Northern (Arriva Rail North)

[knutstransport]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)
Letter distributed by Liam Sumpter, regional director at Northern for the central region.

Quote:Further to my previous correspondence last month I wanted to write to you again to provide you with an update on our May 18 timetable introduction.

As you will recall our proposed timetable for May 18 was critically dependent on the successful delivery by Network Rail of the Manchester to Preston Electrification Project, which has been significantly delayed.

Unfortunately, the knock-on effects go way beyond the North-West region, and as a result we have had to make changes elsewhere across the network to reallocate diesel trains to cover the Manchester to Preston route, which would otherwise have been served by electric trains.

To understand the impact of this lack of infrastructure our Train Planning Team have carried out a major review of our proposed May 18 timetable and we are now able to share with you what service improvements we will be able to introduce in May. Disappointingly some of the extra services we had planned for May will now be arriving later. Whilst this is frustrating and means some customers will have to wait longer for improvements, they are improvements worth waiting for.

Calder Valley through Manchester Victoria
• Six trains per hour will still be provided weekdays between Rochdale and Victoria
• Providing new regular journey opportunities:
• Half hourly Rochdale – Manchester Victoria – Bolton – Blackburn, extending hourly to/from Clitheroe
• Hourly Blackburn – Todmorden – Manchester Victoria – Wigan – Southport, with reduced Burnley to Manchester journey time
• Hourly Leeds – Dewsbury – Manchester Victoria – Wigan – Southport
• Two trains per hour Leeds – Bradford – Manchester Victoria

Manchester Victoria to/from Stalybridge
• Two weekday trains per hour between Stalybridge and Manchester Victoria, one extending to/from Wigan via Bolton.
• Daytime services at Mossley, Greenfield, Marsden and Slaithwaite will be provided by TPE.
• Northern will operate some peak services between Manchester Piccadilly and Huddersfield to serve these stations.

Manchester – Preston
• Original plans amended, as services will now be diesel worked rather than electric:
• Half hourly Preston – Manchester Piccadilly via Bolton service will still be provided, one train an hour running Blackpool North – Manchester Piccadilly and one train an hour Preston – Manchester Airport
• Four through Barrow – Manchester Airport and vice versa services will run, along with one Manchester Piccadilly – Windermere and two Windermere – Manchester Piccadilly services
• Hourly Preston – Manchester Victoria service will now run between Buckshaw Parkway and Manchester Victoria
• Hourly Manchester Airport – Blackpool North via Wigan EMU service

Manchester – Wigan – Southport
Six weekday trains per hour will now be provided between Wigan and Manchester:
• Three trains per hour via Atherton, comprising Kirkby – Victoria, Southport – Blackburn and Southport – Leeds (fourth train per hour provided at peak times)
• Two trains per hour via Bolton, comprising Wigan – Victoria – Stalybridge and Wigan – Piccadilly – Alderley Edge
• Hourly non-stop electric service between Manchester Oxford Road and Wigan North Western
• Two morning peak services from Southport – Wigan – Piccadilly – Alderley Edge departing at 06:17 & 07:17
• Two evening peak services from Alderley Edge – Piccadilly – Wigan – Southport departing at 16:49 & 17:49 from Alderley Edge and 17:19 & 18:18 from Manchester Piccadilly

In the evening peak because of the capacity constraints through the Manchester Piccadilly to Salford corridor the 17:19 off Piccadilly (16:49 from Alderley Edge) will call at Deansgate but not Oxford Road; and the 18:18 off Piccadilly (17:49 from Alderley Edge) will call at Oxford Road but not Deansgate.

Chester and Greenbank – Manchester Piccadilly
• An hourly service will continue to be provided between Chester and Manchester Piccadilly, with peak time extra services running between Chester and Stockport, as now
• A two hourly Sunday service will continue to be provided between Chester and Manchester Piccadilly

Stoke and Macclesfield – Manchester Piccadilly
• An hourly service will continue to be provided between Stoke and Manchester Piccadilly, with peak time additional services between Macclesfield and Manchester Piccadilly
• The Sunday service level between Stoke and Manchester will remain as now, with five services in each direction

Buxton and Hazel Grove – Manchester Piccadilly
• Three weekday trains an hour will be provided between Hazel Grove and Manchester:
• Two trains an hour Buxton – Manchester Piccadilly
• Hourly Hazel Grove – Manchester Piccadilly
• Most services will call at Davenport, Woodsmoor and Disley
• Two Sunday trains an hour between Hazel Grove and Manchester:
• Hourly Buxton – Manchester Piccadilly
• Hourly Hazel Grove – Manchester Piccadilly

Sheffield/New Mills Central/Rose Hill – Manchester Piccadilly
• Hourly Sheffield – Manchester Piccadilly service every day
• Two weekday trains per hour New Mills Central – Manchester Piccadilly via Bredbury (one of which is Hope Valley Sheffield service)
• Two weekday trains per hour Rose Hill – Manchester Piccadilly via Hyde

Crewe and Alderley Edge – Manchester Piccadilly
• Hourly Crewe – Manchester Airport – Newton-le-Willows – Liverpool Lime Street service
• Hourly Crewe – Stockport – Manchester Piccadilly service
• Hourly Alderley Edge – Stockport – Manchester Piccadilly – Bolton – Wigan service

Manchester Airport – Manchester Piccadilly
• Four Northern trains per hour between Manchester Airport and Piccadilly/Oxford Road
• Liverpool – Airport – Crewe will call at all stations between Piccadilly and Airport
• Heald Green will have three services per hour in each direction
• Mauldeth Road, Burnage and Gatley will have two services per hour in each direction
• East Didsbury will two Northern services per hour in each direction, with off peak ATW calls continuing
 
I would like to reassure you that despite this delay to some of our proposed improvements our modernisation plans to transform the train journey experience for our customers by 2020 remains our number one focus. May and December are the key dates for timetable changes on the rail network, and as part of our modernisation programme, we will provide 2000 extra services per week and increase the peak time capacity by 40% by 2020.
To deliver these extra services we have 98 brand-new trains currently being built to replace the Class 142 Pacers that will be retired at the end of 2019, whilst we refurbish the rest of the fleet to deliver a significantly improved customer experience right across the network.

In addition to the above MCRUA has been told morning peak time extras on the Mid-Cheshire line will continue to terminate at Stockport but the unit running the first service will run back to Chester as an additional service. They've also been told they'll be a reduction in capacity on some services - 4 car workings on Saturday becoming much rarer and the c.15.00 Chester to Manchester being operated by a 2 car 142 instead of a 4 car 150, something the chairman has raised concerns about as that is likely to mean passengers get left behind due to the train being too full.