from Chat Moss, which zig-zagged onto the Down Chat Moss Slow.
This morning's start was the first time things went wrong, the first two down stopping trains at Huyton were 55 minutes late and the first up was cancelled. Things gradually recovered over the next few hours, with about six cancellations altogether. I've not seen any reason for the problem, I wonder if the Sunday possession was handed back late.
At Huyton this morning, finishing works were progressing steadily.
Update: Only a few hours after I'd written the above I met a friend who was on the 21.47 Liverpool Lime Street to Blackpool North last Wednesday. This was terminated at Huyton due to a "signalling failure". The train proceeded ECS to Wigan via Newton while the passengers were left to a non-existent bus replacement. So things weren't quite as good as I thought in the first week. Of course, this might have been a problem at St Helens, nothing to do with our new signalling.
