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This year just seems to have been real bad worse than in past years for adhesion related delays .

(01/12/2013 11:33)507009 Wrote: [ -> ]

(01/12/2013 10:46)LVC Wrote: [ -> ]However all Sundays up to christmas should see all services strengthened to 6 cars IMO.

Services on December Sundays have been strengthened to six cars for a long time now, LVC. As Wirralbus says, it is goes back to the Christmas Cracker £1 return promotion.

Before circa 2008, all routes except New Brighton and Ellesmere Port had pairs but since then a full six car operation has been the norm. The peak time six cars on Thursdays are usually kept on all evening in December as well.

6 car formations on Thursdays have not happened for a couple of years now

(02/12/2013 10:34)507022 Wrote: [ -> ]

(01/12/2013 11:33)507009 Wrote: [ -> ]

(01/12/2013 10:46)LVC Wrote: [ -> ]However all Sundays up to christmas should see all services strengthened to 6 cars IMO.

Services on December Sundays have been strengthened to six cars for a long time now, LVC. As Wirralbus says, it is goes back to the Christmas Cracker £1 return promotion.

Before circa 2008, all routes except New Brighton and Ellesmere Port had pairs but since then a full six car operation has been the norm. The peak time six cars on Thursdays are usually kept on all evening in December as well.

6 car formations on Thursdays have not happened for a couple of years now

This is due to there being no Thursday christmas crackers anymore.

This mornings West Kirby 6 car was short formed. 507026 took the brunt.

(01/12/2013 22:40)wirralbus Wrote: [ -> ]The service on the chester and Ellesmere port line in the last few days has just become so unreliable .

I do wonder whether a leaf fall timetable on the Chester - Liverpool and Hunts Cross - Southport may have to be implemented sometime in the future , which adds extra time into the timetable .

The delays caused out in the country end of the routes involved are some times increased as they pass through Liverpool as they are out of sync with the timetable , this year there seems to have been big problems both north and south of Liverpool and on the Chester line in and around Capenhurst , Eastham Rake , Bromborough Rake and Spital all regular problem areas .

The only problem is with that there's no slack in the Chester timetable to introduce a leaf fall timetable,short of cutting services.

I don't know why I doubted the express services that make time up. Boarded 507007 on friday from Liverpool Central to Hooton, this was an excellent speedy service. Does anyone know the De-Icing services on the MPV?

merseyrail has got the oldest trains in the country according to sunday mirror article

(02/12/2013 23:49)Harryn9000 Wrote: [ -> ]merseyrail has got the oldest trains in the country according to sunday mirror article

Thats one of the reasons why Merseytravel are after a new train fleet , usually after a bed in phase where the reliability goes down while the trains bed in , the reliability will get much better than the present units .

Its just a matter of when they get ordered and when they begin to arrive , which wont be till towards the end of the decade by the sounds of it .

the current units are showing signs now that they need replacing how many units failed recently been quite a few, merseytravel are useless when it comes to trains it more bus and ferry that any other

(02/12/2013 23:49)Harryn9000 Wrote: [ -> ]merseyrail has got the oldest trains in the country according to sunday mirror article

Merseyrail's trains are nowhere near the oldest in the country. I seem to remember the Echo saying the same thing a few months back, and it's fairly lazy journalism. The Class 483s on the Isle of Wight date back to 1938, so are some 75 years old. Even on the mainland, First Capital Connect's 313s are also two years older.

A lot of units do seem to have failed this autumn, but that seems to be down to a particularly bad leaf fall season. I can't remember as many trains running late and dropping out as have done so this year. Certainly over the summer, failures were very rare in my experience.

Reliability of the trains generally isn't an issue as far as I'm concerned. They have a while longer left in service yet, and this upcoming refresh should give them a much-needed tidy up.