What On Earth??

This morning's timetable updates include a number of peculiar Pendolino workings in the early hours of 31 March and 1 April, shuttling backwards and forwards between Newton or Warrington Bank Quay and Edge Hill.

You can see them on Realtime Trains.

Is this a load test for the new wiring?  Or an April Fool joke by the schedulers?

The trains are shown as Class 1, not ECS, so can I get a ticket?

Walrus

OK, I know it's not directly related to the electrification project, but you can use one on our new electric trains, which is near enough.

So, how are the incompetent buffoons at Merseytravel getting on with their current "big project"?   The short answer is:  Not very well.

Walrus was launched in 2011, and we were supposed to be using it for pay as you go in 2013.  There's no sign of that happening yet, but they have now launched smart Savaways.  After a trial period in Wirral these are being rolled out across Merseyside this month, to replace the scratch-off Savaway tickets.  I got one this morning.

What's wrong with it?  Where do I start?

• You can no longer buy a Savaway in advance, only on the day of travel, so if I'm starting my trip with a bus ride I have to walk past two bus stops to get to the newsagent to buy one.
• The railway doesn't do PayPoint so it's only cardboard tickets from the station, but of course they got rid of the scratch-off ones a few years ago, so still no chance to buy in advance.
  
• The railway doesn't do smart cards except at the handful of stations with ticket gates, so you need to carry a paper receipt to prove there's a Savaway on the card, which rather defeats the object, I think.  Paperless ticketing eh?
• Given that we're one week into the rollout one might have expected a leaflet, but no, the poor lady in the Merseytravel office had to go through her explanatory spiel for each customer.
• In view of the inconvenient requirement to carry a paper chit along with the card, one would have thought that a little plastic wallet might be useful, but I wasn't offered one.
• What about other modern ways of buying a ticket?  Internet - no.  Ticket machine - no - not even Merseytravel's own ticket machines.

And the pluses of the new card?  I'm struggling to think of any ... ah yes, got one:

• I'm always a little worried that my cardboard Savaway might get "eaten" by the ticket barrier.  I know the staff can retrieve it for me but that's little consolation when my mates are already getting on the train.  At least the Walrus doesn't have to leave my hand.

Of course, Merseytravel save the expense of printing and distributing those scratch cards which, I imagine, don't come cheap.

By the way, soon (1st April I think.) there will be a £1 charge for the Walrus card itself, so I advise you to get a free one quickly.  Actually, come to think of it, I might get a couple of spares while they're free, if I do any more Savaway trips.

Whinge over (for now) and I promise the next blog entry will be about electrification.  Probably.

Wigan Line Test Trains

A couple of schedules have appeared in the timetable database for what look like test trains for the Huyton to Wigan line (and also the curve to Bamfurlong Junction) on this coming Monday and Tuesday evenings.

Realtime Trains is the best place to find details, see U03681 and U03682.

Hopefully this will be MENTOR, in which case we can hope for test 319s soon.  I don't suppose we'll see any passenger workings until May, but you never know.

Update:   Having just observed it at Huyton I can confirm that Monday's train was indeed an electrification test coach, running pantograph up.  Power was 97301 and 97303, top and tail.

Update:  These tests were followed by 319 test runs overnight on Wednesday and Thursday nights.  I don't know if all the paperwork has been signed off yet, but basically the Wigan line is now operational.

Northern Electric

I marched up to Huyton station to find a special notice on the departure panel.

A few minutes waiting on the platform, and then an unfamiliar train rolled in.

Yes!  This was 1F92, the 07.35 Manchester Airport to Liverpool Lime Street, the first ever electric train to call at Huyton, and 319363 was looking shiny in its new "Northern Electric" livery.

At Lime Street the regular commuters left the train.  I wonder how many of them noticed anything different.

The inside's a bit purple, isn't it?  Clean and bright, anyway.

It was soon time for '363 to head off on another run to the airport.

Phase Two In Action

This morning, the 06:16 Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Airport was worked by 319363, forming the first electric passenger service on the phase two route.

More details and hopefully pictures later ...