Summer Timetable

As the engineering works get going, reductions in late evening trains from Liverpool are a feature of the new timetable. For example, the last train to Huyton on Mondays to Thursdays will be 21.42. Traditionally this was 23.16, and it was 23.02 in the last timetable. Buses replace the lost trains. On Fridays and Saturdays, the trains run as usual.

The posters at Lime Street seem to say these reductions are until September, while the National Rail Timetable valid until 8th December shows them throughout. Your guess is as good as mine!

The similar reductions in trains from Manchester Victoria to Liverpool introduced in the December 2011 timetable remain in force.

On the plus side, there are no weekend blockades shown.

Scotland Trains Ordered

Angel Trains and the DfT have today announced that contracts worth £145 million have been signed for new Class 350 trains, ten of which will go to TransPennine Express for Manchester to Edinburgh and Glasgow services.

Let's hope I don't have to reverse the story again.

Scotland Trains NOT Ordered?

Contrary to my report of 3rd February, Siemens and the DfT have apparently both denied the existence of any signed order. So despite getting my news from an "informed source", it appears I may have been premature.

Bridge Works at Roby

The work to raise the Bridge Road bridge at Roby station is well under way, with the brick-faced concrete parapet being craned in to position when I visited.

Gantries Up!

The first new overhead electrification structures, located on the Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester, have been erected.