Friday 26 July 2013

New Timetable

Details of the new timetable, to start 8th December 2013, are appearing in the schedule database.  At this early stage they must be considered provisional.  Highlights include:

  • The last service out of Lime Street Mondays to Thursdays is slightly later, as the 22:12 to Manchester Victoria reverts to being a train.  Later trains continue to be replaced by buses.
  • From Sunday 5th January 2014 until the end of the new timetable in May, there will be no trains on Sundays between Liverpool and Manchester via Earlestown and between Liverpool and Wigan.  (Trains from Manchester to Chester will run as normal via Earlestown.)
  • Manchester Airport / Scotland services are changed and routed via Golborne.  They are still recorded in the database as DMUs, but of course new EMUs can be infiltrated as they become available.
  •  
     

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Phase One "Completed"

At a ceremony at Eccles station today, Network Rail celebrated the completion of Phase One of the electrification.

Slightly premature, as they don't expect to complete commissioning until September, but nonetheless a good sign of progress.

Saturday 6 July 2013

Blackpool Line Update

My thanks to Graham for some pictures and updates from the Blackpool line:

At Salwick work is just about complete.  The rebuilt bridge has unusual metal parapets.




 At Kirkham and Wesham the main bridge span has been rebuilt and the road has re-opened.  I'm not sure what the plan is for the bridge span over the down platform track.