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Another dreadful evening peak from Merseyrail tonight. New heights of silliness were reached with the short-forming of the 16.51 Hunts Cross - Southport, which has to be the busiest single service of the PM peak anywhere on the network. I've never previously seen this running as a three outside severe stock shortages, and with good reason. The conditions on board (the service was operated by the poor 508136) were appalling, and I actually could feel a slight crush in the door bay where I was stood. The guard, who to his credit was polite and helpful with his announcements, had clearly been misinformed, telling people who were uncomfortable to try to get a seat on the service 5 minutes behind, which was formed of 6 cars according to him. Of course, it wasn't - the 17.13 Central - Southport almost never is - and when it arrived into Sandhills (507011), it was as dangerously crush-loaded as 508136 was. It looked unsafe to be on board both trains, and I couldn't believe the 16.51 was short-formed to be honest.

Also running as a 3 car vice 6 this evening peak was the 17.25 Liverpool Central - Ormskirk. This was 508108 running alone, almost as badly crush-loaded as the two Southport trains. Neither of these short-formings was announced as such at Central.

I've thought for a while the way Southport trains are formed into sixes in the PM peak is inviting trouble, and so it proved tonight. The problem lies in the way the units which form the 16.51 from Hunts Cross (originating as the 15.43 from Southport) are both used between the peaks, coupled on arrival at Southport. If this service were formed of one of the two pairs which are coupled all day and stabled at Southport during the off-peak, it wouldn't be a problem. It would be easy to switch the formations around; as it is now, they are just inviting trouble as seen tonight. The reason given for the short-formation was a fault coupling with the other unit at Southport.

Caption boards on both Northern and Wirral Lines were today not displaying the length of trains unless they were 6 cars. In fact, 508136's service was farcically advertised as a 6 car, then displaying "cancelled" once it had arrived. A poor show all round.

The West Kirby service this evening was also busy. I saw 507021 full to bursting on the 16:08 out of lime street

The Ormskirk short formation was due to a points failure in the early afternoon that caused services to ormskirk and kirkby to start from Walton and Rice Lane for a short time (1440 to 1505)

Recently the Southport service seems to regularly have coupling difficulties , but for some reason they seem to like running as 3 cars , rather than trying to persevere and when coupled run the 6 car empty to Liverpool Central to take up its return work . A 6 car from Liverpool is better than a 3 Car from Hunts Cross which may well be a bit on the busy side from the South Liverpool stations .

(30/10/2012 19:08)507009 Wrote: [ -> ]Another dreadful evening peak from Merseyrail tonight. New heights of silliness were reached with the short-forming of the 16.51 Hunts Cross - Southport, which has to be the busiest single service of the PM peak anywhere on the network. I've never previously seen this running as a three outside severe stock shortages, and with good reason. The conditions on board (the service was operated by the poor 508136) were appalling, and I actually could feel a slight crush in the door bay where I was stood. The guard, who to his credit was polite and helpful with his announcements, had clearly been misinformed, telling people who were uncomfortable to try to get a seat on the service 5 minutes behind, which was formed of 6 cars according to him. Of course, it wasn't - the 17.13 Central - Southport almost never is - and when it arrived into Sandhills (507011), it was as dangerously crush-loaded as 508136 was. It looked unsafe to be on board both trains, and I couldn't believe the 16.51 was short-formed to be honest.

Also running as a 3 car vice 6 this evening peak was the 17.25 Liverpool Central - Ormskirk. This was 508108 running alone, almost as badly crush-loaded as the two Southport trains. Neither of these short-formings was announced as such at Central.

I've thought for a while the way Southport trains are formed into sixes in the PM peak is inviting trouble, and so it proved tonight. The problem lies in the way the units which form the 16.51 from Hunts Cross (originating as the 15.43 from Southport) are both used between the peaks, coupled on arrival at Southport. If this service were formed of one of the two pairs which are coupled all day and stabled at Southport during the off-peak, it wouldn't be a problem. It would be easy to switch the formations around; as it is now, they are just inviting trouble as seen tonight. The reason given for the short-formation was a fault coupling with the other unit at Southport.

Caption boards on both Northern and Wirral Lines were today not displaying the length of trains unless they were 6 cars. In fact, 508136's service was farcically advertised as a 6 car, then displaying "cancelled" once it had arrived. A poor show all round.

AFAIK the 15.43 from Southport 6 cars comes off Southport Sidings, where it's been since the morning peak runs, so there may have been a swap sometime during the day

(31/10/2012 00:00)507022 Wrote: [ -> ]AFAIK the 15.43 from Southport 6 cars comes off Southport Sidings, where it's been since the morning peak runs, so there may have been a swap sometime during the day

My understanding is that the two pairs that are stabled in sidings between the peaks usually run the 15.13 and 15.58 departures from Southport. The 15.43, 16.13 and 16.43 are normally made up of six off-peak allocated units, and the 16.28 is a combination of a stabled and off-peak allocated unit.

In practice, the two stabled 6 cars are usually kept in Southport's platform 1 and the adjacent wall siding, with the single set for the 16.28 stabled in the carriage sidings proper.

i noticed the shortages as well, at about five to four at formby a UID unit had gone through ECS with it's horns going and 508136 and the 16:13 from southport were short formed as well. but i understand the coupling faults at southport but what units are out of service causing the shortage of trains

The 16.13 wasn't short-formed yesterday, worked by 507016 and 507027.

acoording to one of the boards at formby but wasnt sure whether it was 3 or 6 car

507012 has suffered a graffiti attack this evening

(01/11/2012 21:48)jtd508110 Wrote: [ -> ]507012 has suffered a graffiti attack this evening

Thats not good wheres it stabled as dont think its in service at the mo is it?