Summer Timetable Begins Today: Blackpool service cut

The summer timetable starts today and runs through until October.

There are no major changes to the Manchester-Wigan services, but some services are running a few minutes earlier or later so make sure you check your times on the National Rail enquiries site, or pick up a new timetable from the station.

However, the direct train to Blackpool that has run Monday-Saturday during all recent summers will not run this year. We know this service was popular and have written to Northern Rail to protest the withdrawal.

If you’re affected by this cutback, we suggest you email customer.relations@northernrail.org to let them know what you think.

New timetable starts tomorrow

The new winter timetable starts from Walkden tomorrow (Mon 15th Dec) and as previously discussed contains some radical changes to the service.

FOWS would like to hear how the new timetable affects passengers – why not add a comment to let us know how it’s working out for you ?

Timetable shake-up due in December

Long time users of the train service from Walkden will have grown used to patterns of trains that barely change from year to year … summer sees an additional train a day running through to Blackpool and back, and in the autumn many departure times slide forwards a few minutes to keep the trains on time during the “leaf fall” period.

But this December we will see one of the largest shake-ups of timetables in the Manchester area for 20 years or more as local services are moved around to slot in between more frequent trains on the Piccadilly to London route and “semi-fast” trains being introduced on the Victoria to Leeds line.

The Walkden line is less dramatically affected than many others in the area, but nevertheless the new timetable ushers in the most radical changes seen at Walkden for many years.

To see the new train times, you can query the National Rail Online Journey Planner and enter a travel date later than Dec 14th.

The main changes affecting Monday to Friday services appear to be:

1) increased number of trains during the morning peak with 7 inbound services to Manchester before 9am (compared to 5 at present)

2) decreased number of trains during the afternoon peak with 4 outbound services between 4.30pm and 6.30pm (compared to 5 at present)

3) more consistent departure times throughout the day (at xx20 and xx50 to Manchester and xx04 and xx29 to Wigan, from 10am to 4pm)

4) Overall number of departures per day is unchanged: 31 towards Manchester and 30 towards Wigan.

Whether the new timetable will represent a net improvement or deterioration remains to be seen – for some travellers that will no doubt depend on how their connecting services are affected too. The extra morning train (actually one of the two Atherton expresses that are not currently scheduled to stop at Walkden) will hopefully offer some relief to passengers on the dreadfully overcrowded 0734 and 0801 departures, but the thinning out of afternoon peak services must be a worrying development as these trains are often packed full already.

Disclaimer: Information about new train times has been obtained from the National Rail Journey Planner. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the data but FOWS cannot be held responsible for any errors made during our editing process. Please check your train times with National Rail or locally before travelling.

Northern fears for south Manchester services in December timetable

Northern Rail, together with GMPTE, are reported in the railway press as being so concerned about the impact of Virgin’s December timetable changes as to have written to the Office of Rail Regulation.

From December Virgin will be running 3 trains per hour to London instead of the current 2 which means they will take up more platform spaces at Piccadilly and – crucially – make the Stockport to Piccadilly section even busier.

Northern Rail’s mid-Cheshire services are among the victims of the changes – some services which run from Cheshire through to Piccadilly or Blackpool will terminate at Stockport with travellers having to change there to complete their journey into Manchester.

There are also though to be knock-on effects for services all over Manchester. Walkden trains will be slightly re-timed, but other routes will suffer loss of some cross-city services and, because fewer Northern trains will be able to cross the city, the timetable will require Northern to use more trains and crews.

Few Changes in Summer Timetable

The summer timetable – valid from May 19th until October 5th – contains just one major change from its predecessor, the addition of the traditional summer-only daily return service to Blackpool North.

The Blackpool train leaves Walkden at 1028 (Mon-Sat) and gets back at 2020 (Mon-Fri) or 2029 (Sat). This service only runs from now until September 13th.

Other changes in the new timetable are less significant:

a) the 2039 to Manchester is partially retimed: from September 20th and on Saturday’s only, this will run 6 minutes later departing Walkden at 2045.

b) the 2237 to Huddersfield now terminates at Manchester Victoria Mon-Fri. It continues to serves Huddersfield on Saturdays until September 6th but then only runs as far as Greenfield on Saturdays from September 13th on.

Unfortunately there are no improvements to the difficult connections at Salford Crescent, nor extra rush-hour services yet. We are hopefully that these may be achieved by Northern in the next timetable but one: December 2008.

Of course there are still, regrettably, no Sunday services whatsoever.

Summer timetables announced

The summer timetable is now available for download from Network Rail’s website at:

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20documents/eNRT/May08/timetables/Table82.pdf

A quick look suggests no major changes from the present service … there’s certainly not any Sunday services or stopping Atherton Expresses yet   :-(

Watch out for timetable errors

Passengers are warned that at least one of the newly amended train times does not appear to be in effect yet.

The 20.21 departure from Victoria is still showing on platform screens and leaving at the old time of 20.20.

Winter Timetable

The winter timetable – running from Sunday 9^th December through to 17^th May 2008 – includes no major improvements to services from Walkden.

The number of trains is unchanged in both directions, and connections from Salford Crescent to the Airport do not appear to have improved (for example, the 06.29 still misses the Airport connection from Salford Crescent by 3 minutes).

Many trains – particularly Manchester bound – are timed to depart a couple of minutes later, but passengers should check the departure time of their train carefully as a few trains depart slightly earlier than before.

Autumn Timetable Starts This Week

The short-lived “autumn” timetable, lasting from Monday 8th Oct to Saturday 8th December, comes into effect this week. It shows the same number of trains running as before (except for the daily Summer-only Blackpool direct service which finished in September).

However, passengers should note there are lots of minor adjustments to departure times from Walkden: in particular, most Manchester-bound trains now depart 2 to 5 minutes earlier than before (we believe this is to allow extra time for the seasonal hazard of wet leaves on the line).

The new timetable can be picked up from the station, but isn’t available for download from Northern’s website yet.