(16/08/2012 06:33)507009 Wrote: [ -> ]BTP, you've a lot to answer for.
It's not them. It is mainly MFRS, although there is also a financial saving to be had by Merseyrail, but whether that forms part of anything is anyone's guess.
You move the 4-5 James Street to another station and that saves them having to bring in an additional 5 staff on overtime to assist at the busy locations... by my crude calculations, it saves Merseyrail around £750 any day James Street is closed.
First Class , The Matthew street Festival has its own Gold Control Control Room seperate from the normal Control room at Canning Place so it doesnt impinge on normal policing .
I think you will find James Street is a strange place at Matthew street festival time as the station has to be kept in a state of readiness for any eventuality even though closed .
Closing a station is avoidence of proper management. Its risk aviodence not risk reduction. Why have a station and not use it. Also not to have a proper link between the northern and wirral lines, even in if the main entrance stays closed except for emergancy i.e moorfileds purely to create an indoor link between the two, albiet a 1 mile treak between platforms. Is pathetic. Who suffers? The passengers, and we should all stand up and say NO! Its our transport system NOT THEIRS
Have you travelled during the Matthew Street Festival the amount of passengers from the Northern line that will be using this station is going to be overwhelming to say the least this year because of Liverpool Central remaining closed for Northern line passengers .
There had been rumours circulating that Matthew Street Festival are looking at downsizing slightly to allow public transport to function slightly better , just look at all the bus diversions and the Birkenhead Tunnel being closed.
It's not hyperbolic to say it will be creaking. The gated queue system in force on the Northern Line at peak hours will no doubt be repeated on both days of this year's Mathew Street Festival.
Surely the closure of one of the two city centre Northern Line stations would be all the more reason to keep the regular 4 trains per hour service on the Hunts Cross, Ormskirk and Kirkby routes? Keeping people out of queues and off platforms far more than the Sunday service will.
I just despair at this sort of p***-poor decision making.
Also need to reember that not everyone wants to go to the City Centre. There will be others that wish to reach other parts (Southport if weather is good and Hoylake for the RNLI Open Day etc.....). Interchange is therefore vital. Please re-examine!!!!!
(16/08/2012 09:16)Gateacre Wrote: [ -> ]Also need to reember that not everyone wants to go to the City Centre. There will be others that wish to reach other parts (Southport if weather is good and Hoylake for the RNLI Open Day etc.....). Interchange is therefore vital. Please re-examine!!!!!
This is an excellent point well made! You have shown more sense than half of Merseyrail and Merseytravel put together.
The timetable that they will be introducing for the Sunday and Monday of the Matthew Street festival allow for all services to be operated by Six Car trains with tactical spares still available .
It will be interesting to see how they operate moorfields whether they will introduce a one way system in via moorfields out via Old Hall Street would seem to make some form of common sense .
There was never going to be a good time in the year for the work to be undertaken on Liverpool Central , the shopping businesses wanted Liverpool Central back in full working order before the christmas rush started in earnest .
their was a power fault between southport and hall road from mid afternoon to late evening yesterday, trains had to use the down southport line and switch lines through the rarely used points. i was onboard 508141+507020 we were very late getting to hall road because of a crew change that took quite long at bank hall. hall road was chocca.
Indeed, got caught in that myself, on board 507008 + 507009. We were held outside Hall Road for what must have been at least 15 minutes, maybe more, before we finally went into the platform. Neither the driver nor guard seemed to know what was going on, not announcing the blockade and the replacement bus until long after we had arrived at Hall Road. Credit to Bootle depot though as they had 4057 at Hall Road in no time to kick off the replacements, although it was nowhere near enough to accommodate the large load.
A really unfortunate event considering the huge loads the trains would have been carrying from the Southport Flower Show!
On the plus side though, I managed to film a great 507 formation (008 + 009) leaving for Liverpool from the Southport-bound platform, so quite a rare opportunity indeed.