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Due to a cable fault at conway park , there is presently no service operating between Hamilton Square and Birkenhead North , this is not affecting services to Chester and Ellesmere Port.

Services now resumed on West Kirby/New Brighton Line.

have the services on the ellesmere port line resumed and when will the ATW 150's com to hooton on route learning.

Ellesmere Port line resumed some time late yesterday evening. Been fine today. 002 (adorned with Hope University advert) on here again today. Seems to be a bit of a regular on E.Port line of late, having ridden it a few times over the last couple of weeks

(22/12/2012 17:53)507 mad Wrote: [ -> ]have the services on the ellesmere port line resumed and when will the ATW 150's com to hooton on route learning.

From a second hand source, I believe a 3-car 175 went up last week late one night, (presumably Saturday 15th), and ended up going to Warrington BQ via Ellesmere Port, before returning to Chester via the same route. Stopped at all stations and measurements taken.

142, 153, 155 and 156 units were already cleared for Hooton South Jn to Helsby Jn.
142, 153, 155, 156 already cleared Chester West Jn to Hooton South Jn, but the 175 and 221 had R1/R2 restrictions only allowing as far as Chester North Jn on that line, (but only because they hadn't been cleared any further).

Interestingly HSTs are cleared for Chester-Hooton and Ellesmere Port-Hooton and Rock Ferry-Hooton IIRC!

175s should now be cleared for the (potential diversionary) route in the Network Rail baseline capability documents- assuming everything went ok.

I wonder whether the DfT is considering a change of operator on the Ellesmere Port-Helsby route as part of the franchise changes affecting Northern & TPE.

A 2-hourly Hooton-Warrington via Ellesmere Port service would be quite workable in my opinion. Only need 1 unit.

Anyway, it is probably just an extra diversionary route to allow Manchester-Chester via Warrington services to reach Chester.

Can't check TRUST until after Christmas now to see what ran.

Services suspended again between Hooton & Ellesmere Port due to flooding.

Helsby-Hooton-Chester used to be used as a diversion route many years back before the 175's came in to service if I recall? It was the days when it was the norm for 142's, 150's as well as 101's to be operating between Manchester & Chester

(22/12/2012 19:16)vikjm Wrote: [ -> ]Services suspended again between Hooton & Ellesmere Port due to flooding.

Helsby-Hooton-Chester used to be used as a diversion route many years back before the 175's came in to service if I recall? It was the days when it was the norm for 142's, 150's as well as 101's to be operating between Manchester & Chester

Probably a good idea getting the route cleared then.

Must be a particular requirement for some specific period of engineering works, unless, as I alluded to earlier, ATW end up getting given the route from Northern.

will the stabling for christmas day and boxing day be the usual diagrams for overnight or not and will any unused sidings be scheduled for use in that period of time?

(24/12/2012 12:00)507 mad Wrote: [ -> ]will the stabling for christmas day and boxing day be the usual diagrams for overnight or not and will any unused sidings be scheduled for use in that period of time?

No unusual sidings are used over Christmas.

As many units as possible are stored near, or in, depots, or at least more secure places.

Southport, Kirkdale, Birkenhead North and Birkenhead Central will probably get the most units, with perhaps Liverpool Central and Moorfields (Northern Line) stations also used for stabling 8 units, if it is necessary.

Rock Ferry will also be getting 4 units.

Carlisle Security and BTP are patrolling the network on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Merseyrail made a token effort with 6 cars on Saturday on the Southport line, with four examples operating one return journey to Hunts Cross ostensibly timed to meet the homeward bound shoppers. Problem was, packed 3 cars were departing both before and after this run of pairs. Nothing appeared to be provided in the morning either despite very overcrowded trains indeed arriving at Central from Southport beyond 14.00. Their Saturday service on the Southport line can be a joke at the best of times in terms of capacity, but it was exposed this weekend. It should without a doubt have been a full allocation of 6 cars, all day, much like their summer service on the line.

Two of the scheduled 6 car workings were also cut down to 3 cars on Sunday, albeit after the majority of shoppers had taken their leave of Liverpool. One on the Southport line and the other on the New Brighton line, presumably in both cases due to a fault on one set.

Another I've noted with air con equipment fitted is 508108. Not sure if this has been previously mentioned.