Saturday 15 November 2014

Christmas Blockade

I gather there will be no trains east of Edge Hill as far as Earlestown and St Helens Central on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 December.

As far as I am aware this has not been announced before, and at present the timetable database is still showing trains on these days.  The Merseyrail "Christmas and New Year" leaflet doesn't know about it either.

I am guessing that this is for last minute electrification works.  The fact that it has been introduced well inside the 12 week cut-off for engineering works rather suggests last-minute panic.

I wonder if what will effectively be just over a hundred hours of closure is enough to complete the work.

P.S.  I also note that bustitution until 10:00 applies for every Sunday until the end of the year.  Some of these have only been loaded into the timetable very recently.