Just had a horrid ride on the 23:02 Service from Liverpool Lime Street, Was waiting on platform 5 for the Train doors to open and then everyone started pushing everyone else forward (this happened at most doors) and then started banging on the doors, I was at the front of the people at my door having arrived quite early for my Train and i was almost pushed down the gap between the Train and the Platform
at 23:04 there was an announcement informing people of a change of platform and we finally left at gone 23:10 with a standing load (2 Class 156s put together) This service is normally formed of 4 Cars and is normally a standing load but things are really starting to get out of hand now.
Probably Liverpool Lime Street needs some sort of security presence to prevent that from happening , but if you say it is a four car service normally i can not see what else can be done .
Any further lengthening of the service is dependent on the platforms the trains service being long enough , be aware that 4 car class 156 is 92 meters in length.
I think also that the frequency of service at this time of evening has to be questioned. The service prior to this leaves at 2147. Very poor compared to other services in Liverpool (ie Merseyrail where the evening frequency is usually every 30 minutes).
One thing that does not help matters is there is an hour and 15 min gap between the 2nd to last Train (9:47pm and the last Train (11:02pm). One thing that would help would be if this gap where filled like have a 10:47pm Service then a 11:47pm Service on a Fri and Sat only, Am sure East Midlands have done something along these lines with their Liverpool - Norwich/Nottingham Services
The reasoning for the service leaving at 11.02 is that there is probably a passenger service obligation to have the last service after 11pm from liverpool , similar to Merseyrail Electrics services last services from outlying areas
319375 moved from Wolverton Works to Allerton this afternoon. Its place at Wolverton has been taken by 319366 which has been the training unit at Preston.
I was wondering when the other 6 319's were coming. It is confirmed that the Liverpool - Blackpool service is curtailed at Preston from the October 4th timetable change (apart from the odd peak working and the Sunday service) so it was envisaged that all 20 319's would be in service by that date.
(20/08/2015 20:50)St Helens Rider Wrote: [ -> ]I was wondering when the other 6 319's were coming. It is confirmed that the Liverpool - Blackpool service is curtailed at Preston from the October 4th timetable change (apart from the odd peak working and the Sunday service) so it was envisaged that all 20 319's would be in service by that date.
With the arrival of 319375 the other five are 319366/76/77/78/79.
319376/77/78 have been at Wolverton for some time whilst 319379 is still at Stockport
It has been announced that the 17 x Class 323 are to leave Northern by 2019 and transfer to London Midland. The 323 is used from Piccadilly to Hadfield, Crewe and Stoke. Their replacements have not yet been announced but it could well be further 319s.
So Northern loses their newest electric stock. The only plus point if 319's are to be the replacement is the extra carriage in each set.