I hardly think they shortform trains for the hell of it. Possibly connected with last nights "person hit by train" between Wigan and Preston.
Northern don't have DMU Services between Wigan North western and Preston, All 319 operated
On Sundays, Northern services operate from Lime St right the way through to Blackpool North and are always booked at 4 car DMU's. Also there is a morning job on a weekday (07:57 Lime St - Blackpool North) that is booked as a single 150 unit so you aren't correct in saying that everything operates as a 319 between Wigan and Preston.
It won't have anything to do with the incident last night I suspect either, it's probably a unit fault that has happened today.
We was talking about Saturday evenings witch Has no Northern DMUs
0900 Blackpool-Liverpool on a Sunday is booked to be 1 x 142 as it was today,admittedly not ideal as it ran none stop Huyton to Lime St due to overcrowding.When it gets to Lime St this unit couples to another to form 2 units on the 1047 Lime St-Blackpool.As has already been stated this has nothing to do with the train hit person incident yesterday,the service was correctly formed out of Blackpool
156468 on the 18:14 from St Helens Central to Wigan North western
According to another website 319450 has left Wolverton in base livery
319450 has gone back to Bedford Cauldwell Depot. This is not one of the eight units due to come to Northern so we will wait and see whether it does end up at Northern.